How to Forgive

As I mentioned to you already, I had the honor to be able to go to Cincinnati for seven days, be there in the church home office, and spend five busy days dealing with church business and spiritual matters for the church. One thing that I am reminded after all these meetings is that life is more than anything about relationships, much more than the things that we have or the things that we want. One key scripture, which many know here, 1 John 4, 8, says, God is love, and love is a relationship. It's the chief relationship between God the Father and God the Son. Jesus Christ mentioned that many times in his last prayer before being arrested there in John 17. So what does God want more than anything else? He created this huge universe, which we continue to expand our sight. They haven't reached the edges of the universe yet. It's almost 14 billion light years that can be seen back in time, but they haven't reached the end of it. And it took a lot of work to create this vast universe, and yet what is it made of? It's made out of suns and some planets orbiting them. All the galaxies that have been seen so far are the same model. Stars, which are these furnaces of gas, of light and heat, and then these little planets around them. They just discovered there's one in Proxima Centauri, which is about the closest sun to ours. And there is a planet orbiting it, which they hadn't known before. Of course, it's only 25 trillion miles away. So in a conventional spaceship, it would take 45,000 years to get there. But God has spent a lot of time and effort to create this vast universe. And what is it that He reveals to us in His Word that He wants more than anything else? It is to have a loving family relationship with us for all of eternity. This is the purpose. He has the real estate out there, but He hasn't populated it yet. Notice in 2 Corinthians 6, verse 16. 2 Corinthians 6, verse 16. Paul is talking here about what a church member is different than the other people around him. It says, In what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean. Now we'll receive you. Yes, we are in the world, but we shouldn't be of the world's false values. And then he says, I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. This is what he wants. He wants a family relationship with all of these sons and daughters that he is working a purpose down here below.

The vision statement of the Church, which is what gives us the guidance, is based on the scripture in Hebrews 2, verse 10. Let's go there. Hebrews 2, and verse 10. This is where we get the main inspiration. Hebrews 2, verse 10. It says, For it was fitting for him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory. The term sons means children, means men and women.

So it was fitting for him, God, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. So there's a plan being worked out here below, and he is in the business of bringing men and women to have glorified bodies so they can share eternity. There can't be a greater message. I don't care if you spend the rest of your life in one of the biggest libraries there are. You might go to Washington, D.C., go to the national library, and if you had the chance to read all the books, you will never find a greater purpose than what is mentioned here. And you're not going to find that in the books that you read on religion because it is something revealed by God. It is something that separates us from those that have the Greek philosophical influence, which got into this about having an immortal soul, immediately going up to heaven, being in the clouds, watching and staring at God as other like-minded religions talk about, that the beatific vision, which is you just stare at God for eternity. That's about as far as they go. And so this is bringing many sons to glory. This is a dynamic purpose. You are being worked through by God. He has a purpose for each one of us. In Ephesians chapter 3, I've brought this out, but it is very important to emphasize. Ephesians 3, we can go and start in verse 8. Verse 9 is what I'd like to focus primarily on. It says, to me, who am less than the least of the saints, this grace was given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. What are those unsearchable riches that can't be measured? It means the immeasurable riches. And to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery. Actually, it's better translated, the mystery of the fellowship, the mystery of the fellowship, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ. And again, that's the word koinonia, which the word koinos means common. Koinonia is having all things in common. And God wants to share and have in common with us what He has created.

So again, life is about relationships with God, with our fellow man, and with our brethren.

As we deliberate on those different meetings that we had, I like to choose a vantage point. When I am presented with cases that appear, things that we have to do in the Church, that we deliberate as a body, I'd like to choose a vantage point, and it has two aspects to it. The first one is based on Matthew 18, 33 through 35. Matthew 18, 33 through 35, Jesus Christ gave the parable of the man who had been forgiven a talent of gold, which is an enormous sum, and then how he beat up someone that just owed him a trifle amount of money. And at the end, this is what I want to focus on.

I'll read it first of all in Matthew 18 in the New King James, and then in the contemporary English version so we can get a better understanding of it in Matthew 18, verse 33. It says, when he talks to the man who beat up his fellow worker, it says, Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you, I forgave you a debt that was so huge, you could never pay it off. And this man who had a small debt with you, you put him in jail over it. And his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due him. So my heavenly Father, says Christ, also will do to you if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespasses. The contemporary English version says, Don't you think you should show pity to someone else as I did to you? The king was so angry that he ordered the official to be tortured until he could pay back everything he owed. That is how my Father in heaven will treat you if you do not forgive each of my followers with all your heart. So my vantage view is, I've been forgiven. I am forgiven. So I want to forgive. I want to help. I'm not going to be standing above the person, but I am with the person. I'm dealing with them just like I've been forgiven. I want to extend that. Secondly, the vantage view also includes John 7, 23, and 24. John 7, 23, and 24, where it says, the Pharisees were criticizing Christ for having healed a person on the Sabbath. And he says, If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath? Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. See, the problem with the Pharisees was that they didn't understand the spiritual intent of the law. They majored in the miners.

They couldn't see that it was a great blessing that Christ had healed someone on the Sabbath. They had their own regulations, man-made rules that they had set up that a person should be prayed over after the Sabbath, but not during the Sabbath because that was, quote, work. Well, you don't work up a sweat when you have to pray over somebody. And here was this man who'd been suffering, and Christ healed him, and instead of celebrating it, they said, gee, he's breaking our man-made rules, which to them, because they had been given by rabbis, they were authoritative. These were laws that could not be broken because their rabbis had set it up. And the rabbi said that if the Bible says one thing and the rabbis have ruled something else, it's the rabbi's ruling that goes into effect. And so, of course, Christ was railing against that because they did not have righteous judgment.

You have to respect not only the letter, but the spirit of the law, as Jesus Christ brought out in the Sermon on the Mount. Notice in Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 16. Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 16, where God gives the instructions about how the judges should judge righteously and justly. Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 16. Moses is speaking here, and of course he was being guided by God. He says, Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, Hear the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the stranger who is with him.

You shall not show partiality in judgment. You shall hear the small as well as the great. You shall not be afraid in any man's presence. You will not be intimidated. For the judgment is God's. The case that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it. So, well, that's Moses giving the instructions, and those are the principles that we see in the Bible. You're not to show partiality. You should honor the rich and powerful, just like you would the poor and those in need. You don't change any of the judgments. You apply God's law with the letter and the spirit of it.

And so, in order to have these godly relationships that God so dearly wants from us, we need to examine how our relationships are with God and with our brethren and fellow man.

Let's go to Matthew 6.

I want to focus on one aspect of these relationships. Matthew 6, verse 13 through 15.

Again, I'll read them in two versions, so we'll get a clearer view of what we're talking about here, because sometimes one version just doesn't, is not as accurate. Matthew 6, verse 13 through 15. Jesus Christ, in the Sermon on the Mount, says, and do not lead us into starting, let's see, in verse 12, it says, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And then he goes on in verse 14, for if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Another translation, and then we'll go back to Matthew 16. The Good News Bible says, and forgive us our sins, no, this is the New Living Translation, rather, and forgive us our sins as we have forgiven those who sin against us. If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins. So it is talking about sins, and yet there's also this relation with debts. Just like the man who owed God so much, well, in the parable, owed the king so much, and then someone else owed just a little.

When we forgive people, we are giving up certain rights. Maybe we could have pursued them, maybe we could have done a lot of things, but we decide to forgive what the person owed us.

And it is important to not let our wrath continue after sunset. It's one of these principles about forgiveness, that we don't just stew and let it just go week after week. Ephesians 4, verse 26. Ephesians 4, verse 26.

It says, Be angry and do not sin, do not let the sun go down on your wrath. The Good News Bible says, If you become angry, do not let your anger lead you into sin, and do not stay angry all day. Don't give the devil a chance, because he loves to see somebody that has resentment, bitterness, he just let the thing simmer, and then attitudes start getting worse, because we have let it go too long. We have let it gone too long. In other words, we have to emotionally deal with this, and not let a root of bitterness sprout.

I remember a famous example I read in the book by Dale Carnegie, How to Stop Wearing and Start Living. You can actually read that. It has a PDF file of that entire book, free on the internet. It's one of the influential books in my life. When I read that, it helped me with very practical advice on how to overcome worry and how to enjoy life. I remember talking about people that just did not forgive and just stirred that cup of wrath and resentment and just never let go of it. It was Rudyard Kipling, the one who was a famous poet. He actually wrote the book, The Jungle Book, which I don't know how many versions they've had of The Jungle Book out there. They have a new one. I think it came out this year. Rudyard Kipling was a very gifted writer. He'd also been in the British army and also wrote the famous poem, If you can do this and that, then you will be truly a man. So Dale Carnegie mentions a story that Rudyard Kipling, this great example of British grit, British correctness, and how he lost it just over this small little offense.

Dale Carnegie writes this in his book, Even so illustrious a figure as Rudyard Kipling forgot at times that life is too short to be little. The result, he and his brother-in-law fought the most famous court battle in the history of Vermont, a battle so celebrated that a book has been written about it. Rudyard Kipling's Vermont Feud. The story goes like this. Kipling married a Vermont girl, Caroline Ballester, built a lovely home in Brattleboro, Vermont, settled down. This was a man that won the Nobel Prize in Literature, by the way. He settled down and expected to spend the rest of his life there. His brother-in-law, Beatty Ballester, became Kipling's best friend. The two of them worked and played together. Everything was going great. Then Kipling bought some land from Ballester with the understanding that Ballester would be allowed to cut hay off it each season. So this was Kipling's land. But as the grass would grow, the agreement was that his brother-in-law could take a tractor at the end of the season and get the hay and pile it up and take it with him. One day, Ballester found Kipling laying out a flower garden on this hay field. Didn't say it was a huge thing. He just kind of wanted a little flower garden in this field that he had bought. And the brother-in-law was incensed. His blood boiled. He hit the ceiling. Kipling fired right back. The air over the green mountains of Vermont turned blue. Just all the fireworks going on. A few days later, when Kipling was out riding his bicycle, his brother-in-law drove a wagon and a team of horses across the road suddenly and forced Kipling to take a spill on his bicycle. He crashed. And Kipling, the man who wrote, If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, he lost his own head and swore out a warrant for Ballester's arrest. A sensational trial followed. Reporters from the big cities poured into the town. The news flashed around the world. Nothing was settled. This quarrel caused Kipling and his wife to abandon their American home for the rest of their lives. All that worry and bitterness over a mere trifle. A load of hay.

So people can get mad over the silliest things.

Well, we have to be careful. Sometimes we can get so angry over trivial things. We let it simmer. And as they say about an ulcer, it's not what you have eaten. It's what is eating you that causes the ulcer. Last June, there was an article about health in the Time magazine. The title was, Forgiving Other People is Good for Your Health.

It says, Being forgiving to yourself and others can protect against stress and the toil it takes on mental health. According to a new study in the Journal of Health Psychology, researchers looked at the effects of lifetime stress on a person's mental health and how more forgiving people fared compared to people who weren't so forgiving. To do this, they asked 148 young adults to fill out questionnaires that assess their levels of lifetime stress, their tendency to forgive, and their mental and physical health. No surprise, people with greater exposure to stress over their lifetimes had worse mental and physical health. But the researchers also discovered that if people were highly forgiving of both themselves and others, that characteristic alone virtually eliminated the connection between stress and mental illness. The study author, Lauren Toussaint, says it's almost entirely erased. It's statistically zero. If you don't have forgiving tendencies, you feel the raw effects of stress in an unmitigated way. You don't have a buffer against that stress. But when you are forgiving, it reduces the stress. You feel better. You can go on with your life. In Proverbs 17, verse 22, it tells us, A merry heart does good like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones.

The good news Bible says of this verse, Being cheerful keeps you healthy. It is a slow death to be gloomy all the time, to be pessimistic, to be concerned. And we heard that from the first message today. So forgiving is healthy. Getting over that hurt. Now there is a process that the Bible tells us we should do to be able to overcome it fully. But it is important to realize that it is vital to us. Relationships are so vital. Don't let the sour ones get you down. Resolve what you can and move on.

Notice in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30.

It says, And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. And actually, the Holy Spirit is in the neuter. It should be by who it is. It's not a person. It's talking about the Holy Spirit in us, working in us. We can cause it to diminish, to shrink. It's talking about here, just causing it to be saddened. It's God's Spirit in us. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit. We've been sealed for the day of redemption. Notice how we can grieve the Spirit.

Verse 31. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. So we see God's Spirit in us is supposed to produce positive fruits. Those nine fruits of God's Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control. So those are all positive. If we have those fruits in us, it's going to be a lot easier to forgive the other person. We're going to be in the right frame of mind to do so. So here are five steps to improve our relationships and have forgiveness. Number one, we should ask ourselves, have I offended someone and not dealt with it? That can produce guilt. It can cause all kinds of difficulties. So the first thing it tells us there at the very end of Matthew 5—let's go to Matthew 5— we should be able to forgive one another. Notice what it says in verse 23 of Matthew 5. It says, Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, you want to come close to God? You want to offer Him something that He appreciates? And there remember that your brother has something against you. Leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First, be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. If we have resentment, if we've got something going on that is not proper, God says He's concerned about that relationship more than He is about the gift.

It goes on to say, verse 25, Agree with your adversary quickly while you are on the way with Him. Let your adversary deliver you to the judge. The judge hands you over to the officer, and you'll be thrown into prison. Surely, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there until you have paid the last penny. So we should deal with this. Deal with any unfinished business that we can be at peace with others. The second question we should ask is, have I been offended by someone and haven't dealt with it? Now, it is true. People are going to offend you, and sometimes it's a minor thing. It's not something that's worth doing too much about. Sometimes the Bible talks about that it is a virtue to overlook an offense. Notice what it says in Ecclesiastes 7, 21. It says, Also do not take to heart everything people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. For many times also your own heart has known that even you have cursed others. So if you hear criticism, it might be unfair criticism, but we've criticized people that sometimes it wasn't fair either. So if it's at a lower level, it's better to just let it go, let it pass over, and continue. Don't let it bother you anymore. Sometimes, like we had the example of Rudyard Kipling, that just for a minor thing, they got into this row and destroyed all the relationships when they should have just said, well sure, you can have this little spot here. I'm still going to be able to cut the hay for the rest of the time, and let's enjoy ourselves. But no, they made a federal case of it and finally destroyed the relationships and became ridiculed by the press. So we should ask, have I offended? Have I been offended and haven't dealt with it? And so if it's not important enough, just recognize we're going to be criticized, sometimes unfairly, but don't take it so personal and make a big thing of it.

We go to point three, where if it is big enough, if it is a real concern, not just some minor criticism or a minor problem, becomes a bigger problem, then you should ask, have I practiced Matthew 18 and gone to my brother about it? So let's go to Matthew 18, the principles of how to reconcile among ourselves. And it's a good principle in business. In your neighborhood, it works just fine. Notice what Jesus Christ mentioned here. Verse 15 of Matthew 18, Moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. One of the biggest problems we have is that if somebody sins against you, offends you, and this is now a major thing, you go to everybody else about it before you go to the person that caused this problem. It doesn't say that. It doesn't say if your brother sins against you. Go and tell all your friends and all your people around you. It says, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. It should be private, personal. Don't make it any bigger than you have to. This way, the person feels that it's a private situation. He's not embarrassed because everybody has heard your side of the story. And also, notice it says, tell him his fault. So it should be specific. It shouldn't be that somebody comes and says, I'm mad at you. Well, what did I do? You figure it out.

I don't know. And then they leave. And here you are, puzzled. You go back, please let me know what I did. No, you figure it out. That person is not being clear about it. It has to be explained.

So again, here we see two important points. You go privately and you explain to the person, because again, perception is reality to so many people. It's what I perceive. Maybe it wasn't meant to be. I always have a famous story of the little lady from Los Andes, Chile. It was a church member. And I would visit them on occasion. And it was two little widows living in the little house. And they had that house spic and span. They were pretty poor. They didn't even have any ceramic or any. They just had a cardboard floor, but they had polished it.

And I always admired them for that. And one day I went into her home and I said, you are very responsible. You're a very responsible person. Well, she heard I had said she had been irresponsible. Now, very responsible and very, very irresponsible sounds pretty close. But the thing is, I had no idea. And so then before the Passover, we had them over our house because we're going to take them to the Passover. And she says, Mr. Sagley, I have something against you. And she says, you said I was irresponsible.

I was very irresponsible. I said, No, you heard me wrong. Of course, they have problem of hearing too. I said, I said, you are very responsible. And she says, there you go, saying it again. You know, there's no way I could win that one. So I had to use other words. And then finally she understood. But people can get offended many times on what they perceive to be true offenses when it actually was all a misunderstanding.

Many times you go to your brother and you find out that what you feared so much was in that case. And your brother was innocent. There was some misunderstanding along the way. And of course, if you would have told everybody, then how do you unring the bell?

How do you you have to go to everybody, say, you know what? What I said wasn't exactly that way. Now we got it cleared up. That is a responsibility to clear things up afterwards and not let the person's reputation be damaged. And then he says, if he hears you, you have gained your brother. The person in this case recognizes they made a mistake. Maybe they said something they should. Maybe they did something they shouldn't.

And so then they said that, okay, yes, thank you for letting me know. And then I apologize. I didn't mean it. Whatever was the situation. But then that person has to also forgive upon recognition.

And the person says they're sorry that they really are a heartfelt apology. Then we have the responsibility to forgive them. Because there are cases where we're going through Matthew 18. Everything is fine. Do it privately. You mentioned it to them. The person says, yes, yes, I acknowledge. I did that. Please forgive me. That's not going to happen again. And the person says, no, I'm not going to forgive you. You see, you were guilty. Now that's going to hang over you the rest of your life.

Well, then you have the problem that the person who had been offended becomes the innocent party. And the person that had been the victim becomes now the offender. That's the way life is. If you want to leave a finger here, because let's go to the last chapter of Galatians, Galatians 6, to see why this Scripture is here.

Because it cautions us. Galatians 6, verse 1, says, Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, he has sinned somehow, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Be careful, he's saying, because you might get into this haughty attitude.

Well, you see, I went to you and boy, now I've got it over you. I've got this problem. I got you over a barrel now. And then you use it, in a sense, to blackmail or to look down on that person. He says, be careful with that, with gentleness and humility. Do it, because in Matthew 18, going back here, if you don't forgive your brother, then that becomes a problem that person has, and their attitude is not correct. So what happens if your brother does not heed, does not recognize, he's in error, verse 16, it says, but if he will not hear, you went to him, you told him the problem, you're seeking reparation, you're seeking reconciliation, the person says, no, I'm not going to accept this.

And if he, he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established. So there are times when you should bring one or two people that are familiar, that are people of confidence, they are people that are not going to be spreading it, and they say, look, this happened, you can confirm it, the person doesn't want to recognize the situation, and I want both of you to come and now act as witnesses so that the person realizes that there are others that also are concerned about this.

He says, and of course the idea is if he hears you in this case with these two other people, that you have gained your brother. So maybe it ends right there, the situation has been overcome, shouldn't be discussed anymore, things are reconciled. But what happens if even with two or three witnesses the person still refuses to acknowledge any wrongdoing? Verse 17, and if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. And Christ had just been mentioning about, as he goes on to say here in verse 18, telling his disciples, Assuredly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you lose on earth will be loosed in heaven. And I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. So he's talking to his disciples, he's saying, look, I've given you certain responsibility to bind or lose different judgments. I'm not giving you a responsibility to change Saturday to Sunday. I'm not giving you that type of responsibility, but in judgments, administrative cases like this, where you're going before a brother, then the church has to do with the church leadership. But if he refuses even to hear the church, now not only witnesses, but also the church leadership has gone trying to reconcile the situation, then that person is going to be suspended. Let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector. And so we all are subject to correction. We don't do everything right, but a person, if it's reached the problem a certain level that has affected and deeply hurt and this is something that is causing damage, it has to be reconciled in the church. We can have somebody sitting over here that is shooting daggers with their eyes to another person and having this constant type of conflict. It has to be resolved.

So that's where Matthew 18 comes into play. We have a fourth question we should ask. When I rehearse Christ's outline prayer, have I truly forgiven and I'm willing to be forgiven? Have I forgiven and willing to be forgiven? It's very interesting how the Christ's outline prayer has seven main sections. And right in the middle is this section of our relationship with others where we examine. And previous to that, we're asking, give us our daily bread. And so we're asking God to provide the physical means, but also the spiritual means that we're going to need during the day. And that's where it's a good part to bring up, Father, give me more of your spirit. I want to have more of those fruits of your Holy Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, and the rest. And then it comes to with that type of attitude, then comes, yes, have I forgiven? Have I been forgiven? Am I going to be in the right attitude during the day? I'm going to examine myself. Am I sure I don't have any thorn in the flesh? Did I have something that's just there eating away at me? That is part of our responsibility not to have something eating away at us. We need to reconcile. We need to have as the last point here, number five, the peace of mind obtained by this process is well worth the effort. It is well worth the effort. Have the peace of mind to be able to just feel everything has been resolved, it's smooth sailing, we have a good relationship that has been restored again. And brethren, sometimes this is what causes so many problems, unresolved differences. We have not dealt with it, and it has just eaten away at the spiritual marrow that we have inside of us. It's just eaten away to where we don't have any spiritual strength anymore, because this thing has just absorbed us. I once had a gentleman years ago. Again, this was when I pastored the church in Chile, and he had suffered a tragedy, personal tragedy. He had had a loss of a beloved family member, and he sank into this depression. He didn't want to do much, he didn't want to go back to work, so I was there with him visiting him, and he said, I just can't get this out of my mind. It's like a dark cloud. And I said, well, what we're going to be working on now is to reduce that dark cloud to where you can see the rest of your life. Instead of making that cloud cover everything else that's good, we're going to be reducing it. And finally, when he did, reduced it down, then he felt happy again, and he was able to get on. But we can exaggerate our problems, where it's a tiny little cloud in the horizon, but we focus on it so much we can't see the rest. And we've blown it up out of proportion, and that saps our energy. So we should never underestimate the power of depression and the power of exaggerating our problems to the point that we can't see the healthy aspects as well. Now, God is concerned about relationships. He created us in this world knowing we're going to have difficulty, we're going to have disputes, we're going to have all kinds of differences. And he said, this is necessary for the purpose that I have in the future. I need for people to learn how to resolve relationships, because we're going to be living in the future forever. And we need to have that experience of overcoming difficulties, not letting those difficulties overcome us. Notice in Revelation 7, verse 16, Revelation 7, verse 16. I'm winding down here.

Here, talking about God's people when they're finally with Christ. And this is actually a description when God the Father is going to be present. It says in verse 16, they shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore. They will be spirit beings. They will not have to eat material physical things in order to have strength. They will not thirst or hunger anymore. The sun shall not strike them. Heat will not be a problem.

Nor any heat, for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God, talking about God the Father, will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Yes, He will hear our stories, what happened on the earth.

Those people that offended us, He will hear every one of them, just like a loving father or mother will do. And they will wipe the tears away and say, that's over. It's going to be wonderful. I'm here for you. Christ is here for you. You're not going to have to cry anymore. But in the meantime, here we are. We're still in the flesh. We're dealing with these relationships, but God is looking. How do we handle them? Are we able to overcome them? Are we truly able to forgive people from the heart, not from the lips outward? We can say those words and not really mean them. He wants it to be from the depths of our hearts that sincerely we do forgive. God's not looking for numbers now. He's not looking for quantity. He's looking for quality. He's looking for those few that truly are the potter's masterpiece. He's working at. He's perfecting. We're going to go through things because He knows. He wants us to learn so we can help others along the way. And so God is a God of relationships. Let's be open. We know we're getting close to these fall feasts. We're just a month and a half away from trumpets. Then we have atonement, which has to do with reconciling ourselves before God. And then the Feast of Tabernacles, when we are going to be together with brethren. So we should examine ourselves and make sure that God does not have to wipe any tears off our eyes that we could have wiped for ourselves. That we could reconcile and deal with things while we're still here in the flesh. God is a God of love. He wants us all to be His loving children in His kingdom.