How Can I Forgive Someone Who Doesn't Deserve It?

But they're all one. They always have been. They always will be. >> That's hard to believe. Okay. Oh, man. I've got you thinking, don't I? Uhhuh. Except you guys are talking. >> Okay. >> Okay. So, how do you answer that puzzle? I want to tell you >> God has a plan. He's got a plan for everything. God has a plan for all of us to be with him in heaven. Okay. John 3:16. Can you guys quote that? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever

Believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Boy, you guys are good. >> We hear a lot about God, >> guys. >> Guys, I'm going to set you over here with the girls. We hear a lot about God >> and we know what Jesus did for us. We don't hear a whole b a whole bunch about the Holy Spirit. And if you listen to the pastor's message today in verse 55, Stephen's talking or he was talking and all of a sudden the Holy Spirit came upon him. He looked to heaven. He saw the glory of God. He did not see God. You saw God, God's glory, and Jesus sitting on the right hand side. Okay? Now, you don't hear a whole bunch, but boy, the Holy Spirit is important because he infects all of us. Somebody's getting tired of listening to me. Bring on the candy, right? >> Okay. All right. If I find things in the Bible that I don't understand, and there's a lot, okay, some of them God doesn't want me to understand. Are you up here again? Get down there. I'm gonna cut your legs off. Right down there. Come on. All the way. All the way. What you're sitting on goes down there, too. There you go. If I don't understand, it's usually because I have not studied enough. I have not looked up the Scriptures and stuff like that. I haven't believed by faith. That's a big one. Okay. I need to share my puzzle. There's a lot of smart people in this church. If I don't understand something, I can go ask them. Steve Marsh. I taught a wana with him and I would ask him certain things that he said that I didn't understand and it made sense. Okay.

Romans 3:23. Can we can we all quote that one? >> What is it? For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. >> Now, how many of us have sinned? That does that mean I have and you haven't? >> No. All have sin. >> Heaven is real. God said so. Hell is real. God said so. Okay. You have a choice. Heaven or hell. Okay, boy. It got quiet. >> Heaven. How to get to heaven. >> We've already talked about one of his verses. Okay, the ABCs. Okay, you've probably heard this in BBS. Admit that you're a sinner. Okay, if you admit it to me, will that save you? Oh, I get a no there and I have head shaking over here. But and then I have is it no or yes? >> Let's say it again. No. >> Okay, now you've got that. >> B. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. >> C. Confess your sin to God and ask him to forgive you. That's the way to heaven. Now, we've already we've already talked about the way to heaven. >> John 3:16. Let's say it one more time. You guys didn't start me. Come on. >> Loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life. >> Okay. So that's a and when it comes right down to it, the way to heaven is clear. I mean, it's clear as all get out. It isn't a puzzle. Okay? God didn't make it a puzzle. God said it. I believe it. And that settles it. Okay. Now, I got a little puzzle for you girls. For you girls. And I don't know about you guys. Okay. But we're gonna do it. >> I'm not gonna cheat.

>> Okay. You don't get this puzzle. All right. Get over there. Let the boys have theirs over here because we don't I don't want you girls looking cheating on the boys. >> I don't want you girls I don't want you guys cheating on the girls. Okay. Now, here it is. >> See this? I want you to get >> it apart. >> Wait a minute. I got to give the boys theirs too. >> And I'm going to put it down here. Okay. Now, each of you, if you have a way that you think it should be done, you got about two minutes because I'm already into the pastor's message. Okay. All right, guys. Now, everybody gets put it on the table there. Okay, girls. All right, we'll do the old Jeopardy song. [singing] >> Come on, hurry. >> Hurry. >> No, we're not. >> We are doing it. >> No, we got to do the other one. Guys, have you got it yet? >> No. >> What? Wayne's over there. I thought you would have it by now. >> There's Wayne. >> Have you girls got it? >> Okay, time's up. Time's up. Give me the puzzle. >> Did Do you guys get it yet? >> Give it here. >> Give me the puzzle. All right, Wayne, give me that puzzle. What's a matter? >> Okay, >> I'm gonna show you how to do it. >> Go down here. Hey guys, >> you want to be as smart as me? You got to watch. >> Put that one down all the way. >> I'm going to take this one. >> Let's do that one. I'm going to put it down all the way. Yeah, especially Wayne. He's like, "Give

Me that. Give me >> Give me that." >> I'm all done. Torture time's over. Well, now we get to sugar them up before we send them back. If you have your Bible, and I hope that you do, turn with me to Acts 7 verse 51. >> this is going to conclude the last week that we are studying the longest sermon in the book of Acts, the sermon from Stephen. And what happens here is [clears throat] he has moved through the Old Testament, the entire narrative of the Old Testament. As we talked about, it's a meta narrative. That means it's a whole bunch of little stories all telling one great big story about Jesus because everything in the word points to Jesus Christ. We talked about Abraham, how he never actually received the inheritance of the promised land. Talked about Moses, how he was rejected by his own people, how the tabernacle, it moved about and how the temple was not built to contain God but was built to the glory of God. And for 50 verses, what Stephen does is he summarizes Israel's history. And it's all been building up to this one truth that God is not confined to a place. And his people have always resisted the men that he has sent. And today, what Stephen is going to do is he's going to stop reciting history and he's going to give the application. And this is where many people struggle, including myself, is when the sermon starts to get into the application, right? Because this sermon that Stephen is preaching about, it's about religious people who knew their Bibles and yet they still resisted God. Which means that all week I've had to allow for all these verses to deal with my heart as I wrestle through the passage as someone who is prone to know a lot. But when it gets to the application,

Right? And we have to listen to it. And I've had to listen to it before it goes anywhere else. Today we're going to see four truths in Steven's conclusion in this passage. If you would please stand with me in honor of God's word as we read Acts 7:51 through chapter 8 verse4 God's word it says this you stiff necked people it's a way to open up a passage isn't it uncircumcised in heart and ears you always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did so do you of the prophets did your father did not persecute. And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the righteous one, whom you have now betrayed and murdered. You who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it. Now when they heard these things, they were enraged and they ground their teeth at him. But he full of the Holy Spirit gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Steven, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." And falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, 'Lord, do not hold this sin against them. When he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem. And they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church

And entering house after house. He dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. Let's pray. And so Lord, as we talk about this passage today, make it fresh and new in our hearts and in our minds. Grant us understanding and wisdom and how you want this passage to be made very true in our lives. We are open and receptive to what you have to say today. As Larry was saying, it's a puzzle. And so help us Lord to look to you and your Holy Spirit to guide us. Father, we ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Have you ever made a mistake when you were 100% certain about something? Like I mean, you would have bet your life that you were right and yet you were completely in the wrong. I think if we're all honest, we've all been there at least once in our lives. And Oh, yeah. [laughter] Oh, yeah. [snorts] Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. And these leaders, they were in the same boat. They were absolutely certain that they were right. Stephen, he makes a change here in this passage. He uses the pronoun our nine times. Nine times. He said, "Our father, our people, our race." But in verse 51, he changes it up and he says, "Your fathers, you have become betrayers and murderers. You have not kept the law." And if we're take and if you're taking notes, please write this down. They were exactly like their fathers. And you look at the evidence, Stephen, he calls them stiff necked. That's a fancy Greek word. It means and it's not a good quality in our culture. There's many people that feel that stubbornness is a virtue and it's not actually this description comes from God himself. In Exodus chapter 33:5 he says this, "For the Lord said to Moses, say to the people of Israel, you are stiff necked. If for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you.

Being stiff necked is not a good thing. The idea is that a stiff necked person is not willing to yield to God's leadership, God's direction. So I in other words, what he's saying is that if you will not bend your head, you will not be led. That's the idea of stiff neckness. And there's another evidence here. They were uncircumcised in their heart, in their ears. Remember that this is God's covenant with his people, Abraham. And these men, they defined themselves by following that covenant to a tea. We have the law, we have the sign, we have the promises, we have all these different things. And Stephen tells them that just because physically they're a part of God's people, that doesn't mean in their heart that they are. In actuality, he's saying that they are just like every other nation and people group all around the world. Every other pagan nation that they look down on, they are just like them because they refuse to listen to the Lord. Think about that for a moment. God's prophets would sometimes use this as a condemnation. In Jeremiah 6 says, "Behold, their ears are uncircumcised." This is not Stephen inventing language. She is. This is a longstanding tradition among the people of God. The third evidence is that they always resist the Holy Spirit. They rejected Jesus Christ. They rejected the father's promise. They reject God's Holy Spirit as well. In Isaiah, he is recounting God's mercies and he is remembering God's salvation from Egypt, but they rebelled. And grieved his Holy Spirit. Therefore, he talking about God turned to be their enemy and himself fought against them. How did they how did they grieve his

Holy Spirit? The context here is that they set up an image, the golden calf. And I want you to think about all of this because Stephen is putting all of this into the context that the Sanhedrin is just like the ungodly Israelites at the base of Mount Si who were just worshiping a God made in their own image. And he says this, which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the righteous one whom you have now betrayed and murdered. Who is the righteous one there? He's talking about Jesus Christ who you receive and you who receive the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it. Look at what Stephen is pointing out. They received the law and they didn't keep it. But the charge against Stephen was that he was speaking against the law. And so Stephen, he ends by charging them with breaking it. And so the accusation comes back around on them. As John Corson puts it, the issue is not Stephen blaspheming the law. The issue is they're breaking the law. And so I want you to think about this. You might be here and you have a tremendous love for the Lord. You might have a tremendous love for his word. You might read some of the classical Christian authors and you might think deeply about the things of God. But if you are a person who can find errors in everyone else's theology and you never let the word change you, then there's a big problem there because Stephen is talking to the experts in the word at this time. They knew everything that Stephen was talking about. They knew the word of God intimately closely. They're defending God and doctrine and orthodoxy. And yet they are resisting the Lord the entire time. Remember Saul of Tarsus is there and he is absolutely convinced that he

Is right, but he's completely wrong. We cannot rely on our emotions or on our experiences or on our preferences to dictate the things that are right. We have to rest in the word and we have to come to God. And we rely on his Holy Spirit. Say, God, deal with me. Deal with my heart. Deal with everything that is wrong in me. And I know that if there's anything wrong between you and I, it is me, not you, God. And God, he transforms us because everything that Stephen was saying about them was true. They were stubborn. They were outside of God's covenant. They were resistant to God's Holy Spirit. And if we look back at the beginning of the sermon, notice this, that it is the God of glory who appeared to Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia. He starts with the glory of God outside of the promised land. Before there was a temple, before there was a tabernacle, before there was any of that. And then we look at verse 55 and it says, "But he full of the Holy Spirit gazed in the heaven and saw the glory of God." Now hear me. The glory of God really did fill the tabernacle. It really did fill the temple. And we saw that last week. But Stephen's whole point has been that God is not contained to those places. The glory of God is in heaven and Jesus is there. Jesus Christ is standing at the right hand of the father. And notice that these people, they were uncircumcised in their heart and they were cut to the heart. The ESV, it translates that phrase there cut to the heart as enraged. So, if you're reading the ESV, circle that, highlight that, what, whatever. But it's best translated by the New American Standard, which says cut to the quick. The idea here is that the word preached

Cut them deeper than they had ever been cut before. And yet their response to this cutting was not repentance and belief, but biting back and attacking. And notice when the cut happened in verse 54, it says that they were cut when they heard these things, not 50 verses before. It wasn't wasn't looking at Israel's history and seeing all of those things. They could sit through that all day long. Why? They were okay hearing that. But when they heard about the Gospel, when they heard about their resistance to God, that is when they were filled with rage, that's when they were cut. And then when Stephen told them that he could see Jesus standing at the right hand of God, that's when it transformed into murder. Point number two, if you're taking notes, Jesus stood for Stephen. Notice that everywhere else in the New Testament, the son of man is said to be seated at the right hand of God. And yet here, Jesus, he is standing. Have you ever thought of why? Now, this is where commentators, they differ wildly. It would say, you know, that he rose because he got Jesus's attention or some translators would say that he's is standing in judgment. I disagree with that. I think that he is standing as a witness. Because Jesus himself, he said, "I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the son of man, also will acknowledge before the angels of God." And some people think that maybe it's Jesus welcoming him home and that might be true. But remember that there is an earthly court scene that is taking place and they are rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ and simultaneously there is a heavenly court scene with Jesus Christ bearing witness to Stephen that man is mine. Look at this. This is what Jesus said.

But before all of this, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and the prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness. Settle it, therefore, in your minds, not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. This is exactly what's happening here in these chapters. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends. And some of you, they will put to death. You will be hated for all by all for my name's sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. Jesus is not talking about physical safety. He's already said that some of you will be put to death. He's not talking about that. He's talking about ultimate matters. That when we are in Christ, Christian, if you are in Christ, the ultimate things are ma are settled. The ultimate things are settled for you. Doesn't matter what people think about you or what they believe about you or the rumors that go around about you are. We live in a headline culture, don't we? Like we immediately think that the headlines that we read are accurate, don't we? I saw this morning someone there there are so many fake websites out there right now, right? I'm not going to tell on anyone, but I saw someone share up something about a church van going missing for 17 years and was discovered in a cave in Branson. And it's amazing. It's amazing when we see those types of things. Of course, that's just a fake website, right? We live in a headline world where immediately we just assume that whatever is out there is true because no one would tell a lie, right? The first thing that we read, we

Typically believe. We oftentimes look at comment sections and group chats and we allow for those to be where we lean and we allow for those things to guide us a bit more than Biblical truth. Stephen, he just spent 50 verses making a case straight out of Scripture. And so he was he was not afraid to contend for the truth. But when that whole room turned violent, Steven's confidence was not in his ability to win the argument. What did he do? He didn't argue harder. He just simply looked up. Let's look at how Stephen died because he died like his Savior. He died like a Savior. In 2 Chronicles 24, Zachchariah, he was stoned in the court of the temple for telling Judah the truth. That's all that he did. And listen to his dying words. Zachchariah's father then Joash the king did not remember the kindness that Jehoeda Zachariah's father had shown him but killed his son. And when Zachariah when he was dying, Zachariah said, "May the Lord see an avenge. Stephen is faced with the same charge. The same kind of crowd is there. He's facing the same judgment. And yet his last words are not words of avenge me." His last words are about forgiveness. Lord, do not hold this sin against them. Now, Zachchariah was not an ungodly man. He was a prophet of God. So, I want you to hear me carefully. Asking God to see and to judge is a righteous prayer. The Psalms are full of it. Revelation 6, the martyrs before the throne of God, they are crying out. They're asking God until how long until the Lord avenges their blood and those are glorified saints that are standing in the presence of the Lord. So the difference between these two men

Is not that Zachariah was bitter and that Steven was somehow better. The difference is that they're in different times in history. Zachariah, he died waiting for the righteous one. He waited under the old covenant, under the old law. And Stephen died having just seen Jesus Christ. Zachariah handed the account over to God for judgment. And God, he will judge it. And Stephen handed the account over to God and asked him not to charge it because he had just looked into heaven and he had seen the one who was judged for him. The difference is Jesus. I want you to think about that for a moment because when Stephen is dying, he is dying just like Jesus did. Jesus said, "Father, forgive them. They know not what they do." And in the same way, because of the abundant forgiveness that Steven had received in Christ, he was able to ask God, "Don't hold this sin against them." But there's a big difference between how Jesus died and how Stephen died. This is what Jesus this is what Stephen said. He said, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. But what did Jesus do? He committed him his himself into the father's hands. Remember that Stephen is in his dying breath and he is worshiping the Lord Jesus saying you are strong enough to care for my soul forever. And Jesus he receives Stephen into his presence not because Stephen died a martyr's death. That's not what made Stephen go to heaven. It is because Stephen trusted the Lord Jesus Christ with his whole self. With every bit that he had, Stephen relied on the Lord with everything. And I want you to think about stoning for a moment because stoning, it was a brutal judgment. It wasn't just one stone and it's over. It took a while. Imagine for a moment

The law demanded that the primary witness, the one bringing the charge had to be the first one to cast the first stone. And then the stone would land on various parts of the body. It would hit your face and your shoulders and your ribs and your thighs. Everywhere a stone would just repeatedly bang you and bruise you and crush you and break your bones. Hit after hit, rock after rock, severe and brutal execution. And yet, as the bones were breaking and the vision began to blur, Stephen, he said, "Do not hold this sin against them." And I have to wonder, how does that come out of his mouth? The truth is that he had just seen Jesus. John, he describes Jesus as a lamb standing as though it had been slain into heaven. Stephen saw into heaven the sinless son of God that had been crushed for his sins. Think about the old hymn for a moment. It was my sin that held him there until it was accomplished. His dying breath has brought me life. I know that it is finished. It was your sin and my sin that wounded our Lord. And when we realize that Jesus, he still bears the wounds. He still has the scars on his hand. He still has the wound in his side. Revelation depicts him as looking like he is slain, but he is alive and reigning right now. Think about that for a moment. And if you behold Jesus, the slain son of God for you with a pierced hands and feet inside, how can you keep an account? How can you not extend that forgiveness? In 1545, George Weart, he was a he was a preacher in Scotland and he preached the Gospel and of course during that time you've got the Protestant Reformation. Praise

God for the Protestant Reformation. The Lord recovered the Gospel in a powerful way from the clutches of wicked people. And he would preach and the Catholic Church at that time would send assassins to kill preachers. And on this particular Sunday, there was one man who had a dagger in his hand standing at the at the base of the steps from the pull pit. Back in that time and even now the pull pits were elevated and they would speak over the crowds and you had to take these steps to get up into the pull pit. And this man was standing there with a dagger and he comes down from preaching and George Wear he puts his hand on the man and the man drops the dagger. Confesses his sins and he responds to the Gospel and the church was very angry about this. Here's here's an assassin that was there to murder to kill and what happened George he covered him and he said if anyone is going to hold this against this man they have to answer to me first. But that's not where George's story ends. Actually he is caught by the Roman Catholic Church and he is tied to a stake as he's being brought up. The executioner hears him preaching the Gospel and the executioner actually kneels before this man and who is so full of grace, so full of forgiveness and he asks for forgiveness before his execution. And we leans down, hugs him, kisses him on the cheek, and says, "This is my sign that I forgive you. Now you must do your job." And then he prayed for God's forgiveness for these men who had lied and sent him to die. The world learns more about Christ by how Christians live and how they forgive than how great we are at arguing. Paul, we read this in the catechism,

Forgiving one another. As the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. Now, let me say something carefully here because some of you have been hurt in ways that I don't know, okay? And forgiving someone doesn't mean that what they did against you was fine. And I'm not saying that you're not hurt or that your hurt is not real. I'm not telling you to go stand somewhere else so that way you can be hurt again. Stephen's not saying that. He never once said that what these men were doing was acceptable. He called it sin and then he gave it to God instead of carrying it himself. That's what we're talking about. That's what forgiveness is. Now look at what Luke says in verse two. Of course, Stephen, he surrenders his life and now he's eternally glorified with Jesus even to this day. But there were devout men that came and they buried Stephen and they made great lamentation over him. Great lamentation. Luke, he doesn't apologize for their grief. He doesn't treat their grief as a weak faith. It is totally normal for Christians to grieve when they lose someone that they love. Paul, he never said that we don't grieve. He said that we grieve as those who have a hope, not as those who do not have a hope. And so they wept over him and they were right to and yet God was still working. We look at verse two and we look at verse four and those things are the same paragraph. Look at what happened. What these men meant to crush, God used to scatter the Gospel. Verse one introduces the second most prolific person in the New Testament, Saul. Saul, he is there stoking the flames of persecution against the church. He describes it, Luke describes it as ravaging the church. That is a very violent term. The commentators that I was reading, they likened it to a wild poor bore ripping apart its prey.

Extremely violent language. And Saul, he is indiscriminate. He is he is dragging off men and women. In the book of Acts, that's that's pretty common to put these men and women together. And he says it three times here in chapter 9 and in chapter 22. And that means that the women must have been so numerous in the church and significant enough that the movement wouldn't stop unless they were taking care of the women too. But the apostles, they stayed in Jerusalem. We don't know why they stayed. We have no clue. But what we do know is that godly men, they came and they buried Stephen. They did not leave him for the crows or for wild dogs to rip his body apart. They took care of their brother's body. They ministered to him and they wept over him. And then those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Notice that this is what God uses to fulfill Acts 18. It was a heinous event. It was a sinful event. It was wicked and yet God was using it to redeem. Consider that for a moment. God is scattering his followers throughout the earth to bear fruit. They didn't just scatter and go quietly. They scattered and they started preaching. They started sharing, taking every opportunity to create and share the Gospel. Create opportunities to share the Gospel. The thing that finally drove the Gospel out of Jerusalem was persecution. And what Saul thought would snuff out the church was what ultimately caused its spread throughout the entire Roman world. I mean, it's like putting water on a grease fire. It just spreads everywhere and it accelerated the growth for God's glory. Many times we measure a church's health by how smooth things are in the season. But what we see here is that God even uses terrible situations like persecution and sorrow and loss to

Advance the kingdom of God, to advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And that should give us confidence that regardless of the season that you are in, regardless of how tough the season that you are in, you can know with confidence that you can draw near to God and that God will somehow work all of it out for his glory and for your good. Now this young man Saul is standing there and he is holding coats as the Jewish leaders they are stoning Stephen and God answers Stephen prayer. Steven's prayer by saving that man that approved of this execution. Listen to what Saul would later say about himself. Though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, an insolent opponent, I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost the foremost sinner. If the Gospel can save a man who was approving of the execution of a good and godly man, then listen, the Gospel can save you too. And it's not because your sin is smaller, but because the blood of Jesus Christ is enough to pay for even those that would kill his own people. It doesn't matter what you've done. It what your history or your past is or anything like that. What matters is what will you do with Jesus? Will you respond to him? Here. What the Gospel actually is that God does not look at your sin and say, "It's no big deal." No, your sin earned God's judgment. Just as Larry was talking about Romans 3:23, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So Jesus Christ, the son of God, he lived the life that you could never live and he went to the cross and he took judgment for your sin that you deserved. And he died in the place of sinners and

God raised him from the dead on the third day. And you and I, we are the worst kind of sinners. And yet Christ is willing and he is able to forgive me and you when you repent of your sins and you trust in what Jesus did on the cross for you. Look at everything that has happened in this entire passage. God worked it all out and it's so backwards because you got the court condemning Stephen, right? And yet you have Christ standing up as a witness saying, "No, no, no, no, no. He's okay." They killed Steven exactly the same way their fathers had killed the prophets. And Stephen died exactly the same way that Jesus died. And the devil, he tried to snuff out the church. And yet God, he was using all of that to gather his people to spread across the known world and grow the bride of Christ. Nothing went the way that Christians hoped on that day. And nothing really went the way that the Sanhedrin had thought it would either. They thought that they were silencing a blasphemer. They thought that they were defending the faith. They thought they were protecting the temple and they were actually murdering the only man who knew and saw where God actually lived as they killed Steven. They thought that this was a win. But they had actually just created Paul, the greatest apostle to the Gentiles. And that should give you and I great confidence in the Lord. Head, heart, hand, head. God, he wants you to know that forgiveness is not something that you earn, but something that you receive. You can't do enough to receive this gift. All you have to do is turn away from your sins and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Heart God. He wants you to believe that your account is paid in full by Christ when you repent and believe in him. Until you trust in him,

You're you still have an account due and you can't pay it. Trust in Christ today and don't wait. Hand. Here's how God wants you to live. God wants you to forgive the debt that you have been keeping because God has forgiven you of so much. You might have family. You might have friends. You might have neighbors. You might have something that you've just been holding over. You need to forgive that debt. You need to get over it and give it to God. Ask the Lord deal with this because you have dealt with so much in me. So help me God to forgive my neighbors. At this time as is our custom we will take time to respond on the first Sunday by the taking of the Lord's supper. Now you guys can come on forward. The Lord's supper is for Christians. If you are not a Christian, okay, just let it quietly pass by. Don't don't partake in it. Bible says that some of us we eat and drink judgment upon ourselves. What communion is that we are identifying with Christ. We are saying that I have participated by repenting of my sins and trusting in Christ. I am saying that I am a part of his broken body and shed blood that it covers me. So when we take in communion, that's our public testimony that we are Christians. So if you're not a Christian, just let it pass by you and resolve to talk to myself or maybe a friend that brought you about how you can participate in communion the next time it comes. At this time, if you would go ahead and distribute the bread first. Sorry, as Miss Charlotte, you were there. As the music plays, consider for a moment Christ's broken body for your sin. I am fine. Thank you. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed, he took bread, when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body which is for you. Let me pray.

Father, thank you for your body. Thank you for shedding your blood. Thank you that your body was crushed. Thank you for salvation. We eat this with thankfulness. With humble hearts, Lord, thank you for dying for me. We ask that you would let this be a testimony of our faith in you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Jesus he said do this in remembrance of me. Take the bread and eat with me. In the same way also he took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood. As the as the juice is distributed, please reflect upon Jesus's shed blood on the cross for you. Thank you. Lord, we are so thankful for the old rugged cross, the fact that you did so freely shed your blood for all that would believe. Thank you for making that path. Thank you for the testimony that we get to declare that we are your people and you are our God. We just thank you for your blood. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. This cup is the new covenant in Christ's blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ. Take the cup and drink with me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Let's all stand together and let's sing the doxology. >> Praise God. All bless him all creatures [singing] here. Praise him. Praise father and holy ghost. >> We praise you, Lord, for the good God that you are. Help us as your ambassadors to go from here fully

Equipped for every good work that you've called us to. We declare by faith that you are the son of God and that you have a plan and a purpose for every interaction that we're going to have this week. Help us to go forth as salt and light to be a blessing to the world declaring victory over death by faith in your son Jesus Christ. We ask that you would empower us today in Jesus name we pray. Amen.