Journeys Through Betrayal and Forgiveness

Lord, we lift up miles to you this morning, and Lord, we know the emotions that he has in his heart. Lord, in the word that you've implanted in his mind, and the Holy Spirit that covers his spirit today. so Lord this is his family he can be honest and real and calm and just look the devil straight in the face and say be gone from here Satan you've given me a word and I want to share it with my brothers and sisters so Lord we speak that over miles today in the name of Jesus that you would have your way in his life and that you'd give us receptive ears and open hearts. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Is he on? Am I on? Yeah, he's on. Cool. Okay, so to begin my sermon, I'm going to begin with a personal story. So the title of the sermon is Journeys Through Betrayal and Forgiveness. in God's will for us. Main scriptures are going to be Matthew 12, 1 to 14, and Genesis 37, 1 to 11. So the reason these sermons spoke to me through God is, especially in high school, I didn't have that great of a relationship with God. I mean, I had faith in him, and I very much believed him because I was going to church since like first grade, second grade, pretty much. But in high school, I doubted myself a lot in my faith because I felt like I wasn't good enough. I always felt like I was always counting my sins, tallying them up, you know, just getting like that clipboard, imagining God just sitting over me being like, oh, you sinned the 20th time today, you know, you're not getting to heaven today, and that's how I felt about it, honestly, that's just the relationship I had with it, and I just felt this whole relationship with it of just this whole condemning myself, telling myself I'm just not worthy, I'm not, there's no way that God won't me in his life or in his presence, and it got to the point where I even told my parents, which them being religious, I mean, they didn't like this that much, but I told them that I felt like the highest I could do was purgatory, I couldn't, I felt like as far as I could go with it, honestly, is I just feel like that bad about myself and my faith. So with that, I tried to fill it up with other things. I tried to fill it with philosophy, theory of knowledge, lots of other subjects and classes that were all about like, oh, knowledge and trying to tell you about world philosophies and everything. And of course, it didn't really fill it up. It just didn't really work. I mean, it helped with some things, but it really didn't help fill that gap. So that's kind of why I feel like God spoke with me through on the sermon is just that, like that not feeling that great. I will talk later on about what kind of helped me get back in the faith and believing in myself especially, but that's kind of what got me to want to do the sermon plus praying to God about it. So to begin, basically, there is two sections I'm going to go through, and then basically two points, betrayal and forgiveness, which is why I was journeyed through betrayal and forgiveness. To go on to basically Matthew 12, to begin from there, Matthew 12, 1. At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. his disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them when the Pharisees saw this they said to him look your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath he answered haven't you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry he entered he entered the house of God and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread which was not lawful for them to do but only for the priests or haven't you read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent. I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. You would have not condemned the innocent for the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath Going on from that place he went into their synagogue and a man with their shriveled hand was there Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus they asked him is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath He said to them if any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath will you not take a hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Then he said to the man, stretch out your hand. so he stretched it out and it was completely restored just as sound as the other but the pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill jesus so the reason i start with this one this is kind of one of my main texts is to start with the parallel section with jesus so a lot of the times you can kind of already see in this example the pharisees pretty much chastised jesus twice pretty much for the way what he's teaching his followers and what he's doing first with the grain field of course in the sabbath it is unlawful to harvest any harvest anything do any work on the sabbath so of course to them it's seen as just a slight against you know slight against their rules because one of the big things for the pharisees is all their rules their ideas of like what basically supposed to be their understanding of it and jesus of course doesn't really like it doesn't like all their fanciful interpretations isn't like the fact that they want to keep adding more rules making it more complicated because if that's one thing we as mankind do we love to make things over complicated you know that's how we do things but that's kind of part of the reason why they don't get along with Jesus and you think that the Pharisees would honestly be cheerleaders for Jesus or would cheer Jesus on but no because he challenges their rules and their ideas of the rules and the laws they don't get along with him and you mean you can clearly see that and just the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus in reaction to him healing on the Sabbath which is another rule basically that he breaks so again these Pharisees just see him as this rebel this lawbreaker this just person trying to change things up and of course they don't like that because they're in a position of power so there's all positions of people positions of power they just don't see that as a good thing they see that as something bad something that they want to get rid of and yeah that's pretty much there's other examples as well of course of it too is just in for luke 30 to 32 but the pharisees and the teachers of law who belong to belong to their sect complained to his disciples, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus answered them, it is not healthy who need a doctor, but the sick, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And that's another example, pretty much, of the Pharisees questioning him, because to kind of give an interesting historical fact, the Pharisees a lot of times would kind of like hold their robes up, especially from people they thought were unclean, because they didn't want them touching them. They didn't want to be around any sinners, because they viewed sinners as unclean people, people that would soil them and make them unclean to be around. But Jesus doesn't do that. Another reason why they don't like him is because he's willing to go with these people who are sinners, tax collectors, people basically talk to Samaritans, all these things, basically. So that's part of the reason pretty much everything Jesus does pretty much is kind of like an anticipus, or kind of, they kind of suppose it's like antagonizing them because it's not what they represent. They represent basically a form of belief that's about tallying.

a belief about tallying and not about true faith or true understanding of system of faith that's about you know making sacrifices if if you make a mistake or if you sin that's what their kind of definition is and again that's more reasons why jesus does not get along with them now to go on to genesis 37 i'll talk about joseph because this is basically be a comparison to him as well So Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. This is the account of Jacob's family line. Joseph, a young man of 17, was tending flocks with his brothers, the sons of Billa and the sons of Zilpha, his father wives and he brought them he brought their father a bad report about them Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because he had been born to him in his old age and he had made an ornate robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, listen to this dream I had. We were binding sheaves out of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright. While your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it, his brother said to him, do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us? And they hated him all the more because of his dream about what he had said. Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. Listen, he said, I had another dream, and this time the sun and the moon and the 11 stars were bowing down to me. When he told his fathers as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, what is this dream you had? will your mother and i and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you his brothers were jealous of him but his father kept the matter in mind so the reason i make a comparison to joseph is that i feel like there are a lot of connections between joseph and jesus especially in their journeys both go through betrayal both learned it both forgive the people that have wronged them and so yeah so to basically start with the joseph part so to kind of mention the robe the robe is a very important thing about it about this section because the robe is you know as we all know in Joseph King of Dreams it's a very colorful robe it's many colors but another important thing about it is that it's a long-sleeved robe and the reason that's important is because the long-sleeved robe is usually a robe for lords people that are not going to do day-to-day labor it's basically because if you have like a long-sleeved robe you know you can get dirty in things when you're picking things up working on things and that's kind of basically was a sign to their brothers to his brothers that basically that Jacob valued Joseph more than the other sons more than Reuben or Judah. And that, of course, just like the Pharisees, just because of the whole firstborn son thing, which was a very big thing for a long time, the firstborn son getting the inheritance, the firstborn son kind of being the most important in the family, that basically was kind of Jacob, in a way, challenging that, basically by picking Joseph as the most important or favorite son. And that's kind of what caused his brothers to start not liking him. Of course, Joseph didn't make it any easier by also telling on his brothers every time they did something wrong. I mean, I'm sure we've all, I mean, especially those of you who have siblings, I'm sure you understand that telling on your siblings is probably not the best way to get your siblings on your side. But yes, there's more things, of course, too. Joseph having his dreams. When he had his dreams, of course, with the sheaths and the star dreams, it caused his family, honestly, even his father, to rebuke him because he's like, you actually expect us to worship you, to see you as this ruler of us? Is that actually what you expect from us? You being the youngest son? and that's the thing where it comes from basically just like the Pharisees with Jesus it comes from a misunderstanding of where or what Joseph's purpose is basically like what the purpose of his dreams are because the father doesn't really know and the brothers don't know but especially with the brothers they don't really want to really know what the message means they just want to honestly get rid of him basically and kind of get him out of the way so Reuben or Judah pretty much can kind of take over not and them not him so to kind of go further with this basically on the trails section there's two basically things that I don't think also are really good connections between each other is Judas and the brothers basically as well Judas of course is another person that doesn't like Jesus basically for what he represents because he doesn't represent this militaristic David-like messiah and it's the same thing with the brothers pretty much when the brothers misunderstand his dreams and everything both Judas and the brothers pretty much sell the people that you think that would be the last person to ever sell Joseph's brothers sell him you know, to slavers, to people that are going to sell them to the Egyptians, and Jesus basically gets sold to the Pharisees by Judas. And that's another kind of connection between the two, is that they're both sold for money, they're both betrayed by people that you would never think that would betray them but in the end they did They saw them as because they saw them as false prophets or people that were just espousing things or trying to break rules basically trying to basically rebel against the rules that they that they had held so dear The Pharisees holding their rules so dear and their brothers holding their idea of the firstborn son so dear to them basically that they honestly didn't care that their brother was, had these dreams, they just saw it as a threat to them. So to kind of go back basically to Matthew 12, 1 to 14, kind of talk about that again for the forgiveness section.

Jesus mentions a lot of things in that section as well about condemning people and basically saying, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. And I think that's a big thing basically to kind of transition from betrayal to forgiveness is that basically what Jesus is basically saying to the Pharisees is that, you know, your rule system basically makes people keep tallying how they're doing. You know, you tell people, oh, like, well, you're unclean. You can't be in this part of the church. You can't be in this. If you're a Samaritan, you can't do this. You can't do that. It's this whole rule, basically, system of just basically telling people, if you want to be forgiven, go to the sacrificial market and buy a sheep or buy a lamb or something, and that's how you basically get it. You don't, and then you have to follow also all our other additional rules to be forgiven. But Jesus basically says, no, like, if you seek repentance truly, then I can forgive, then you'll be forgiven of your sin. You know, that's what Jesus basically is all about, basically, is the idea of understanding that it's not about where you go. It's not about what the temples you pray at. It's about the idea of showing true repentance for your sins and showing getting back on the narrow road. That's what it's about. But of course, the Pharisees, they just see it as problematic. They see it as you're challenging our ideas and everything. And there's many other examples of again like of jesus kind of challenging that role and kind of showing what true what it means to be truly be a christian basically truly be a son of god is showing true faith and true forgiveness basically like i mean for example the centurion story is another example basically i mean if we think about it a lot of us if we were all if we were especially the jewish apostles we would not we would not be cool with basically jesus basically telling us hey could you heal this like this servant boy of this like centurion a lot of us would be like jesus that's the enemy that's someone that we should like, you know, you should be like this Davidic Messiah. You should get rid of him. You should kill him, honestly. Why would you want to save him? Why would you want to help him? But the thing is, you know, when the centurion showed the level of faith that he had in Jesus, the level of faith and belief in him, and kind of showing that he was kind of getting on that road, Jesus was amazed. He was impressed, basically, with it. And that's why Jesus was willing to kind of help him, was because he saw that impressive level of feet, that he was trying to show repentance, that he was trying to, that he was showing true belief in him. And of course, in that section basically says that you know i've seen you have more faith as a gentile than a lot of people that i've met that you believe that i can heal someone from a distance you don't even require me that i go in your house you just you just believe that when you walk when you go home that the child will be healed the servant boy will be healed and that's again i think an act of jesus showing house how to forgive now because forgiving doesn't necessarily mean you be best friends with a person or that you get super close with them or anything like that but it basically means that you you try to come from a place of understanding them, trying to talk with them, trying to, you know, just feel, kind of see what they're feeling, kind of empathy for them. Because basically, Jesus is basically showing in that text, basically, is that he could just get rid of the centurion, smite him, you know, sons of thunder kind of style, just throw lightning down, but he doesn't. He tries to show them that, hey, you know, especially the apostles that, you know, this centurion is faithful. You know, this is a kind of example of like what we need to forgive him and understand him and what he's, you know, help him. Because he is someone that is going on the faith. He's one of the lost sheep that is finding the road. And of course, with Jesus, of course, that's one of the most important things to him, is a sheep finding the road again, because there'll be more rejoice in heaven for a sinner than a righteous person. And for a lot of us, that might seem kind of crazy. You might be like, well, why would a righteous person not get more praise than a sinner? But it's because the sinner was the one off the road.

The sinner was the one who was lost. They were lost in the woods, off the road where there's wolves and all sorts of things that want to hurt them or harm them. But Jesus is a shepherd. He wants to get people back on that path. And that's what, like, I think that's what his forgiveness represents, is that kind of wanting to help you get back on that path, wanting to help you feel like you can truly repent so your sins can be forgiven. And that's kind of where I'm going with that pretty much in the forgiveness part for Jesus. It's just, there's other examples too. the Samaritan woman as well, the woman at the well, that's another example. I mean, she's pretty much told, you know, that you can't pray, the only place you can pray is, like, the temple in Jerusalem. You know, that's, like, the only, like, major center, pretty much. Like, that's, like, the major center, because the Samaritan one was destroyed by the Jewish people in the war, pretty much in the fight between the Jews and the Samaritans, and as I, as I can mention for the Samaritans, that was, like, a definite blow, basically. It was telling them, like, hey, you know, where we picked our temple was considered not good enough, and that's what Jesus basically tells her, is that, no, it's It's not about temples or sacrifices. Because again, how he says, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. That's what Jesus is trying to teach. Not about condemning people, sacrificing things. It's about showing each other mercy. And that's pretty much what the woman at the world kind of represents, is that idea of just someone who pretty much has been told, because you're a Samaritan, because you're this, because you're that, because you've had all these husbands and everything, that you're beyond repentance. You have so many sins to atone for, and you can't even get to the temple because, honestly, you're a Samaritan, so your faith is not similar to that of the Jewish person. You're not from the lineage, the godly lineage. And that's what Jesus basically is trying to teach her, is that it's not about that. It's not about being from godly lineage. It's not about temples and all that. It's about just showing true faith and repentance. And when Jesus tells her that he's the Messiah and that's the person he comes out to, you can just see her be so elated and so... You can see that weight off her heart coming off of her just in pounds and hundreds of pounds basically you can see her just feel so elated and happy to know that someone's actually willing to listen to her care about her show her forgiveness and kindness and i think that's what jesus represents on so that's the kind of forgiveness that jesus wants to see love and kindness that can accept a centurion accept a samaritan and not the kind of love and kindness it's only like oh if you only if you follow these rules can you actually be forgiven and that's why i think jesus basically is trying to teach at least from my understanding and what he's trying to teach in forgiveness. Now, to kind of go back on to Joseph's section as well, Joseph also experiences lots of betrayal, I mean, as well. I mean, the brothers betraying him, selling him to slavers, Potiphar's wife basically trying to basically get mad at him basically for not sleeping with her, and landing in jail for 30 years. I mean, and that's another thing too, is just him basically being in jail for 30 years. That is a lot of years, honestly. That is a long time to be in jail, especially for something that you didn't do. But that's the thing about Joseph is he has a lot of faith in Jesus and that Jesus will get him through things. And honestly, you can see with Joseph that his thoughts and his actions aren't about wanting revenge or against people that have wronged him. As you can kind of see as we go more on in the story, I mean, he does test his brothers to see if they truly have shown repentance for their sins of, like, selling him and almost thinking about killing him. But in the end, when he does test them, and he does see that they are truly repentant for their sins, he does, he does, he reveals himself and shows himself as, you know, as their brother. And of course, in reaction, the brothers, of course, are like, is this a ghost? Is this, or is this, is he going to kill us all? Because, I mean, he was in a position where he could have done that. I mean, 30 years is a long time to think about how you want to get revenge against somebody. I feel like a lot, for a lot of us, if you were in prison for 30 years, you'd be like, oh, okay, look, you know, maybe, maybe I can think of ways to get back. Because that's a lot of time to think about things. but he didn't use that time for that. He used that time with his faith in God God got him through it I mean God blessed him many times in that journey I mean before he was you know thrown to jail because of the Potiphar wife thing I mean God blessed him He rose to the ranks pretty much I mean he became like Potiphar like the Potiphar like a, became the Potiphar's assistant, basically, like head slave pretty much, and helped him out with things, and was given many privileges, and that's because of God. But that's the thing about it, is in the end, I mean, Joseph does learn to forgive, forgive his brothers, and that's very someone also to Jesus, because again, there's many times, like just like the Pharisees too, Jesus also forgives the Pharisees. I mean, he has conversations with people like Nicodemus and stuff like that, which again, I feel like if a lot of us were apostles, we would also be like, why do you want to speak to a Pharisee? All they pretty much say to you is just, you're bad, you're wrong, why would you want to speak to him? But that's the thing, is Jesus sees the Pharisees as kind of like lost children, children who are like, who think they know where they're going, they're telling every people, here's the signpost, here's the guideline, go this way. But Jesus is like, no, you're taking the wrong path. That's just a shoddy kind of dirty dirt road. That's not where you want to go. This is the main path. This is the main road. But he meets with Nicodemus, and honestly, it's because he wants to, you know, show him what it means to be, you know, to show him what it means to lead in faith, to show him what it means to understand God, and understand what it means to be merciful and kind, and that's kind of, it again just shows that Jesus didn't hate all the Pharisees, and all the Pharisees didn't hate him either, but the fact that he's willing to meet with someone like Nicodemus just shows, again, that kind of understanding, that faith, that willing to forgive, willing to listen to someone that a lot of us normally wouldn't want to listen to. So I think that's another important thing, honestly, we can get from this, just like Joseph, is sometimes it's hard to want to listen to people that we might not necessarily want to get along with, because it's like, oh, I don't want to get along with this person because they've done this or that to me. Now, again, I'm not saying be their best friend or be the friend of that person. Of course not. Like, you know, if you can, if you can feel like you are able to do that, then definitely do it. But the main point of this, basically is to just understand what the forgiveness sections of joseph and jesus is to understand that forgiveness can be hard it's a lot but it's worth it in the end that forgiveness you know relieves the soul from anger and that's kind of that's that's the beauty of forgiveness on us as i feel like forgiveness is one of the most powerful things that we can do that's god god that jesus has done because i mean when you think about it i mean we talk about all these stories about how there's you know Moses split the Red Sea you know turning staff to snakes all these major feats basically you know like all these things I think honestly kind of gives people the idea of this kind of Davidic you know army messiah Jesus basically which of course doesn't match their interpretations because they see all these things that Moses did and all the other prophets did these major feats but that's the thing about it is I feel like at least how I feel is that forgiveness is one of the most powerful things that Jesus does. Basically showing people that you are worthy, you are worthy. Even if you are a sinner, you are worthy of love. You are worthy of being in his presence, being around God, being around Jesus. You are worthy of being in that presence, in those presences, in that presence. Because it's just, that's what love and understanding is about. It's not about blaming or judging or counting tally marks. So to kind of now go into the application section of the thing or will of God, so just to start off first with i want to start with basically the anger basically anger as a spirit to kind of go off of that so i mean there's many times honestly i was mentioning with about how we would all feel about you know being captured and put in jail for 30 years i mean all of us would feel it will of anger basically in our hearts we would feel that like swell up in us and we would feel like you know sadness depression anger all these feelings when we let the anger are kind of well up in us, basically, right? And I think that's what Jesus is trying to teach, basically, and he talks about, again, about not desiring mercy, not sacrifice, and not condemning people, is that basically, he basically is trying to tell us, like, don't let, like, anger live in your heart, because you can let it live in your heart but the thing is it will veer you off the path Now of course there righteous anger like when Jesus basically flips the tables at the sacrificial market basically That is an example of righteous anger, because Jesus basically tells him, like, you've turned the house of God and the house of my father into a den of thieves, you know. That is an example of righteous anger. So not all anger is wrong, but anger especially can become a sin, especially when you hold on it for long term. When you hold on to that anger and you basically keep thinking hurtful and hateful thoughts because anger is one of those feelings that basically you might feel like is doing you well but the thing is it's veering you off the veering you off the narrow road is that's what that's basically what it does when you get past that righteous anger phase and you just keep letting it control you and veer you off the path more and more that's what it's trying to do to you it's basically trying to turn you into a lost sheep it doesn't want you to be found by god because it's like a spirit it wants to take over basically and let you just keep let you going with that anger keep letting you say the worst things you can possibly say about somebody because i'm sure as we all know there's many times where we have thought of worser and worse things to say about people especially when we're angry with them the longer we're angry with them the quicker and more things we can say to them that are like the worst things normally we would never say if we're not angry with the person but i think that's one of the things that jesus is trying to teach us in this comparison in joseph and jesus was the idea of trying to show forgiveness and kindness and understanding the people don't let the you know if you if you have righteous anger that's okay but if you're basically letting the anger control you and your actions that you do it's not keeping you on the road, the narrow road to God. It's basically taking you off. It's trying to make you a lost sheep. It's not trying to help you. And the next point what I'm basically going with is for application is the application of just showing mercy and kindness to others. That's another thing I think that's a big thing with Jesus, especially when he eats with the sinners and the tax collectors and the Pharisees asking, like, why are you eating with these people? Why are you trying to, you know, like, you know, why are you even around these people? These people are sinners. They're bad. They're unclean. but that's the thing I think Jesus is trying to show us is that nobody is unworthy of God's love there's not a single person here or anywhere that's not worthy of God's love there are people, there's many cases of stories in the Bible of redemption and stuff like that redeeming ourselves to God and showing true faith and repenting from what we're doing from what the wrongs that we have done so there is no one that is incapable of feeling God's love and being in his presence even when we feel like we're not capable even if I feel like we've gone so far away, like I did when I was younger, that it would be impossible for me to ever think God would ever want to be around me in my life. You know, that's, that's the thing about it is, I feel like we've all felt that way, but that's the great thing about Jesus and the great thing about God is that they're showing this redemptive love, this idea of love that you can, you can be forgiven. If you truly repent, you can be forgiven. And I think that's one of the things that, about that, when I talk about this application, this part of the application is that we don't know what everyone's going through. We don't, you know, we don't understand what everyone's going through. I mean, if you look to your left, you look to your right, we don't know what necessarily that person's going through. That person could be going through a lot of things. They could be going through thoughts of just not seeing themselves as good, or maybe they didn't have a good day in the morning. Lots of things can happen. We don't know what people are going through on a day-to-day basis, and I think that's one of the things that God calls us to do is to show those people, especially when we see people when they're down, is to show them kindness and love. You know, sometimes we'll always bring the person out of what they're going through, but they'll notice it. They'll notice the effort, and they'll notice that you care for them, because I think that's one of the most important things we can do in showing God's love as Christians is showing people, especially that feel about themselves, that they're not worth it, they're not enough, especially when it comes to spiritual things, that they are worth it, that they are enough, you know, that God will want them and love them, and that God's been chasing them for a while honestly you know and he wants them in his presence that he cares about them so it's another thing I think is very important to Christians is first just not letting your anger control you and second just trying to when you see people that are downers people are bad or see people you don like you deserving of your love that I think that a time to show that maybe you should try to show them a little love Because in the end you never know how big of an impact it will have on that person I mean that is one of those things that could truly convert a person to Jesus Christ, is when you show them that love and understanding, that can truly make them feel like they really belong. I mean, to kind of connect back to my story again, when I, honestly, it probably wasn't until I went to the men's chrysalis, honestly, and going to this church that I really did start feeling about myself that I was actually good enough to be with God. Honestly, I didn't feel like I was good enough. I felt like I wasn't enough because before then, I just, I just honestly just kept filling myself up with other things that really didn't matter. And it wasn't, like I said, until Chrysalis and this church, honestly, and all of you that made me feel like I was worthy enough, especially to give a sermon today, to feel like I was worthy enough to be with God and work in God's house and basically work as a slide person to give a sermon, all these things. I feel like I'm very blessed by you all to have that opportunity. There's many people I can thank, honestly, for that. But that's what I'm basically trying to say is that you guys basically made me feel like that I could be something, that I could do right by God and be a part of God's presence. And that's, I think, a very powerful thing. And that's why I mentioned those stories. I think that's an example of the power you can have on someone when you believe and you show them the way to the Spirit of God and the spirit of Jesus. And to kind of go on to the last application, I want to basically talk about just God's will for us. So with that, basically, this kind of connects all the forgiveness and stuff, is that Jesus, for example, picks 12 apostles that normally most of us would never pick. I mean, he picked tax collectors, people that are sinners, people that have definitely veered off the road with Jesus and God. But the thing is, he doesn't necessarily care about that. He wants them to be with him, to show them like what it means to be faithful, what it means to understand his messages. He picks those students on purpose. I mean, he tells them, like, literally in the Bible, like, he's like, if I wanted, like, you know, people that were, like, super knowledgeable in the Bible, I would pick Pharisees. I would pick scribes, but I'm not looking for that. I'm looking for people, just your average day people. I'm not looking for people who have, know the Bible. It's like a lawyer, legal level, like, document level of understanding of it, where it's like, oh, well, it's this, this dot on this eye means this. He's not looking for that. He's looking for people who are average everyday people, tax collectors. And I think that's another thing that kind of connects to my previous point, just people may not think that they're worthy of God's presence, but they are, because they, like the example with Jesus, the apostles, God picking Joseph, the youngest son, which goes against the whole idea of like the whole oldest son, firstborn son thing, basically. Jesus and God basically have picked people that go completely against expectations. I mean, Jesus himself, he goes against expectations. I mean, to kind of go on Palm Sunday, basically, I mean, people expect Jesus, you know, to ride on a horse, military armor, sword in hand, ready to slay Romans by the dozen, but he doesn't. He comes in just wearing simple clothes, nothing fancy, and he just preaches basically forgiveness and understanding, healing the lame, giving the blind sight. That's what he's basically his whole goal and purpose basically is on this world, is to show people how to be faithful and how to be understanding when it comes to God and how to strengthen that connection with God. It's not about, you know, getting rid of the Romans and taking care of them. It's about showing repentance and understanding for the people in our lives. So that's the thing about Jesus. He's not just showing how to be faithful to just the Jewish people. He's showing it to the Samaritans, Gentiles, all these people, basically. It's not just one group. That's another big thing about it. A lot of women came to the Jewish faith and understanding is that, oh, we're God's holy people. But Jesus is like, well, there's also other people as well that can join God and be in heaven. And it's not just the Jewish people. It's other people as well. And that's one of those things I think is a big thing with it, is that. So yes, I feel like that's another example of God's will for us. It's just kind of showing that anybody and everybody, God has a will for. And there is a journey that God has planned for all of us, no matter how old we are, whether we're 10 or 50 or 70, that there is a journey and that there is

Any more, you know, destinations in that journey, memories in that journey that will happen as time goes on. And to kind of just, yeah, that's basically, I mean, that's basically what it is. I mean, like I said, Joseph is picked, even though he's the youngest son. And that's kind of where it goes basically with it. It's just, again, that example of just that God's will for us is a great will for us. I mean, it's, I mean, honestly, so far in my life, it's done a lot of good work for me. It's made me definitely feel more confident in myself. Put my worries with God instead of just always worrying about having to control everything, understand everything. And I think it's all relatable for all of us. Again, with my story, I feel like we all had times where we felt like we weren't good enough or we felt like, you know, we let worry control us and everything else. But that's the thing about God's journey for us. It's a journey that is a very great one and will lead us to many, very many great places. We'll meet very many, we'll meet great people in our lives. We'll help a lot of those people. I mean, and that's the great thing about it, honestly, is that that's why I'm excited, honestly, for my journey, you know, for the time that I have on this earth, basically to go through more journeys and stuff like that. So I guess to kind of sum up everything I'm basically saying is, you know, is that, I guess I would say to apply basically today, the messages that I've basically said today, is that, you know, talk to people. When you see the person on your left and right, talk to them. Have a conversation with them, you know. Tell them that, you know, that they mean something to you, that you're happy that they're there, that you're happy that they're a part of, that they're in God's presence and that they're trying to, you know, we have, because we have no idea whether they're in their faith or their understanding of it, but they're here. And that the most important thing is that So that what I would say is that how you apply it And if you also have people that you might not necessarily want to forgive again I not saying necessarily be their best friend but you know try to forgive them Don let that spirit of anger control you and take over you and just, yeah, I would just say, just as a final statement, shalom to you all, and if you could say to your left and right people as well, shalom to them as well, basically, to kind of end the sermon.

Isn't it amazing what the devil says about our identity sometimes?

That we're not worthy. And we know we're not worthy outside of Christ, but he spoke that sacred word to us. Yes, you are. And while you were at centers, Christ died for you. Amen. And just to get to be a part of Miles' life, to see him feel really loved out here and loved by Gianna and Bill and embraced in the formation in his life. And then to see him look at Scripture and pretty well define it.

You know, he is a growing disciple.

And has anybody arrived yet in their discipleship here I haven Every time I open this this is what so exciting is how much he is embracing the Bible, the Word of God, and reading it and letting it internalize in his spirit.

Miles, we love you, brother. and you did an awesome job explaining forgiveness to us.

A lot of us carry a lot of garbage about that.

And some of us are still holding on to resentments where we have been mistreated.

And I love it when you talk about, well, have a conversation with somebody. don't just cut them out. Have a conversation with them.

Did y'all talk about that?

A lot of things. You know, Miles and Emily are special people in our congregation. And when you sit down to listen to them have conversation you better get your speed ears on in a hurry because they are moving at 100% down that road and they go from one idea to another it amazing the minds that God has placed in these young people And so let give our hearts to the Lord Amen. Amen. Let's bow together. Lord, we thank you so much for Miles and, Lord, his heart and his desire to serve you and love you. and Lord for his commitment to studying your word and letting that word speak into his life by the Holy Spirit. God, we pray that that fire will continue in his life. Lord, whatever comes his way and there will be some trials and temptations and troubles. The word teaches us that we're going to face those things, but that he'll walk in faith and that he'll see with your eyes what you have planned and purpose for him. You have good things,

prosperous things, a wonderful plan for Miles' life. And so, Lord, we just pray that you'll continually unfold it to him. Lord, we thank you that he's a part of Prodigal Church. and God that we get to be a part of seeing him transformed and him bringing enlightenment in our lives that transforms us. Lord we love you and praise you in Jesus name. Amen.