 How's everyone doing? I counted an honor and a blessing. Yeah, we can do that. Okay. I counted an honor and a blessing to be with you today. And for those of you who weren't here yesterday, and I guess that would mean all the ladies, I kind of just keep it real with people, amen? Now, how many of you want me to be real? Raise your hands. Okay. If I'm real, how many of you are going to be real? Okay. So let's just get going in this thing right away. First of all, I hate that introduction thing. That's like, because it feels like it puts an expectation, and then even while I was sitting there, I kind of went blank. Like all the thoughts just went out of my head. I said, come on, Jesus, don't fool around right now. So, okay, I think I'm okay now. All right. So let me ask some questions and then we'll get going here. I want you to be real. The person seated next to you, that's your neighbor. So just say, good morning, neighbor. Okay. Ephesians 4.25 says, stop lying and tell your neighbor the truth because we're not separate units, but intimately united in Christ. Amen. And then I'm going to have you raise your hand and confess some of the sin that's in your life. Okay. Look at your neighbor. Say, neighbor. Don't act like you don't have sin in your life. Okay. James 5.16 says, confess your sins once or another and pray for each other that we could be healed. Okay. So let me see how real you're going to be. How many of you have found out life is a lot more difficult than you thought it would be? How many of you found out serving Jesus is more difficult than you thought it would be? How many of you find yourself doing stupid stuff every once in a while? How many of you do stupid stuff? You know it's stupid and you do it anyway. Say, neighbor. What in the ham sandwich is the matter with you? Okay. And how many of us have one of these in our lives? Something that we've done, our attitude about it is, oh my God, I hope no one ever finds out I did that. How many of us have one of those in our lives? No, raise your hand straight up in the air. It's not an auction. Okay. Keep your hand up. Look around the room. Dang. Okay. So we're in the right place and you don't have to tell your neighbor what that thing was, but we got them. Just by way of testimony a little bit, I'll share a little bit of my life and then I'll go into where I want to go. Born and raised in New York City, grew up in a real dysfunctional family. I shared this with the men yesterday. My mom was involved with organized crime. She was a bookie for the mafia. I never realized that until I began to investigate the mafia. And then it was like, wow, this is what mommy used to do. And I was the victim of child abuse at her hands and I didn't realize it was child abuse of course until I began to investigate child abuse. And I was like, wow, this is what mommy used to do. I saw a girl at a young life camp and said, on her t-shirt, it said, save your drama for your mama. Look at your neighbor. Say neighbor. Bill's mama was his drama. Okay. And in our household, I had two cousins, Abie and Betty. Abie was the brother I never had. He was five years older than me. Mom and dad never had any more kids, so I always wanted to have a brother. And I always considered him that and due to this day, Betty was 15 years old when I was born. I heard she had a kid. I never saw that kid. But she lived a very promiscuous life. And so as a little boy, I saw a lot of stuff that I should not have seen. And one day I came home and I want to talk about one day. You know, today is going to be about that day. Look at your neighbor. Say neighbor. Remember that day? Okay. Well, here's one of those that days for me. I came home. I was 13 years old and I had been to school. Got home. Some of mom's friends were at the house. We got some bad news for you. Your mom passed away today. She had a massive heart attack and she died. And I remember taking my dog for a walk and I remember crying. I don't know why I cried. I don't know if I was mad or glad or sad. I just knew some of that drama was going to stop. I got home and Abie had come home and he sees I've been crying. And he says, why are you crying? I said, well, I'm crying because mommy's dead. And he says, well, so what? She's not your real mother. Your real mother is the girl that you think is your cousin, Betty. Look at your neighbor. Say neighbor. Dang. And so what do you do with that? Now I really began, my life began to spiral out of control right about that point. And got wilder and wilder. Went to high school, 7,000 boys went to my high school, played football there. I was a real good athlete in school. But soon as football season ended my senior year, I quit school, began running the streets and hanging out with a crew that was doing bank robberies and murder. So I joined the military to keep them going to jail. Finished military, got married while I was in the service to my first wife who has since left me after 46 years of marriage. And she is with Jesus now. And so that's quite all right. Amen? Say neighbor. I'm glad he cleaned that up, okay? However, after her passing, I asked the Lord, will I ever get married again? And that's what I really feel God said to me. It is not good for a man to be alone. And then I heard this, especially you. And so God and his incredible providence provided this young lady for me, Pamela, as you can stand up. And we have been married now for almost three years. Stand up one more time, Pam. Take a look around. Say neighbor. I thought that was his daughter. Okay, so, but God has been very, very gracious to us. So, but back to that time, when I went on the police department, they gave me this gun, they gave me a badge. I had the authority rather to take your life, to take your freedom, but I didn't have any power in my own life. And as a result of not having power, I began to abuse the authority that was given to me. And then I began to deal with the pain and hurt in my life with drugs and alcohol, made detective very early on the SWAT team with living a dual life. Strung out on drugs, total alcoholic, and no power in my life. I got real one day, December 26, 1980, at 2.45 in the afternoon, watching TV, a man asked two questions. He said, are you a sinner? I said, yeah. He said, you know Jesus? I said, no, say neighbor. You know, you got issues if you get an attitude with the television. And he said, call this 800 number, 800 number flashed on the screen. I called that number. A man explained to me the incredible love of Jesus Christ. I prayed with that man, received Christ into my life, total deliverance from drugs and alcohol, filled with God's spirit, filled with the joy and peace I'd never had before. My wife comes home from shopping. I met her at the door and I said, Claudia, this is the new me. Jesus came into my life. I'm born again by the spirit of God. My name is written in the land's book of life. Look at your neighbor say neighbor. Never say stupid stuff to a black woman. And when I said that, she went just like this. Yeah, right. Or if she was white, she would have said, yeah, right. OK, so I'm just saying, because y'all don't have that motion. OK, so I'm just sorry. All right. Oh, he won't be back again. So, but my life changed. And I went back to work a different, I went back to work a different police officer. And I went back to work understanding why people did the things they did because they didn't have the right relationship with Jesus. And I would tell as many people as I could about that. But I want to talk about that day in the book of Mark in the fourth chapter and the 35th verse that says this on the evening of that day. Jesus is with his crew and a large crowd is following them. And he turns to his disciples and he says, let's go over to the other side of the lake. Say, neighbor, the Lord wants to take you somewhere. And then he turns and he sends the larger crowd home. And so they go down. And before I tell you the story, when I was a police officer, I loved being a police officer. 10 years as a Christian police officer, 10 years non-Christian. I love both sides of it. And I had an awesome time. And the second 10 years were better than the first 10. But the thing that never left me the whole time that I was on the police department, the thing I love to do the most was high speed pursuits. Now question, how many of you ever rode in the car with somebody that did not know how to drive that well? Raise your hands. How many of you ever sat over there hitting brakes that did not exist on the other side? Say, neighbor, this morning. OK, so I had a reputation about high speed pursuits that I'm not breaking this pursuit until we crashed the car, run out of gas, or we lose the guy. I ain't breaking it. So nobody would ever let me drive the car. And so I had a partner when he was breaking me in. I was still a rookie. His name is John Creed and became one of my closest friends. And we're working a midnight tour. And all night long, like a little kid, I said, John, can I drive the car? Can I drive the car? He goes, no, I'm not letting you drive the car. You drive like an idiot. I'm not hardly letting you drive the car. All night long, like a kid. Come on, man, let me drive the car. When's it going to be my turn? And so it gets to be about 5 30 in the morning. There is no exaggeration in the story. I'm going to tell you. So John's getting tired. I'm like, OK, John, you're tired. Nothing's going on. Can I drive now? He says, OK, you could drive. I was like a little kid in a toy store. He lets me drive. I stop a couple of speeders. I'm like, get out of the car. Let me see. And he won't even get out of the car to back me up. He's just rolling his eyes. Just to be about 10 minutes to 6 or so, we pull over to the side of the road, sitting on the side. And the car goes by us at about 90 miles an hour, in a 30-mile-an-hour zone, right next to the police car. The police car went like this. John Creed now realizes he has made the biggest mistake of his life. I go up to pull the car into gear. He grabs my wrist. He says, Bill, forget about it. You'll never catch him. Get your stinking hands off me. And we were after this guy. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. Yeah, boy. And you know what? When you're in the police car, you don't hit it. Oh, yeah. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. All I can hear was, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, stop it. Stop it. You're going to kill us. Shut up. Woo, woo, woo, woo. And I mean, I am having a ball. He is freaking out. OK? And so we go around the car. The car starts bouncing out a little bit. I was able to get it back under control. Woo, woo, woo, woo. John begins to slip out of the seat of the car down into the firewall. Fingernails embedded in the dashboard. Stop it, stop it. You're going to kill us. Shut up. And finally we catch this guy. I jump out of the car. I draw my weapon. I'm walking up in the car. I don't know what I got. I look back to see if he's coming. He gets out of the car. His legs are shaking literally like this. And I can see this look on his face that he wants to hit me. OK? But he doesn't. And he just walks over to the driver of the car. Wow. He prompts that guy right in the side of the head. All right, look at your neighbor say neighbor. No camcorders back in those days. OK, I'll just say it. All right, so I know it ain't right, but it happened. OK? All right. His fingernail marks never came out of the dashboard of the car. Next 19 years, he never let me drive the car again. And he would tell people, come here. Let me just hear you what happened to me. Let's stupid drive the car. OK, so the reputation went out. What was the problem? He didn't have any control. He was sitting over there, and he was helpless. And sometimes life is like that. Sometimes things are out of control. How many of you have ever felt things are out of control? How many of you ever felt that it ain't never going to get any better? Does that ever have anybody in the house? Well, the Bible says there's nothing new under the sun. As I shared with men yesterday, when I read the Word of God, it turns into a movie for me, because I'm visual and I see things. And so when I read these verses and these stories that are going to follow this, I always say to myself, why did God put those in the Bible one right after another? Say neighbor, because He knew you were coming. OK, so let's go over to the other side of the lake, Jesus says. They go down, they get into some small boats, Jesus is tired. He goes to sleep on a mat. Maybe it's high 85, not a cloud in the sky. The lake is like crystal. And they start out to go to the other side of the lake, and all of a sudden the winds begin to build up. The winds become so powerful, the word that's used for the wind in Greek is the word that we would use for cyclone or hurricane. And now the waves are breaking over and water starting to fill the boat. How does Jesus sleep through this? But He's out. And so Peter, my favorite disciple, he is the knucklehead of the disciples, but he's always keeping it real. Amen? So Peter's bailing. And he takes a look, and here's Jesus sleep. Hey, don't you care that we perish? I love this. Nothing jams up Jesus except religious people. People who think they know what God is like and they don't have a stinking clue. Look at your neighbor. Say, neighbor, I can't stand people like that, okay? And those people couldn't stand Jesus. I love this. Jesus wakes up. This is just my imagination. The Bible doesn't say this part. Say, neighbor, Jesus invented slobber. Because the Bible says everything that was made was made by him, and there was nothing made that wasn't made that wasn't made by him. So he could have had that line just saying, I'm not saying he did, but he could have. Okay, so, and then he looks at the storm, and one translation that says, he says this, peace, be still. Another translation, and he rebuked the wind, and he calmed the sea. If the Bible was written in the hood, Jesus said, chill, that storm backed up off Jesus. And then the Bible says, and there was a great calm. Wow. And then he turns to those guys. Hey, where's your faith? Why did you doubt? And the only thing they could say is, who is this that even the winds and the waves obey him? Wow. You know what? They don't realize who they've gotten themselves hooked up to. And more importantly than that, they don't realize who's hooked themselves up to them. Because Jesus said to them, to you, to me, you didn't choose me, I chose you. And so maybe you listen to the story and you say, oh, wow, Jesus is good with weather. But what about the storms that rage in my life? What about when all hell breaks loose in my life? And I say, peace, be still and your storm says to you, shut up and go sit down somewhere and you walk off. Say neighbor. Oh, don't act like you don't know what that brother's talking about. I'm gonna go back to another, that day. One week to the day after I gave my life to the Lord, I was very violent before I gave my life to the Lord. And I had one standard. You could say anything you want to say, don't put your hands on me. You put your hands on me, there's gonna be another side of bill. And so I'm working the nights, I'm with detective, they don't send detectives on a fight call. Radio calls, 1029, fight in progress. My friends are being sent to the fight. So I said, well, let me go back them up just in case they need some help. But I drive so fast, I get there first. And always at a fight call, there's always one happy guy to see you show up. The guy is getting beat up, amen? So I had no problem getting him out the way, but now I gotta deal with the most aggressive guy. And so I'm saying, I'm trying to calm him down, sir, take it easy, no, I wanna kill that guy. And he won't listen to me and I can feel myself starting to get angry. How many of you have ever felt yourself starting to get angry? Okay, let's all pretend we've got an anger needle. So my anger needle's doing this and I'm like, take it easy. And there came a point in this conversation I said, take it easy. And I went like, but this is Jesus Bill now. This is praise the Lord, Bill. Take it easy. No, I ain't taking it easy. He says, I'm gonna kill him. I said, you ain't killing nobody. Oh, you think you're bad? I'll kill you right now. I said, you ain't hardly killing me. And I don't know how I allowed this man to get in on me, but he gets in on me and he gets close enough and all of a sudden he reaches up and he grabs my cheek and he goes like this. Ooh, and you're sweet too. My anger needle went just like this. This thought came into my head, come up under his chin, take his head, snap his neck, bite his nose off his face. Okay, so as I went to get this, I don't know how God does what God does. As I went to get this man's head, my hand went just like that and I clamped down on my own fingers and I realized I needed to get away from him while I was gonna hurt him and I backed up a couple of feet and I turned around and when I turned around I saw a five police officer standing here. One guy, his name is George Weissner. I'll never forget this night for as long as I let him put his finger on my face and he says, now we believe Jesus has come into your life. Question, if I'd have bit that man's nose off his face, how many of you think that would have been an overreaction on my part? Not everybody raising their hands. Some people, no, no, bite him, Bill, bite him. Okay, if you don't think that was an overreaction, maybe you got just as many issues as I had, but you know what's in the well comes up in the bucket. How many of you have some words come out your mouth? You wish you could get those bad boys and put them back in. How many of you ever did something that felt good when you did it but later on you were sorry you went there? How many of you, how many married people we got in the house? How many of you, let's go here, can I go culture? How many of you are married to a Latina or a black woman? How many of you have ever had an argument with her about something that happened 10 months ago and it seemed to her like it happened yesterday? Now I ain't saying white people don't do that too, but I'm just knowing us. Because Latinas and black women got this thing in them called it ain't over. And you all don't forget nothing, total recall. Men forget everything. That's why they make videotape replay because we forget stuff that happened 15 seconds ago. How many of you have ever been mad at somebody and they didn't know you were mad at them? You're having a good time until they show up. You could be here giving a talk and they could be standing in this aisle, you go down that aisle because you don't even want to deal with them. Say neighbor, does this man know you personally? This is just a real deal. So Jesus isn't just in charge of storms because this Bible goes on to say now going from Mark four to Mark five and they arrived on the other side of the lake in the country of the garrisons and as Jesus was getting out of the boat a man in the grip of an evil spirit rushed out to meet him from among the tombs where he was living. It was no longer possible for any human being to restrain him even with the chain and indeed he had been frequently secure with fetters and lengths of chain but he simply snapped the chains and broke the fetters into pieces. No one could do anything with him and all through the night as well as in the daytime he screamed amongst the tombs and on the hillside and he began to cut himself with stones and now as soon as he saw Jesus in the distance he came screaming at the top of his lungs. Wow. When I see this story I see these guys coming up on the beach. Their heart is still beating they're still trying to figure out who Jesus is. They get out of the boat and here comes this guy. Bible never gives him a name so I give him a name, Mad Moe and there's two of them out there. They're naked and they beat up anybody that comes near the cemetery and now he sees Jesus and he comes screaming and I'm thinking at least one of the 12 disciples is going like, yo Jesus why don't we just get back in the boat go back over to the other side of the lake. But what I love about Jesus he steps right to this man but Jesus isn't afraid of him he wasn't repulsed by him he wasn't angry at him and then we find out you know it's amazing that the disciple says who is this that even the winds and the waves obey him the spirit that's in this man says we know who you are son of God have you come to destroy us before the time? Don't send us out of the territory allow us to go into the pigs Jesus is what's your name? He said Legion for we are many. This guy had a lot of stuff going on everybody take a look at your neighbor's feet everybody just look over at your neighbor's feet say neighbor I know what kind of shoes you wear issues say neighbor that ain't your only pair let's get it out now say neighbor he won't be speaking here next year okay so we got issues this guy had issues when Jesus expels these pigs and they go into the herd of swine they're over here and the pigs run down the hill and drown themselves the guys in charge of the pigs run to town and into the hillside and they tell everybody about what happened out in the cemetery people come out to the cemetery and they find out this guy is no longer angry this guy is seated at the feet of Jesus folks incredible things happen at the feet of Jesus he is in his right mind wow you know what the Bible doesn't tell us about this man it doesn't tell us how he ended up in the cemetery why is he so angry how has the devil gotten a hold of his life what happened to the cute little kid what happened to the kid that somebody used to blow air bubbles in his belly what happened to the kid that somebody maybe played high and go high and go seek with what happened to that kid the kid that somebody used to play peek-a-boo how did he go from being that kid to this man how many times did he go to bed angry giving place to the devil because the Bible says in Ephesians 4 do not allow the sun to go down on your wrath do not give the devil that kind of a foothold in your life how many of you have ever gone to bed angry how many have been so angry you lay there with your head on that pillow had a tear roll out your left eye across the bridge of your nose down into your right eye has that ever happened to anybody in the house when you wake up in the morning you're nowhere near as angry as you were when you went to sleep where did the anger go it doesn't go out the window it doesn't go up the chimney it goes downstairs and somebody comes along and pushes the right button and we see a different side of the person that I'm looking at from this stage amen say neighbor what's in the well comes up in the bucket how many of you ever had a curse word slide out your mouth it didn't slide out that bad boy glided out is that ever have anybody in the house raise your hands come on let's go these are not trick questions how many of you since you have given your life to Jesus Christ has ever said a curse word say neighbor why do you raise your hand the first time one of the reasons we don't raise our hand the first time because we don't really know how to be real with each other we don't know how to be transparent and vulnerable and honest with each other and we do other people in this service because we think God doesn't work for us but it really works for them and they're fronting and they're acting like they got it together and they don't have it together how many of us are good at acting like we got it all together 15 of us praise the Lord how many of us are good at acting like we got it all together how many of us know we don't have it all together that's okay you know there's a book written I'm okay you're okay the problem with that book is I ain't okay and you ain't okay and that's okay because Jesus came to deal with people who weren't okay so this guy he seated at the feet of Jesus and now the townspeople are afraid no longer of the man but of Jesus you know what else it doesn't tell us it doesn't tell us what Jesus said to this man maybe for the first time eye to eye contact with somebody who wasn't afraid who wasn't repulsed you know the last hands that touched this man chained this man the hands that have now touched him if he embraced him came to set him free you know it says he'd been frequently secured Fedders and Langer chain but he breaks him and then he chained him because he gets free but he doesn't know what to do with his freedom how many of you ever thought you were beyond something only to find that thing come back on you did ever have anybody in the house raise your hands straight up in here please okay so Jesus says he who the sun says free is free indeed you will know the truth in the truth to make you free maybe I understand just to hear the voice I understand I know why you do what you do it's not your fault you're responsible for your behavior yes and there are consequences to ill behavior yes but I understand and so these town people tell Jesus to go and Jesus doesn't he doesn't force himself on anybody he doesn't force himself so he goes and gets in the boat and this man wants to go to and you can read it for yourself in mark five Jesus says no go home go home to your own people tell them listen to these words say tell them what the Lord has done to you for you rather and how kind he has been to you and he lived in a city called the capitalist a city built on ten hills and he went home to be published in the bible says and the people were utterly amazed a man who was mad who was made glad by the son of god can you relate to that story are you here today you hear that you go like wow that's me the bible goes on to say right after that jesus and his boys go back over to the other side of the lake as they get out of the boat a man comes up to them this large crowd he drops on his knees in front of jesus he's the president of the synagogue his name is jairus he's got a need he knows the moment that he bows before jesus he alienates himself from his religious buddies but he doesn't care i have a daughter she's twelve years old she's dying please come and lay your hands on her that she might be well jesus takes off with jairus and his disciples and a large crowd in the crowd there's a woman she's got an issue an issue of blood and she's had it for a while she's had it for twelve years the bible says she's had that issue ever since jairus's daughter was born and the bible says that she went from doctor to doctor and instead of getting better she only got worse and the only thing that doctors did for her was took her money now does god use doctors in unbelievable ways absolutely but the doctors that she went to were unable to help her they were unable to remedy the pain the issue the struggle and the only thing they took was her money look at your neighbor say neighbor where do you go when it hurts how are you dealing with your pain say neighbor how's that working for you she makes up her mind i'm going to him maybe she saw jairus maybe she had gone to jairus for prayer and nothing happened i'm going to him are you good enough for jairus is he good enough for me and she works her way through the crowd and in my own imagination she's weak she's tired she's feeble she's anemic she's working but she's also been deemed unclean she has the cooties how many of us ever played a cootie game when we were kids remember he said you got cooties and then if they touched you you would get their cooties well she has this issue of blood she's unclean if she touches somebody they become unclean she doesn't care i'm going to him if i could just touch the hem of his garment i know i could be made whole here's what i believe i could be wrong i don't even feel worthy to touch this man but he's got power and she comes up behind him and she reaches out and touches the hem of his garment i think jesus knows she's coming and then touching and immediately the bible says she recognized that she was healed she stepped back into the crowd i love this jesus feels the virtue go out who touched me who touched me which one of you touched me peter keeping it real who touched you who didn't touch you everybody touching you look at your neighbor say neighbor everybody was touching him but only one person got healed say neighbor how bad do you want it so he keeps looking and all of a sudden well let it be you what's your name? bernice monique with their eyes locked on, monique is like no and then monique takes herself and throws herself at the feet of jesus incredible things happen at his feet and she told him her whole story jesus knew her story but he knew how important it was to hear it from her your story is important to jesus maybe some of us need to get to his feet and tell him i think about i think about jairus i got some pictures of my grandkids here if i went to jesus and asked him to heal one and he was taken up because she was dying or he was dying oh no but he got to stop to heal monique and not only that he got to listen to her story i wonder what jairus is doing in the background the bible never tells us but he's probably going something like that you could talk to her later i had you first but she tells the whole story and then jesus says to her daughter your faith has made you whole go your way in peace and monique goes home a different way monique goes home healed monique goes home able to pursue life in life to the full and then they continue on the jairus's house and here come the servants of jairus don't bother the master any longer your daughter is dead if it wasn't for the fact that it was jesus saying it jesus says something crazy right here don't be afraid just believe you know what jairus could have said just believe don't be afraid i asked you to heal my daughter you stopped to heal that lady now my daughter is dead those words in the greek the faith that you had when you came to me keep that faith he doesn't say i want to take care of business he says trust me and god is calling you and i to trust him and they continue on the jairus's house and when they get there jairus's wife is there and then they got the professional morning people would come to your house and mourn for you how you get that job but in the meantime then jesus goes in with jairus's wife and james john and peter and he says to the morning folks she ain't dead she's just sleep and the bible says and they laughed him to scorn but the bible also says god is not mocked and so he put them away and he goes into the room and they close the door behind themselves jairus's mom and wife rather and daughter's there and he takes that little girl by the hand and the law says you're not to touch anything or anyone that's dead and jesus takes that little girl's hand and says little girl i say to you arise and i believe that cheeks had gone pale begin to flush with color i believe a room that had faded to black as far as the parents were concerned the bible says in the joy of her parents knew no bounds look at your neighbor say neighbor you're never too dead for jesus and some people have been counted as dead you ain't nothing you're never wearing nothing and you ain't never gonna be nothing and we bought into that and jesus doesn't play that game which story do you relate to if any or maybe somebody you know somebody who relates to the story somebody in your family somebody oh man what does god do how does god help us when i came to jesus i brought all that baggage and i didn't know what was in there but when i wanted to bite that man's nose off his face i knew something was broken and so where does god send me god sends me to a residential treatment center for emotionally disturbed children i go there in my pentecostal zeal thinking i'm going to be the healer god sent me the three hundred little bills to get healed now god has an incredible sense of humor when i got there my attitude is no woman tells me what to do even though the bible says be obedient to those in authority over you and if i'm the associate chaplain and she's the chaplain i got to do what she says in my bible i wrote unless it's a woman say neighbor god ain't feeling that and it was a white woman at that and so we clash in all the time i'm kicking against all her authority she knows nothing of my childhood key fight words of children's village are these two words your mama black kids hispanic kids in new york latinos we know how to play your mama game yo your mama's one then you get a couple of knuckles on the side like whoo you talk about your mama next thing you know it's on amen white people would be like your mother well that's not real painful now white people fight they don't usually fight over mama jokes i'm just saying say neighbor it's racial but not racist she doesn't know anything about my childhood and she steps to me one day because she's sick of me kicking against her authority on that day she said what kind of a mother did you come scooby doo and just like with that man i stepped away from her and i walked away and i got in the car and i took a ride and i thought about that i came from two moms and even to make matters worse i find out later that when betty was impregnated at fifteen years old by a twenty five year old man my real father who i vowed to kill and my family hid him from me she went to have me aborted and the lady who did illegal abortions talked her out of doing the abortion and that lady became my godmother she became my godmother and then gave her life to jesus and in the year two thousand god gave me the honor of putting her in the ground she could have buried me in nineteen forty seven i buried her in the year two thousand and she would jesus too god leaves no stones unturned so that day i ride in my car what kind of mother did you come from i came from two moms they messed my life up and they're both dead and i'm still angry and these words came out of my mouth i don't know how it happened they came out of my mouth mommy wherever you are i forgive you betty wherever you are i forgive you father forgive me for what i've allowed that to do to me and a weight came off of me that i never knew i was carrying when you forgive somebody it is not necessarily for their benefit it's for your benefit when you don't forgive someone and i'm sure you've heard this before it's like you drinking poison waiting for me to die it ain't gonna happen come up here please let me show you what it looks like because sometimes we don't want to let it go sometimes you don't know what i've been through you don't know what happened to me you're absolutely right but i know somebody who does and i know somebody who can relate to whatever you've been through because he went through everything too for we have a high priest who can be touched by our infirmities because he was tempted tested in every way as we are yet without sin jesus knows what's like to be hurt jesus knows what's like to be abused jesus knows what's like to be abandoned jesus knows what's like to be rejected jesus knows what's like to have his own father turn his head you know how serious that is the bible says it this way if your father and mother it doesn't say mother and father if your father and mother forsake you the lord himself will lift you up how important is that this used to be a funny expression who's your daddy it ain't funny no more because so many kids don't know but there is a heavenly dad who wants to be their dad if they will allow so you have your attitude i ain't you don't know but i ain't forgive them hold on to it peter comes to jesus how many times i gotta forgive my brother seven times i'll tell you right now i don't think this is a rhetorical question i think peter got beef with somebody and he's forgave him seven times now eight okay you mind now she said no seventy times seven you know that's the way god is because his ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts and as high as the heavens are above the earth that's how far his thoughts and ways are removed from ours so let's just pretend i disrespected him in front of you all i embarrassed her here today i said something very insulting but she's very honorable and outwardly she looks fine but inwardly she is raging and she enough is enough and i'm not allowing you to do this anymore and she makes up her mind i'm not going to forgive you this time it's done and she wants to move on with her life just walk away say neighbor in about an hour pam is going to be worn out she could do this though she could say you know what bill you know what bill because i've been forgiven by the lord i choose to forgive you walk away she's free look at your neighbor say neighbor who's living rent free in your head today what do you do you have to turn it over to jesus they don't deserve your forgiveness any more than you deserved gods and so god's gotta you know what it's amazing he thinks of everything don't do this where are you i know you're here here's what he writes for us because i don't want you to think i'm making this up let there be no more resentment no more anger no more temper no more violent self-assertiveness no more slander no more malicious remarks be kind to each other be understanding and be as ready to forgive others as god for christ's sake has forgiven you forgiveness has nothing to do with what's been done to you forgiveness has all to do with what's been done for you there came a day in history where every sin that you and i ever committed god he raced them all and for our benefit when people do the wrong thing he releases us to forgive him so that we can move on with our lives he doesn't want us to be in bondage he wants us to be free it'll steal your joy it'll mess up your health god wants you to be free for he who the sun sets free they're free indeed the apostle paul says i'm gonna forget the things that are back there probably some of us in here today have done some things that you're utterly ashamed of some things that you never talk about but every once in a while even though you know you've been forgiven that thing comes up to bite you the next thing you know you're driving your car maybe listening to music you think about that thing and all of a sudden you begin to spiral downward because sometimes we don't know what to do with the love of god and so for that person here today if you're here you can do what i've done you maybe need to find a mirror today go to the men's room go to the ladies room go like this in the name of jesus christ of nazareth i choose to forgive you you let yourself off the hook because when you don't let yourself off the hook you're judging yourself and god's words says who are you to judge another man's servant you don't belong to you anymore you've been purchased with a price who are you to judge another man's servant especially when that servant belongs to god god says i've chosen not to judge you stop judging yourself the enemy is good at what he does be careful of the things that we're doing that don't really help us when drama and stress show up you know i was going to give this message a title what rocks your boat there are things in life that rock our boats everybody go like this right quick let this represent your emotions your emotions can only go like this or this is it nothing else this or this this is calm amen i come over to you in your face show me what your emotions look like say neighbor you're emotionally disturbed it's not even a bad thing something something body pushes your button that's gonna happen have you noticed okay have you noticed god hasn't gotten rid of the people that push your buttons have you noticed that you know what how many of you have some people get on your last nerve everybody take a quick look around here everybody look around there's look around quickly do it quick how many of you see some people here that oh that guy got on my nerves right there god hasn't gotten rid of that person either and then jesus prays to crazy prayer except for the fact that jesus prayed daddy i pray that you would keep them in the world if you i gotta stay here then i have to allow him to deal with my stuff and then god says i will take everything and i'll work it together for good because now you love me you're called according to my purpose paul wrote this in second corinthians one that god is the god of all comfort and mercy and he gives us comfort in our trials why so that we in turn can give comfort to others and theirs and the more that we share christ's sufferings the more we are able to give of his encouragement this means that if we have to experience trouble we can pass on to you the same sort of spiritual help that we ourselves have received god just takes care of it all god says trust me forgive him and allow him to do the healing you're not letting them off the hook you're releasing them into the hands of god and then let god do with them whatever needs to be done lastly two things you ever heard this expression time heals all wounds i believe this time doesn't heal anything god says i am the lord god that heals you but he uses time to do it if i cut him on our arm with the knife and she chose to forgive me immediately if i touch that wound tomorrow it still hurts and then god comes along and heals the wound i believe this and pastor you can correct me if i'm wrong i don't think that we have the ability in and of ourselves really to fully forgive anyone but we do have the ability to make the choice and then through the mystery and the power of the holy spirit he does the work that needs to be done last thought how many married people we got in the car in the house rather how many of you have ever had, those of you who just raised your hand, how many of you have kids how many of you have ever had an argument with your wife or your husband on the way to church, be real and then you get here to that door praise the lord god bless you, praise god do this you know what you see, you see your kids standing there going like whatever for those of us who are parents who have made some statements to our children in a way and in a tone that we shouldn't have maybe we need to go back and ask their forgiveness for the bible tells parents don't provoke your children to wrath lest they become discouraged and kids if you're here maybe you need to go to mom and dad and say you know what i had a bad attitude forgive me for that and we move forward as a family and we love one another it's about forgiveness i really do believe, lest i really do believe something crazy is going to happen in our nation and people are going to start running to the church and when they get here guess who they're going to encounter you and because you've allowed god to minister to your heart they will experience the love of god through your life they won't experience bitterness or resentment or anger or attitudinal display but because you've accepted god's grace and you walk in that grace you've decided to let it go and give it to the lord that's what he wants to do so look at your neighbor say neighbor nobody else comes to live rent-free in my head say neighbor with the power of the spirit of god i choose this day to forgive anyone who i haven't ought against and i ask god's forgiveness as well in jesus name amen