Hope Worth Having

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Motives for Forgiveness Part 1. He will be reading out of Philemon 1:19-21.

It is Jesus who took our place. We should have been on that cross and we should have endured that suffering and the wrath of God should have been poured out upon us, but Jesus took our place and he did it, why? Because he loves you, because he wants to reach you. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and we are broadcasting the gospel around the world and we are grateful that you are with us in sharing these wonderful truths.

Join us as we are in the Book of Philemon today and we are going to study the motives for forgiveness, a very powerful truth. Join me as we study together. Your Bible this morning, I want you to join me in the Book of Philemon.

Several weeks ago, our church began a study in this very small book, often referred to as a letter. And I know it’s sometimes hard to maybe find a certain book in the Bible, and so just to help you out, it’s in the New Testament and it’s right before the Book of Hebrews. If you go to the back of your Bible, kind of just track backwards and you’ll see Philemon right before Hebrews and you’ll be able to follow along with us today.

Philemon chapter one and verse 19 through 21. The Bible says, I, Paul, am writing with my own hand. I will repay, not to mention to you that you owe me even your own self besides.

Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord. Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you knowing that you will do even more than I say.

The church at its core is meant to be a community that is united in faith, purpose, and love. Yet amidst diverse preferences and personalities and backgrounds, achieving true unity in the church can feel like an uphill battle. Many times there are divisions, disagreements, and these things are sometimes inevitable, but they can threaten the very fabric of a church family.

So how do we navigate the complexities and cultivate a sense of unity within the church family? There is one key word and it is the theme of this book. It is the word forgiveness. I want you to remember that the book of Philemon is about forgiveness and we have been learning about forgiveness, what that is, what it’s not, why is it that some people forgive and others don’t, and why is it so difficult for us to forgive? Well, I wanna talk today about the motives for forgiveness.

As the apostle is writing this letter, it is one of the shortest letters or books in the Bible, and the letter is suggesting that the apostle is writing it from being in prison or in chains, and he is trying to help Onesimus to understand his responsibility to be able to seek forgiveness from Philemon. And not only is he appealing to Onesimus to be a person who would own up to his sin, but to be willing to have Philemon come to that moment where he is willing to forgive Onesimus. Onesimus is a slave.

In the Roman culture, as we have mentioned to you many times, slavery was pretty much a part of the culture. And I will address the issue of slavery and I will teach on that later, but I want you to just put that aside but understand the context of this letter, that as Onesimus was a slave, he had taken some money and property from Philemon and he ran away. Philemon is upset.

He is frustrated. Onesimus, the runaway slave who had stolen money and property, runs into the apostle. Most likely, he got in trouble himself and was thrown into jail right next to the apostle Paul.

Why was Paul in prison? Well, it was because he was preaching and teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so those who were hearing the apostle were upset that he was teaching the gospel, so they threw him into jail. Wherever the apostle went, it was either a great revival or there was a great riot.

And unfortunately, many times, people were upset at the apostle for teaching the truth of Jesus Christ. So Onesimus and the apostle have met together and what does the apostle do? Rather than whining, complaining, and crying about his circumstances under the sovereign hand of God, Onesimus is encountering the apostle who is bold, who is grateful, who is full of joy, and who is ready to share Christ with this individual named Onesimus. And so in the process of sharing Christ with him in perhaps a very difficult circumstance, Onesimus responds to the gospel.

He receives Jesus Christ as his savior. He repents of his sin and he turns away from the world and turns towards Christ and becomes a devoted follower. In this process, the apostle is discipling Onesimus and he learns about the fact that Onesimus had stolen property and money from Philemon.

And so the apostle is saying, hey, part of the evidence of your repentance, part of the fruit of your true salvation is that you need to make it right with Philemon. And of course, Onesimus is like, there’s no way. He will probably have me killed or I will have to endure so much suffering if I ever went back.

So the apostle begins to write under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, this letter, this book, if you will, to Philemon. And he begins to make the case to Philemon that he should forgive Onesimus. Onesimus is a believer now.

He is a follower of Christ. And what the apostle wants Philemon to do is to forgive Onesimus. In this, we learn some great principles about forgiveness.

We learn how you and I, in all of our relationships, need to practice forgiveness. Now, refusing to forgive in your life will only imprison you. And when you choose that you will not forgive, you will be stuck in your past.

And unforgiving people are always keeping their pain alive. And therefore, they are, as we have often heard, they are hurting people who are hurting people. And you sometimes wonder, what’s the matter with that person? What is it that makes them such a divisive person, a hateful person, a person who wants to hurt so many other people? What is it that causes them to throw nuclear bombs into our family and our relationships? I guarantee you it is because there are some unaddressed issues in their life, and they are holding on to some things in their heart that they have never got to the point where they have been able to forgive people in their life.

Choosing not to forgive is like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies. But the truth is, within you, you are slowly and surely dying. So as we’ve been learning about forgiveness, we talked about the steps of forgiveness.

Today, I wanna talk to you about the motivation for forgiveness. And I want you to follow along with me, take notes, because I know you don’t need it, but you have a friend that needs it, amen? And so make sure you tell your friend. And in the process of telling your friend, you may pick up a few things that will be a blessing to you.

But the first reason that we should be a forgiving people is because we have an unpayable debt. Now, I want you to jump back with me to verse 19. And I want you to see the apostle says, I’m writing with my own hand.

Now, why would the apostle say that? Many times, because of some of his physical challenges that he had, he had a lot of ailments with his eyes, and he talks about that in Galatians and the book of Colossians a little bit. But he would dictate his letters. And so there were those that would write that.

But how passionate is the apostle about this? He is letting Philemon know, I am writing this with my own hand. You can trust what I’m saying, Philemon. I will repay.

Not to mention to you that you owe me even your own self besides. The apostle is introducing something that Philemon already understands. And that is that the apostle was saying, I will cover all that Philemon owes you.

Onesimus was unable to repay Philemon. He could not pay him back. He did not have the means.

He did not have the ability to pay him back. And so when you jump back to verse 18, look at verse 18 again, he says, if he has wronged you or owes you anything, the apostle says, put that on my account. I will repay.

I’ll repay you. So he is, the apostle is taking responsibility for the debt that he owes, meaning not that the apostle owes, but what Onesimus owes to Philemon. Why would the apostle use these kind of terminologies? Because that’s what forgiveness is.

It is a debt that we owe, meaning this, we offend somebody, we hurt somebody, we disappoint somebody, and we are in a sense indebted to them. And that’s what the Bible teaches us when we learn the Lord’s Prayer. We are taught to ask the Lord to forgive us of our debts as we forgive those who are indebted to us, reminding us always that you cannot give what you do not have.

If you are not consistently and constantly in prayer with the Lord under the fountain, receiving his forgiveness because of the debt that you owe to God, you will never be in a position to be able to be a forgiving person to others because you cannot give what you do not have. And if your forgiveness tank is low, then you need to get back to the Lord and recognize that you have an unpayable debt, just like Onesimus had an unpayable debt. He could never repay Philemon.

So the apostle Paul steps in in a huge way, and he says, charge that to my account. And he says, I want you to know that I will repay you, Philemon. And this is so true in each of our hearts.

And I want you to think a little bit deeper about forgiveness, because most of us, the reason that we do not forgive is because it’s based upon our emotions, it’s based upon our feelings. We’ve never engaged the mind in relating to learning how to forgive. We have this emotion, we have this feeling in our heart, and so we throw up the walls, and we begin to let that bitterness take root in our heart and to poison us, destroy us.

But here the apostle teaches us that we need to think about this deeper. And we need to understand that when it comes to our relationship with God Almighty, that we are separated from God because of our sin. And we have a sentence upon us because of our sin, and that there isn’t any person who is under the sound of my voice that is worthy of God forgiving them.

There is no person on this planet that can say, hey, I am such a great person, it’s no wonder that God would forgive me. Because the Bible teaches us very clearly that our righteousness is as filthy rags. That means simply this, that the best of Mike Sanders and the best of you is nothing more than a filthy rag in the presence of God.

Now, you say, there’s no way, I’m so much better. Here’s the thing, you’re trying to compare your righteousness, your goodness, your acts of benevolence to the other acts of benevolence or righteousness. You’re comparing people with people.

And you look around and you say, hey, I’m better than that person, and I know where they were, and I know what they do, and I know how they talk, and therefore you begin to pound your chest, and you’re like the man that Jesus talked about who went to the temple, and he was at the altar of God, and he looked up to heaven, and he looked across the altar, and he said, God, I’m glad I’m not like that person over there, and he began to brag about all that he did for God. He tithed, he helped the poor, he was engaged and active in the temple, but there was another guy across the altar who was on his knees, and he was so humbled and humiliated by his sins, he wouldn’t even look up to God. And he was praying for God to forgive him, and here’s what Jesus said, and this is what rocked the world of the Pharisees.

He said, the man on his knees was more justified than the man standing bragging about how good he is before God. And what I want you to recognize at the heart of your motivation of forgiving others is the forgiveness that you have received from Jesus Christ. You have a debt, all of us do, I’m not just pointing fingers, all of us have a debt of sin that could never be repaid by ourselves.

There isn’t enough goodness in your life, and there isn’t enough activity in your life that could ever forgive your sins before a holy and righteous God. It is Jesus who stood up for us. It is Jesus who stood in for us.

It is Jesus who took our place. We should have been on that cross, and we should have endured that suffering, and the wrath of God should have been poured out upon us, but Jesus took our place, and he did it, why? Because he loves you, because he wants to reach you. What kind of love, if people doubt that God loves them, I tell them, get to the cross, because when you get to the cross, you see not only the holiness of God, but you see the love of God that he has, and the passion that he would give his very Son for you and for me, so that our sins could be forgiven.

The Bible says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Jesus took on the debt of sinners, and he paid it full on the cross. Think about that.

You see, that’s why I’m a big believer that once God forgives you of your sins, that he has taken care of the full debt. I don’t believe that I can come in and help God with the debt. I don’t believe that I can add and do anything better with the debt.

I believe that Christ’s payment for my sin was more than sufficient on the cross. And my motivation for holiness is not that I’m trying to pay back Jesus. My motivation for holiness is not that I’m trying to forever pay back God for my sins, but my motivation is an expression of gratitude to Jesus, and a gratitude to God that my sins have been washed away.

And the Bible says that my sins are cast as far as the east is from the west to be remembered no more. Psalm 103, verse 12, as far as the east is from the west. Can God’s people say amen? Amen.

So we are thankful today that Jesus triumphed over death, he triumphed over sin, he triumphed over Satan, and he reached out to me for salvation. And so my life is not a life of trying to pay back. That debt has been paid by Jesus Christ.

Now this is profound because we must realize how fully we have been freed from our sin. We must realize how much God has done for us to wipe away the guilt and to shake off the shame and to leave behind all the negativity and the sinfulness in our life. And now God has given us a brand new start in Christ.

And when you come to grips with that, that you have a debt that could never be paid apart from Jesus Christ, that becomes a motivation in your heart to forgive other people. Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer, and forgive us of our debts as we forgive our debtors. Now the motive for forgiving sin is in the heart of God for who he is.

And he forgives us not because any of us deserve it or that somehow we earned it, but he forgives us because he loves us. Now, here we are. And we are very much like the story that Jesus told.

And he told about a man who was indebted to a king and this king demanded that he pay his debts. And the man went before the king, pleaded for forgiveness, asked for grace and asked him that he would forgive him of his debt. And the king generously, kindly, compassionately forgave this man of his debt.

And then the man went out and he began to demand all the people that were indebted to him to pay up. And he was harsh, he was hateful, he was rude, and he refused to forgive anybody’s debt as people could not pay their debt to him. The word got to the king and the king was furious because this man had received so much, but gave so little.

This man had received so much forgiveness in that his debt, which was greater than all that people owed him. And he was forgiven of that debt and his slate was wiped clean. And now he had a new start with the king, but he refused to do it to others.

He refused to show forgiveness to others. Hear me, my friends, the king was angry and had this man thrown into prison because he would not show the kindness and the grace that the king had bestowed upon him. I need you to think deeper than your emotions about forgiveness.

I need you to understand that when a debt is incurred, that we must remember when we are offended, when we are hurt, when we are disappointed, that we have a responsibility because of what we have received. That for two reasons of what we have received, we have received this forgiveness and therefore we have a responsibility to forgive others. And that when we choose to withhold that forgiveness, we are reflecting something that is untrue of our God.

When you choose not to forgive, you are shaming the name of Jesus Christ who forgave you so much. You are now letting everybody know in your relationships and in your life that your God is not a forgiving God and that your God works on the basis of works and that you must earn your forgiveness with God. When you know in your heart that God has generously paid your debt, he has wiped it away, he has given you a brand new start, but yet what you’re projecting in all of your relationships, if you don’t live a perfect life, then I will have a bitter spirit towards you forever and ever.

So our motive for forgiving others, it goes deeper than our feelings. We recognize that we have an unpayable debt. We recognize that people have an unpayable debt to us.

There are times that people will hurt you, even in the family of God. There are times within the people of God that we are so deeply offended and hurt. Let me just give you a newsflash.

Sometimes the people that are closest to you will hurt you the most. And the reason that they hurt so much and it’s the most is because you trust so much. Your heart is so open to fellow believers.

And when that has been mishandled and when that has been hurt, the wound is deep. The psalmist talked about those who had betrayed him, that they even sat and ate bread with him. Those you’ve invited to your homes, those you’ve been to their homes, those you’ve opened your home to and you’ve sat down and you’ve fellowshiped with them and you have eaten with them, many times can hurt you the deepest because of your trust and because of your love and because of the openness of your heart.

But yet you still have this responsibility to recognize that even though they could never repay the debt of the hurt that they have placed upon you, that in comparison to what God has done for you, in comparison to how much God has loved you, who are you to be out there ranting and raving and claiming your unwillingness to forgive anybody? It really strikes at the heart of your theology. It strikes at the heart of what you believe about your relationship with God. Now, some of you may have grown up in a relationship where the only way you were appreciated or that you were praised or you were acknowledged or encouraged was based upon performance.

It was based upon what you did. But I want you to know that the Bible teaches us in the relationship because of Christ, in our relationship with God, because of Christ, we are accepted in the beloved. Even if we’ve made a mess of our life, even if we have made some bad choices in our life, we are accepted in the beloved.

And you say, how can that be, my friends? That’s what Christ did on the cross. He took the pure wrath of God, the punishment of sin for you and for me right there on that cross so that God could receive you, He could accept you, and you would be in the family of God and have a brand new start in Jesus Christ. My second motivation for forgiving others is to make sure that I understand that it’s benefiting me and it’s benefiting others.

Let’s look at verse 20. Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord.

The apostle is appealing to Philemon to be forgiving to Onesimus for the purpose of benefiting or blessing not only Paul, certainly Onesimus, but Philemon himself. We taught you at the beginning of this series on forgiveness from the book of Philemon that Onesimus is a word that means to benefit or to be useful. So when the apostle, again, uses this word here in verse 20 and he says, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord and refresh in my heart, he is saying to him, I want you to live up to your name.

I want you to live up to who you are and your character. How did the apostle know his character? Go back to verse seven of Philemon. Again, there it is.

We have great joy, consolation, or encouragement in your love because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother. The apostle Paul makes his appeal to Philemon on behalf of Onesimus and he is calling him to forgive Onesimus and the motive to forgive is not that Onesimus deserves it or that somehow there’ll be a special reward for Philemon, but rather our motivation to forgive others is rooted in that Christ has forgiven us. If we are unworthy of his forgiveness and yet God still forgave us, how much more should we forgive others? For we have offended God more than anyone has ever offended us.

Let us cry out to God that he would grant us hearts that are motivated to forgive and that we understand the true reason behind forgiveness and I pray that you’ll be blessed and excited as you are growing in your faith. We encourage you to reach out to us and let us know how God is working in your life. Go to hopeworthhaving.com, hit the contact button, let us know what station you’re listening and let us know how God is working in your life.

Let us know that God is doing something special. We are blessed and encouraged by these emails. So I hope you’ll reach out to us.

This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.

The post The Motives for Forgiveness Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Characteristics of a The Steps of Forgiveness Part 2. He will be reading out of Philemon 1:8-18.

Because God has forgiven you, that I must forgive others. And the options and the alternatives of not forgiving are destructive to my own self and my own family. And therefore I must learn as hard as it is to move forward in my faith and to forgive.

Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders. This is Hope Worth Having radio program. And I am glad to be able to share with you the word of God this morning.

And I pray that God will work effectively in your life. Join us as we look at the book of Philemon. And we’re gonna continue our study in the steps of forgiveness.

The book of Philemon is found in the New Testament. And I want you to join me as we study together. Being maybe a prisoner, like the apostle was a prisoner for preaching the gospel, for teaching the word of God.

And now the apostle led him to Christ. And the apostle says, I want you to go back and make things right with Philemon. The apostle is asking Philemon to receive him, to receive him back in to the fellowship.

Now the apostle is not trying to get Philemon to perform the correct action on the outside. But he’s trying to awaken Philemon’s heart to understand what a good relationship is that is rooted in biblical love. Look at verse eight.

Therefore, though I might be very bold in Christ to command you what is fitting, yet for love’s sake, I rather appeal to you. The apostle is asking Philemon to receive him back because of this great love that we’re to have. And he is making the case to him that Philemon, listen, Onesimus is a different person.

He’s not that same person who took some of your money, who took some of your property. He’s not that same person. He’s had an encounter in which he has received the Lord Jesus Christ as his savior.

Why is it that the apostle should receive Onesimus first because of repentance? He says in verse 10, I appeal to you for my son, Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains. To Paul, Onesimus was a son in the faith. He came to Christ while Paul was a prisoner at Rome.

Paul personally led him to Jesus Christ. And therefore he is saying because he has been willing to repent of his sins because he acknowledges them. The key principle for us as we are receiving others back into our life who maybe have hurt us, disappointed us, let us down is that when they take that step of repentance, we as brothers and sisters in Christ, as spouses, as parents, as children, we have this responsibility to recognize that God can change a heart.

It’s easy to hold the past over someone, but when someone truly repents, that is repentance is turning away from your sin and turning towards Christ, we have that responsibility. And I know what you’re saying to me, this is very hard for me, pastor, but I want you to put your confidence and your trust in Jesus Christ. Now, the second reason is not only that he should receive him, but because of the transformation.

By Lehman, truly was changed. The very fact that he would show up back into the church was proof that Onesimus had changed. Look at verse 11.

He says, who was once, meaning Onesimus was once unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me. The word Onesimus means useful. And really the apostle was making a play on words here because this word translated unprofitable and profitable could be useless and useful.

Some translations of the Bible use those very words. In essence, what Paul is saying to them is that Onesimus, useful. Useful was formerly useless, but now useful is useful.

God had his hand on Onesimus and he had a plan and he was calling him to be in a relationship with God. And once he made things right with God, now Paul says, you’re on this journey of making things right with others that you have hurt. Those you have taken advantage of, those you have let down, you have this responsibility.

And Paul’s point to Philemon is that Onesimus has been radically transformed by the grace of God. You and I should never look down upon the transforming power of the grace of God. That we should always make that effort.

Look at verse 17. If then you count me as a partner, receive him as you would me. The second step of forgiveness is restoration.

We come down to verse 15 and he says, perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose. That you might receive him forever. Paul is trying to say, look, God is at work even in our hurts.

God is at work even in our disappointments. When people have let us down, God is using that for a purpose. And maybe that God allowed all this to unfold with Onesimus so that A, Onesimus would come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Your troubles are not without purpose. Your pain is within the scope of a sovereign God who has a plan. We are reminded of that great passage of scripture in Genesis about Joseph.

You know the story so well, how he was betrayed by his own brothers, how he was forgotten in prison, how he was falsely accused and stories and lies were made up about him. He was thrown into prison. He was finally elevated by God because in his heart, he never let it destroy him.

And his brothers came because they were in need. And he said to them, but as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about as it is this day to save many people alive. It’s not that God causes our pain.

It’s not that God causes our horrible experiences and our tragedies and abuses that we might experience. But I want you to remember that even in all those circumstances, God can turn it around for his good. He can turn it around for his glory.

He can create restoration in our hearts. We’ve been talking a lot these last few weeks about why should I forgive? Because a lot of people aren’t motivated to forgive. And I told you last week, your motivation to forgive begins with the cross.

Jesus forgave you. You and I have offended Christ. We have sinned against God for all have sinned to come short of the glory of God.

And because Christ gave his life and put no strings upon it, and he gave his life for us and he went to the cross and bore our sins and he took our punishment. And that if we’ll just simply repent of our sins and believe in Jesus Christ, the Bible tells us that we can have eternal life. Our sins can be washed away and we can experience the genuine forgiveness of God.

But let me tell you two other reasons why you should forgive. Number one, to be set free from your past. You see Philemon was a Christian man who had been wronged and God was calling him to put it all behind him, forgive and move forward.

The apostle put it like this, forgetting those things which are behind. Some of you are still stuck in your hurts, your griefs, your grudges. You’re still stuck and you can’t seem to move forward in your faith and you can’t seem to get to the next level in your maturity.

And I’ll tell you why, because you’re looking back. Wherever you are looking is where you’re going. That’s not only true physically, but it is true spiritually.

You say, but pastor, you don’t understand. And here’s my long list. I get it.

And we all got our list. And I know that some are worse than others, but here’s my point. What are your options? You wanna continue to deteriorate spiritually? Do you wanna continue to go in a direction that you are not only personally struggling and limiting your spiritual life, but as well as others? You see, you have to make a choice because forgiveness is not a feeling that you float into.

It is a choice that you make. Again, the apostle says in verse 14, without your consent, I wanted to do nothing that your good deed might not be by compulsion as it were, but voluntary. And let me tell you something about choosing to forgive.

You don’t just choose once and then it’s done. Every time those emotions come back, every time that memory floods your mind, every time that you encounter that person, you have to make a choice by the power of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of the word of God, choosing to forgive that person and moving forward in your life. What is the alternative? Bitterness, anger, hate? You see, carrying around unforgiveness is like carrying a sack of cement all day long.

If you hold unforgiveness in your heart, you are walking around with a weight that God never intended for you to carry. Why should I forgive? I would say also to avoid bitterness. You see, the price of refusing to forgive is high.

Unforgiveness produces hatred, bitterness and anger in your heart. The Hebrew writer said this, see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble and by it, many become defiled. There’s a lot to unpack in this verse, but did you know, he says, make sure no one fails to obtain the grace of God.

You wanna put a lid on the grace of God flowing in your life? Be bitter, be angry. He also says that the root of bitterness, you see, bitterness is something that can take root in your mind and your heart. And once it takes root into your heart and mind, it is hard to get it out.

It’s like those weeds in your garden, in your lawn, those beautiful dandelions that have been popping up lately. Have you noticed those? I’ve come to say, I like dandelions. I can’t keep up with them, but you gotta go in there and root them out.

Notice what he says, many become defiled. You see, it’s not just you. When you’re a bitter person, you’re impacting your children.

You’re impacting your family, your grandchildren. You’re impacting your church family. When you become bitter, it’s contagious and it just begins to spread like wildfire and many become defiled all around you.

As a matter of fact, some people will start saying, hey, I don’t wanna be around that person because all they do is vomit bitterness every time I talk to them. So it’s something we want to avoid. And the antidote to bitterness is forgiveness.

Now let’s talk about restitution, my final point. I told you it’s gonna be short. Verse 17 and 18, these are the steps, not only that the one who is offended has to take, but the one who has done the offending.

If then, verse 17, you count me as a partner, the apostle is saying, receive him as you would me, but if he has wronged you or owes you anything, put that on my account. Restitution is taught in the Old Testament, New Testament. If you and I have ever found ourselves offending someone, we have a responsibility to make it right and to create that opportunity of restitution.

Sometimes that restitution is something physical, tangible, perhaps even financial. Maybe you destroyed somebody’s property accidentally or purposely, I don’t know, but you have a responsibility to not only apologize for it, but to restore it to do restitution. Paul was offering to step up in a big way.

Onesimus, who had a troubled life, found himself in prison again. He had probably been stealing. He had probably been a thief.

He had probably done many things that led him to be in prison. But then he encounters the apostle. The apostle shares the gospel with him and disciples him.

His life is transformed by the grace of God. And now he’s saying, look, your next level of spiritual maturity is you gotta go back and make things right. And so in this process, knowing that Onesimus maybe did not have much financial means, Paul is saying to Philemon, I’m willing to help him make it right.

Put that on my account. It’s a beautiful picture because really the apostle was following the example of Jesus Christ who reconciled sinners to him and to God. And Jesus said, put that on my account.

And friends, that’s where we have to remember is that we have been forgiven to forgive. Is there any sin that you and I have committed that was greater against God Almighty? Is there any sin that we can say, hey God, would you forgive me for all my sins? But God says, I’m only gonna forgive you for 90% of them. No, we are called to forgive one another.

We are to understand the great example of our Savior. Now, let me just conclude with these thoughts, the danger of unforgiveness. There’s a lot, but I just want to give you two because of time.

And the first danger is that if you choose not to forgive, you are giving Satan a foothold into your life. The Bible says, be angry and yet do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and do not give the devil an opportunity.

The devil would like to get a foothold in your life. He would like to destroy your life, your family’s life. He would like to break up your family.

He would like to see it all crumble. He does not want the community, the church, your family to see the effective work of God’s grace in your heart as well as your family. He wants to blow it up.

The Bible doesn’t tell us we can’t be angry because certainly there are things that we can be angry about because we are people and we are emotional, but we can’t let it lead us to sin. The question is not are you angry, but what are you doing with your anger? Are you channeling it in a godly way, in a positive way, in a biblical way that motivates you? To be a better Christian and a better follower of Christ and a better husband and a better wife and a better child or a better parent, whatever the relationship may be. Are you letting the sun go down? Are you going to bed every night filled with anger and bitterness in your heart, holding onto the past and becoming even more angry as you go through life? Are you building walls, separating yourself? That’s the danger of unforgiveness.

Another one is hindering your fellowship with God. That’s the second danger. You see, when my heart is filled with so much junk and stuff, then it limits my fellowship with God.

It limits my connection with God. It limits my opportunity to experience the presence of God in my life and the power of God in my life. It puts a lid on my prayer life.

That’s why Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer that we ought to pray, that we ought to pray that God would forgive us of our debts and that we would forgive those who are indebted to us. I mean, you can’t go long and far in life without being hurt and offended and upset, right? When our new members join our church, I always remind them, if you’re expecting to come to a perfect church, you’re at the wrong place. If you’re expecting a perfect pastor, staff, elders, deacons, and those who have served here, then you’re at the wrong place because somewhere down this journey, we will offend you.

Some of it is most likely unintentionally, but you’re gonna get upset. You’re gonna get upset. And the question is, how are you going to let that affect your fellowship with God? Now, people say, pastor, it’s just so hard.

I get it. It’s a process. It’s steps.

It’s a journey. And you keep moving forward. And I think the reason some people have a hard time to forgive, and I want you to hear me because this is so important to your steps to forgiveness, is that they confuse forgiveness with trust.

And that is, yes, there are people who are abusive. There are people who have done said things that it’s just hard to forgive. I’m not asking you to trust them again.

I would never, if a young lady came to me and said she’s in an abusive relationship, my first goal is to get her out. I wanna protect her. If there’s any children, I wanna protect the children.

I would never say go back into that abusive relationship and continue the abuse. I would never say that, but I would wanna counsel them both. And I would want to lead her, no matter what the relationship ends up being, is for her to learn to forgive.

But I would say to her, it doesn’t mean you have to trust. And if you could learn that, that because God has forgiven you, that I must forgive others. And the options and the alternatives of not forgiving are destructive to my own self and my own family.

And therefore I must learn as hard as it is to move forward in my faith and to forgive. But it’s okay. There’s nothing in the Bible I’ve been looking that says trust is earned and forgiveness is a gift.

And we see this over and over again. And I’ll give you a quick example and then we’ll close. Is that if I came to you and I said, hey, I’d like for you to loan me $500.

Could you loan me $500? I mean, there’s this great opportunity for me to go golfing in Myrtle Beach. And if I could just get that $500, I’m just 500 short. I know you gotta have more than 500 to go down there.

But, and you said, all right, I’ll give the pastor $500. And you said to me, pay me back in a year, Mike. I said, gotcha.

A year passes, I haven’t paid you. You’ve been texting me like crazy. You’ve been calling, I don’t answer your calls.

You finally sent a certified letter and say, hello, you owe me $500. And I begrudgingly tell you that I can’t do it. I can’t give you the 500.

You’re tired of messing with it. So you say, you know what, pastor, I’m just gonna forgive you of that debt. I’m gonna say, thank you so much.

Oh, by the way, there’s another trip to Myrtle Beach. And I was just wondering if you’d loan me another 500. You see, you can forgive me for the past, but you don’t have to necessarily trust me for the future.

And that would help you because it would help you be spiritually healthy and it would help you to take positive steps. And if I would come down later in our relationship and our friendship, and I would once again, earn that trust that you could trust me again, great. But just because you forgave me, doesn’t mean you have to trust me again and slap over 500 more dollars.

So it is true in your emotional life, your spiritual life. And I wanna encourage you to remember that the apostle is not saying to Philemon, put him in charge of all your money again, put him in charge of your household again. He’s just saying, receive him as a brother in Christ and forgive him so he can continue to make things right with others.

Just as God through Christ has forgiven you. Would you pray with me? Our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed. And at the Open Door Church, we always feel like this moment is the most critical and important because it’s our response to the gospel.

It’s our response to the word. In these few short moments, while our heads are bowed and eyes are closed, if you’re here this morning and there’s someone you need to forgive, would you make a commitment in your heart to start down that journey of forgiveness? If there’s someone you need to make things right with, you have hurt, you have let down. Maybe things will never be quite the same as it once was, but you failed.

And maybe you need to make that call, that email or that text. You need to reach out to them and start that journey of restitution. Would you commit right now in your heart to take those steps? What’s so ironic about forgiveness is you can’t give what you don’t have.

And if you’re a person who has never received the forgiveness of Christ, we invite you this morning to acknowledge that you’re a sinner in need of a Savior and to recognize that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins. Out of great love, He is offering salvation, eternal life and forgiveness. But you’ve got to have that courage and you’ve got to take that step and say, Lord, I acknowledge it because you can’t change what you won’t acknowledge.

And Lord, I ask you to forgive me of my sins. You got to believe that He went to that cross for you. You got to call on Him in your heart for it is with the heart man believes unto righteousness.

And whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. I pray that this will be the beginning of a new journey for you. And like Onesimus, you would receive the gospel, receive the forgiveness of God, that you would look to the cross and see the incredible love that Jesus has for you and that you would turn your heart towards Him.

Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you for the powerful principles of forgiveness and your word. And we just ask God that you will effectively work within us because we understand Lord that life can be messy and relationships are difficult.

But we’re praying for your grace and your forgiveness. And we’re asking Lord that you would grant us the wisdom the courage, the power to come to you and make things right and to go to others. We pray Father that we would be a channel of your forgiveness in our hearts to others.

We know it’s hard and we know people have been in some very hard situations, but I pray that you would just wash them with your mercy, uphold them with your loving kindness, that you would embrace them with your grace and that they can move forward for your glory and for their good. And we pray all this in the precious name of Jesus Christ. The gospel can not only change our broken relationship with God, but it changes and heals our broken relationships with one another.

That’s the power of the gospel. And that’s what the Apostle Paul’s appeal is as he is inviting us to be able to practice forgiveness. Forgiveness is not something that you feel.

You never wake up saying, I feel like forgiving today. But forgiveness is a choice you make based upon the truths and promises of God. And sometimes we take steps and choose what is right, even though we don’t feel it.

Some of you are waiting for that feeling. It’s never going to come until you first choose the path and the steps of forgiveness. May God bless you and grant you the gift and the blessing and ability to have a forgiving heart.

I want you to know that in order for us to nurture this forgiving heart, we have some daily devotions. And you can sign up for Pastor Mike’s daily devotion to come right to your email box. Go to hopeworthhaving.com and just sign up for the devotions.

Click the devotion button and you can sign up for a daily inspirational lesson on how to stay close to Christ and to grow in your faith. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.

The post The Steps of Forgiveness Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Characteristics of a The Steps of Forgiveness Part 1. He will be reading out of Philemon 1:8-18.

Even in our hurts, God is at work. Even in our disappointments, when people have let us down, God is using that for a purpose. And maybe that God allowed all this to unfold with Onesimus so that, A, Onesimus would come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders from The Open Door Church, and we’re excited to be able to share God’s Word with you today. And thankful for the opportunity to open the Bible up. Thank you for tuning in.

And we’re continuing our study on forgiveness in the book of Philemon, and we’re going to learn about the steps of forgiveness. So join me as we study together. I want you to take your Bible this morning to Philemon.

Now, Philemon’s a tough little book in the Bible. It’s tucked in there. It’s hard to find it.

It’s in the New Testament. It’s right before the book of Hebrews. If you go to the book of Revelation and kind of just back up, you’ll run into Philemon.

Be careful, because if you’re like me, sometimes my pages get stuck, and there I am. I missed over Philemon. Last week, our church family started a new study on forgiveness.

The book of Philemon is a book about forgiveness. This morning, I want to talk to you about the steps of forgiveness. I won’t be able to drill down deep, but I want to give you some guidelines that will help us as we’re working towards forgiveness.

There are no enduring relationships without forgiveness. There’s no way that you can be a part of an organization, an institution, or even a relationship with your spouse, your church, your family, without forgiveness. If you haven’t noticed, people are flawed.

If you haven’t noticed, we sometimes fail each other. Sometimes we’re not all that we should be. And so this idea, this thought, this principle of forgiveness is something that is essential to our spiritual health.

When we come to Philemon, we know that it is an overview of a letter that was written to the man named Philemon. He was a slave owner. I told the church that I will address that issue.

I won’t be able to today. It would be just too complicated, but I want you at least to understand its context. Onesimus escaped.

He ran away. In part of his leaving, he was most likely in charge of finances. He had some responsibility of taking care of the estate and the home and the house.

But Onesimus had taken some finances. He had taken some property, and Philemon was very upset with him. And so the apostle Paul writes this letter to Philemon and saying, hey, look, I want you to forgive him.

And he lays out for us some steps that help us in our relationships with one another to help us to achieve that beautiful picture of forgiveness, not only in that we have with each other, but with the forgiveness we have received from our Lord Jesus Christ. And the first principle is that he teaches is called reception. I want you to pick up with me in verse 8 and notice that the Scripture says, Therefore, though I might be very bold in Christ to command you what is fitting, yet for love’s sake I rather appeal to you, being such a one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ, I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains, who once was unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me.

I’m sending him back. You therefore receive him that is my own heart, whom I wish to keep with me, that on your behalf he might minister to me in my chains for the gospel, but without your consent, I wanted to do nothing that your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary. Again in verse 17 he says, If you then count me as a partner, receive him as you would me.

Onesimus had an encounter with the apostle. Most likely somehow he ended up being maybe a prisoner like the apostle was a prisoner for preaching the gospel, for teaching the word of God. And now the apostle led him to Christ.

And the apostle says, I want you to go back and make things right with Philemon. The apostle is asking Philemon to receive him, to receive him back into the fellowship. Now the apostle is not trying to get Philemon to perform the correct action on the outside, but he’s trying to awaken Philemon’s heart to understand what a good relationship is that is rooted in biblical love.

Look at verse 8. Therefore, though I might be very bold in Christ to command you, what is fitting, yet for love’s sake, I rather appeal to you. The apostle is asking Philemon to receive him back because of this great love that we’re to have. And he is making the case to him that Philemon, listen, Onesimus is a different person.

He’s not that same person who took some of your money, who took some of your property. He’s not that same person. He’s had an encounter in which he has received the Lord Jesus Christ as his savior.

Why is it that the apostle should receive Onesimus? First, because of repentance. He says in verse 10, I appeal to you for my son, Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains. To Paul, Onesimus was a son in the faith.

He came to Christ while Paul was a prisoner at Rome. Paul personally led him to Jesus Christ, and therefore he is saying because he has been willing to repent of his sins, because he acknowledges them, the key principle for us as we are receiving others back into our life who maybe have hurt us, disappointed us, let us down, is that when they take that step of repentance, we as brothers and sisters in Christ, as spouses, as parents, as children, we have this responsibility to recognize that God can change a heart. It’s easy to hold the past over someone, but when someone truly repents, that is repentance is turning away from your sin and turning towards Christ, we have that responsibility.

And I know what you’re saying to me. This is very hard for me, pastor. But I want you to put your confidence and your trust in Jesus Christ.

Now, the second reason is not only that he should receive him, but because of the transformation. Bileamon truly was changed. The very fact that he would show up back into the church was proof that Onesimus had changed.

Look at verse 11. He says, who was once, meaning Onesimus was once unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me. The word Onesimus means useful.

And really, the apostle is making a play on words here because this word translated unprofitable and profitable could be useless and useful. Some translations of the Bible use those very words. In essence, what Paul is saying to them is that Onesimus, useful, useful was formerly useless, but now useful is useful.

God had his hand on Onesimus and he had a plan and he was calling him to be in a relationship with God. And once he made things right with God, now Paul says you’re on this journey of making things right with others that you have hurt, those you have taken advantage of, those you have let down. You have this responsibility.

And Paul’s point to Philemon is that Onesimus has been radically transformed by the grace of God. You and I should never look down upon the transforming power of the grace of God, that we should always make that effort. Look at verse 17.

If then you count me as a partner, receive him as you would me. The second step of forgiveness is restoration. We come down to verse 15 and he says, perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him forever.

Paul is trying to say, look, God is at work even in our hurts. God is at work even in our disappointments. When people have let us down, God is using that for a purpose and maybe that God allowed all this to unfold with Onesimus so that A, Onesimus would come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Your troubles are not without purpose. Your pain is within the scope of a sovereign God who has a plan. We are reminded of that great passage of Scripture in Genesis about Joseph.

You know the story so well, how he was betrayed by his own brothers, how he was forgotten in prison, how he was falsely accused and stories and lies were made up about him. He was thrown into prison. He was finally elevated by God because in his heart, he never let it destroy him.

And his brothers came because they were in need. And he said to them, but as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about as it is this day to save many people alive. It’s not that God causes our pain.

It’s not that God causes our horrible experiences and our tragedies and abuses that we might experience, but I want you to remember that even in all those circumstances, God can turn it around for his good. He can turn it around for his glory. He can create restoration in our hearts.

We’ve been talking a lot these last few weeks about why should I forgive? Because a lot of people aren’t motivated to forgive. And I told you last week, your motivation to forgive begins with the cross. Jesus forgave you.

You and I have offended Christ. We have sinned against God. For all have sinned to come short of the glory of God.

And because Christ gave his life and put no strings upon it, and he gave his life for us, and he went to the cross and bore our sins, and he took our punishment, and that if we’ll just simply repent of our sins and believe in Jesus Christ, the Bible tells us that we can have eternal life. Our sins can be washed away and we can experience the genuine forgiveness of God. But let me tell you two other reasons why you should forgive.

Number one, to be set free from your past. You see, Philemon was a Christian man who had been wronged, and God was calling him to put it all behind him, forgive and move forward. The apostle put it like this, forgetting those things which are behind.

Some of you are still stuck in your hurts, your griefs, your grudges. You’re still stuck and you can’t seem to move forward in your faith and you can’t seem to get to the next level in your maturity, and I’ll tell you why, because you’re looking back. Wherever you are looking is where you’re going.

That’s not only true physically, but it is true spiritually. You say, but pastor, you don’t understand, and here’s my long list. I get it, and we all got our list, and I know that some are worse than others, but here’s my point.

What are your options? You wanna continue to deteriorate spiritually? Do you wanna continue to go in a direction that you are not only personally struggling and limiting your spiritual life, but as well as others? You see, you have to make a choice because forgiveness is not a feeling that you float into. It is a choice that you make. Again, the apostle says in verse 14, without your consent, I wanted to do nothing that your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary.

Let me tell you something about choosing to forgive. You don’t just choose once, and then it’s done. Every time those emotions come back, every time that memory floods your mind, every time that you encounter that person, you have to make a choice by the power of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of the word of God, choosing to forgive that person and moving forward in your life.

What is the alternative? Bitterness, anger, hate? You see, carrying around unforgiveness is like carrying a sack of cement all day long. If you hold unforgiveness in your heart, you are walking around with a weight that God never intended for you to carry. Why should I forgive? I would say also to avoid bitterness.

You see, the price of refusing to forgive is high. Unforgiveness produces hatred, bitterness, and anger in your heart. The Hebrew writer said this, see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble and by it many become defiled.

There’s a lot to unpack in this verse, but did you note he says, make sure no one fails to obtain the grace of God. You wanna put a lid on the grace of God flowing in your life? Be bitter, be angry. He also says that the root of bitterness, you see, bitterness is something that can take root in your mind and your heart.

And once it takes root into your heart and mind, it is hard to get it out. It’s like those weeds in your garden, in your lawn, those beautiful dandelions that have been popping up lately. Have you noticed those? I’ve come to say I like dandelions.

I can’t keep up with them, but you gotta go in there and root them out. Notice what he says, many become defiled. You see, it’s not just you.

When you’re a bitter person, you’re impacting your children. You’re impacting your family, your grandchildren. You’re impacting your church family.

When you become bitter, it’s contagious and it just begins to spread like wildfire and many become defiled all around you. As a matter of fact, some people will start saying, hey, I don’t wanna be around that person because all they do is vomit bitterness every time I talk to them. So it’s something we want to avoid and the antidote to bitterness is forgiveness.

Now let’s talk about restitution, my final point. I told you it was gonna be short. Verse 17 and 18, these are the steps, not only that the one who is offended has to take, but the one who has done the offending.

If then, verse 17, you count me as a partner, the apostle is saying, receive him as you would me, but if he has wronged you or owes you anything, put that on my account. Restitution is taught in the Old Testament, New Testament. If you and I have ever found ourselves offending someone, we have a responsibility to make it right and to create that opportunity of restitution.

Sometimes that restitution is something physical, tangible, perhaps even financial. Maybe you destroyed somebody’s property accidentally or purposely, I don’t know, but you have a responsibility to not only apologize for it, but to restore it to do restitution. Paul was offering to step up in a big way.

Onesimus, who had a troubled life, found himself in prison again. He had probably been stealing. He had probably been a thief.

He had probably done many things that led him to be in prison. But then he encounters the apostle. The apostle shares the gospel with him and disciples him.

His life is transformed by the grace of God. And now he’s saying, look, your next level of spiritual maturity is you gotta go back and make things right. And so in this process, knowing that Onesimus maybe did not have much financial means, Paul is saying to Philemon, I’m willing to help him make it right.

Put that on my account. It’s a beautiful picture because really the apostle was following the example of Jesus Christ who reconciled sinners to him and to God. And Jesus said, put that on my account.

And friends, that’s where we have to remember is that we have been forgiven to forgive. Is there any sin that you and I have committed that was greater against God Almighty? Is there any sin that we can say, hey God, would you forgive me for all my sins? But God says, I’m only gonna forgive you for 90% of them. No, we are called to forgive one another.

We are to understand the great example of our Savior. Now, let me just conclude with these thoughts, the danger of unforgiveness. There’s a lot, but I just wanted to give you two because of time.

And the first danger is that if you choose not to forgive, you are giving Satan a foothold into your life. The Bible says, be angry and yet do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and do not give the devil an opportunity.

The devil would like to get a foothold in your life. He would like to destroy your life, your family’s life. He would like to break up your family.

He would like to see it all crumble. He does not want the community, the church, your family to see the effective work of God’s grace in your heart as well as your family. He wants to blow it up.

The Bible doesn’t tell us we can’t be angry because certainly there are things that we can be angry about because we are people and we are emotional, but we can’t let it lead us to sin. The question is not are you angry, but what are you doing with your anger? Are you channeling it in a godly way, in a positive way, in a biblical way that motivates you to be a better Christian and a better follower of Christ and a better husband and a better wife and a better child or a better parent, whatever the relationship may be? Are you letting the sun go down? Are you going to bed every night filled with anger and bitterness in your heart, holding on to the past and becoming even more angry as you go through life? Are you building walls, separating yourself? That’s the danger of unforgiveness. Another one is hindering your fellowship with God.

That’s the second danger. You see, when my heart is filled with so much junk and stuff, then it limits my fellowship with God. It limits my connection with God.

It limits my opportunity to experience the presence of God in my life and the power of God in my life. It puts a lid on my prayer life. That’s why Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer that we ought to pray, that we ought to pray that God would forgive us of our debts and that we would forgive those who are indebted to us.

I mean, you can’t go long and far in life without being hurt and offended and upset, right? When our new members join our church, I always remind them, if you’re expecting to come to a perfect church, you’re at the wrong place. If you’re expecting a perfect pastor, staff, elders, deacons, and those who have served here, then you’re at the wrong place because somewhere down this journey, we will offend you. Some of it is most likely unintentionally, but you’re gonna get upset.

You’re gonna get upset, and the question is, how are you going to let that affect your fellowship with God? Now, people say, Pastor, it’s just so hard. I get it. It’s a process.

It’s steps. It’s a journey, and you keep moving forward. And I think the reason some people have a hard time to forgive, and I want you to hear me because this is so important to your steps to forgiveness, is that they confuse forgiveness with trust, and that is, yes, there are people who are abusive.

There are people who have done said things that it’s just hard to forgive. I’m not asking you to trust them again. I would never, if a young lady came to me and said she’s in an abusive relationship, my first goal is to get her out.

I want to protect her. If there’s any children, I want to protect the children. I would never say go back into that abusive relationship and continue the abuse.

I would never say that, but I would want to counsel them both, and I would want to lead her, no matter what the relationship ends up being, is for her to learn to forgive, but I would say to her, it doesn’t mean you have to trust, and if you could learn that, that because God has forgiven you, that I must forgive others, and the options and the alternatives of not forgiving are destructive to my own self and my own family, and therefore I must learn, as hard as it is, to move forward in my faith and to forgive, but it’s okay. There’s nothing in the Bible, I’ve been looking, that says trust those. Trust is earned, and forgiveness is a gift, and we see this over and over again, and I’ll give you a quick example, and then we’ll close, is that if I came to you and I said, hey, I’d like for you to loan me $500.

Could you loan me $500? I mean, there’s this great opportunity for me to go golfing in Myrtle Beach, and if I could just get that $500. I’m just 500 short. I know you gotta have more than 500 to go down there, but, and you said, all right, I’ll give the pastor $500, and you said to me, pay me back in a year, Mike.

I said, gotcha. A year passes, I haven’t paid you. You’ve been texting me like crazy.

You’ve been calling. I don’t answer your calls. You finally sent a certified letter and say, hello.

You owe me $500, and I begrudgingly tell you that I can’t do it. I can’t give you the 500. You’re tired of messing with it, so you say, you know what, pastor, I’m just gonna forgive you of that debt.

I’m gonna say, thank you so much. Oh, by the way, there’s another trip to Myrtle Beach, and I was just wondering if you’d loan me another 500. You see, you can forgive me for the past, but you don’t have to necessarily trust me for the future, and that would help you because it would help you be spiritually healthy, and it would help you to take positive steps, and if I would come down later in our relationship and our friendship, and I would once again earn that trust that you could trust me again, great, but just because you forgave me doesn’t mean you have to trust me again and slap over 500 more dollars.

So it is true in your emotional life, your spiritual life. I wanna encourage you to remember that the apostle is not saying to Philemon, put him in charge of all your money again. Put him in charge of your household again.

He’s just saying receive him as a brother in Christ and forgive him so he can continue to make things right with others just as God through Christ has forgiven you. Would you pray with me? When we think about the steps of forgiveness, it’s critical for us to recognize forgiveness is a gift. It is not something that we require others to earn from us, and God does not require you to earn his forgiveness, but by faith you receive it, and the grace of God is extended to you.

So as you’re on this journey of forgiveness as God is teaching you to be a forgiving person, remember there are many reasons why we shouldn’t forgive, and we don’t deny that some of them are legitimate, but forgiveness is not earned. It is a gift given. As you think about your opportunity to learn more about forgiveness, make sure you check us out on our Facebook page, and in this page we have many opportunities for you to learn about principles of forgiveness.

Hope Worth Having is the name of our Facebook page. Go ahead and pull it up and like us, and be a part of following our page as we continue to give you daily inspiration to help you to be faithful in your walk with Jesus Christ. This is Pastor Mike Sanders, reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.

The post The Steps of Forgiveness Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Characteristics of a Forgiving Person Part 2. He will be reading out of Philemon 1:1-7.

True faith expresses itself in love, and not just in my love for God, but remember that Jesus taught us that the second commandment is like unto it, that you would love your neighbor as yourself. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders, and we’re excited to share God’s Word with you today all the way from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. This is Hope Worth Having.

Thank you for tuning in. We’re continuing our study on the characteristics of a forgiving person. We’re in the book of Philemon.

This is the New Testament, a very small letter that the apostle wrote, but a powerful message. So join me as we study together. Love the Lord thy God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.

This is the first and great commandment. How do I know that my faith is real? You’re going to truly want to love God. You can’t get enough of Jesus, that your love for Him is not only intense, but it is passionate, and you long to please Him.

You long to spend time with Him. You understand that God is calling you to love. When you read 1 John, when people come to me and they say, I’m not sure that I’m a believer, I’m not sure that I truly have the assurance of my salvation, I encourage them to take time to read through 1 John.

And why would I tell them that? Because 1 John is really summed up like this, in that God is constantly challenging us to love Him and not to love the world. We’re commanded many times to not love the world, not love the things of the world. And you see the direction of your heart is a reflection of your heart.

It’s not that you’re perfect. It’s not that you’ve got everything figured out. And it’s not that you even have all the answers.

But the question you have to ask yourself, what is the direction of my heart? Is it a heart that loves God? Is it a heart that desires to please God and to serve God? This is the manifestation that you are a true disciple of God. Now, I also want you to see the second characteristic of a forgiving person. It is not only that they have a passion to please the Lord, but they have a passion to be patient with God’s people.

I know some of you are saying, check, I got the first one, pastor. But this second one, I’m going to really struggle with. Hey, I want you to know I’m right there.

Remember that, you know, I have to go through all this, putting this together. It’s torturous sometimes, putting a sermon together because God is, you know, attacking me. He’s working on Mike.

Long before I come before you and have to present these wonderful truths that are in the Word of God, I’ve been wrestling with them. Some people say, what’s wrong with the pastor? Well, it may be that he’s under the heavy weight of conviction of the Word of God. It’s not that I don’t like you.

It’s just that God has been working on my own heart. And I got to be ready and I got to be prepared personally to stand before you. But here is this second point that I want to bring to your attention about Philemon, is that he was a person who was patient with God’s people.

The apostle brings this to our attention. And I want you to see up on the screen how I asked them to put it up there, because remember the apostle said, I’m hearing of your love. And it wasn’t just his love for God, but it was a love towards all the saints, not just the ones that are nice to him, not just the ones that work with him, not just the ones that cooperate with him, that Philemon is a leader in the church and he had a love.

It was well known that he had a love towards all the saints and that the sharing of your faith may become effectively by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. Wow. That’s a lot to think about.

But let’s break this down. In order for me to be patient with God’s people, I first, just like my relationship with God, I have to have a love for people. True faith expresses itself in love and not just in my love for God, which rightly so.

And we are called to love God and this is where it begins. But remember that Jesus taught us that the second commandment is like unto it, that you would love your neighbor as yourself. Now some people like to run around and say, I’m in love with myself.

It’s very obvious to us that you love yourself, but that’s not what Jesus was teaching. He was not saying that you should be in love with who you are and how great you are and how wonderful you are and what an amazing person you are. And I know your grandparents have been telling you ever since you came into this world, how wonderful and amazing you are.

But friends, Jesus wants us to understand that when we love someone like ourself, that what he is saying that just as we care for ourself, as we make sure that our hair is combed, well at least most of us do, or we make sure that we’re clean or we make sure that we’re clothed, we’re making sure that we’re fed the basics and necessities of life, that the way you love your neighbor is to help care for them. That the way you care for yourself is how you care for others. That you might say to yourself, well, I mean, my neighbor’s doing better than me, Mike.

And again, Jesus was asked the question, who is my neighbor? As if we did not know. But Jesus clarified that our neighbor is not the person who in America lives in the next lot next to us, but our neighbor is whoever is in need. Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan and how there was this great need and this Good Samaritan was attacked by thieves and robbers and he was left there for dead and that it was the responsibility of us to take care of each other.

And so whoever is in need is your neighbor, is the one you are to show love to. And so that’s how we define it and that’s how we understand it. And within the family of God, we are to love one another.

And this shows that our faith is real. First John 3.14, remember, all throughout first John, John is bringing up our love and our hate. He’s telling us that we are to love God, hate the world in the sense of its system and the things that are destructive to our life.

And he says in first John 3.14, we know that we have passed from death to life, meaning spiritual life. We know we’ve passed from spiritual death to spiritual life because we have what church or who he who does not love his brother abides in death. Now don’t be mad at the pastor because I’m just quoting the Bible, hard to process.

And that’s why when we think about being patient with God’s people, we’re called to show that patience by loving them where they’re at. I’ll put it to you like this. My wife says to me sometimes, Mike, I love you, but I don’t always like you.

Isn’t it hard to believe somebody wouldn’t like me? I’m just teasing. Pull yourself together, church. But what I want you to know that as we’re being patient with one another, there are times we may not like what they do or say, and we may not like their place in space that they’re at in their life.

We may not always agree with them, and we certainly may not always affirm what they’re doing or not doing. But we always have an unconditional love, and we are patient with them. Are you with me, church? I know some of you might be struggling, but I want you to know in order to be patient with God’s people, you have to have this kind of a love for people.

And I promise you, as I was stating earlier, I don’t even know if I finished the thought, but yes, we’re all going to offend each other. Yes, we’re all going to disappoint each other. Yes, we’re humans, and we fail each other.

It’s part of life. Sometimes my children, when they were little, would say, that’s not fair, and I would just say, welcome to life. Let me give you a hug.

Welcome to life. There’s a lot of injustices in this world. And yes, you may come to church, and somebody might say to you, I don’t like your haircut.

And you say, no one would ever say that. Yeah, they say it to me often. And I just tell them, look, I’m just trying to hang on with what I got, amen? But what am I going to do? Am I going to have a meltdown? Am I going to cry? Am I going to kick and scream because somebody doesn’t like Pastor Mike’s hair? Hey, I don’t like Pastor Mike’s hair, amen? You know what I’m saying? I didn’t want to come in here and all plugged up on my head with new crops of hair.

And you say, what happened to the pastor? It just keeps falling out. I want to tell you a story that’s funny, and it really doesn’t have anything to do with this sermon, but it just popped in my head. But I remember when my daughter was a senior at CVCS, and she was getting ready to head off to Davis College.

I announced to my family I was going to shave my head. And my daughter said, Dad, please don’t do it till I get out of town and go to college. So I just remembered that.

But anyways, isn’t that funny? So if we’re going to be patient, we got to love. But here’s another one. We got to share.

Did you see that in the text there? Did you note what the apostle said in verse 6? Now, this is that very popular Greek word that we often have learned about, koinonia, which means to fellowship. It means to share. It means to partner with.

The King James translates this as communicate. You know, that’s what it meant back in the old English. But now it means to share, to partner, to fellowship.

And what I’m trying to teach you this morning is that we have to recognize that in the family of God, we’re called to share in this faith, share in this love, share in this common life as believers, this spiritual life, that we are mutual partners in the family of faith, and that we recognize in the family of God, there are people at different spaces. And maturity, and they are at different levels of their faith. Now think about this in your own family.

There may have been times that you had a child that was elementary child, and you had another child that was in diapers. There are some of you that you have children that are teenagers, and then, rut-row, you got a new baby coming. And your expectations of the teenager were certainly different than your expectation of the little baby in diapers.

And sometimes that could have caused friction in the church because they felt like you’re giving too much attention to the family, and you felt they were giving too much attention, not enough attention to the teenager. These things happen because we’re just trying to do life, and we’re just trying to keep our head above water. Can God’s people say amen? It happens in the church.

Some of you, like one lady told me this week, she said, Pastor, I’m independent. She said, I really don’t need you. And she meant it in a positive way.

She’s just independent. She’s not going to call me every second. And then I got some members in my church that call all the time.

I remember when I first came to the Open Door Church, I won’t tell you the name or anything like that, but this person was calling me every day, talking to me, and it just would never be quiet. And every time I tried to interrupt them, they just talked right over my interruption. And one day they called me, and I was playing a video game with my boys, and we were playing, and I was losing, and this was important, and I had to beat my boys because this was the last threshold of what I had that I could actually beat them in.

My very fatherhood and manhood was on the line. And this person called, and I tried to get them to, hey, let’s work on this later, and you know, and all that, and they wouldn’t stop talking. So I just put the phone down, finished the video game, won the game, picked it back up, and they were still going a mile a minute.

It was awesome. Now, we got to learn to be patient with people, church. Some members are at different spaces.

They have more needs. They’re maybe still working on some things in their life. Others of you, man, you’ve been walking with Jesus forever.

You got it. You don’t have to always call the pastor. You don’t always have to have someone help you with this or that.

When I first got saved, I feel bad because I was always calling my pastor, and I’d read the Bible, and I’d say, what does that mean? And I’d pick up the phone, and I’d call my pastor. Some of you don’t need that. Some of you do.

It’s okay. We’re patient with one another. Sometimes we handle things great, and sometimes we don’t handle things great.

But because we love one another and because we’re sharing in the fellowship with one another and because we’re sharing in the partnership and in the belonging to one another, we are patient with one another. Not only does Paul teach us that we should love and share, but we should have knowledge. Look again at the text.

He says, by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. These things were true in the life of Philemon. He was a man who had the knowledge of God’s will.

He had the knowledge of God’s word. He had the knowledge of God’s truth. We know that Philemon was a leader in the church of Colossae.

Certainly, he could probably recall the words of the apostle in Colossians 1-9 when he said, for this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. God wants us to be maturing. He wants us to grow in the knowledge of who God is and the knowledge of his word and the knowledge of his will.

When I first began pastoring, there were things that upset me and bothered me that today I’m like it’s no big deal. How does that happen? You grow, you learn, you experience, you understand, you learn not to make every molehill into a mountain. You learn how to handle things.

You understand that sometimes people have different personalities and some people say things one way and other people might say it a different way. But you learn in this knowledge, this knowledge of God’s will, his word, his truth, his way, this knowledge that is imparted unto you as you are maturing in your faith. And so church, I want you to recognize in order for me and you to be patient with each other, you got to have a knowledge of the word of God.

You got to have a knowledge of each other. You got to understand. I know how some of you are.

I know as soon as I walk up to you, how you’re going to respond. I know how you’re going to handle things. I already know some of you are very excitable that as soon as there is a little ant crawling next to you in your pew, you are going to get very excitable and you’re going to start screaming and yelling, there’s a bug, there’s a bug, somebody get the bug.

And I know others of you are just going to reach over and you’re going to step on it with your foot. And nobody’s ever going to know that that poor ant met its demise at the open door church. Everybody is different.

They’re different. But we have this knowledge that helps us to be patient, that is effectively working in us as we are maturing and growing in the Lord. So we said, if we’re going to be forgiving people, we have to have the characteristic of making sure that we have a passion for pleasing the Lord and a passion to be patient with God’s people.

But thirdly, a passion to provide for God’s people. We come down to verse seven and very quickly we’ll walk through this and we’ll see here some things that are true about Philemon. For we have great joy and consolation in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother.

So this is what he’s saying, is that Philemon being a leader in the church, he wanted to minister to the people. They may be at different levels of their maturity. They may be at different places in their walk with God, but he still had a passion to provide for them.

Let me give you three things that people need. Three things that people need, and I don’t want you to ever forget this, this is not only true in your home, but it’s true in your relationships at the church. First of all, people need appreciation.

They need appreciation. We go back and we see that the Apostle Paul in verse four, he said, I thank my God, mentioning of you always in my prayers. The Apostle Paul was a man who appreciated Philemon, but he also recognized that Philemon was a person who was astute to the needs of the people of God.

That you and I are called to develop an attitude of gratitude for every person in this church family. If you wake up every day and you want to identify all of our weaknesses, my friends, the list is long, and let me give you a couple more that you forgot. It’s easy for a spouse to find fault with their other spouse.

It’s easy for parents to rag on their children. It’s easy for us to come here as members and find fault with everything in this ministry. It’s true, my friends, I agree with you.

Somebody forgot to put toilet paper in the bathroom. Well, that happened to me when I first came to the open door church, a lady came up to me and she was frantic. And she said, Pastor Mike, there is no toilet paper in the church bathroom.

What are we going to do? Now, friends, I just got here, honestly. I didn’t even know who ordered the toilet paper. I didn’t know if anybody had been discipled to be designated to be the toilet paper provider.

I didn’t know. And I looked at her and I said, what would you do at home? And she said, I would go get toilet paper. And I said, there’s the answer.

Go get some toilet paper. You know what I’m saying? But what I’m trying to tell you is, yes, you can find fault with all of us. You’ll find fault with this sermon.

I could tell you story after story, but I’m not going to take time to do that. But what I want you to know is this, if you want to provide for God’s people, be the kind of member who appreciates each other, even where we’re weak, even appreciating our differences. I mean, it’s been tough for me, but I’ve tried to appreciate that some of you actually are Pittsburgh Steelers fans and Philadelphia Eagles fans.

But I still appreciate you, enjoy every time those teams lose, but I appreciate you. But you know, friends, if we’re going to be effective in this ministry, we got to understand that God wants to use our attitude of gratitude. Remember the Apostle Paul, he’s saying, I’m thanking God.

I’m mentioning you in my prayers. I’m always praising God for the things that are true in your life. There are some good things.

I know it’s hard to find it, but keep looking. But there are some good things. Everybody needs appreciation.

If you want to be used of God, there is one way you can do that, and that is appreciate and affirm everybody. Show gratitude when you come to this place and let people know through notes, text messages, emails, and letters, and even verbally, let them know how much you appreciate what they do, what they’re sacrificing for the church, and just the love that they show and their faithfulness and obedience to God. Find ways to do that.

The second thing people need is inspiration. The Apostle Paul’s life was an inspiration. It was no mistake that Paul started out his letter and said that he was a prisoner of Christ Jesus.

Usually, the apostle would start his letters out and say that he was an apostle, that he was called of God, that he was always making the case for his apostleship to the church. But here, he starts out this letter to Philemon, I’m a prisoner, meaning that he possibly was under house arrest or some kind of confinement, whatever it might have been, that he was a prisoner. But Paul never saw himself as a prisoner of the government.

He saw himself as a prisoner of Christ Jesus. He recognized that he was under the sovereign hand of God and that God was providentially working in his life. And if God had him in prison, if God had him under confinement, if God had him in house arrest, it was all part of the plan and purpose of God.

And despite this imprisonment, the apostle was always showing mercy to others. He was showing kindness to others. He was showing good cheer to others.

He was always concerned about others, and this is what he wanted to see in Philemon, and this is what God wants you to see in the church. I know some of you are walking through deep waters, and I know some of you have many challenges in your life, but I don’t want you to come here negative, and I don’t want you to come here beaten down on everybody. I want you to come and be inspirational, inspiring us to love God more and to love people more and to continue unto good works for the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is how we should come. And then we need to be refreshing. I know you had hoped I’d hurry up and get there.

This was so true of Philemon. This word refreshed is a military term that described an army at rest from a march. What the church needs are people who are refreshing.

There are certain people you and I avoid because they drain us. We see them out in the community, and we hide behind the bush. We jump in between the clothes at the store because we don’t want them to see us because we know what they’re going to do.

They’re going to sap us of all energy for God. They’re draining, but there’s some people, as soon as we see them, we’re excited because they’re refreshers. They give us great rest.

They’re renewing to us. They energize us for the Lord. We feel so connected to Christ in our conversations with them.

The Bible teaches us that Philemon was a brother in Christ who refreshed others. Christian friendships are important in the church. Christian friendships are a gift from God.

I want to encourage you to be the kind of friend who doesn’t dump on people, who doesn’t belittle people, who doesn’t always find fault with people, that even if we’re not all we should be, that our desire is to refresh one another when we gather as God’s people. Whether that’s one-on-one or whether that’s in a small group, a class, a Bible study, or whether it’s in a large group, that we are always striving to refresh one another. Why? Because people, whether it’s in the home, the work, or the church, people cannot grow in an environment where only their failures and weaknesses are seen and remembered.

Some of you, you’re just too hard on your kids. You’re beating down on them so much they can’t wait to get out. You need to remember to be the kind of parent who is refreshing.

Every time you see your brothers and sisters in Christ, don’t point out what they did wrong, but be like the Apostle Paul and point out what they did right. And be the kind of encourager that is refreshing. You say, well, somebody’s got to confront them.

Well, first of all, all confrontation should be done privately. And if it reaches to that level, you should do it. And that’s fine, but in a way to restore our brothers, right, and our sisters.

But you and I are called to encourage and refresh one another. And when people see you, what comes to their mind? There’s an encourager. There’s someone I want to talk to.

There’s someone I want to give a hug to. There’s someone I want to shake their hand. Or do you see that people try to avoid you? Church, for a Christian to be unwilling to forgive is really unthinkable.

And if we go on this journey learning about forgiveness through the book of Philemon, we have to ask ourselves the question, do we have the character that forgives others? Do we have the traits that are within us that will help us as we learn by the grace of God to be forgiving? Are these things true in our life? Would you pray with me? You cannot give what you have not received. And if you have not received the forgiveness of Christ, how could you give forgiveness to others? Real forgiveness. And so we encourage you to first be under the fountain of the grace of Jesus Christ and receive his forgiveness in your life.

Even as a believer, we have the responsibility to confess our sins to God and to let his forgiveness cleanse us. The Bible says he will forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. And so we encourage you to first receive and thus you can give forgiveness to others.

And so we hope that that’s a part of your message and your characteristics. If you’d like to learn more about forgiveness, check us out at HopeWorthHaving.com. We also have a YouTube channel entitled Hope Worth Having. And there you can see our live programming as well as archives of different sermons.

There’s playlists of different topics, different books in the Bible. Take advantage of this YouTube channel for an opportunity to grow in your faith. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.

The post The Characteristics of a Forgiving Person Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Characteristics of a Forgiving Person Part 1. He will be reading out of Philemon 1:1-7.

I don’t want you to think that somehow it’s some deep mystical magical formula that is going to help you to be motivated to be a forgiving person if you Question why you should forgive others. All you got to do is get to the foot of the cross Hello, this is pastor Mike Sanders welcome to hope worth having radio broadcasts We’re looking forward to studying the Bible together. And today we’re starting a new series called the characteristics of a forgiving Person we’re going to be looking into the book of Philemon chapter 1 of course, it’s only one chapter but a series of verses and we are looking forward to Looking at this all-important question relating to our relationships with other people So let’s get our Bible and let’s get to studying right now Want you to take your Bible this morning and I want you to go to the book of Philemon Now, I know you’re saying pastor Mike Philemon.

Where is that? Well, let’s start in the New Testament and if you get to the book of Hebrews It’s right before the book of Hebrews if you run into Titus It’s right after Titus and so it’s towards the end of the New Testament You should find Philemon in my Bible. It’s just one page So be careful because every once in a while some of my pages of the Bible get stuck together and you might actually skip over Poor Philemon, but I want you to get there now We are beginning a new series a new study that I want to begin through the book of Philemon now It’s a very short letter and so it won’t take us long but it is a powerful message and there are certainly many things that must be addressed in this book and Today we’re going to talk about the characteristics of a forgiving person the book of Philemon the whole theme is forgiveness that’s the purpose of the letter is the Apostle is addressing Philemon who was a leader in the church and Philemon had a runaway slave named Onesimus Whom Paul had led to Christ while he was in prison as it happens Philemon his owner was a Christian and so most likely the Apostle led Philemon as well to Christ and Onesimus was Paul’s brother in Christ and So now Paul is writing to Philemon and he’s encouraging Philemon to receive Onesimus as an equal brother in Jesus Christ Philemon was not only a leader in the church, but the church actually gathered in his home We’ll read about that the church at Colossae met in his house in the early church many of the churches Gathered in either public places or they met in people’s homes they did not have the right to have ownership or Property and certainly in the infant stages of the church. There was so much happening that thinking about trying to have a building or a place where the church would own and gather Was very difficult But they met in Philemon’s home and we see this throughout the scriptures many believers opened their home for God’s people together and to be able to worship the Lord now Philemon is being instructed and appealed to By the Apostle Paul and the instruction is that he is to forgive Onesimus He is to accept him That he is to understand and receive him as a brother in the Lord’s Family now when we come to this passage This is a very difficult topic of forgiveness and in these few weeks that we’ll be together about this letter this book in the Bible we’re going to address what is forgiveness and How do we forgive what is not forgiveness? Sometimes people struggle.

What are some of those obstacles that we have as believers to forgiveness someone once said That there can be no enduring relationships without forgiveness a husband and wife could never have many years of marriage without the willingness of both of them to be Forgiving and it’s the same way in the family of God What you’ll often see in the church is in America This is not true in other lands and other countries, but because there are so many gatherings of believers different places different buildings You go to some cities. There’s almost a church on every corner of That community and so as soon as somebody gets offended or they get hurt or they have a disagreement they run Rather than addressing those issues they run People like to run and they run from one church to the other now we understand that sometimes people might change a church for theological reasons or They may leave a church because of some of the ministries may no longer exist that they were receiving or needed We understand those things but in general We have to be careful that every time we have a disagreement with our brothers and sisters in Christ that we don’t fall into the trap of running to another church and We like to call them church hoppers and church shoppers and they run from church to church Thinking that no one will ever offend them in that new church. I like to tell our new members this It’s really a shocker to them when they take the membership class.

I want you to know that somewhere somehow Someway pastor Mike is gonna upset you. How about that now? It’s not intentional I don’t rise up every morning and say how can I hurt their feelings? But what I want you to know that a there’s flesh on these bones. I mean, I’ve been married 30 I’m coming up on 34 years May 19th.

And so I know that I’m not perfect But I want you to understand that whether it’s a relationship in the home or relationships in the church, the only way that these Relationships can work is that we have to be forgiving We have to be forgiving. I’ve served here for almost 20 years now and We’re in our 20th year. And how does that happen? I mean some churches have already been through four or five six pastors since I’ve shown up and How does that happen? Well, I would say to you that you are a very forgiving people But before you pound your chest don’t forget I’m a very forgiving pastor So in order for us to have a relationship this long it takes Grace, and it takes forgiveness.

It takes God’s good work in each of our hearts So I don’t want you to misunderstand this passage. I don’t want you to somehow say well I’m gonna stay home during this tough lesson on forgiveness but I’ll tell you another topic that I want to address with you and that is what does the Bible teach about slavery and Why doesn’t the Bible? directly condemn slavery as A matter of fact when we read the scriptures we see that those who are slaves and those who are masters are given instructions on How to treat one another That’s sometimes very difficult for Unbelievers much less believers to process in their mind. So you hang in there.

We will not address it today but we will be addressing this topic of slavery and how do we address this as Believers because it will be brought up in conversations It will be as you’re out there Witnessing for Christ brought up by many especially the younger generation as they try to understand why? The Bible does not condemn slavery so today I want to talk about the characteristics of a Forgiving person note with me again in verse 1 the Apostle says Paul a prisoner of Christ Jesus and Timothy our brother to Philemon our beloved friend and fellow laborer to the beloved at FIA Archippus our fellow soldier and to the church in your house Grace to you and peace from God and our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ I think my God making mention of you always in my prayers hearing of your love and faith Which you have towards the Lord Jesus and towards all the saints that the sharing of your faith May become effective by the acknowledgement of every good thing Which is in you in Christ Jesus? for we have great joy and consolation or comfort in your love Because the hearts of the Saints have been refreshed by you Brother, remember that the Apostle is writing this letter So that he can encourage his dear brother in Christ Philemon to forgive Onesimus the Apostle ran into Onesimus not out on the street market or any particular place outside in the community, but he ran into him in prison and Amazingly the Apostle Paul being a great man of faith Was continuing to be a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ Somewhere in the midst of all that was happening in this prison The Apostle begins to have a spiritual conversation with Onesimus and helps him to understand that he is a sinner in need of a Savior Onesimus responds in humility and honesty before God and receives the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior Now I’m sure that Onesimus was telling the Apostle his story All of the details all of the mistakes and all the things that he had done we learned that Onesimus was a man who was a slave to Philemon and That he was a runaway slave not because somehow he was mistreated But because he had stolen money from Philemon the Apostle begins to disciple Onesimus and begins to train him that he needs to make things right with Philemon and that he needs to once again restore and do restitution to what he had taken from Philemon that is the whole background of This letter and the Apostle begins this letter not with condemnation to Philemon Not even to coming in there with a lot of pressure and a lot of demands upon Philemon But what we really see is that Paul is giving a favorable assessment of Philemon’s character It’s important for us to understand that because as the Apostle was teaching us about the character of Philemon He is also teaching us the kind of character we need Because if we’re to be a forgiving person, there are certain things that need to be true in our life if we’re a person of anger and bitterness and hate if we’re a person that as soon as we Disagree with somebody we torch the bridge and everything is over then we’re not going to have the characteristics of a forgiving person as We’ve already stated to you. There is no lasting relationships without forgiveness You can’t have a lasting relationship with your children without forgiveness and children can’t have a lasting relationship with their parents without forgiveness We understand that whether the Relationship is in the community at the job or in the church or in the home That there are no lasting relationships without forgiveness When we think about this great question of why? Why should I be a forgiving person? We can certainly come up with a lot of things that are true and they are healthy in your life But the bottom line for the believer as to why we should be a forgiving person is because Christ has forgiven us. I Don’t want you to think that somehow it’s some deep mystical magical Formula that is going to help you to be motivated to be a forgiving person if you question why you should forgive others all you got to do is get to the foot of the cross and Realize that you were not worthy.

I am NOT worthy of any forgiveness that God might show upon us and When we think about our life and our journey of faith as we are trying to be fully devoted followers of Christ you know, there are many times that all of us have stumbled and We have fumbled and We have made bad choices We have had bad thoughts and our motives have not always been pure and we have stumbled in our effort to live faithfully for the Lord Jesus Christ But yet as we have already taken time in this service We have clung to that promise that if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to do what church forgive us He not only forgives us, but he cleanses us of all of our unrighteousness that God is effectively and he is constantly working within me shaping me and Sharpening me to reflect the very image of Jesus Christ in this world and There is nothing more that’ll bring out the best of you and the worst of you Than having a relationship with another human being Because we are flawed people We are naturally and I’m throwing myself in there. I’m not picking on you But I want you to know we are naturally selfish We were like the old advertisement of Burger King. We wanted our way right away, man, I Went to the hospital this many years ago to visit one of our members and they were getting ready to have surgery and right there in the waiting room there was a big old sign and said it’s all about you and I want to tell them it’s not But I kept my mouth shut lest I be thrown out of the hospital And make the front page the pastor thrown out because he insists it’s not about you friends I want you to know as hard as it is for us to understand this that it’s not about us.

It’s about the Lord Jesus It’s about us glorifying God. It’s about us living our lives for him So as Paul was making this big lift This big ask if you will to Philemon He begins to commend him He begins to encourage him and he teaches us the three characteristics that are needed If any of us are going to be a forgiving people What are the characteristics that we see in Philemon that need to be in us? Number one is that we need to have a passion for pleasing the Lord We need to have a passion for pleasing the Lord Do not think that somehow pastor Mike is brushing over the first few verses because I’m not we’ll come back to them But in relation to what I want to share with you, I want you to look at verse 5 The Bible says that the Apostle says of Philemon I’m hearing of your love and faith Which you have towards the Lord Jesus Philemon was a man of faith. He was a man of love.

He was a man who not only had faith But he had this incredible love and so we learned that this is at the outset Should be the desire of every believer who understands that because we have been forgiven by Christ that we must be a Forgiving people but in order for us to forgive We need to have the characteristic of a desire and a passion to please the Lord What is it that helps us to please the Lord first is faith in the Lord We never are under the assumption that everyone that gathers with us truly has faith in Jesus Christ We never are under the assumption that people have all received Christ and trusted him as their Lord and Savior We recognize that even in the body and the family of God There can be those who have gone through the motions who have taken all the classes and they’ve done Everything that they’ve been asked for but they’ve never truly had faith in Jesus Christ the Apostle continues to hear positive reports about Philemon One of those things that he hears is that this is a man of faith That he is a man who has faith Towards the Lord Jesus Christ and I want you to see that and I want you to know that and when we think about faith I want you to remember not all faith is saving faith Did you hear me not all faith is saving faith you say pastor I believe I Believe well, I am convinced that there are many who miss heaven by 18 inches That is they have a head knowledge of Jesus Christ, but they have never in their heart fully Received Christ as their Lord if I could send out a warning to all parents and grandparents It would be to make sure that you are having healthy discussions with your children and your grandchildren About what is true faith? You don’t get to heaven because your parents are leaders in the church or that they are active in the church or they are Faithful in the church. You don’t get to heaven because of your parents and grandparents faith you get to heaven because you Truly in your own heart have received Christ as your Lord and Savior Saving faith isn’t just a head knowledge about Jesus. We know that the Bible tells us the demons believe also There is a distinction of what is saving faith and Yes, the demons believe and yes, they have this mental Acknowledgement and they recognize that Jesus is the Son of God and they recognize that Jesus was sent from the Father and he came to this earth and died on a cross and that he Resurrected the third day they have all that information But they have never experienced the transformation of the gospel of Jesus Christ in Our hearts we are constantly Admonished by the Apostle that we are to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith.

I Know some Christians they don’t like that and they have even expressed that to me when I preach on it And they tell me that I should not encourage people to examine the faith and I tell them I teach the whole Council of the Lord of God From Genesis to Revelation. I teach it all and I want you to know I’m not trying to create insecurity in your faith I’m not trying to cause you to doubt your faith I’m not trying to somehow Explain away some particular spiritual experience you may have had in your life But I want to make sure that you have a genuine relationship and faith with the Lord Jesus Christ saving faith is trusting in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life and It is necessary for salvation Saving faith is that I’m willing to turn away from my sin and I’m willing to turn to Christ for my salvation and If you’re just one of those people who said, you know, I got to get this person out of my life They keep talking to me about salvation They keep talking to me about Jesus and I just pray the prayer and I pray it so I can get them out So I can get mom and dad off of my back So that they will leave me alone and I can just say yeah, I prayed that prayer Well friends, I want you to know that’s not saving faith you must humbly come to God and be honest with him and Receive him as your Lord and Savior We see in Philemon that he not only had faith in the Lord, but he had a love towards Jesus Christ Look at the text again, and it says he talks about his love his faith Certainly he had a love towards Jesus Christ This is what I think is the greatest mark of a disciple That if you say you’re a true follower of Christ that it is love That is the supreme mark of discipleship It is not just something that pastor thinks about or has thought up or has dreamed up But it is actually the Word of God For the Bible teaches us that when Jesus was asked what is the greatest or we could put it this way the most important commandment in the Bible If you were to think of it this way You might think what is the bottom line of the Bible? The Bible says a lot and sometimes we can get lost in the weeds and trying to figure out this and that and what should we? Believe what shouldn’t we believe but really here’s the bottom line Matthew Jesus’s response was recorded in Matthew 22 verse 36 through 38 The question was master, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him thou shall love the Lord thy God with all your heart With all your soul with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment How do I know that? My faith is real You’re gonna truly want to love God You can’t get enough of Jesus that your love for him is not only intense But it is passionate and you long to please him you long To spend time with him You understand that God is calling you to love when you read first John when people come to me and they say I’m not sure That I’m a believer.

I’m not sure that I I Truly have the assurance of my salvation. I encourage them to take time to read through first John and Why would I tell him that because first John is really summed up like this in That God is constantly challenging us to love him and Not to love the world We are commanded many times to not love the world not love the things of the world and you see the direction of your heart is a Reflection of your heart. It’s not that you’re perfect It’s not that you’ve got everything figured out and it’s not that you even have all the answers But the question you have to ask yourself, what is the direction of my heart? Is it a heart that loves God? Is it at a heart that desires to please God and to serve God? This is the Manifestation that you are a true disciple of God now I Also want you to see the second characteristic of a forgiving person It is not only that they have a passion to please the Lord, but they have a passion to be patient with God’s people I Know some of you saying check I got the first one pastor but this second one I’m gonna really struggle with hey, I want you to know I’m right there Remember that you know, I have to go through all this putting this together.

It’s torturous sometimes Putting a sermon together because God is you know attacking me He’s working on Mike Long before I come before you and have to present these wonderful truths that are in the Word of God I’ve been wrestling with them. Some people say what’s wrong with the pastor? Well, it may be that he’s under the heavy weight of conviction of the Word of God It’s not that I don’t like you it’s just that God has been working on my own heart And I got to be ready and I got to be prepared personally to stand before you But here is this second point that I want to bring to your attention about Philemon is that he was a person who was patient With God’s people the Apostle brings this to our attention and I want you to see up on the screen how I asked them to put it up there because Remember the Apostle said I’m hearing of your love and it wasn’t just his love for God But it was a love towards all the Saints not just the ones that are nice to him Not just the ones that work with him not just the ones that cooperate with him that Philemon is a leader in the church and he Had a love it was well known that he had a love towards all the Saints and that the sharing of your faith may become Effectively by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus Wow That’s a lot to think about But let’s break this down in order for me to be patient with God’s people I first just like my relationship with God. I have to have a love For people true faith expresses itself in love There are no long lasting relationships without forgiveness and that is what the Bible is teaching us when we think about the Characteristics of a forgiving person and whether it’s you forgiving someone or someone forgiving you We all stand in need of forgiveness from one another but the greater forgiveness that we need is found in Jesus Christ and we’ll never have a Forgiving heart if we ourselves have not received the forgiveness of Jesus Christ So we encourage you to humble your heart before him today and to receive him as your Lord and Savior And to acknowledge your sinfulness before him and as you repent and believe God will wash away your sins and give you a brand new start and then you’ll have the great opportunity to forgive Others as God has done a great work in your life Now we want to remind you that at hope worth having we have a website you can learn more about forgiveness More about the ministry more teaching of God’s Word.

So check us out on hope worth having Dot-com that’s hopeworthhaving.com and learn more about this ministry and how you can grow in your faith This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having

The post The Characteristics of a Forgiving Person Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Does God Send People to Hell Part 2. He will be reading out of Revelation 14:8-10,20:15.

He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Why would Jesus say that there was two ways? One built their life on the foundation of a rock, and another on the shifting sands of the world. Because you have a choice.

Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church. And we want to welcome you to our Hope Worth Having radio program. Thank you for tuning in today.

And we’re going to continue our study on does God send people to hell? So I want you to get your Bible, and I want you to join me in Revelation chapter 14. As we answer this all important question. And that if he is a loving God, how could the doctrine of hell be true? This is an issue that troubles many people.

It is so much of a hurdle for many people that they will just reject the doctrine of hell. They’ll just say there’s no way that the love of God is compatible with there being a place of hell for those who do not believe in Jesus Christ. Some even dismiss Christianity altogether and refuse to believe in Christ.

Because they will not believe in a God that sends people to hell. Now some would say that if you believe in a God of love. If God wants all the world to be saved, and if he is not willing that any should perish.

And if he gave his own son to die for our sins. How can it be that any would perish? Why wouldn’t everybody just be saved? What kind of love sends people to an eternal lake of fire? The Bible teaches us that God created hell. He originally created hell according to the gospel of Matthew.

For Satan and his demonic angels who rebelled against him in heaven. A third of the angels were cast out of hell. But not only will we find that there are demonic angels in hell.

But we will find that there are humans. God never intended that you and I, that humans would go to hell. But here we are.

The Bible teaches us, Jesus says, there’s only two ways. There is the narrow way. And there is the broad way.

The narrow way is those who believe in Christ. Those who follow God. Those who are fully devoted followers of Christ.

And then the broad way is those who walk the way of the world. Live selfishly. Do what they want.

Death could care less about God or Jesus. What nothing to do with Christ. The broad way would also include those who are religious.

They are religious on the outside. But there is no relationship with Jesus Christ in their heart. Jesus said in Matthew 7. He said to those who were listening to him.

Depart from me. You that work iniquity. For I never knew you.

My friends, you get to heaven by who you know. Not by what you do. Jesus already did all the work on the cross.

And you must have a relationship with Jesus Christ. That relationship may have high moments and low moments. It may have an ebb and flow to it.

Not because of Jesus, but because of our hearts. And because sometimes of our struggles. And sometimes because of where we’re at in our faith, in our maturity.

But I promise you, my friends. That if you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us.

That whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall. Be what church? Yeah. And so that’s the most important thing.

We’ll get back to that. And I’m jumping ahead of myself. Which I tend to do.

My wife says, Mike, stick to the notes. Stick to the notes. So three perspectives on this question.

That we have before us. Does God send people to hell? The first thing I want you to see this morning. Is that God’s attribute of love.

Is consistent. With hell. We have a harmony of God’s love.

And God’s justice. We have a harmony of God’s love. And this place that is called hell.

And I think no better verse captures that. Than Romans chapter 5. In verse 8. In which the Bible says. God commended his love towards us.

And while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. How much does God love you, my friends? So much.

He wants to keep you out of hell. He gave his life for you. He took the punishment.

He took the pain. He took. The very wrath of God upon him.

So you and I do not have to. And that by faith in Jesus Christ. That is applied to our heart.

Now the particulars may vary. From person to person. And society to society.

But there is an agreement. Among all society. And most likely all people.

That things that are wrong. Or what people do that are wrong. Should be punished.

That evil must be judged. I mean. There is a sense of justice in each of our hearts.

Right? Because that’s why you stand up. When you read the news. Or you see it on your social media feed.

Or you see it on television. That’s why you stand up and say. It’s just not right.

Where did that come from? For God has created within us. A conscience. And he has established within us.

A moral compass. That the things that are wrong. Somebody’s got to stand up.

And somebody’s got to say. That it’s wrong. And then it must be dealt with.

We think about drug dealers. Rapists. Murderers.

Serial killers. Corrupt politicians. Greedy people.

Who get their way. And they push on people. Take advantage of people.

And they create injustices. In our hearts. We know that they must be dealt with.

And that they must be punished. I appreciate Brother Arnold reading Romans 5. Because it’s such a beautiful text to understand. Where you and I are at.

And I want you to understand. That all of us. Are under the wrath of God.

And condemnation. Because we are sinners. We are sinners.

And I know some of you say. Man Mike. I’m a pretty good guy.

I do all these things. And you’ve got your 10 good lists. That you’re doing.

And I’m here. And I’m with you. And I’m glad that you’re doing those 10 things.

But listen to me. Our righteousness. Doesn’t even come close to the righteousness of God.

The prophet Isaiah said. That our righteousness is as filthy rags. And I know you don’t like me to talk about it.

But it’s true. That you’ve got to understand. This is not the rag in your kitchen.

That you’ve been washing dishes with. For the last 30 days. And I would recommend.

That you put it in the laundry. Ladies. You’re killing us.

And guys. I know. Not just ladies.

Excuse me. I am so out of touch. I apologize.

I apologize. But this is the rag. That the lepers would use.

To wipe the pus. Off of their skin. Their skins would be filled with boils.

They would wipe it off. And you would think. That somebody would come along.

And they would give them a new rag. And they would put it in the laundry. And they would clean it up.

But no. This is the same rag. That one leper.

After another. Was used. To wipe.

And they would come. And they would take that same rag. And wipe it again.

All over their body. To wipe that pus off. And here’s what the bible says.

To us. That our righteousness. The best of Mike Sanders.

Is nothing. But a filthy. Leper.

Rag. The best of Mike. Wow.

I know that’s hard to swallow. In this self-esteem world that we live in. When everybody.

Is so proud of themselves. And every once in a while. Somebody will tell me.

And I was just talking to somebody. And they were telling me. How good they were.

And I said. If you don’t say so yourself. Amen.

The bible says. Let another man’s lips praise you. But we often jump in.

And I find myself there. You know. I do something.

And I say. Honey isn’t that nice. I mow that lawn.

Look at that lawn. Isn’t that nice looking out there. And she reminds me.

Let another man’s lips praise you. I said I was hoping your lips would. But here we are.

We are sinners. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We’re all flawed.

We’re not perfect. And this sin must be dealt with. It must be paid for.

And the way that it is dealt with. Is through God’s holiness. And Jesus delivered us.

And how did he do that? By going to the cross. Being our substitute. Taking our place.

Isaiah 53 5 says. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.

And the chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes. We are healed.

How is the love of God. And the holiness of God. How are they compatible.

And how are they in harmony. Because though we are sinners. And though we deserve to be.

In hell. Because of our sin. Out of great love.

God has reached out to us. And he has provided a way for us. To experience the forgiveness.

Of Jesus Christ. And that he has taken our punishment. On the cross.

He has taken our pain. And if we would put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Then my friends.

We can experience. The true love of Jesus. If you have ever doubted.

Whether God loved you. I want you to look to the cross. If you have ever doubted.

Whether God cares about your plight. Look to the cross. Because Jesus.

On full display of love. He gave his life. For you and for me.

Can God’s people say amen. Oh yeah I love it. Now.

God’s provision for salvation. Should ever put to rest. The notion.

That God’s love. And wrath. Or holiness.

Are incompatible. I want you to understand that. Unlike us.

God can do two things at once. Amen. I was taking prayer requests this morning.

And some of the people that usually do that. We have a little Facebook thing. Where we keep track of our prayer requests for each other.

In our Sunday school class. And Pastor Mike was listening. Hearing.

Trying to type on his little phone. Trying to get it in there all by himself. And I told him.

I said look you guys have got to slow down. Because I can’t take all this at once. It’s too many things going on.

I got to slow down. One thing at a time. Ladies I’m not talking about just manhood.

I know you ladies say well we do all kinds of things. At a time. I hear you.

But God can love you. And God can still punish sin. Did you know that? It’s true.

So the second thing I want you to consider this morning. Is how can a God of holiness. Admit sinful people.

To heaven. Now the Bible says. That God loves us.

But the Bible. Also declares that God. Is not only God of love.

But he is a God who is holy. And someone says. Well Pastor how can a loving God.

Send people to hell. Well let me just invert it for you. Because this is the greater question.

I want you to consider. How can a God of holiness. Admit sinful people into heaven.

That’s the greater question. That’s the most amazing thing. To me.

That I’m not worthy of heaven. I’m not worthy of salvation. I am not deserving.

I didn’t go to church enough. God would say to me. Hey Mike because you came.

50 times out of the year. Then you get a straight pass into heaven. That’s not how it works.

Even if I came 52. And even if I could find a 53rd. And a 54th Sunday.

And I came those extra times. And I got bonus points. It still would not be enough to get me into heaven.

Because the best of Mike. Is nothing but a lepers rag. And therefore the greater question is.

How does a holy God. Allow sinful people. Into heaven.

Isaiah. When he was. In a moment of a crisis in his life.

When the king. Who he administered to. Personally.

And he had become great friends with. King Uzziah. Had passed away.

It was devastating. Because it was a tragedy. It was a surprise.

It wasn’t something that. He was in failing health. And all of a sudden king Uzziah is gone.

And Isaiah is overwhelmed. With grief and sorrow in his heart. He shows up at the temple.

In Isaiah chapter 6. And he is prostrate before the Lord. Weeping pleading with God. And just expressing his grief.

And sorrow. And the bible teaches us that he saw God. High and lifted up.

And around the throne of God. Were seraphims. Angels that were crying out.

The scripture says in verse 3 of chapter 6. Holy. Holy. Holy is the Lord God of hosts.

The whole earth. Is full of his glory. What you and I. Have to learn.

It’s easy for us to want to. Put most emphasis on the love of God. But what we really need to do.

Is balance our understanding. Of who God is. Yes he is a God of love.

But friends we cannot forget. That he is a God who is holy. Think about this.

In all of the bible. You’ll never find. The angels circling the throne.

Crying out. Love. Love.

But every time that we are given this picture. And this scene. Not only in Isaiah.

But as well as in. Revelation. We see the angels crying out.

Holy. Holy. In the Hebrew language.

The repetition is a point of emphasis. It is not only a point of emphasis. But it is a point of priority.

What I want you to know. And understand church. Is that the preeminent.

Attribute of God. Is holiness. That it is out of his holiness.

That all of his other. Attributes flow. That we must first.

Know and recognize. That we have a holy God. Who is righteous.

Who is just a God. Who is above us. Now think about this.

The Hebrew word. For holiness. Has the idea of being a cut.

Above. Sometimes. When I speak to the staff.

I will always remind them. Leaders need to be a cut above. Leaders need to be a cut above.

You say pastor. Why do you dress like. Why don’t you come in here like a slouch.

Why don’t you come in here with your pajamas. And why don’t you come in here with your sweats. Now if that is you.

You do you. I am not putting you down. But I am the pastor.

And I am not going to come in. And I don’t want to offend anybody. And I don’t want to send anybody out.

And upset. So I got to be careful what I say. And I know it is a different generation.

But it is okay. As a leader. I want to be a cut above.

Not better than. But when you think of God. It is not that we think of God.

In terms of man. Kind. But we think of God.

In terms of how the Bible has revealed him. He is a cut above us. He is a holy God.

We cannot retreat from that church. And we cannot back down from that. And we cannot say well.

Out of great compassion and love. We want to bring God down to us. Know my friends.

I want you to exalt God in your heart. I want you to exalt him in your mind. I want you to revel in his holiness.

And his greatness. And as A.W. Tozer said. His transcendency.

And I know you are like. What is that? That is that God transcends. And he is above and beyond.

All that we could ever imagine. And think. This is how great God is.

And so the greater question is. How can a God of holiness. Admit sinful people to heaven.

My third and final perspective. That I want you to consider this morning. When we ask the question.

Does God send people to hell? My answer to you. Is God sends no one to hell. And that is that.

Those who reject God. Choose to go to hell. They choose to go to hell.

The notion that God sends people to hell. Might be accurate in this sense. That as we read in.

Revelation 14 10. That they were cast into hell. Did you see that? They were cast into the lake of fire.

Every once in a while. Somebody will say. I want to go to hell.

No you don’t. And when that moment comes. And the smoke of that torment is.

Coming up. I promise you. You will have to be cast.

But what is it. That would lead to the casting. What is it.

That would lead us to this point. It’s not that God sent anyone to hell. Because people send their.

Selves to hell. By the choices. That they make.

Ralph Powell is a bible scholar. And he said this. If the question is raised.

How can a loving God send men. Or people to an everlasting hell. It must be replied.

That God does not choose this destiny for men. They freely choose it for themselves. God simply concurs.

In their self chosen way. And he reveals. The full consequences.

Of their choice. God loves us. And he loves us so much.

That he has reached out to us. To offer the opportunity. That we could avoid hell.

That we could escape hell. But it is out of this love. That he also gives us.

The freedom. To come. To make.

Our choice. He is not willing that any should perish. But that all.

Should come to repentance. Why would Jesus say. In Matthew chapter 7. Why would he keep saying.

That there was two ways. And there were two people. One built their life on the foundation of a rock.

And another person built it on the shifting sands. Of the world. Why does he keep offering these two options.

Because he is saying. You have a choice. You have a choice.

A musician named Marilyn Manson. Said I’m going to say. Hell would probably be more.

Comfortable place for me. Because everyone I know would be there. I wouldn’t really.

Be allowed to do anything in heaven. That would be any fun. And it’s sad.

To read those words. Because. She has made that choice.

The bible. Tells us in Jeremiah. That the prophet said.

And now because you have done. All these works says the lord. And I spake unto you.

Rising early and speaking. But you heard not. And I called you.

But you answered not. You remember. The story of the great banquet.

In Matthew 22. You remember that the man invited. Everybody to come to this great banquet.

And nobody would come. And so he decided to go out. To the highways and to the hedges.

He invited his family. He invited his friends. And they said no we’re not coming.

So he went. And he invited everybody else in the world. It is a picture of God.

Who has invited. All people to come. He is invited.

The scripture says in Matthew 22 verse 3. He sent forth his servants to call them. That were bidden to the wedding. And they would not come.

And I wonder how many people there are. That still will not come. No matter how many times.

The offer is made. And the option is put before them. And the pleading is put before them.

And the effort is made. To reach them with the gospel. Of Jesus Christ.

That they will not come. To Jesus Christ. So the answer.

To the question. Why would a good God send people to hell. Is simply this.

He doesn’t. But he will let people go. To the place.

That they choose. Hebrews 2. 3 sends out a warning to us. How shall we escape.

If we neglect such a great salvation. It was declared at first by the Lord. And it is attested to us.

By those who heard. Friends I am here to tell you. How will you escape.

I mean you have this great opportunity. But you keep saying no. And how will you escape.

The results and the consequences. Of rejecting Jesus Christ. You say but listen.

My parents are leaders in the church. My parents are active in the church. I cut my teeth on the pews.

Of this church. Surely God would let me in. No my friends.

God has no grandchildren. He only has children. And no matter who you are.

Just as I always told my kids. As they were growing up. You don’t get to go to heaven.

Because you’re the pastors children. You have to make a personal decision. With Jesus Christ.

You have to follow Christ. Repent and believe. However you want to term it.

The Bible uses many terms. Of what it means. But you must be sincere.

You cannot ride. On the coattails of your family. You can’t ride on the coattails.

Of the pastor an elder a deacon. Or any other church member. You must come to grips.

And parents I want to tell you. And I am startled by this. By how many Christian parents today.

Have never had a heart to heart. Conversation with their children. About where they’re going to spend eternity.

You talk about being a missionary. And you talk about reaching the world. But why don’t you start in your own home.

How many parents. Have a hundred percent assurance. That their child has responded to God.

In an affirmative way. How many of you have sat down with them. And you say what do you mean pastor.

I’m talking about one on one. Face to face. Not being afraid.

To talk about spiritual things. To your children. Because I’m going to tell you.

Nothing is more important. Nothing is more important. I mean I know you’ll talk to your kids.

And you’ll say do you want to play soccer. Do you want to play baseball. Do you want to do dance classes.

Do you want to be a ballerina. And I think all that’s wonderful. And I’m all in.

But have you ever asked your children. Have you ever asked them. If you died today.

Would you go to heaven. Have you ever asked your child that. Have you ever.

There is nobody that has a greater influence. On that child than you mom. And you dad.

And if it’s not important to you. I promise you. It’s not important to the kids.

And you say well pastor they’re too young. My wife was five years old. When she came to Christ.

When her mother sat her down. And talked to her about her faith. Friends.

Kids are at different ages and maturity. So I’m all in. And all my kids were at different ages.

But if there was anything that was most important to Terry and I. Is that all of our children. Would know Jesus Christ. And let me tell you this.

I’m a grandpa now. And the most important thing. Is that all my grandkids.

And if the parents won’t. And they do. But if the parents won’t.

I will. I always told my kids when they were growing up. If you don’t have a plan I do.

If you don’t know what to do with your life. I do. And I would say that to anybody.

If you don’t know what to do with your life. And you’re in this limbo area. Friends I got a plan.

I got a plan. And I know some of you don’t like that. But I just am so certain.

That I know that God has a plan. For every person in this life. I may not know all the details.

But I know that God has a plan. And we’re going to get on our knees. And we’re going to seek God.

And we’re going to find that plan. And we’re going to be a fully devoted follower of Christ. Listen to me.

Every day people choose to live their lives. Apart from God. And I want to tell you out of great love.

God allows them. If they want to live apart from him. For all eternity.

He will get out of their way. He has done what is necessary. For you to have eternal life.

And now the question is. Have we responded? I know this morning that the truth is jabbing at you. And I know it’s uncomfortable.

And I know this is one of those days. When you came to church. And you said man the pastor is laying it on us.

But the only reason I’m doing it. Is because I believe hell is real. And I don’t want you to go there.

And there’s only one other person. Greater than me. That cares more.

And that. Is Jesus Christ. So I remind you this morning.

In closing. That hell is there. But I also want you to know.

The cross is there. And if you would just turn away from sin and self. And turn towards Jesus this morning.

Heaven. Can be. Your home.

Does God send people to hell? Well the truth is. We send ourselves to hell. God paves the way.

For us to have eternal life. And we respond to that. And so I know that some people.

Struggle with this question. And they even use it as a reason. Why they don’t believe.

But I want you to know. That the most important question is. Not does God send people to hell.

But the question is. Are you going to hell? Have you put your faith and trust. In the Lord Jesus Christ.

And received him as your savior. And if you haven’t. You need to make that decision today.

You need to respond to God. And it all begins by acknowledging. That you’re a sinner in need of a savior.

And then believing in your heart. That Jesus died on the cross. For your sins.

And rose again the third day. And calling upon him. And reaching out to him.

And receiving him as your lord and savior. This is Pastor Mike Sanders. Reminding you that in Christ.

There is hope worth having.

The post Does God Send People to Hell Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Does God Send People to Hell Part 1. He will be reading out of Revelation 14:8-10,20:15.

If you have ever doubted whether God loved you I want you to look to the cross if you have ever doubted whether God cares about your plight look to the cross Because Jesus on full display of love. He gave his life for you and for me Can God’s people say man? This is hope worth having and this is your host pastor Mike Sanders looking forward to sharing the hope that is found in Jesus Christ today We are gonna be in Revelation chapter 14, and we’re gonna be addressing this question Does God send people to hell so I want you to think about that and I want you to join me as we study this incredible question this morning I Want you to take your Bible this morning and join me in Revelation chapter 14 We’re gonna be covering verse 8 through 10 plus chapter 20 So put your finger there in chapter 14 and make sure that you go ahead and look up chapter 20 and verse 15 Revelation 14 8 through 10 and Revelation 20 through 15. I want to read these verses and then kind of give you a quick overview of Revelation chapter 14 and Dive into this all-important question Does God? Send people to hell Now we have been studying This series about five questions about heaven and five questions about hell Last week we finished our fifth question about heaven and today is our final question about hell Not that there aren’t other questions and not that we would never come back and consider those questions But for our particular series and study that we have been doing for the last few weeks This will be the final question that we will address in this series Revelation chapter 14 verse 8 The Bible says and another angel followed saying Babylon is fallen is Fallen that great city Because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication Then a third angel followed them saying with a loud voice if anyone worships the beast and his image and Receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand He himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God Which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation He shall be tormented with fire and Brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb Now I want you to go to chapter 20 verse 15 the last verse of chapter 20 The Bible says that anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire Revelation chapter 14 is an exciting chapter.

It’s an interesting chapter When you study this chapter, you’ll find that verses 1 through 5 describes the fate of the hundred and forty four Thousand that you may have heard of before but perhaps out of context we know the Bible teaches us that after the rapture of the church is the emergence of the Tribulation period which is for seven years within that seven-year period God will raise up a hundred and forty four thousand Jewish evangelists who will crisscross the known world preach the gospel to every person and Every part of the planet there is no person that will not hear about The gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the death burial and resurrection of Jesus these men that God has raised up in the tribulation will be divinely sealed and Protected as they carry out their ministry You know that the Antichrist will be in full reign during the tribulation period He will make every effort to stop the hundred and forty four thousand Evangelists he will oppress them. He will oppose them. He will do everything he can to silence them Destroy them and to kill them but because they are sealed and protected by God his Plans meaning the plans of the devil and the Antichrist will be thwarted but as we study revelation 14 we see that eventually the Timing and the lifespan of these hundred and forty four thousand evangelists will come to a completion and Then the Antichrist will be allowed to take their lives in Verses 1 through 5 we see them in heaven We see them in the presence of Jesus Christ We jump down to verse 14 through 20 of chapter 14 and we see the horrific battle of Armageddon That will occur at the end of the tribulation Now when people read the book of Revelation They make the mistake of thinking everything from verse to verse to chapter to chapter is in chronological order But that’s not always true So keep that in mind as you’re studying the book of Revelation and if you’re like me Sometimes I have to have my study helps just to figure out where am I at in the midst of the tribulation? Thank God Realistically, I believe that we’ll be raptured before the tribulation period because we have not been appointed unto wrath and That the tribulation period is about calling the nation of Israel back to him.

I hope your ears are open I hope your eyes are wide open I hope you’re hearing and seeing the signs of the times that are all around us one of the things that we know that is going to be a part of the beginning of the tribulation period is that there is going to be a peace agreement signed by the Antichrist for the nation of Israel and Promising them seven years of peace. Now. Why would that even be necessary? It is because all the nations will rise up Against the nation of Israel and they will want Israel to be destroyed The Bible gives a promise in Genesis 12 that if we will bless God’s people his chosen people the nation of Israel the Jewish people that if we will bless them Then he will bless us But we are in the midst of a time period in the nation of America where even our government opposes the nation of Israel You should not be shaken You should not be startled you should know that the signs of the times are upon us and That it won’t be long before Jesus calls the church home and we will be in the presence of God rejoicing enjoying all that he has promised us while the tribulation period is unfolding here on this earth We may not always like what we see we may not always agree with what we see But we need to have our spiritual antennas up and we need to be alert to what is happening so that we can make sure a that our heart is ready for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ and That not only that we are spiritually ready on fire on the front lines Totally committed fully devoted followers of Christ not playing footsie with the world and not trying to keep the other foot inside The church but totally committed to Jesus Christ all in 100% Amen, go ahead but the second reason that our antennas need to be up is because we have a Responsibility to be a voice in the wilderness and we must tell our friends We must tell our family we must tell every person that crosses our path whether they are strangers or people that we know that the signs of the times are among us and we must be ready and We must implore them and plead with them to be spiritually ready for we are not ignorant of the schemes and the tactics of the devil So in verses 14 through 20 this battle of Armageddon that will occur at the end of the tribulation We get a little insight, but we jump back to verse 6 through 13 and it helps us to see the future The future that awaits for two distinct classes of people verses 12 through 13 tell us the future of the faithful servant of God who endures who is obedient who will not quit who keeps going on who gets up every day and is Committed to the cause and the purpose of Jesus Christ But in verses 6 through 11 we learn about the future of lost sinners a Future that the Bible describes as a place called hell the Bible describes this place as being a place where the cup of God’s indignation or It is a place of torment and fire and brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels in the presence of the Lamb We go on and we could read in verse 11 and it talks more about this place where the Bible says in verse 11 that the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever and they have no rest day Or night who worshiped the beast and his image and whoever receives the mark of his name You know that in the tribulation period the Bible teaches us that they will not be able to buy or sell without the mark of the beast in Today’s terminology, we might say you can’t run to Walmart unless you have the mark of the beast You won’t be able to have your own business unless you have the mark of the beast.

They’ll be buying and selling But it won’t be for those Who do not have the mark of the beast? Who are those who will refuse to receive the mark of the beast during the tribulation period? It is those who will come to Jesus Christ Who will believe in Christ? this is why your testimony now is so essential to your family and to your friends because as you are warning them as you are pleading with them as you are Instructing them about what is to come and the signs of the times that are all around us that even though they may Resist you now and they may mock you or even laugh at you and think I think dad has gone Over and has lost it There’ll be one day that when the rapture takes place and they cannot find you and They are left behind That the Bible says in Daniel 12 verse 2 that they’ll be running to and fro that is that they’ll be running everywhere they can to find the answers and Daniel was reminded by the Angels that the book of Daniel will be opened up and people will begin to understand what they’re going through what they’re Experiencing and they’re gonna say grandma’s, right? We need to give our life to Christ so much better to do it now than later can God’s people say amen So much better now for today is the day of salvation Don’t wait, but friends if you do choose to wait I want you to know that it’s not gonna be an easy road. It’s not gonna be an easy life You say well my life’s not easy now friends. It’ll be Thousands of times worse in the tribulation period because if you become a believer and follow Christ And you refuse to take the mark of the beast that you will fall into the category of Matthew chapter 25 when the Bible tells us That I was hungry and you fed me I Was thirsty and you gave me to drink I Was naked and you clothed me.

Who are these people? I was in prison and you visited me Who are these people we think that they are people of today? Certainly applicable certainly something that is scriptural and we are taught in the scriptures But particularly in the context of Matthew 25 He is talking about the tribulation period and he is talking about those who refuse the mark of the beast and this is their plight And they will run to the hills they will have to hide from the Antichrist because his wrath will be upon this nation and he will want to destroy anyone who Believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and they will be thrown into prison They will not be able to eat or drink and they will not have any clothing and they will not be able to buy or sell Because they do not have the mark of the beast upon them and it’ll be those Who will step up and put their lives on the line to visit them to clothe them to minister to them They are the ones That God will honor and some will become martyrs and when you get to Revelation chapter 6 You see some of these martyrs around the throne and saying Lord, when will our blood be avenged? When will you make right every wrong that is happening in this world? God promises them that he will But it’ll be in his timing and his way and it’ll be in the scope of what he is doing in this nation and friends the Bible teaches us according to what we just read in Revelation that those who receive this mark and those who Refuse to follow Christ and those who refuse to believe in Jesus Christ that they will be cast into the lake of fire We shared with you a few weeks ago That we do not believe this lake of fire is a metaphor We do not believe that it’s something that Jesus was speaking in symbolism, but rather it was literal that as Jesus describes The place called hell and as we read the scriptures over and over we are reminded that it is a place of Torment and it is a place forever and ever So we have this question About hell and it is an often-asked question whether God could be a loving God and That if he is a loving God, how could the doctrine of hell be true? This is an issue that troubles many people It is so much of a hurdle for many people that they will just reject the doctrine of hell They’ll just say there’s no way that the love of God is Compatible with there being a place of hell for those who do not believe in Jesus Christ some even dismiss Christianity altogether and refuse to believe in Christ because they will not believe in a God That sends people to hell now some would say that if you believe in a God of love if God wants all the world to be saved and if he is not willing that any should perish and if he gave his own son to die for our sins How can it be that any would perish Why wouldn’t everybody just be saved? what kind of love sends people to an eternal lake of fire the Bible teaches us That God created hell He originally created hell according to the gospel of Matthew for Satan and his demonic angels who rebelled against him in heaven a Third of the angels were cast out of hell But not only will we find that there are demonic angels in hell, but we will find that there are humans God never intended That you and I that humans would go to hell but here we are the Bible teaches us Jesus says there’s only two ways There is the narrow way and There is the broad way the narrow way is those who believe in Christ those who follow God those who are fully devoted followers of Christ and then the broad way is those who Walk the way of the world live selfishly Do what they want could care less about God or Jesus What nothing to do with Christ the broad way would also include those who are religious They are religious on the outside, but there is no relationship with Jesus Christ in their heart Jesus said in Matthew 7 he said To those who were listening to him Depart from me you that work iniquity for I never knew you My friends you get to heaven by who you know Not by what you do Jesus already did all the work on the cross and you must have a relationship with Jesus Christ that relationship may have high Moments and low moments it may have an ebb and flow to it not because of Jesus But because of our hearts and because sometimes of our struggles and sometimes because of where we’re at in our faith in our maturity But I promise you my friends that if you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ The Bible tells us that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be what church Yeah And so that’s the most important thing we’ll get back to that and I’m jumping ahead of myself Which I tend to do My wife says Mike stick to the notes Stick to the notes. So three perspectives on this question that we have before us does God send people to hell The first thing I want you to see this morning is that God’s attribute of love is consistent with hell We have a harmony of God’s love and God’s justice We have a harmony of God’s love and this place that is called hell And I think no better verse captures that than Romans chapter 5 in verse 8 in which the Bible says God Commend us his love towards us and while we were yet sinners Christ died for us How much does God love you my friends so much? He wants to keep you out of hell. He gave his life for you He took the punishment.

He took the pain He took the very wrath of God upon him So you and I do not have to and that by faith in Jesus Christ that is applied to our heart now the particulars may vary from person to person and society to society But there is an agreement among all society and most likely all people That things that are wrong or what people do that are wrong should be punished That evil must be judged. I Stand up when you read the news or you you see it on your social media feed or you see it on television That’s why you stand up and say it’s just not right Well, where did that come from? For God has created within us a conscience and he has established within us a moral compass That the things that are wrong Somebody’s got to stand up and somebody’s got to say that it’s wrong and then it must be dealt with We think about drug dealers rapists murderers serial killers Corrupt politicians greedy people who get their way and they push on people take advantage of people and they create injustices in Our hearts we know that they must be dealt with and that they must be punished I appreciate Brother Arnold reaching reading Romans 5 because it’s such a beautiful text to understand Where you and I are at? And I want you to understand that all of us are under the wrath of God and Condemnation because we are sinners We are sinners and I know some of you say man Mike. I’m a pretty good guy I’ve do all these things and you got your ten good lists that you’re doing and I’m here and I’m with you and I’m Glad that you’re doing those ten things, but listen to me our righteousness doesn’t even come close to the righteousness of God The prophet Isaiah said that our righteousness is as filthy rags, and I know you don’t like me to talk about it But it’s true that you got to understand This is not the rag in your kitchen that you’ve been washing dishes with for the last 30 days And I would recommend that you put it in the laundry Ladies you’re killing us and guys.

I know not not just ladies excuse me. I am so out of touch. I apologize.

I apologize But this is the rag that the lepers would use to wipe the pus off of their skin Their skins would be filled with boils They would wipe it off And you would think that somebody would come along and they would give them a new rag and they would put it in the laundry And they would clean it up, but no this is the same rag that you would put in the laundry That one leper after another was used to wipe and they would come and they would take that same rag and wipe it again All over their body to wipe that pus off and here’s what the Bible says to us That our righteousness the best of Mike Sanders is nothing but a filthy leper Rag the best of Mike. I know that’s hard to swallow in this self-esteem world that we live in when everybody is so proud of themselves and Every once in a while somebody will tell me and I was just talking to something they were telling me how good they were And I said if you don’t say so yourself Amen the Bible says let another man’s lips praise you But we often jump in and I find myself there You know, I Do something and I say honey, isn’t that nice? I mow that lawn. Look at that lawn Ain’t that nice looking out there and She reminds me let another man’s lips praise you.

I Said I was hoping your lips would But here we are Hmm, we are sinners for all have sinned to come short of the glory of God. We’re all flawed We’re not perfect and this sin must be dealt with it must be paid for and the way that it is dealt with is through God’s holiness and Jesus delivered us and how did he do that by going to the cross being our substitute? Taking our place. Isaiah 53 5 says he was wounded for our transgressions He was bruised for our iniquities and the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes We are healed.

How is the love of God and the holiness of God? How are they? compatible and how are they in harmony because though we are sinners and Though we deserve to be in hell because of our sin out of great love God has reached out to us and he has provided a way for us to Experience the forgiveness of Jesus Christ and that he has taken our punishment on the cross He has taken our pain and if we would put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ Then my friends we can experience the true love of Jesus If you have ever doubted whether God loved you I want you to look to the cross if you have ever doubted whether God cares about your plight look to the cross Because Jesus on full display of love he gave his life for you And for me can God’s people say man. Oh Yeah, I love it now God’s provision for salvation Should ever put to rest the notion That God’s love and wrath or holiness are incompatible I Want you to understand that? Unlike us God can do two things at once. Amen.

I Was taking prayer requests this morning and some of the people that usually do that We have a little Facebook thing where we keep track of our prayer requests for each other in our Sunday school class I know pastor Mike was listening hearing Trying to type on his little phone to get it in there all by himself and I told him I said look you guys have got to slow down because I can’t take all this at once It’s too many things going on. I got to slow down one thing at a time Ladies, I’m not talking about just manhood. I Know you ladies say well we do all kinds of things At a time I hear you but God can love you and God can still punish sin.

Did you know that it’s true? So the second thing I want you to consider this morning is how can a God of holiness? Admit sinful people to heaven now the Bible says that God loves us But the Bible also declares that God is not only God of love but he is a God who is holy and And Someone says well pastor. How can a loving God send people to hell? Well, let me just invert it for you because this is the greater question I want you to consider how can a God of holiness admit sinful people into heaven? That’s the greater question That’s the most amazing thing to me that I’m not worthy of heaven I’m not worthy of salvation I am NOT deserving. I didn’t go to church enough God would say to me Hey Mike because you came 50 times out of the year then you get a straight pass into heaven.

That’s not how it works The question is not does God send people to hell that should not shock us But what shocks us is that God would send anybody to heaven because who is worthy to be in heaven? Who is worthy to stand before a holy God and yet? God makes that possible through Jesus Christ and today if you have never received Christ as your Savior this is your moment and it’s as simple as ABC by Acknowledging your sin that you are a sinner in need of a Savior and that be you believe in your heart that Christ died on the cross for your sin and he rose again for your future and Then that you would call upon him and that you would surrender your life to him Whoever calls on the name the Lord shall be saved how wonderful and beautiful that is my friend Don’t go to hell go to heaven through Jesus Christ and believe in him if you have made that decision today go to our website, let us know and Contact us and let us know of your decision to receive Christ. We want to know God’s good work in your life Maybe you’re rededicating your life to him We encourage you to inform us of that so we can send you some materials that will help you in your journey of faith This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ. There is hope worth having.

The post Does God Send People to Hell Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on What Kind of Bodies Will We Possess in Heaven Part 2. He will be reading out of 1 Corinthians 15: 42-53.

How is it that when we face death that we can keep going forward? It is because of the blessed hope that God has forgiven us of our sins and that whoever believes in the name of the Lord shall be saved, the Bible says. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders and we welcome you to the Hope Worth Having radio program. We’re delighted that you’re with us today.

We’re looking forward to sharing God’s word with you and we hope that you’ll be really inspired to live for Christ in the days ahead. Now we’re back in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We’re still addressing that question, what kind of bodies will we possess in heaven? So let’s get right into it today.

Now friends, there’s a lot of speculation. What will my resurrected body be like? I’ll be sharing a few of those things here in just a second, but I want you to understand we gotta be careful about being dogmatic. Draw the line where the Bible does, but don’t draw the line where the Bible doesn’t.

I got people running around there saying, hey, we’re gonna be 33 and a half. Well, I’d love to lose 21 years, that’d be wonderful. But there’s nothing in the Bible that says that.

The Bible actually says that you’ll be known as you are known. And so that’s quite a quandary, that’s quite a conflict. What the Bible says, look again at this verse, it should be up on the screen, that we will be like him.

Now it is not saying that you’ll be the same age as Jesus when he died on the cross or when he was resurrected and ascended into heaven. But what it is saying, in qualitative state of having a glorified body, you will have the very same glorified body as Jesus Christ. So be careful.

Again, I’ve done a lot of reading, a lot of researching, and everybody’s always saying, hey, we can’t be dogmatic about some of these things. And so some of you have children in heaven, and you wonder about your children. You wonder what will they be like.

I believe this. They will be known as they are known. And some of you say, well, will I be able to hold my baby again? I am convinced that you will.

Now I’m not going to be dogmatic about it, but I am going to say that I believe that one day in this great reunion, some of you have spouses, some of you have parents, and you have family members that are so dear to you, siblings that have been close friends to you, and you will know them as they are known. But here’s the beautiful thing. They will have a glorified body, a body that will not be subject to disease.

It will not be subject to all the problems of this world. It will be a body that will be glorious, and it will be just like our Savior. Christ is the model for what will happen for all who are found and believe in Jesus Christ.

So we know that the Lord’s glorified body was these things. And again, I encourage you to write this down. If you can’t write as fast as I can talk, I understand, but it is on the church app.

All my notes are in there, and they are available to you, and you can follow along on this in the church app. But here’s the point. First of all, I want you to see that the glorious body that Jesus had was a body that was not bound by time or space.

It is not bound by time or space. The things that I’m going to say to you about the glorious body of Jesus are backed up by Bible verses. They’re not speculative.

They’re not just Mike shooting from the hip. They’re coming right out of the Bible. They’re coming right out of the Word of God.

The second thing that we learn about the body of our Savior after his resurrection, that it was a body that can enjoy food and fellowship. That’s right. That even in the Gospels we see that in Jesus’ resurrected body he ate food.

He fellowshiped with others. He was recognizable. He was knowable.

He interact with living people. And I am convinced, friend, that we will enjoy food. People say, Why does God have us eat? Because he wants us to enjoy food.

Now, some have enjoyed food more than others, amen, and maybe some need to push away from the table and need to maybe not eat and enjoy so much. But here’s what I want you to understand, is that when you get to heaven, why, there’ll be no calories. Oh, I’m just kidding.

There’ll be the wonderful opportunity that Jesus talked about to his disciples before he was crucified and resurrected. He sat there and participated in the Passover, and he transitioned it from the Old Testament to the new covenant in Christ, and it was known as the Lord’s Supper or communion. And he said, This will be the last time on this earth that we will partake of this together until we meet again in heaven.

Friends, you and I are going to gather around the great table at the marriage supper of the Lamb, and we will have a great feast, and we will enjoy. People say, What are we going to eat up there? Well, if you ask Dr. Dino Padrone, we’re having spaghetti, amen. If you ask our brother up in Syracuse, Conroy Lewis, who I just saw the other day, he would say, We’re having chicken up in heaven, Pastor.

Friends, I don’t know what we’re going to have up in heaven, but I tell you this, it’ll be some of the best eating you’ve ever had. You say, Could it be better than my mother’s cooking? Oh, yeah, it’s going to be glorious because your mother’s cooking is the reason you have that big belly, okay? I’m teasing you, all right? So it’s a body not bound by time or space. It’s a body that can enjoy food and fellowship.

It is a body that can never die. Now, friends, this is the hard thing for us. Our bodies are going to die.

As a matter of fact, when we go back to our text, we are reminded that in verse 50 of chapter 15, now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. This body that you have right now, it’s not fit for heaven. How about that? And the reason it’s not fit for heaven is because it is a mortal body.

It is a corruptible body. It is a body that is not designed for eternity. And that’s why you have to lay down this body.

All of us are going to have to lay down this body. Now, we put so much emphasis on the body that it’s very difficult for us emotionally to lay down this body. But, friends, one day you are going to come to that moment where you lay down this body.

It’s not that it’s the end of you because your soul and spirit lives forever. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Can God’s people say amen? But, friends, one day God’s going to raise your body.

He’s going to remake it into an immortal, incorruptible body. Look again at verse 51. Behold, I tell you a mystery.

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be what, church? For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. That is what is waiting for us. That’s the body that Jesus had after his resurrection.

Number four, I want you to learn that it is a body that shines with a heavenly brilliance. It’s a body that shines with a heavenly brilliance. Because it is a glorified body, it is a body that brings the utmost glory to God.

There is a brilliance to this body. And, again, we provide these scriptures for you. I hope they’re up there on the PowerPoint or in the app, and you can research this, and you can study this, and see if the things that the pastor says is true.

And I think you will find them to be. But just in that understanding of the body, this is enough to let me know that I want one of those bodies someday, man. I want that body.

Now, the first thing that we learn together is that our resurrected body is gonna be like Jesus’ resurrected body. He is our pattern. He is our model.

But, number two, the resurrected body of believers is a literal body. It’s not just a body that is spiritual. People say, well, we believe in the resurrection, pastor, but we don’t believe it’s a physical resurrection.

We just believe it’s a spiritual resurrection. I wanna help you with that a little bit. First of all, I remind you, in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24, verse 39, again, Jesus said, in his resurrected body, behold, my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.

Handle me and see me, for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see me have. If we’ve already concluded that our body is gonna be like Christ’s resurrected body, then Christ’s resurrected body was one in which he not only told him to see it, but he told him to handle it or touch it. He told him that it was a physical body.

It was a body of flesh and bones. It was a body that had the flesh, a glorified flesh, and a glorified structure of the bones. It was a literal body, because the spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see me have.

All saints will be reconstructed. We go back to verse 50, and again, I’m gonna read a few verses here just to help us out a little bit. Behold, I tell you a mystery.

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed, for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. How beautiful.

Now, what does this mean? What does this mean that God is saying that we’re gonna have a literal body? Friends, I want you to understand that he’s helping us, and you go back to 1 Corinthians 15, and you go back and he talks about verse 44, that it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. What does this mean, pastor? What does this mean? What does this mean? He’s talking again, and I’ll bring more light to this, but again, he’s not talking about that it’s just gonna be a spirit, but it’s gonna be spiritual in that the Spirit of God is going to raise this body just like the Spirit of God raised our Savior, but it’s a body that is not like the body you have in this sense. It cannot experience death.

It cannot experience decay. It cannot experience disease. Some of you say, man, I can’t see as good as I used to.

Why would Glenn get up here and say, man, I love these new pew Bibles? I never had anybody say that before. Well, that’s because when he gets up here, he can’t see, and he has to keep getting closer and closer and closer, and some of you are doing that even at your home. You’re getting closer and closer, so we got larger print.

Now, why did we get larger print? Because the pastor one day picked up one of these Bibles and said, man, I can’t read it. I can’t see, and I put the edict out there. Order some new pew Bibles and make sure that they’re larger font so we can read because us old people, well, not quite.

I still have a year, according to Jerry. I’m 54. He only takes old people that are 55 and up, but he’s gonna make an exception for me.

How about that? I can’t see that well, but he told me to drive the bus. We’re gonna have good times. Listen, your body is decaying, and we are experiencing things.

People say, why is there disease in this world? Why is there cancer? Why does this thing happen to this person or that person? Friends, I’m just here to tell you, it’s not that they did anything wrong or that they did anything right. Maybe they shouldn’t have drank as much Mountain Dew as maybe the other person didn’t. I don’t know, but all I am saying is this, that these bodies don’t live forever, and they get diseased, and some of you, you woke up this morning, and your ankle hurts, and some of you, your hip hurts, and some of you, your shoulder hurts, and some of you, you’re still trying to find what you lost.

You’re still looking for it because you got one of those extra parts, and so you went out there, and you said, give me that, where is that thing at? But anyways, our bodies don’t last forever. That’s what Paul means. All that’s going away.

That’s going away. The third thing I want you to learn this morning is that the resurrection body is a glorified body of flesh. It’s a glorified body of flesh.

Again, let’s go back to, I wanted to read verse 44. I was kind of getting a little bit ahead of myself, but here’s what I want you to see. It is sown a natural body.

It is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body, and so it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

To have a spiritual body is not to have a body that’s made out of spiritual stuff, but it is a body that God gives to us that is controlled and directed by the Holy Spirit. The idea behind the word spiritual in the Greek is one of control or one of guidance, not substance. Please understand that.

I think Romans 8-11 helps us to see that. Look, Romans 8-11, but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, remember, who is it that raised Jesus from the dead? The spirit of the Father who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. Now, look back at verse 37 of chapter 15.

Look back there. Go ahead and join me. Look back at verse 37 and 38, and here, notice what it says.

And what you sow, you do not sow that body that it shall be but mere grain, perhaps wheat or some other grain, but God gives it a body as he pleases and to each seed its own body. So again, the apostle takes time to make analogies, and he’ll use analogies of animals, and he uses analogy of the plant life and seeds, and he’s saying that our body is sown into the ground, just like a seed is sown into the ground. When you plant that seed into the ground, what emerges? Well, we hope, at least those of you that have a green thumb, we hope that a beautiful plant comes forward.

I mean, you don’t want a dandelion, do you? You want a beautiful plant, a beautiful tree, something that is meaningful to you? Here’s what the apostle is doing. He is saying this. When God puts us in the ground, we are like a seed, and that what comes forth out of that when God brings the resurrection will be more beautiful than the seed.

Your resurrected body will be more beautiful than the seed. This body is a seed that is gonna be sown into the ground. It will decay.

Dust to dust, the Bible says. Ashes to ashes. It will decay.

But one day, God is gonna take that, and he is going to fashion something more beautiful, something more glorious, something that is immortal, something that is incorruptible, and so these mortal bodies that we have will be changed into immortal ones, and our glorified bodies will shine like the brilliance of 10,000 suns. Some of you missed the eclipse. You forgot about it, but the eclipse, the sun was covered, and the brilliance of the sun was hard to see, but friends, hear me.

When your body is glorified and immortal, it’ll have the glory and the shine and the brilliance of 10,000 suns. What a day that will be. Now, the final thing that I want you to learn this morning is that the resurrection body is a glorified version of the same body that died and was buried.

All believers will wear a glorified body at the resurrection. The old body will become the new body, but it will be your body. You might say, how is this possible? Again, are you putting a lid on God? Are you limiting God and saying that he could never do this? Some people say, Pastor, what about cremation? Is there anything wrong with that in the Bible? No, there’s nothing.

The Bible doesn’t really address it. I tell people you can do it the quick way or the slow way. You can put your body in the ground, and it’s going to eventually go back to dust to dust and ashes to ashes, or you can expedite things and go dust to dust, ashes to ashes as quick as you want.

Let me tell you something. It doesn’t matter, because it will not hinder God, because he will take that, and he will fashion him a new glorious body for you. He will fashion a body that is beautiful.

It’ll be your same body that you had, but it’ll be glorious. That’s why we will be known as we are known, because we will be identifiable. Jesus was identifiable.

He was one that they could recognize, and they understood who he was. And so it is for you and I, as we interact with our loved ones in heaven, as we are in our resurrected state, people are going to say, I know that guy. I know that guy.

Have you ever been somewhere and said, man, I know that person, but I can’t remember their name? I mean, the other day I was out there somewhere. Who knows where I was, but I was somewhere, and somebody waved, and I thought I knew them, but I didn’t know them, and I waved back, but they weren’t waving to me. They were waving to somebody else.

Oh, you talk about embarrassing. You see, the Lord knows how to keep us humble, doesn’t he? And so there I was waving, thinking that I knew them and they knew me. Friends, if I can’t remember your name, I want you to know that you’re my buddy.

I just say, hey, buddy, I can’t remember your name. I mean, you’re my buddy now, all right? And so that’s how we roll. But I’m just telling you that you and I are blessed in that God is gonna take our body, and he’s gonna resurrect it.

He’s going to renew it. It is described in the Bible as something of a new creation out of an old creation. So again, we go back to verse 51, and I want you to see this, because it’s not like that God is not using your old body.

Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, and that’s a whole nother sermon. You people say, Pastor, what’s that mean? It’s a whole nother sermon.

You got another couple hours? I didn’t think so, but just focus on this. We shall all be chained, okay? So that’s what he’s talking about. Look at verse 53.

This current corruptible body, it’s incorruptible. This current mortal body, it becomes immortal. So that’s beautiful, and we think about that.

2 Corinthians 5.1 helps us to grasp this a little bit better. The Bible says, for we know that if our earthly house, which is our current body, this tent is destroyed. How is it destroyed? Just time could destroy it.

Just got old. The tires are wore out. It’s just got old.

We have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. That’s what God has for us. That’s what we’re thinking about, and so I tell people, would you be okay to lay down this tent of a body so that you could inherit an eternal house from God that’ll be more glorious, more beautiful, and it’ll be more functional, and it’ll never get tired? Did you know we’re gonna work in heaven? And I know that bums some of you out, because all your life, you’ve been working towards retirement.

You’ve been waiting for the day that you could wake up, and every day is Saturday to you, and you’re retired. And one guy said to me, he said, I’m more busy in retirement than I was ever when I was working, Pastor. And that’s true, I understand that.

But you’re maybe longing for that day that you don’t have to work, but guess what? When you get to heaven, you’re gonna work, but here’s the difference. You’re never going to be tired. You’re gonna have a job from God.

You’re gonna have an assignment from God. It’s gonna be based on your faithfulness and obedience now. It’s gonna be based upon the gifts and talents he’s given you, and it’s gonna be based upon his plan for you.

You’re gonna have a job. New heaven, new earth, the Bible says. New heaven, new earth.

I’ve been asking God, why don’t you put me in charge of all the golf courses? Because I’m the worst golfer at the open door church. Not one member has ever let me win, not one. They’ve all came in, pounced on me, and destroyed me, and left me flailing in the wind.

And not even my own kids would let me win. Their poor old, crepid dad, they’re out there. I said, hey, there was a day when I had to give up basketball.

Then it was that day when Austin took that basketball, my oldest son, and we were out in the driveway, and he jumped up, and he dunked it right over my face. And he said to me, dad, I just posterized you. I said, what’s that mean? He said, that’s a picture that we could put on a poster.

And I said, I’m done. And I thought, well, I’ll teach him how to play golf. I’ll teach him how to play golf.

That’s something I could always beat him at, and that’s something that we could always do, even when dad is old and crepid. But you know what, friends? They destroy me. I mean, I try to get it out there 150, 200 yards.

They’re out there knocking it 300 yards. And I’m still back at the tee when they’re up there at the green, ready to putt and say, come on, dad. We gotta hurry up.

There’s people waiting behind us. I said, I’m just trying to find my ball. Where did it go? But friends, I want you to know that we are a blessed people because God is gonna take what we have, and he’s gonna give us this new body.

And someone might ask the question, how can a Christian have so much confidence in the face of death? Because the Bible says here in verse 55, oh, death, where is your sting? Oh, Hades or hell, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. And then the apostle says, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

Now look, he’s saying, don’t quit. Keep going forward. How is it that when we face death and we face the struggles and the problems of this world that we can keep going forward? It is because of the blessed hope, and the blessed hope is not only inclusive that we have our salvation, that God has forgiven us of our sins, and that whoever believes in the name of the Lord shall be saved, the Bible says, but we also have the hope that we’re getting brand new bodies.

We’re getting brand new bodies that are going to be glorious and immortal. How else can we have hope and confidence in the face of death? It is because what the Bible says here that death no longer has a sting, and hell no longer has a victory. And how is that, friends? Because we still do funerals, and still people die, and still we deal with the problems of suffering and the sting seems to be so evident in our lives.

Let me tell you how it is by illustrating it this way. One time, a bee got into the car of a father and his son, and the son was melting down, freaking out, yelling, and screaming. And the dad said, calm down.

He said, Dad, there’s a bee, and I don’t want it to sting me. He turned around, grabbed the bee, took the sting, and let the bee out the window. And he said, Son, the bee no longer has a sting.

Jesus Christ went to the cross for your sins and my sins, and he took the sting. He took the poison of death and the curse of sin and the curse of the law and the demand that sin be paid for and punished on the cross. Jesus took it for you, and he took it for me.

My friends, there’s coming a day when Jesus will raise our bodies up, and not only will the sting be taken away spiritually, but it’ll be taken away physically, and it’ll all pass away, and you and I will not understand death anymore because we will know no death. And when the Bible describes heaven, that it is a place there is no sorrow, there is no sadness, and there is no more. May it be true in your heart that you have applied the work of Christ to your heart in which he took the sting of death away, and you have received Jesus Christ as your Savior.

♪♪ It’s quite amazing when you think about the resurrected body. We talked about it being eternal, immortal, but incorruptible, a body that does not decay. How wonderful is that? You’re not gonna wake up with arthritis.

You’re not gonna wake up with pains. You are going to enjoy the blessedness of a brand-new, immortal, incorruptible body. We hope today that you will continue to go to our website and sign up for our newsletter.

HopeWorthHaving.com is where you can sign up for the newsletter, and you can find out what things are going on, what events, activities, and ministries are going on at the Hope Worth Having ministry. So take advantage of that, and we look forward to hearing from you. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.

The post What Kind of Bodies Will We Possess in Heaven Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on What Kind of Bodies Will We Possess in Heaven Part 1. He will be reading out of 1 Corinthians 15: 42-53.

Some of you have spouses, some of you have parents, and you have family members that are so dear to you, siblings that have been close friends to you, and you will know them as they are known, but here’s the beautiful thing, they will have a glorified body. It’s time for Hope Worth Having radio program. My name is Mike Sanders, senior pastor of the Open Door Church, and we’re excited that you could join us.

Today we are going back to a study on heaven, and so the question before us is, what kind of bodies will we possess in heaven? We’re gonna be in 1st Corinthians 15 verse 42 through 53, and what will our bodies be like? That’s a great question, so let’s get into the Word of God and find out. Let’s take our Bibles this morning and let’s go to 1st Corinthians chapter 15. 1st Corinthians chapter 15 verse 42 through 53 will be our text.

As you’re turning there, I remind you that we’ve been in this series of five questions about heaven and five questions about hell, and this is the last question on heaven. We are addressing it today, and that is simply the question, what kind of bodies will we possess when we are in heaven? What kind of bodies will we possess? Now, when we come to 1st Corinthians chapter 15, we are reminded that the purpose of this chapter is the apostle wants to answer questions that the leadership of the church has sent to him about specifically the resurrection. Now, unfortunately, there were some in the church at Corinth who did not even believe in any kind of a resurrection, and then there were those that only believed in a spiritual resurrection but not a bodily resurrection.

So it is with those questions and thoughts and understanding that the apostle writes 1st Corinthians chapter 15 under the inspiration of the Spirit of God. Now, sometimes when we think about bodily resurrection, it’s hard for us to conceive it. It’s hard for us to fully understand it.

We taught you many weeks ago that when our loved ones leave this world and they are promoted to heaven, their soul and spirit goes to be with God. The Bible tells us to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. We have the misconception that sometimes the body, soul, and spirit immediately goes to be with God, but that’s not true.

Just the soul and spirit. There will be a resurrection. Jesus taught us that he would raise us up in the last day.

The apostle Paul said, the dead in Christ shall rise. There is coming a time when the soul and the spirit and the body will be reunited in a resurrection, and then there will be that body, soul, and spirit living with God throughout all of eternity. Yet some are of the persuasion that there will never be a uniting of their soul and their spirit, and that their body will always remain in the ground, and it will never be resurrected.

But I want you to know that the teaching of the resurrection of the body of the believer in Jesus Christ is a foundational teaching in Christianity. It is central to the Christian’s blessed hope. We believe without a doubt that not only did Jesus Christ rise from the tomb, that Jesus Christ bodily was resurrected, but we also believe that we, as followers of Christ, will one day experience the same resurrection, which takes me to my first point that I want us to learn as we try to understand what kind of bodies will we possess, and that is that Jesus’ resurrected body is the pattern or the model for our resurrected body.

Now, let’s pick up in verse 42, and let’s begin to read together in this passage. The Bible says, So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption.

It is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory.

It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body.

It is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body, and so it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being. The last Adam, which is referring to Christ, became a life-giving spirit.

However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward, the spiritual. The first man was on the earth made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven.

And was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust. And as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are heavenly. Verse 49, And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man.

Now, this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Now, I want you to go back to verse 49 again, and I want you to see this emphasis that the apostle makes as he says to us, and as we have borne the image of the man of dust, which is Adam, and he says, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man, which is Jesus Christ. In essence, what the apostle was teaching us, that our resurrected bodies will reflect the resurrected body of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

We jump back to verse 23 of chapter 15. Just back up for me, if you will. As the apostle was teaching about the resurrection, he is teaching the order in which the resurrection will take place, in that there are many different resurrections in the scripture.

We’ve taught you that before, and we went through those different resurrections. But here, the apostle reminds us of that order, verse 23, but each one in his own order, Christ, the firstfruits. Afterward, those who are Christ at his coming, then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom of God, the Father, when he puts an end to all rule and all authority and power, for he must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet.

Go back to verse 23, that phrase, Christ, the firstfruits. What is he talking about, the firstfruits? The farmers in the Middle East, when they would see the firstfruits of their crop, they would understand, not that it was the first resurrection in order relating to, I ran the race and I was first, but rather the first in quality. He was talking about, this will be the kind of resurrection that you will have.

You will have the same resurrection that Christ has had. We know that Jesus was not the first to be resurrected. If we’re students of the Bible, we know that Lazarus himself, in John chapter 11, was resurrected before Jesus Christ.

We go back to the Old Testament and we’re reminded that Elijah the prophet laid over a child and that child was resurrected from death. So we’re not talking about first in the sense of, I ran the race and I was first, but we’re talking about the firstfruits, the first kind of resurrection. What’s the distinction between the resurrection of Christ and all resurrections that had preceded the resurrection of Christ? It is simply this, that the resurrection of Christ was a resurrection unto life.

And all other resurrections before that were resurrections unto death. Meaning, yes, Lazarus was resurrected, but Lazarus had to die again. But when Christ was resurrected, he was resurrected forever and he is alive forevermore.

And what the apostle is saying is that your resurrection is going to be like the resurrection of Christ. And that in this understanding that it is the firstfruits, that is that all resurrections that come after the resurrection of Christ are resurrections unto life. So Jesus’s resurrection, as well as his body that was resurrected, is a pattern for us.

And again, verse 49 certainly teaches us that as we have learned. So the body is destined to perish, but the Bible tells us it will be made like the body of our Lord. You say, what do you mean? Well, again, Philippians 3.21, the Bible says, who will transform our lowly body.

Let me just stop there. That our body that is limited a body that you now live in that is selfish and sinful, a body that is subject to disease and viruses, a body that is not immortal or incorruptible, but a body as much as you dislike it, it is dying every day. And I know that many of you are doing everything you can to keep your body new and to somehow find the fountain of youth.

But friends, time will catch up with you as it has everybody. And so when the apostle says in Philippians 3.21, who will transform our lowly body, we understand that, that it may be conformed to his glorious body that is the body of Jesus according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself. When the Bible says he is able to subdue all things to himself, it is talking about the authority of Christ, and it is talking about the power of Christ, meaning that God not only has the authority to raise your body, your lowly body, and to transform it into a new body, he has the power to do that.

And you say, I don’t know, Mike, I don’t know if I can embrace that. I don’t know if I can believe that. Are you telling me the God of this universe who created the heavens and the earth, and he from the dust of the earth created Adam and Eve, you’re telling me that he cannot raise our bodies into a new resurrected body? Oh, friends, I’m here to tell you that God is able, and he can do great and mighty things.

You and I will one day be changed perfectly. Our loved ones who love Jesus Christ, and their soul and spirit is even now in the presence of God, enjoying all the blessings that come with that, one day they will be changed perfectly. Their bodies will.

When this change comes, God will remake us into the image of our glorified savior, Jesus Christ. Hang on to this verse. First John 3, two says, beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be.

We know that when he appears, we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is. So much to unpack in just this verse. Don’t have enough time, but let me just give you a few things to remind you.

It has not appeared as yet what we will be. Now, friends, there’s a lot of speculation. What will my resurrected body be like? I’ll be sharing a few of those things here in just a second, but I want you to understand, we gotta be careful about being dogmatic.

Draw the line where the Bible does, but don’t draw the line where the Bible doesn’t. I got people running around there saying, hey, we’re gonna be 33 and a half. Well, I’d love to lose 21 years, that’d be wonderful, but there’s nothing in the Bible that says that.

The Bible actually says that you’ll be known as you are known. And so that’s quite a quandary. That’s quite a conflict.

What the Bible says, look again at this verse, it should be up on the screen, that we will be like him. Now, it is not saying that you’ll be the same age as Jesus when he died on the cross, or when he was resurrected and ascended into heaven, but what it is saying in qualitative state of having a glorified body, you will have the very same glorified body as Jesus Christ. So be careful.

Again, I’ve done a lot of reading, a lot of researching, and everybody’s always saying, hey, we can’t be dogmatic about some of these things. And so some of you have children in heaven, and you wonder about your children. You wonder what will they be like? I believe this, they will be known as they are known.

And some of you say, well, will I be able to hold my baby again? I am convinced that you will. Now, I’m not gonna be dogmatic about it, but I am gonna say that I believe that one day in this great reunion, some of you have spouses, some of you have parents, and you have family members that are so dear to you, siblings that have been close friends to you, and you will know them as they are known, but here’s the beautiful thing. They will have a glorified body, a body that will not be subject to disease.

It will not be subject to all the problems of this world. It’ll be a body that’ll be glorious, and it’ll be just like our Savior. Christ is the model for what will happen for all who are found and believe in Jesus Christ.

So we know that the Lord’s glorified body was these things. And again, I encourage you to write this down. If you can’t write as fast as I can talk, I understand, but it is on the church app.

All my notes are in there, and they are available to you, and you can follow along on this in the church app. But here’s the point. First of all, I want you to see that the glorious body that Jesus had was a body that was not bound by time or space.

It is not bound by time or space. The things that I’m gonna say to you about the glorious body of Jesus are backed up by Bible verses. They’re not speculative.

They’re not just Mike shooting from the hip. They’re coming right out of the Bible. They’re coming right out of the word of God.

The second thing that we learn about the body of our Savior after his resurrection, that it was a body that can enjoy food and fellowship. That’s right. That even in the Gospels, we see that in Jesus’s resurrected body, he ate food.

He fellowshiped with others. He was recognizable. He was knowable.

He interact with living people. And I am convinced, friend, that we will enjoy food. People say, why does God have us eat? Because he wants us to enjoy food.

Now, some have enjoyed food more than others, amen? And maybe some need to push away from the table and need to maybe not eat and enjoy so much. But here’s what I want you to understand is that when you get to heaven, why, there’ll be no calories. Oh, I’m just kidding.

There’ll be the wonderful opportunity that Jesus talked about to his disciples before he was crucified and resurrected. He sat there and participated in the Passover and he transitioned it from the Old Testament to the New Covenant in Christ. And it was known as the Lord’s Supper or communion.

And he said, this will be the last time on this earth that we will partake of this together until we meet again in heaven. Friends, you and I are gonna gather around the great table at the marriage supper of the Lamb and we will have a great feast and we will enjoy. People say, what are we gonna eat up there? Well, if you ask Dr. Dino Padrone, we’re having spaghetti.

Amen? If you ask our brother up in Syracuse, Conroy Lewis, who I just saw the other day, he would say, we’re having chicken up in heaven, pastor. Friends, I don’t know what we’re gonna have up in heaven, but I tell you this, it’ll be some of the best eating you’ve ever had. You say, could it be better than my mother’s cooking? Oh yeah, it’s gonna be glorious because your mother’s cooking is the reason you have that big belly.

Okay? I’m teasing you. All right, so it’s a body not bound by time or space. It’s a body that can enjoy food and fellowship.

It is a body that can never die. Now friends, this is the hard thing for us. Our bodies are going to die.

As a matter of fact, when we go back to our text, we are reminded that in verse 50 of chapter 15, now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. This body that you have right now, it’s not fit for heaven. How about that? And the reason it’s not fit for heaven is because it is a mortal body.

It is a corruptible body. It is a body that is not designed for eternity. And that’s why you have to lay down this body.

All of us are going to have to lay down this body. Now we put so much emphasis on the body that it’s very difficult for us emotionally to lay down this body. But friends, one day you are going to come to that moment where you lay down this body.

It’s not that it’s the end of you because your soul and spirit lives forever. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Can God’s people say amen? But friends, one day God’s going to raise your body.

He’s going to remake it into an immortal, incorruptible body. Look again at verse 51. Behold, I tell you a mystery.

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible. And we shall be what church? For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality.

That is what is waiting for us. That’s the body that Jesus had after his resurrection. Number four, I want you to learn that it is a body that shines with a heavenly brilliance.

It’s a body that shines with a heavenly brilliance because it is a glorified body. It is a body that brings the utmost glory to God. There is a brilliance to this body.

And again, we provide these scriptures for you. I hope they’re up there on the PowerPoint or in the app and you can research this and you can study this and see if the things that the pastor says is true. And I think you will find them to be.

But just in that understanding of the body, this is enough to let me know that I want one of those bodies someday, man. I want that body. Now, the first thing that we learn together is that our resurrected body is gonna be like Jesus’s resurrected body.

He is our pattern. He is our model. But number two, the resurrected body of believers is a literal body.

It’s not just a body that is spiritual. People say, well, we believe in the resurrection, pastor, but we don’t believe it’s a physical resurrection. We just believe it’s a spiritual resurrection.

I wanna help you with that a little bit. First of all, I remind you in the Gospel of Luke chapter 24, verse 39. Again, Jesus said in his resurrected body, behold, my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.

Handle me and see me, for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see me have. If we’ve already concluded that our body is gonna be like Christ’s resurrected body, then Christ’s resurrected body was one in which he not only told him to see it, but he told him to handle it or touch it. He told him that it was a physical body.

It was a body of flesh and bones. It was a body that had the flesh, a glorified flesh, and a glorified structure of the bones. It was a literal body because the spirit has not flesh and bones as you see me have.

All saints will be reconstructed. We go back to verse 50, and again, I’m gonna read a few verses here just to help us out a little bit. Behold, I tell you a mystery.

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed, for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. How beautiful.

Now, what does this mean? What does this mean that God is saying that we’re gonna have a literal body? Friends, I want you to understand that he’s helping us, and you go back to 1 Corinthians 15, and you go back and he talks about verse 44, that it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. What does this mean, pastor? What does this mean? What does this mean? He’s talking again, and I’ll bring more light to this, but again, he’s not talking about that it’s just gonna be a spirit, but it’s gonna be spiritual in that the Spirit of God is going to raise this body just like the Spirit of God raised our Savior, but it’s a body that is not like the body you have in this sense. It cannot experience death.

It cannot experience decay. It cannot experience disease. Some of you say, man, I can’t see as good as I used to.

Why would Glenn get up here and say, man, I love these new pew Bibles? I never had anybody say that before. Well, that’s because when he gets up here, he can’t see, and he has to keep getting closer and closer and closer, and some of you are doing that even at your home. You’re getting closer and closer, so we got larger print.

Now, why did we get larger print? Because the pastor one day picked up one of these Bibles and said, man, I can’t read it. I can’t see, and I put the edict out there. Order some new pew Bibles and make sure that they’re larger font so we can read because us old people.

Well, not quite. I still have a year according to Jerry. I’m 54.

He only takes old people that are 55 and up, but he’s gonna make an exception for me. How about that? I can’t see that well, but he told me to drive the bus. We’re gonna have good times.

Listen, your body is decaying, and we are experiencing things. People say, why is there disease in this world? Why is there cancer? Why does this thing happen to this person or that person? Friends, I’m just here to tell you it’s not that they did anything wrong or that they did anything right. Maybe they shouldn’t have drank as much Mountain Dew as maybe the other person didn’t.

I don’t know, but all I am saying is this, that these bodies don’t live forever, and they get diseased. And some of you, you woke up this morning and your ankle hurts, and some of you, your hip hurts, and some of you, your shoulder hurts, and some of you, you’re still trying to find what you lost. You’re still looking for it because you got one of those extra parts, and so you went out there and you said, give me that, where is that thing at? But anyways, our bodies don’t last forever.

That’s what Paul means. All that’s going away. That’s going away.

The third thing I want you to learn this morning is that the resurrection body is a glorified body of flesh. It’s a glorified body of flesh. Again, let’s go back to, I wanted to read verse 44.

I was kind of getting a little bit ahead of myself, but here’s what I want you to see. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body.

There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body, and so it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. To have a spiritual body is not to have a body that’s made out of spiritual stuff, but it is a body that God gives to us that is controlled and directed by the Holy Spirit.

The idea behind the word spiritual in the Greek is one of control or one of guidance, not substance. Please understand that. I think Romans 8-11 helps us to see that.

Look, Romans 8-11, but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, remember, who is it that raised Jesus from the dead? The spirit of the father who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. Now, look back at verse 37 of chapter 15. Look back there.

Go ahead and join me. Look back at verse 37 and 38, and here, notice what it says. And what you sow, you do not sow that body that it shall be, but mere grain, perhaps wheat or some other grain.

But God gives it a body as he pleases and to each seed its own body. It’s quite amazing when you think about the resurrected body. We talked about it being eternal, immortal, but incorruptible, a body that does not decay.

How wonderful is that? You’re not gonna wake up with arthritis. You’re not gonna wake up with pains. You are going to enjoy the blessedness of a brand new, immortal, incorruptible body.

The apostle describes that in 1 Corinthians 15. We encourage you to go even further in our study and go deeper and just contemplate and think about what it means to possess a new body in heaven. It’s gonna be glorious.

We hope today that you will continue to go to our website and sign up for our newsletter. HopeWorthHaving.com is where you can sign up for the newsletter and you can find out what things are going on, what events, activities, and ministries are going on at the Hope Worth Having ministry, so take advantage of that. And we look forward to hearing from you.

This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.

The post What Kind of Bodies Will We Possess in Heaven Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Are the Fires of Hell Literal? Part 2. He will be reading out of Revelation 20: 7-10.

When God promotes you as a believer, Jesus has the authority to bring you through those beautiful gates and into the presence of God and reunited with your family and your friends. Can God’s people say amen? Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church. This is the Hope Worth Having radio program.

Thank you for tuning in. We’re excited that you could be with us today. And we’re going to continue our topic on hell.

And the question is, are the fires of hell literal? We’re in Revelation chapter 20, verse 7 through 10. And let’s open our Bibles and let’s get into study this interesting topic. Those who have refused to believe in Christ even now are in a what we might refer to as a temporary hell.

We have taught you about the five different names for hell. The New Testament often refers to this temporary hell as Hades, sometimes even Gehenna. And it is a place in the Old Testament was called Sheol, and it was the abiding of the dead, the place of the dead.

And that is a place that they go as believers who have trusted in Christ for their salvation. The Bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Can God’s people say amen? And so we are in the immediate presence of Jesus Christ, and we are enjoying all the blessings and rewards that God has for us.

But those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, they are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. What awaits for them is not only a hell that is separated from God, but a place that the Bible refers to as the Lake of Fire. The Lake of Fire, the eternal destination of the devil and all of his demons and those who reject Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Now, the question before us this morning, as we have been learning about hell in the Bible, is are the fires of hell literal? There are many, even within evangelical Christianity, who would say to you that when the Bible refers to hell, it’s all figurative, that it is not literal or it is not even real. Well, I want to share with you, first of all, the argument for a literal fire. Note again that Jesus said in Matthew 25, verse 41, Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

You understand that the devil rose up against Almighty God. You understand, we’ve already taught you that the Scriptures teach us that the devil was filled with pride in heaven and he was cast out and a third of the angels with him. These are his demonic forces that are crisscrossing this world, causing so much chaos in this world.

The devil’s desire, Jesus taught us, was to kill and to destroy. Never forget that it is the devil’s desire to destroy your family, to destroy your life, and to destroy your testimony, and to make a mess of this world. I think he’s doing a pretty good job.

I hate to say that. I hate to say that. The world is in chaos, the world is in confusion, but it is only setting the table for the Antichrist to come in with all the solutions and all the answers and claim to be the one who can bring peace.

But it’s a pseudo, it’s a false, it’s a fake peace. We know that. That’s why I tell you that Jesus taught us this.

He taught us what it would be like and what the circumstances and what the environment would be like before his return, which would be at the end of the tribulation. But Jesus describes this day of judgment in Matthew 25, and he describes those who are cast into this lake of fire as an everlasting fire. You remember that we taught you that the Bible describes hell also as Gehenna, and Gehenna was an actual burning place outside of Jerusalem.

It was in the valley of Gehenna, and it was adjacent, just south of Jerusalem, and it was a place where we might call it a burn pile. Now, every once in a while, I might drive around our county and different people will be burning trash, and the smoke gets everywhere, and I start hacking and coughing, and they mess me up for at least two weeks, amen? Trying to figure all that out. The church used to have a burn pile, and finally the fire department said, please stop.

Please stop burning all that trash. You say, where would all that trash come from? Well, if you have a Christian school of 500 students, there is a lot of trash. Don’t be upset, students, but I’m just saying there’s a lot of wear and tear.

There’s a lot of food. There’s a lot of eating. There’s a lot of paper plates.

There’s a lot of stuff that has to be thrown away, and it has to be gotten rid of, and sometimes we would burn some of that trash. I want you in your mind to understand that there was a place south of Jerusalem called Gehenna. As Jesus spoke about hell, he would reference this burn pile, this place where it was constantly burning.

It was such a massive place of burning. They not only put their trash there. The pagans would put their dead bodies in this burn pile, and it was just constantly burning and burning, and Jesus is referencing to us that he is teaching about hell, that it is a place of fire.

It is a place where there is constant burning. Now, one might ask two questions relating to that, which I think are really good questions, and I appreciate that there is thinking going on, amen? It’s good to see people come into the church and not take their thinking cap off and to have some good questions, but we know, first of all, Jesus described hell as a place of outer darkness, and yet he describes it as a place where there is an eternal fire. We know that fire gives off light, and so how is this possible that fire could be literal, and yet it be a place of outer darkness? Well, friends, there is some kind of a unique fire that God is going to create that does not give off light.

The second question you might have about this being a burning fire is we know that fire consumes. It consumes, and yet Jesus described this place of eternal fire in hell as a place that does not consume. You remember Lazarus was in Abraham’s bosom, which was one of the names that was often referred to.

The rich man was there in this burning place. Lazarus was Abraham’s bosom, and there the rich man looked up, and he wanted just a drop of water on the tip of his tongue because the fire, the flames that he was in, and so Jesus is helping us to understand that this unique fire is not going to be exactly like the fire that you and I see and that we use for cooking, or we might use to burn trash, or we might use it in some other fashion, but it is a unique fire that is everlasting, and definitely it is punishment, and definitely people can sense it. They can see it.

They can feel it, and it has an impact upon them because the Bible is so clear about that, that it’s definitely a place, though, that does not consume. Now again, someone might say, well, our bodies. You know, I taught last week about how one day as believers, that when we die, our soul and spirit is separated from our body, and we go into the presence of heaven, and then one day there’ll be a resurrection.

Your body is not immediately in heaven when you get there, but your soul and spirit is with Jesus Christ. Your body comes. Remember at the rapture, the Bible says, the dead in Christ shall rise, and your soul and spirit is reunited with this new body, this glorified body.

The Bible describes all this in 1st Corinthians, and it is a glorified body that is resurrected. So your soul and spirit is reunited, and now you’re in heaven with body, soul, and spirit. Now this was put out there, and of course, sometimes I read.

I know I shouldn’t, but I read the social media sometimes, what people saying, and people just saying, no, there is no resurrection of the dead. You know, in my mind, I don’t respond, but in my mind, I got to think, does anybody read the Bible anymore? Because the Bible not only teaches us that believers’ bodies will be resurrected, but the Bible teaches us that unbelievers’ bodies will be resurrected. So what is unique in this final stop for unbelievers in this lake of fire is that not only will their soul and spirit be there, but the Bible teaches us in John chapter 5 that the unbelievers’ body will be resurrected, and that they will be cast into the lake of fire, soul, spirit, and body into this lake of fire.

Jesus said in Matthew 13, verse 41 and 42, the Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now if you believe that the fire is symbolic or that it is something that is metaphorical in describing the punishment of those who reject Jesus Christ, I propose this question to you.

Do people use symbols because the reality is less or more than the symbol? I want you to think of like this. If I were to say that my wife is the diamond of my life, I’m not limiting her to a diamond’s value. I’m just saying that she’s even more than a diamond to me.

I’m trying to illustrate. So we use symbols, we use metaphors in our life, and if Jesus, if for any reason, if he were to somehow say, I’m gonna use the fire as a metaphor, do you think that he meant that that was just the limitation of that metaphor of the punishment? I think it’s even worse. I think Jesus was wanting us to know and understand that hell is even worse than what can be described in the human language.

The teaching of hell is meant to appall us. It is meant to fill us with godly fear. It is designed to shake us.

It is designed to persuade us that though heaven will be better than what we could ever dream, hell will be worse than what we could ever imagine. And so I am a strong believer that the fire in hell is literal. Now let’s understand the literal interpretation because I believe it is the most straightforward understanding of the scriptures.

There are many times people like to come to the Bible and rather than believing what it says, they want to explain it away. They want to explain away the horror of hell. They want to explain away the punishment of hell because in their mind they cannot conceive.

And I’m here to tell you I believe that it’s even worse than what Jesus said. That the human language limited him to how horrible hell is. Now the Bible describes hell as a place of fire.

I’ve already read you several verses but here’s another one Luke 16. Then he cried and said, Father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame. As we mentioned to you already, it is this flame of fire that is tormenting this rich man.

It is not consuming him but it is tormenting him. Hell is described as a place of fire and darkness. We see this again in the book of Jude and we see it again in Matthew chapter 8. So my question is simply this, why not take the Bible at face value? Why not let the Bible simply speak for itself? What is the testimony of the Bible? I know that there are people with many letters after their names and before their names and maybe underneath and maybe on top of their names and they’ll come out and tell you.

I mean I just read an article by a scholar who claimed that hell, A, was not real and the fires were just metaphorical. But I’m here to tell you that this is what the Bible says. Now you have to make a decision.

Revelation 20 verse 15 says whoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. I read that verse and I believe it and I believe that God meant what he said and that he says what he means. Now I know that Jesus used illustrations and I know that he used symbolism to get his point across.

You remember that Jesus taught in Matthew chapter 5 that if your hand offends you, cut it off. He said that if your eye offends you, pluck it out. I do not think that Jesus was saying that you and I need to literally cut our hands off or even pluck out our eyes, but what he is saying is that whatever is causing you to sin, whatever is leading you down the path that you are sinning against God, get it out of your life.

Perhaps even a person, get them out of your life. And for some of you, it might be that you need to take that cell phone and you need to cast it as far as the east is from the west. Amen? I didn’t get a lot of amens.

Whatever it is, the devil knows our weaknesses. He knows what temptations are most effective upon us and there are times that you and I need to be alert to that. If there are things that are hindering us from following Christ obediently and honoring him in our life, we need to get those out and I think that Jesus was speaking in that way.

I think he was explaining in that way. Jesus said, I am a door. He didn’t mean he was a literal door.

He was saying, I am the entryway to heaven. I am the way to heaven. Jesus said that he was the way, the truth, and the life and no man comes to the Father but through him.

And so we understand when he describes that symbolism and he uses it often, but when it comes to hell and understanding the context of his teaching, I do not see any effort on Jesus’s part to use the fires as something as being symbolic or metaphorical. The other reason that I believe in a literal fire is not only that I believe what the Bible says and I believe it is the most straightforward in what God is teaching us, is that a figurative interpretation of the fire undermines biblical authority. Again, I’m just pounding you with one verse after another and you have to make this decision.

Is the Bible right or the Bible wrong? Is the Bible true or the Bible false? Revelation 21 8, but for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. I don’t think there’s any figurative interpretation of this. I think this is literal and I think for me to deny this is to deny the Bible, is to deny what the Word of God says.

In effect, we are setting ourselves above Scripture and we are putting ourselves in a position and saying that we have the right to judge Scripture. That we have the right and the authority to decide what the Bible says and I think that’s a huge mistake in our life and it will lead down to a path of us becoming liberal in our thinking and application of the Word of God. Again, the prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 33 14, the sinners in Zion are afraid.

Trembling has ceased the godless. Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with the everlasting burning? Jude 1 7, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulge in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serves as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. So again, Jude says, hey, Sodom and Gomorrah is a example to us.

Here’s my question, if you don’t believe in the literal fire, do you believe that God literally destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah? Do you believe that he destroyed them in the fire? That he judged them for their immorality? It’s important for us to realize that we can’t say, well, in this part of the Bible, it was literal, but this part is not. We have to take the Bible at face value and we have to say this is what the Bible says and that God literally meant that he would punish unbelievers with eternal fire. Now, what I think is the most important part of my message to you this morning, I know it’s a lot to digest and I know there’s many different ways that you might have questions and we’re glad to work on those with you, but we only have so much time and I know you don’t want to stay all day listening to me teach on hell, amen? Here’s what I want to leave you with, how can I avoid hell? I believe hell is real and I believe the fire is real.

I believe that the torment, punishment is real and it certainly is a place that we want to avoid. The Bible is very clear on how a person can avoid going hell after death. God promises that anyone who believes in Jesus Christ, trusting him alone as their Savior will be saved.

That great classic verse, John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting what church? Life. The other day I was driving a bus helping a friend out and this little boy, he’s probably second or third grade, but he was a mess and you know when these kids they become a mess they have meltdowns sometimes. Maybe they didn’t get their Count Chocula that morning, I don’t know, but he was causing a lot of problems so I made him sit in the front row, the front seat I should say, and he’s dialoguing with me while I’m driving trying to pick up these kids and he’s talking to me and he’s just telling me he doesn’t understand why he’s got to sit up here and he just doesn’t think that’s fair and I’m just like, buddy, if you don’t obey this is your punishment.

And so somehow, of course he calls me Pastor Mike, Pastor Mike, we went to church, my family and I went to church. I said, well that’s good. He said, I learned a Bible verse at church.

I said, tell me what it is. He said, I can’t remember where it is but for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Is there not a better verse to teach a young child that they can avoid hell, they can escape hell by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.

It’s not only good for children but it’s good for every one of us. And that is that we are called to believe on Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ possesses all authority over hell.

Revelation 118, Jesus said, I am he that lives and was dead and behold I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of hell and of death.

And here’s what he means, I have the authority. Jesus has the authority to determine who goes to hell and who goes to heaven. Jesus has the authority.

And my friends when you come to Jesus Christ in sincerity and you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, he has the authority to bring you into the presence of God upon your death here. When God promotes you as a believer, Jesus has the authority to bring you through those beautiful gates and into the presence of God and reunited with your family and your friends. Can God’s people say amen? Yes.

He has that authority. So what is the purpose? Why does the Bible teach about hell? I think first of all, he teaches us about hell to guide us to turn to God’s grace, to lead us to that moment where we are ready to receive Jesus Christ. Hell is God’s warning and it is a most merciful act that God is giving to us.

If you and I were realizing that a bridge was out on a particular road and you saw someone heading down that road, you would say the bridge is out, don’t go there, turn around. That would be the most merciful thing that you could do. If you were to drive by and see a house on fire, you would want to do everything you could to get inside and let those people know that their house is on fire.

It is the most merciful thing that you could do. The most merciful thing that God could do is to tell you that there is a place called hell. It is a place of eternal, everlasting fire and it is a place that people go to that deny or reject Jesus Christ.

It is out of great mercy that God sent not only his son to provide the way for us to have our sins forgiven, but to provide a way for us to avoid that eternal punishment of hell. People say, well, don’t teach on hell, Mike, you might scare them. Where might we scare them to? Because my question is this, if the fear of God, the terror of the Lord shakes you to the point that you would humble yourself to God and you would repent of your sins and give your life fully to Jesus Christ, wouldn’t that be wonderful? Don’t be afraid to teach on hell to your children, to your grandchildren, to your friends and your neighbors.

Don’t be afraid to do that. But always remember what Ezekiel the prophet wrote on behalf of our Lord when he said, say to them, as I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked would turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways, for why should you die, O house of Israel? Friends, God is saying to every sinner today that even though we deserve to go to hell, God is declaring that if we would put our trust in Jesus Christ as our savior, that he will deliver us from hell and we can avoid hell and by simply trusting in Christ, we can live in heaven with Jesus Christ forever.

So I have this question, are you relying fully upon Jesus Christ for your salvation? So the answer is yes. The fires of hell are literal and it is something that we need to remember. I know that there is a lot of intellectuals and liberals who are going to deny that the fires in hell are literal because they want to soften hell or they don’t even believe in hell.

But my friends, we are here to proclaim the truth. We will not bend to the culture or bow down. We will continue to proclaim God’s Word, the full counsel.

Not just the positive, but also the negative. Not just heaven, but also hell. And so we have been studying about hell and most importantly, I want to make sure that you do not neglect so great a salvation.

That the only way to escape hell and the wrath of God and the punishment of sin is to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And I pray that these words and this message and God’s truth will awaken your heart and bring you to full repentance. That God would grant you faith and repentance and that you would believe in your heart that Christ died for your sins, rose again the third day, ascended into heaven, and is at the right hand of the Father.

I want to thank you for standing with our radio program. I want to thank you for your support. I want to thank you for those who send me kind notes and those who help keep us on the air.

And we just want you to know we have not forgotten you and we appreciate all that you do. And know this, that we are committed to the Word of God and proclaiming it to the ends of the earth. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.

The post Are the Fires of Hell Literal? Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.