Wonderful music this morning. Paul, is this the end of the choir season? The choir and orchestra season. We'll have 30 seconds of silence. Well, we look forward to their gathering again, gathering again in September as they continue their wonderful ministry in our midst. Our good ministry of music will continue right through the summer. Barbie and Terry Franklin are going to be here next Sunday night. Paul, do you want to say a word about them?
It's not every week when we're able to have in a top rated Christian gospel group come in through the Twin Cities and hear available at Grace Church. They had an opening on June 19th, and we took it because they are one fine duet team. Terry has been with the Gaither Vocal Band for a few years. They both have written songs that have gone right to the top of the charts in Christian music. This is a quality team of musicians.
I hope that you'll be here next Sunday night, 6 o'clock, to hear Barbie and Terry Franklin. Great, thank you. I was driving yesterday up I-94 towards St. Cloud and came to one of those marvelous frustrations from Minnesota drivers. Fortunately, it was in the other lane. As I was driving along about some miles an hour for three, four, maybe five miles, the traffic was backed up at a stop, a snail's pace. Are you ever a frustrated Minnesota driver? I think all of us face that occasionally.
MDOT seems to have those road construction projects wherever you want to go these days, but they're important, I understand. Spiritual strongholds are something like these obstacles in our roadways. Strongholds are fortresses of sin established in our lives that impede and slow our spiritual advance. These strongholds stand on ground in our lives that belongs to Jesus Christ. They deny His authority to rule in our lives.
Strongholds are created when we accept and believe lies or wrong thinking that then produces controlling attitudes and behavior. Strongholds are prisons of sin which allow Satan to bring bondage to us and to expand his evil in our lives. Strongholds must be destroyed. They must be destroyed and demolished, or we will pay a terrible price spiritually.
Isn't it interesting that we chafe against obstacles hindering our travel to the mall, but we allow, we excuse, we ignore the strongholds of sin that threaten our spiritual journey? Open your Bible, please, to 2 Corinthians chapter 10 as we remind ourselves of a key text in the scriptures in this regard.
2 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 3. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of strongholds or fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Spiritual strongholds obstruct our spiritual progress, so they must be attacked and destroyed.
The destruction of strongholds of sin in our lives may not happen immediately. That's where the war comes in. But they must immediately be attacked. The battle must begin. It must be enjoined. And we must press toward the defeat of those strongholds. Now by God's help and grace, we want to apply this idea to ourselves personally today and next Sunday, and then later in the summer, we're going to apply it to us as a congregation, as a body of people.
An example of personal strongholds is that of unforgiveness. Now I suppose I could choose 10, 20, 30 potential strongholds that might be found in my life or yours. But it has been my experience as a pastor now for 25 years as of March. It's been my experience that unforgiveness is one of the most common strongholds among God's people. And so I want to use it today as an example. Now it may not be the stronghold that is holding you back in your spiritual advance.
I hope that you can apply some of the things we're talking about today to whatever your stronghold may be. But I do believe there are significant numbers of us that might be battling, struggling with this stronghold of unforgiveness. So we want to talk about it today. We'll begin by talking about the root of unforgiveness. The root of unforgiveness. Turn over a few more pages to Ephesians chapter 5, verse 31, reading on into verse 32. Ephesians, excuse me, Ephesians 4, beginning in verse 31.
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. It seems to me that we learn a secret in verse 32, and that is that forgiveness comes out of the heart. And so when we talk about the root of unforgiveness, we also need to look at the heart. The root of unforgiveness is the opposite of tenderheartedness.
Out of tenderheartedness flows forgiveness. When we have a hardened heart, it produces the root of unforgiveness. And what is it that causes this unforgiveness to begin to grow into that hard heart? What is it that fertilizes this weed of unforgiveness and causes it to go deep into our lives and to bear awful results? I believe that it grows with the fertilizer of lies.
Remember, we've been saying that strongholds begin with wrong thinking, with lies in our minds, lies that we may concoct in our own flesh, lies that we see lived out before us in the world, or lies spoken to our minds by the devil. Spiritual warfare is a multi-dimensional war. The world, the flesh, and the devil are all involved. Wherever the lies come from, they feed unforgiveness.
This wrong thinking creates, to put it a different way, an infection that then multiplies and dispenses poison that contaminates one's behavior. What are some of the lies that fertilize unforgiveness, that bring poison to the bloodstream of our souls? Well, I want to quickly mention five of them. And you may want to write them down because we're going to come back to them and answer them in a moment. The first lie that I believe enhances unforgiveness in a hardened heart is this one.
I cannot forget, so I cannot forgive. I can't put it out of my mind, therefore it's impossible for me to forgive. That's a lie. Number two, I have to get even. They have to pay for what they did. I want revenge. That's a lie. We don't have to get even. Lie number three, if I forgive, I lose. My anger, some people feel, my anger is the only control that I have. It's the only bit of power that I have. If I give up my anger and my unforgiveness, I lose. That's a lie.
Lie number four, I don't feel like forgiving. I don't feel like forgiving them. Therefore I can't forgive them. That's a lie. Number five, if I forgive, I'm saying that what they did to me was okay. If I forgive them, I'm putting my stamp of approval on what they did. Why should I forgive them? That's a lie. These lies and many more cause unforgiveness to take a deep routage in our lives. Let's talk for a moment about the fruit that comes from that root, the fruit of unforgiveness.
Hebrews 12, 15 talks about this. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble and by it many be defiled. Bitterness, a root of bitterness, that comes from a word that means to cut or to prick. Thus, it came to mean something sharp or even pungent to the senses, to taste or to smell, pungency. And so he says here, don't let a root, a pungent, sharp root in your life, a root of bitterness. Bring forth ugly fruit.
What are the painful consequences of unforgiveness in our lives? Let me suggest several. Number one, anger controls me and consumes my energy. When I allow unforgiveness towards someone to become a stronghold in my life, anger consumes me, not them. Anger begins to eat up all of my energy as I try to keep it in check and hold it down and yet it just begins to grow and grow and grow. Proverbs 22, 24 and 25 say, do not associate with a man given to anger or go with a hot tempered man.
Some of you young ladies need to listen to that. Don't go with a hot tempered man. Lest you learn his ways and find a snare for yourself. Proverbs 14, verses 29 and 30, he who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who is quick tempered exalts folly. A tranquil heart is life to the body, but passion is rottenness to the bones. You want to destroy your body? Be an unforgiving person. Be a person who allows bitterness to grow deep into your life.
It will suck up all of your life's energy and it will ultimately bring rottenness to your bones. Anger is like a black hole. It just sucks into it all of the energy of our lives. It absorbs into itself that life force that God has given us for good in this world. Second consequence of unforgiveness is that my life becomes filled with misery. In Hebrews 12, 15 it says a root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, trouble, misery, distress, harassment. That's what it causes.
You want to have a miserable life? Be someone who holds grudges against others. Allow that to form a stronghold in your life and you will truly be miserable. Charles Swindoll talks about a word that Jesus used in Matthew 18. In Matthew 18, Jesus tells a parable you recall about forgiveness. A man was forgiven of his huge debt by the ruler. You remember that? And then he went out and would not forgive one of his workers of a small debt.
And Jesus warned that such a man would be put back into prison and given over to the torturers until he had paid his huge debt. Swindoll says about this word torturers, the root Greek term from which torturers is translated. There's a verb meaning to torment. That's a frightening thought. When I first saw this thing, he says, it began to take shape in my mind and I resisted it. I thought, no, that's too harsh. But the further I probe, the clearer it became.
The same term is used to describe a person suffering a great pain, Matthew 8, 6. It's used to describe the misery of a man being in agony in hell as he pleads for relief, Luke 16. When we read of a man named Lot in 2 Peter 2, 8, who was surrounded and oppressed by the conduct of unprincipled men, we read his righteous soul was tormented day after day. But here in Matthew 18, he says, Jesus refers to tormentors, a noun, not a verb.
He is saying the one who refuses to forgive, the Christian who harbors grudges, bitter feelings toward another, will be turned over to torturous thoughts, feelings of misery, and agonizing unrest within. One of the consequences of unforgiveness in our lives is that our own lives become filled with misery and torment. A third consequence is that others become defiled. Again, Hebrews chapter 12. By this root, it says, many will be defiled. The word means to be stained.
You see, sin is never in a vacuum. We think of it that way, don't we? We say to ourselves, well, this anger is inside of me. This unforgiveness is mine to hold onto. It doesn't bother anybody else. It's a lie. It is impossible for a root of bitterness to spoil only one life. It will spoil your spouse. It will ruin your children. It will infect your church. It will get into your office. A root of bitterness stains, defiles many. A fourth consequence is that I lose God's blessing.
God cannot fellowship with me if I will not forgive. Turn back to Matthew chapter 6 and notice these words of Jesus that really are startling. In this chapter, he tells us how we are to pray as his disciples. One of the things he says we are to say or include in our praying is, forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. We often pray for forgiveness for our sins. I wonder how often we tag on that last little line, I wish Jesus hadn't.
Because he says, God, you forgive me in the same way that I forgive others. Notice what he says when he's finished with this Lord's Prayer. He summarizes by going back to that one point in the prayer. He says in verse 14, if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. Does that startle you? Do those seem like strange words coming from Jesus?
He's underscoring to us how important it is that we as a practice in our lives forgive others. Because he's writing to the children of the Father, he says, your Father. The forgiveness he's talking about here is not legal forgiveness by which God cleanses us of our sins in our position before him and makes us righteous in his sight. He's talking about family forgiveness, familial forgiveness. Our Father will not fellowship with us if we do not forgive others of their sins.
Lord Herbert said, he who cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass. A protracted refusal to forgive creates a stronghold in your life and mine. It forms a garbage pit. A garbage pit that sets up a nesting place for demonic activity to begin. So to be a conqueror in spiritual warfare, you and I must clean out the garbage. It's not enough to chase the rats off. We've got to get to the garbage. How do we pull down the stronghold of unforgiveness?
It's a very important question to some of you this morning because as I'm talking, the Holy Spirit is just taking the wraps off, isn't He? And showing what's there. How do you get rid of that thing? Let me suggest three ideas, three steps perhaps, to destroying and pulling down these strongholds in our lives that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. The first idea is this, to discover what is true.
If you want to get rid of the stronghold that is founded on lies, you have to begin by discovering what is true. Because what is true will attack the lies at the root of the stronghold. So now we go back to those five lies I talked about earlier. Number one, forgiving is not forgetting. Those are two different things. We may not be able to forget an offense that someone has committed against us, but we can choose to release them from responsibility to us for what they did. That's what God does.
You say, well no, doesn't the Bible say God remembers our sin no more? Indeed, in Psalm 103 verse 12 it says that, but you have to understand something. That is an expression. God cannot forget anything because God knows everything. What that means is that God will never use what he remembers against us. He will never use it against us. He knows all things. He hasn't forgotten anything, but he chooses in forgiving us not to ever bring that up again. We can do the same thing.
Second truth, God is the avenger of wrong, not us. I have to have revenge. Don't take revenge for yourselves. Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. When you and I refuse to forgive someone for their wrongs against us, we actually get in the way of God. Did you know that? God has promised that he will take care of vengeance, but when you and I are hanging on to people by our unforgiveness, God can't get at them. It is when we choose to forgive and say, Father, vengeance is yours.
I forgive. When we step away, God then can do his work. The third truth, the forgiver is the winner, not the loser. You see, we never lose by obeying God. I know emotionally it may feel like that your revenge, your unforgiveness is the last thread of power you have over that person or those people. If you give it up somehow, you are going to be the loser. It is a lie. It is not true. You never lose by doing what God tells you to do. By forgiving, we gain freedom to go on.
We are no longer connected and held back by those who have offended us. You see, forgiveness is a far greater power than bitterness. A far greater power. A fourth truth, forgiveness is a choice of the will, not a response of the emotions. You may not feel like forgiving, but that isn't the issue. Will you forgive? It is a matter of the will. It is a choice. The feelings eventually catch up to our actions.
The choices we make will drag along our feelings eventually, but sometimes those feelings take time to be regenerated or to heal. Don't act on your feelings. Act upon your will and what God has said for you to do. Robert McGee in his book, The Search for Significance, puts this lie a little bit of a different way. He says the lie is, I'll be a hypocrite if I forgive because I don't feel like forgiving. That's pretty good, isn't it? I don't want to be a hypocrite.
Jesus tells me not to be a hypocrite. I don't feel like forgiving. Therefore, I don't have to forgive, else I'd be a hypocrite. He says it's amazing how we confuse hypocrisy with obedience. We are hypocritical only if we do something for selfish gain. For instance, a hypocrite might be a politician who comes to church in order to get its members to vote for him in the next election, but who despises the church and its people.
To forgive is an act of the will in obedience to the Lord's command, he says, is true spirituality. Not hypocrisy. And there's a fourth, or rather a fifth truth, and it is that forgiveness is not approval of the evil that was done. Forgiveness is a willingness to bear the consequences of the evil that was done, but it's not an approval of what was done.
You know, the fact is that you and I are going to pay the consequences, we're going to pay the price of the evil that was done to us, whether we choose to or not. We are going to pay those consequences. As Neil Anderson says, the only choice we have is whether we're going to pay those consequences in the freedom of forgiveness or in the bitterness of unforgiveness. When we forgive, we are not saying that what was done was okay. What we're saying is I am willing to bear the consequences.
That's like God. That's what God has done for us in forgiving us. He bore our consequences, our sin, our death upon the cross of Calvary so that he might freely forgive. Number two, choose to act on that truth. Remember what the truth is, then choose to act on it. This is an act of supreme faith that God blesses. How do we do that? By acknowledging the hurt and the anger. I'm going to borrow freely and quickly from Neil Anderson's material entitled Steps to Freedom.
But how do we choose to act on the truth? It is, first of all, to acknowledge the hurt and the anger and the hatred. You see, forgiveness has to visit that emotional core of our lives. That pain has to come to the surface in order for God to deal with it. We have to acknowledge it. Number two, we must decide that we will bear that offense, its pain against us, and never use the information against our offender in the future. By saying like, well, yeah, but do you remember what you did to me?
We're saying I'm not going to do that anymore. Third, don't wait until you feel like it. You never will. Do what is right. It's the freedom that you're seeking, not a feeling. And then make a list asking God to help you remember each one of those people against whom you're holding a grudge. And then go through that list of people and say, Lord, I forgive so-and-so for, and then name what was done. Remember it. Say that before God, and say, God, I forgive so-and-so for this.
And stay with that name until you've come up with everything that's on the surface of your mind that God has brought to there that you're holding against that person. Then go to the next person down the list. As you do that, don't say, Lord, I want to forgive. Do it. Don't say, Lord, help me to forgive. He already has. Just do it. Say, Lord, I forgive. And finally, remember that as you do this, you're doing it for your sake and not theirs. You don't have to explain what they did.
You don't have to rationalize what they did. All you need to do is forgive what they did. You see, forgiveness deals with your pain, not their problems. And then number three, as we think about how to tear down the strongholds, discover the truth, act upon the truth, number three, wield your weapons. Expect that you will in the future be tempted toward feelings of bitterness and unforgiveness toward those same people. Be prepared for that. It will recycle on you.
But I would encourage you to write down the date when you forgave. Keep that date as a testimony to remind yourself of the decision that you've made, to remind the spirits who come to tempt you of the decision that you made. And then let the Word of God strengthen you and renew your mind, wiping away the anger that may tend to hang on, teaching you about forgiveness. And pray. Pray. These are our spiritual weapons, the Word of God in prayer.
Pray for that person or those persons that you've forgiven. It's hard to remain angry at somebody when you're praying for them. So pray for them and pray for yourself that you may be able to resist temptation in the future to be unforgiving. Strongholds are obstacles to our spiritual progress. We've talked about a humongous one this morning. And some of you are sitting there with questions racing through your mind. You're saying, how in the world, what will I do? How does this apply?
You may need some help from a trusted friend or counselor or pastor who can sit down with you and work through the issues involved. But for many of us, it's just a matter of being obedient. We know now what we need to do is just a matter of getting it done. And there's no better time to start than right now. Let's pray. Well, has your list begun? Is that face right there in front of you at this moment as you close your eyes? Does that situation come freshly to your mind where there is revenge?
See, friend, that's the work of God. Just as God has forgiven us for Christ's sake, we are to forgive others. I know that in the few seconds that remain, you cannot completely demolish the stronghold, but you can say, Lord, I will forgive, and I'm going to attack this stronghold. Will you do that? And then later you can work through the steps we've talked about this morning. Don't allow this stronghold to hold you prisoner. Don't waste your life on it anymore. Life is too valuable for that.
God has called you to too much to allow this to hold you back. Pull down the stronghold of unforgiveness. Oh, God, our Father, you know how deeply bitterness can become rooted in us, and oh, how destructive it can be. I pray that there will not be one of us who will walk out of here today determined to remain bitter. May we instead yield up our hearts to you and choose to forgive as you have forgiven us. Would you stand together with me, please, and our heads bowed?
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now I see. Lord, we were hard-hearted, but your grace intervened. Oh, may we now have tender hearts, tender hearts, out of which will flow forgiveness toward those who have abused, offended, and sinned against us. And may we forgive with the grace by which we have been forgiven. Amen.