We should make a joyful sound Let happy first praises out Sing his praises out and you want that to then take a breath yeah feel these words inside your chest you are loved you are chosen your body isn't broken Sun's still gonna be shining down on us If you've ever felt left out, burned and weak I stray from the inner trolls And your body isn't broken Closes up open To make me change your mind Wherever you go It's like in the sky, I'm flying far Oh, Oh, we're tired Good morning, GCU. How are you doing today? Yeah, good.
Welcome to Chapel. Did you get your paper submitted last night? Oh, yeah, you're getting in the hang of things. It's the fourth week of the semester, so I assume by now you figured out you got to get that paper submitted before Sunday's over. It is so good to see you this morning.
There's going to be a couple announcements by way of slide on the screen. Let me just turn your attention to that real quickly. Voter registration, if you have not registered to vote, you need to vote. It's a great privilege that we have in this country, and you need to be registered.
and you need to be a part of that. So you can see the little QR code here. Please take a picture of it and go there and get some of the details about getting registered to vote. Secondly, next Monday after chapel will be a mission.
Missions Fair. Next week's going to be our Missions Week. So there'll be a Missions Fair after chapel and on Tuesday night after the gathering. So we would really love to see you at both of those events, looking at all the opportunities that you'll have as a student to be involved in global impact. Thirdly, January 2nd through the 5th is a passages trip to D.C.
to go to the Museum of the Bible. This is a very, very unique trip for 250 bucks. Really cheap. So if you have not registered and you'd like to do that, this is a QR code you need to go to to get registered for that trip. Next week, our chapel speaker will be Dave Donaldson from Canyon Hills Church.
You'll hear a little bit more about him next Monday. But today, our speaker is Noe Garcia. from North Phoenix Church down on Central Avenue. So, Noe, it's good to see you.
Clancy, his wife, is here with him, and clearly a lot of fans and friends here. With that said, let me read Psalm 34, verses 1-2. 1 through 3, and it says this.
I will extol the Lord at all times. His praise will always be on my lips. I will glory in the Lord.
Let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together.
Amen? Let's do that. This is the first time.
The sound I love to hear is the sound of the Savior's room as He walks into the room where people pray, where we hear worship, we hear His praise. Awake my soul and sing, sing His praise aloud, sing His praise aloud. Change is easy, the sound of His people's song to worship Him. Whoa Oh You're so, so good Moon on you, praise him To the king who left his throne Trade in glory for a cross To the one who paid our debt in blood Holy, holy, hallelujah to the Lamb Son of God, save us There has been no greater love to the highest name How can we respond, holy, holy, hallelujah, to the Lamb? We stand in awe at the mention of your name Mighty in power, gentle in grace Here we bow at the wonder of Infinite glory, tender embrace How great is your name Oh, how great is your name Oh, so sweet the sound of your voice All creation shall be in place, all clouds in place.
Judah, the land of the rules, the sovereign king of the servant. The function of your name, mighty and gentle in grace Here we bow at the wonder of your ways Infinite glory, tender embrace How great is your name was a wretch i remember who i was i was lost i was blind i was running out of time and sin separated the priest was far too wide but from the far side of the chasm you held me in your sight So you made a way across a great divide, left behind heaven's throne to build it here in And there at the cross, you paid the debt I owed. Broke my chains, freed my soul for the first time I had hope. Thank you, Jesus, for the blood applied.
Thank you, Jesus, it has been a long time. Thank you, Jesus. You have saved my life.
Brought me from the darkness into glorious life. So you took my place, laid inside of me. You were buried for three days, but then you walked right out again.
And now death has no sting, and life has no end. I've been transformed by the blood of the Lord. Jesus, you have washed me white. Thank you, Jesus, you have saved my life. You brought me from the darkness to the light.
There's nothing stronger than sons and daughters We are satisfied, we are bothered through the blood Thank you, Jesus, for the blood applied. Thank you, Jesus, it has washed me white. Thank you, Jesus, for the blood applied. Jesus, you have saved my life, brought me from the darkness into glorious light.
Thank you, Jesus, for your sacrifice, God. Thank you for your blood that made us clean. that washed us white as snow.
We acknowledge you, Lord. Thank you that you're here in this room with us. We're so grateful. Thank you for this space, God.
Everyone in this room, I pray that you would just bless everyone in this room, God. In your name we pray, amen. Amen, amen. Hey, let's thank the band one more time for leading us in worship. I am convinced you guys have the best band in the country to be leading you every single week.
Give them one more round. Give it up for Jesus for the blood applied. Hey, I am so grateful to be here this morning.
Man, we love GCU. Our church loves GCU, loves you as students, your faculty and staff. Tim, let's give it up for Tim. He is such a great man of God. Love, love, love Tim.
In fact, I have four children, and I really do hope they end up at GCU. I hope that the Lord allows the pathway to where they become part of this great, incredible community. And so, you know, it's interesting, as a pastor having four kids, I didn't realize this before we had them, but, man, my kids keep me accountable.
And they try to call me out. for, it's so annoying. They call me out for everything because I'm a pastor. The worst one is honestly the cutest one, which makes it more difficult. It's my six-year-old son.
My six-year-old son is just really cute, really sweet. You'll see, yeah. See, that's part of the problem. And the problem is he has a lot of charisma. He's really smart.
And he knows how to use those things for his advantage. But he talks a lot of smack. And the problem is when he gets in trouble, or really any time he sees me discipline anybody in the family, or if I get a little stern, here's his favorite phrase.
Remember, he's six. He'll say, well, that's not very Christian of you. And I'm like, dude, I told you we're not gonna buy you another Xbox.
Yeah, well, that's not very Christian of you. I thought you loved me. Or if we go to the store and he wants candy and it's 9 o'clock at night, and I'm like, no, you're not getting candy.
And he'll be like, well, that's not very Christian of you. And so every little reason, right, I'm listening to They Not Like Us, and he's like, that's not very Christian of you. I'm totally joking.
Did not listen to that song with him in the car. But he really does. He calls me out for absolutely everything and his justice meter is off the chain.
Like he expects there to be justice for absolutely everything. One particular day he was doing something he shouldn't have done. And I disciplined him.
And I said, hey, man, I just want you to go to your room. And the way discipline looks with him, every child is different. He loves basketball. Fallon loves basketball. He loves the Lopes and he loves the Suns, right?
So we bring him to games and he's all Loped out and swagged out. So what we typically do is we'll take away the things he loves. So he loves to play NBA 2K on Xbox, so we'll take that away from him.
We take away his Devin Booker jersey. We take away his little Jordans. He's bougie. He's very bougie.
But we go after those things and he gets so angry. So what I'll do is I'll say, hey, I want you to play. I want you to go to your room, and I want you to sit there until I'm ready to come talk to you.
And it's crazy because for kids, they act like the room is a prison sentence. Like, go to your room. Like, go in my room.
They're just angry. And he went to his room, and I just kind of waited about 10 minutes, and he comes out. And he comes out, and I said, dude, you're supposed to be in your room. And he's like, well, can I say something first?
He came out like he wanted to do something. And I was like, what do you have to say, Fallon? He said, well aren't you a pastor?
I said yeah I'm a pastor. He says well aren't pastors supposed to forgive? I said, yeah, and listen, it's so cute, and he has these beautiful green eyes, and he's looking at me, and I want to smile, and I just want to give in to it, but I can't.
And I just say, yes, pastors are supposed to forgive. And he says this, and I'm not kidding. He says, well, you must not be a very good pastor then if you don't know how to forgive.
And he looked at me and then went back to his room and I was like, who is this kid? But here's the funny thing. He thought this concept of forgiveness means there's no consequences, right? So in his little mind, it's like if they're consequences to my action, but then something is wrong with you, forgive me consequences.
And this concept of forgiveness for a six-year-old is almost impossible, but here is the reality. This concept of forgiveness for any of us in this room is incredibly challenging. If you look all throughout the scripture, you will see this word forgiveness come up over and over and over again.
Forgiveness is so easy to preach, it's incredibly hard to apply. And I'll be transparent with you, like even as a, yes, a pastor, this word forgiveness is still incredibly difficult for me to extend so easily because you will relate to this statement, but the deeper you have been cut, the harder it is to forgive. The deeper somebody has cut you, and the deeper somebody has hurt you, the much more difficulty of forgiveness there is to apply to that person. And for me, personally, I cut very easily. I love being around people.
I'm very transparent, very vulnerable, but I cut very easily and I heal very slowly. I was taught growing up because the amount of abuse that I experienced, I was taught that when someone was in a situation where I somebody hurts you, you throw them away. Mentally, spiritually, physically, you just, you get them out of your life.
You unfriend them forever and you keep moving forward and you never trust them. That was my idea of forgiveness. But here's what I realized.
The truth was that I became a prisoner to the sin of unforgiveness. That I had all of these people in my life, throughout my life, that have hurt me to some degree, that I had said, I forgive you, but no, I just threw them away. And these people I end up becoming bonded to. Every time I heard their name or every time I saw their face, these emotions would come up.
And typically there were negative emotions that were tied to these people. And I couldn't comprehend how biblically I was supposed to just forgive this person because there was a sense of injustice for what they had done to me. And if I'm being honest, I wanted them to pay for it just a little bit.
I don't know, and I'm sure you have, if you've ever been hurt like that before, where you've been betrayed to the point where it's completely crushed you, or if you've been hurt or abused in any manner. And if you have, I am sorry. And understand, there's deep pain involved with this. But we have to understand that Jesus gives us this command to forgive, and while it seems absolutely impossible, I would say in the flesh it is, but in the spirit it's not.
Because in the spirit there is this miraculous thing called forgiveness that takes place that we were first the recipients of. In fact, C.S. Lewis says it this way, to be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.
When Jesus, in Matthew chapter 6, is what we'll be looking at this morning, when Jesus begins to tell his disciples how to pray, he goes to this model of prayer that I think it's important we all pay attention to, and you're going to see this word forgive come up six times. times. Anytime you're reading scripture and there's a short paragraph of scripture and there's a word that's consistently mentioned, you have to pay attention and ask the Holy Spirit why it's mentioned so many times.
In this particular case, it's the same thing. The disciples are following Jesus. Keep in mind, they don't really know how to pray. There's really no need. They were walking with God in the flesh, Jesus.
There was no need for this prayer. Maybe they thought to this extent. So Jesus begins to tell them the appropriate way to pray.
When some were going to the synagogue, they were praying like hypocrites is what Jesus says. And they would pray just to be seen by other people. They were so concerned with ritual, but really didn't expect God to ever ask them to pray. answer. They didn't expect this intimacy in their prayer life, so they just went with the typical ritual.
So Jesus gives them this prayer model, and he tells them to pray like this, verse 9. He says, pray then like this, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Verse 14, for if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. You can see... see the intentionality of this word, but the depth of this word, and the seriousness of this word, to where Jesus begins, and I love this model of prayer, but he starts off in verse 9 by telling them to pray like this, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
You know what he's doing? He's helping his disciples to understand the importance of perception, the importance of perspective, that when you come into the prayer closet, wherever and however you pray, when you come to that moment, of prayer that first you approach prayer by understanding who you're praying to let me let me just share something with you if you take your prayer moment seriously if there's this thing you do and you recognize that you're coming to God and typically we're bringing these issues that seem to be so overwhelming, that seem to be like it's overpowering our lives, that it's never going to change. And we focus on that issue and it becomes huge. But when you approach God in this model, our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name, what you are doing is you start your prayer, regardless of what's on the table, all this brokenness and sin, you don't start with the sin.
but you start with the Savior. Because when you start with the Savior, it'll change the way you look at your own sin. But if you look at your sin and try to go to the Savior, it'll disrupt and it'll distort how you view him.
So, hallowed be thy name. You begin to recognize there's... this huge and holy God, and you begin to praise him in your prayer life.
You are good. You are holy. You are merciful. You are forgiving.
You are sovereign. You are comforter. You are father.
You're a best friend. You are the Holy Spirit. You are the creator.
You are everything, God. When you begin to praise him, he begins to change you. Do you understand that's what takes place in your praise?
As you begin to praise him, he begins to do something in you. It begins to change you so much so that the praise changes your perspective. The praise changes your perspective as a student because you then recognize that the thing on the table is actually not as big or not as powerful as you thought it was.
Because anything you have to bring to God, he can take care of. Any sin, any challenge, anything you have to bring to God, he can take care of. So he starts this prayer by opening up with this intimacy of perspective to understand who we are praying to. This holy and mighty and powerful God who can do anything. The same God that can fight your battles so you never have to lift a finger.
And I know that when you get hurt, man, you want justice and you want revenge and you want those people to pay and you want people to know what they did. But I promise you, God will work it all out in his sovereign plan. You don't have to lift a finger towards your enemy. I promise you.
Let God work it all out. He continues this prayer by speaking of verse 10, this perspective of God's kingdom being done. Not our own kingdom, but the perspective of I am here to be used for your kingdom, God.
I am not here to use you to build mine. Which is very dangerous. We can use God's name to build our platform.
But this in verse 10 is very clear. No, we are here to build his kingdom, and we are totally submitted for his kingdom. We are totally submitted for his use.
So, God, use me as you will. Once you get to verse 10, something in you begins to change. Your perspective begins to change.
Gets to verse 11. Give us this day our daily bread. What's happening? He's now said God is this huge, big God. I'm here all for you. Then he goes.
into verse 11 saying, if you really believe this, God is set apart. God is huge. It's all about his kingdom. Then you have to trust verse 11 that he will give us this day our daily bread, which means God is your provider. I want you to pause there for just a minute.
God is your provider. When it comes to graduating GCU one day, you're gonna be stressed out and you're gonna think, man, where am I gonna work? What am I gonna do?
Where am I gonna go? I promise you, you stay close to God, you will see that he is your provider. Some of you will enter your junior year and you're gonna start freaking out because you're still single. I remember, man, listen, I didn't get married until I was like 28. And I'll tell you, like, my wife is unbelievably beautiful.
You'd be like, how did he get her? God's plan. It was God's plan. And I remember, like, I don't know if you've ever walked through this.
If you have, don't point at them. But I had a big group of friends, and I thought something was wrong with me because, man, I was, you know, 20. my friends were getting married, 24, 25, and I wasn't even dating anybody. And here's where I really began to think that God had nobody for me.
Whenever my ugly friends started getting married before me, like, man, look, I didn't, God bless them. I couldn't comprehend it. I thought, man, what in the world has happened that they got married before me? And I really thought, like, God didn't have my career in place.
I think you guys liked that one a little too much. You're still laughing. If you got that ugly friend, we just point to them right now.
I'm joking. Don't do that. Don't do that.
Don't do that. Don't do that. But there's this thing that's going to happen to you where you're going to question God's provision for you.
So let me free you up. If God can send his son to fulfill your greatest need, everything else after that is elementary work for him. There isn't anything in your life that he is not capable of providing. If God has not done it, it may be because it's not. not time.
It's not because he can't. So what we need to understand as believers is that God is more concerned with fulfilling his will through your life, that he is so incredibly kind and gracious that often he won't even let you mess it up. So while you're trying to do your own thing because you're tired of waiting, God is still going to remain faithful to his promises.
That's just the kind of God we serve. So don't ever dare be tempted to think that God has overlooked you or God can't do it for you. That is a lie straight from the pit of hell.
He can do anything he wants to, when he wants to, how he wants to do it. All you have to do is stay surrendered to this God. So he says to this that he is not only the provider, but he is not only the God who is now entering, verse 12, where now he puts this forgiveness word. on their hearts, right? He wants them to understand the need for daily forgiveness from the Father, but also daily to be forgiven.
There is this two sides of the coin for this word. The first one is that we must come and ask for forgiveness of ours. sins.
And while at the same time, we must be extenders of the same grace that we have received. So here's what happens. And I'm closing here. This word forgiven is mentioned six times. And you have to ask yourself, what in the world does this word mean?
And if you're taking notes, just write that down. This word, when you parse it in the Greek, you begin to unpack it like an onion. And it has several layers to it.
But here's the picture. It means to mentally, spiritually, and emotionally release someone of any any wrongdoings they have committed. I want you to think about this. Jesus, the Son of God, God in the flesh, is telling his disciples, you need to forgive.
Now, I'm going to be very transparent with you, and I'm going to risk being vulnerable and putting myself out there. You know, I'm 41 years old, but throughout my life, I experienced every kind of abuse you could experience. Sexual, physical, mental, spiritual. It messed me up. It messed me up so much that I just went crazy on drugs to heal the pain.
and I lived this crazy life. And then I become a Christian and all of a sudden God begins to do a work in me and he's like, you need to go forgive everybody that's done something. And I was so angry because I thought, how in the world do you expect me to forgive the people that abuse me? It doesn't make any sense.
and God wouldn't leave me alone and I was angry. This is the one part of my life. I don't know if you're like this, but sometimes there's one area of your life you're just like, yeah, that part, God, I'm not ready to be obedient in.
This was it for me, forgiveness. And I could not figure out why God wanted me to forgive the people that abused me. I could not figure out why God wanted me to forgive all the people that deeply hurt me. I could not figure it out.
Until one day, it just became so clear as day, and it just wasn't too long ago, because I had recognized that I wasn't truly free, that God was searching my heart, and he was trying to bring freedom into my life, and the only way I can have it. So here's the thing, this word forgiveness today, man, it's not because it's this great Christian word or this great saying. The reason why Jesus wants us to forgive, because forgiveness is all about forgiveness. out freedom.
Forgiveness is all about freedom. When Christ forgave us, we were free. And when we forgive others, we become free.
Christ wants us to experience this freedom and forgiveness. I heard this quote, which I think is great. Forgiving someone may cost you your pride, but not forgiving them will cost you your freedom. So you're not fully free until you have fully forgiven. I want you to think about the name that comes to mind right now and the person you don't want to forgive and the person that has hurt you deeply.
Let me share something with you about that person. I am sorry for the things they may have done in your life, but I have learned this over my lifetime, that the person that hurt you cannot be the person that heals you. The person that hurts you cannot and will not be the person that heals you.
The person that has caused that deep pain, there's something in them that we want to take place so that we can begin to experience this healing. But the truth is, some of these people that hurt you may never come to the place of asking for forgiveness. So you need to come to the place to recognize I can no longer search this person for freedom. I must find this freedom in Christ, and I must pursue Christ, and I must begin to take this journey of forgiveness. Because here's the truth about forgiveness.
Man, it's crazy sometimes in Christianity. We act like forgiveness is this one-time transaction. It was for Christ on the cross, but it's not for us as humans. When Jesus implements this prayer life, he expects us to be part of their routine, which means this.
Forgiveness is a daily deposit. It's not a one-time transaction. You recognize that, that forgiveness has to be a daily deposit, that every time you see that person. I mean, I remember the people that have hurt me, and I'm like, I'm going to pray for them because I heard that it works.
And I'd see them, and I'd be like, I cannot stand this person. I can't stand the sight of them. And then you know how you might do this. You won't unfriend them on social media, but you'll go look up to see how they're doing. And right before you click on their page, you're kind of hoping that life is just sucking just a little bit for them.
And when you see it's not, you're like, come on, God. I don't want them to hurt a lot, maybe just a little bit. And there's this thing in us that's just a sense of injustice. But let me tell you what takes place.
Every time you see that person, you have to ask God to help you. You have to ask God to help you. God, help me to forgive. God, help me.
And it's constant. But I promise you, as you continue to make those daily deposits when that person comes across you, I promise you, you will end up in a path of freedom and forgiveness. And I know this because I have walked through it so many times myself.
And so when Jesus speaks of this forgiveness, he is not saying it lightly as if it's easy for us to do. In fact, it's impossible without the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. You know, in closing, every time somebody would hurt me in my life, I would make a mental note to never trust them again. I avoid them. I cold-shouldered them.
In fact, mentally, I put them in a prison cell. And I would put them in this prison cell, and it's like I had just a bunch of people in this prison cell that I haven't forgiven, and I felt like I was the prison guard, I was the gatekeeper, and I would determine when they were released. When were they going to be released?
I don't know, when I felt like it was time. But the truth is, while I thought I was the prison guard, I was actually the prisoner tied to the same cell of unforgiveness that they were tied to. So listen, this morning, I don't have a clue who you need to begin releasing in your life. I have no clue what you walk through.
But I can trust the word of God and to know that this freedom is meant for our, this forgiveness is meant for our freedom. And you don't forgive because they deserve it. You forgive so that you can be free. you. I'm going to pray that the Lord brings this strength, this Holy Spirit strength for you to begin this process of forgiving whoever this may be.
And so, Father, we pray this morning. God, we pray this morning that many in this room have walked through all kinds of things, God. There's been injustice. There has been pain. And God, you are a God of just.
You will work it all out. But God, I pray that you can help them in the process of forgiveness. Lord, I know it's not fair at times.
I know it hurts deeply. I know it's overwhelming. But God, we are not fully free until we have fully learned to forgive. So help us, Father. Help us not to carry the baggage and burden of unforgiveness.
To be prisoners to this prison cell of unforgiveness that keeps us captive. To the same prison bars of those that hurt us. We thank you for your son, Jesus Christ, for the one-time transaction that set us free.
Thank you. Because of the blood that has been applied, we are free. It's in Jesus'name we pray.
Amen. God bless you guys. Love you. Thank you so much.