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Showing posts with label #centralchristian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #centralchristian. Show all posts

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Rise Above the Noise When Forgiving

Notes: Rise Above the Noise When Forgiving
Pastor Shawn Williams
Central Church
Las Vegas
August, 16 2015

An Amish community in 2006 lost 5 girls by the gunshots of a killer. The Amish community showed amazing grace, when they visited the killers family and made sure they knew they were forgiven.

Colossians 4:6 NKJV
[6] Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.

Trust God even when it doesn't make sense.

Matthew 18:21 NKJV
[21] Then Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?"

In the cultural norm, it was three times to forgive someone.

Matthew 18:22 NKJV
[22] Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

Jesus basically is saying to never stop forgiving.

We need to instinctively forgive.

Matthew 18:23-27 NKJV
[23] Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. [24] And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. [25] But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. [26] The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, 'Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.' [27] Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.

Principles of the story:

1. Forgiveness is costly.

The man had to give up getting paid back lots of money by forgiving this debt.

We all find ourselves in debts we can not payback.

The story is showing our debt to God for our sins.

Jesus was sent to pay that debt for us.

God's gift did not cost us much, but cost God everything.

Forgiveness is not costly to the villain, it is costly to the victim.

Matthew 18:28-30 NKJV
[28] "But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, 'Pay me what you owe!' [29] So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.' [30] And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt.

It is impossible to be a forgiving person until you fully embrace that you are a forgiven person.

Sometimes we have a hard time forgiving for small things, like a stolen parking spot.

Then we have those huge things that are natural to not want to forgive, like a cheating spouse or someone lying about us.

NOT forgiving can be even more costly.

Forgiveness is like the air in our lungs. We can take forgiveness in like a breath, but not exhaling or giving forgiveness can suffocate us.

What does it look like to walk the path of forgiveness?

Matthew 18:31-33 NKJV
[31] So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. [32] Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. [33] Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?'

We are to do unto others as God has done unto us.

We forgive because we are forgiven.

Forgiveness is the only payment that can eradicate emotional debts.

Forgiveness is taught intrinsically in the Amish community, they practice forgiving the small debts everyday, so they know how to forgive the big debts.


A life that rises above the noise is one that can forgive a debt that can never be repaid.

Sunday, April 5, 2015

You Are Who God Says You Are

Notes: Easter Message
Pastor JUD WILHITE
Central Christian Church
April 5, 2015
Las Vegas, NV

Easter seems to have the get too and the have too sides.

The get too, seemed to be the candy and the egg hunts as a child. The have too was the going to church in the uncomfortable clothes side.

Over time the pastor said he went from believing in God to becoming a follower of Jesus Christ. He said he isn't better then anyone else, but he was following someone, Jesus, that is better than everyone else.

Jesus Christ and Easter is all about what He can do in our lives.

Luke 24:1-6 NKJV
[1] Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. [2] But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. [3] Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. [4] And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. [5] Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? [6] He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee,

These verses are the Easter story.

Over a billion people are celebrating this today. This is what divides our calendar.

You get to receive a new life from Jesus.

John 3:16 NKJV
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 Christ doesn't come to fix you, He comes to make you new. It doesn't matter your past.

2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV
[17] Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

It doesn't say a little better, it says new!

We now belong to Christ. Your past isn't fatal because Jesus Christ can set you free.

You are not the sum total of your mistakes; you are who God says you are.

That is the hope of Easter.

Are we going to live in our new life or get sucked back into our old destructive ways?

Jesus Christ came to bring life not, only to this life, but the one to come also.

As we get older, we can still find joy because Christ conquered death.

John 11:25-26 NKJV
[25] Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. [26] And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

That is the resurrection question.


Do you believe this? Only you can answer that.

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