Amnesty - Part 1, Pastor Rob Ketterling
PASTOR ROB: Well, I want to say welcome to all of our campuses as we celebrate Easter together. I, along with our teaching pastors and our campus pastors, are going to be doing an interactive sermon that will be live and on video and have video testimonies. And it will all be part of a four-part series that we're calling Amnesty. It starts here on Easter weekend, but it will go the next three weeks.
As we look at that word "amnesty," how many are familiar? Here and at all of our campuses, raise your hand. You're like, okay, I've heard the term amnesty. All right, yeah, I kind of know it. But I want to define it a little better. Because we are familiar with it with famous groups that talk about it. We are familiar with it with the legal system, or we're kind of wondering maybe, "Does amnesty mean I get into the country for free? I'm not sure." "Does it mean I'm forgiven?" That's close, that's really close. But I think it means so much more. We are going to realize this as we look in this series.
But the definition for amnesty is simple. It means "a general pardon for offenses, especially political offenses against a government, often granted before any trial
or conviction: So in law it means this: "An act of forgiveness for past offenses, especially to a class of persons as a whole." Okay, so we as think about it, that's amnesty.
But if you think about it in a spiritual sense, I think it fits very well with what Jesus Christ did. He made a way for us to be forgiven. He made a way by dying on the cross, by coming back from the dead, and paying the price for our sins so that we could be forgiven.
If you're like me when I was thinking about this, I thought, wait a minute, it said to a government and to a group of people. But think about this. What's one of the terms that we use for Jesus Christ? King of kings. Another one is Lord of lords. We talk about
his kingdom. And if you think about it, it really fits because it's against the King of kings that we've sinned. It's against his kingdom that we've done wrong. And because of that the Bible says we need forgiveness. So it fits very well.
The Bible says in Romans 10:13 that "Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved." So we can receive amnesty, we can receive forgiveness. And that whosoever is an entire group of people that would say, "I want in on that forgiveness."
And I think forgiveness is beautiful. I think forgiveness is absolutely beautiful. And I love receiving forgiveness. I love to give forgiveness. But when I was younger how many know that a lot of us struggle with giving forgiveness? Especially if you have a younger brother or sister. Right? How many know? But I can remember my mom and dad saying, you know, "Give your brother forgiveness. Say that you forgive him. He said he was sorry."
And I think we believe in forgiveness, we do, to a point for a lot of us. If it's a minor offense, we'll give it. If there is an excuse for people's behavior, we're more inclined to give it. If the person is really, really, really sorry and they regret it, we do it. But let's be honest, we all need forgiveness.
And that's what Easter says. It says God had a plan for us to be forgiven. We could have this forgiveness. And the plan was that Jesus would live a sinless life. That he would live on this earth. That he would die on the cross. That he would pay the price for
our sins. And then when he came back from the dead, it meant everything that he was promising, everything he said was true.
That's what the apostle started to preach right after Jesus rose from the dead and he commissioned them to go into all the word. We see in Acts, Chapter 5, just soon after the resurrection of Jesus, Peter was preaching. It says, "Peter and the apostles answered...The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, the One you killed by hanging him
on a cross. God set him on high at his side, Prince and Savior, to give Israel the gift of a changed life and sins forgiven."
And I love the way the Bible says it there. I love the way it says it there. He says he gave them "the gift of a changed life and sins forgiven." Because I believe when we're forgiven, it's a gift that leads to a changed life. And I believe all of us, all of us can say, "You know what? I need to be forgiven. I need to be changed. I've hurt people.
They've hurt me. I've hurt God. I've fallen short. I need to be forgiven."
So in this series, one of the things we're going to do is look at the example of Jesus, look at the Word of God to see how we should forgiven and be forgiven, and then also look at four people. Four people came to us and said, "Hey, we want to be vulnerable. We want to share our hurt, our pain, our story, our road to forgiveness, and we want to have that be a blessing to the rest of the church." So each week we are going to look at one of these stories, because being forgiven leads to a changed life.
(Video clip)
BRUCE: Everything was building to a bad ending.
FEMALE 1: He'd been stalking me. Maybe he'd seen me earlier in the day,
I'm not sure.
MALE 2: From the first day it was instant persecution, instant hatred towards
me.
FEMALE 2: And when he took his life, my life started to spin out of control.
MALE 2: The pain that was on my back and the anger and the self destruction, I made that who I was.
FEMALE 1: And when I chose to let go, I got something far greater in return, you can't buy, you can't box; freedom.
BRUCE: But I think what I would be today if I had never really followed Jesus' example when on the cross he said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
I really loved my childhood. I felt like I was the apple of my father's eye. My father and I just did everything together. I was kind of like his shadow. And my life was great. But as good as everything really was, one thing that also affected it was my father's alcohol abuse. He was alcoholic.
I was with my dad fishing the day he went off probation, and he bought alcohol for the people that allowed us to fish on their property. And when they asked him to drink, have a drink with him, I couldn't believe it. And it was whiskey. And I just remember, my stomach got really upset. And it was rough.
We went back home. Things started to change. I became very biting with my words. I would say really mean things to my dad. Everything was building to a bad ending.
And then one day, dad just left. I was there, home for lunch. We lived a half a block from school. And my mother was begging him not to leave. She said, "I can't handle these six kids. Please don't go." And he just got in the car and left.
PASTOR ROB: There is a lot there, and Bruce and others in this series are going to be very vulnerable to tell us their story. But I hope you caught it. He said, "It was all building to a bad ending. It was all building to a bad ending." And that line just jumped out to me, because if we don't find the love and the forgiveness of God, I believe that for all of us it is all leading to a bad ending. I believe that in every single one of us, the Bible tells us that the worst is in all of us. Every single one of us has that sin. The Bible says we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And it says that all of us have it in there. We all have the worst. All of us, and even me.
I can remember when I was seven, seven years old, and I heard a message
just like this. And Billy Graham was preaching, and he said I had sin. And I knew it. Okay, I didn't make the top 20 sinners in the word, okay? But I was a sinner. And I realized that I was going down that track. I had stolen a piece of gum at Target that my mom and dad said not to, and to cover it up I started lying. Thankfully, I got caught and they showed me how to repent.
I'm telling you, you fight, you struggle, you have anger, you have hatred. Even as a little kid you can covet what other people have. And it's all there, because each of us has sinned.
The Bible says we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And it says, "The wages of sin is death..." Eternal death. A really, really eternal bad ending. "...but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord."
And our lives don't have to have a bad ending. That's the good news. The good news is that we don't have to have a bad ending, that God made a way. Again, that's what we are celebrating here. And when we're forgiven, he can turn our lives around. Let's see what God did in Bruce's life as he started to turn his life around.
(Video clip)
BRUCE: And instead of my anger getting less after my dad left, my anger got worse. And I had hated him for at least three solid years.
Somebody recognized me and invited me back to the church that we attended when I was a child. I walked in that evening, and the pastor, I don't remember what he preached on, but at the end of his message he said, "Would you like to receive Jesus?"
And I remember thinking, "I want nothing more than that." And I went forward, prayed an unemotional but very sincere prayer to invite Jesus to be Lord of my life. And before I got up and got back to my -- the pew that I was sitting in, I just had this unbelievable
desire to see my father and tell him I loved him. And it was the first indication that God was really doing something radical in my life.
PASTOR ROB: I love it when God does that. I love it when God does something radical in people's life. And I know you might be thinking, if you've never experienced forgiveness like God gives, you might think, "How in the world could he want to love his dad? How could he want to forgive him after all that had happened?" Because the Bible says it; when you're forgiven, it leads to a changed life. That's what happens. And really Christians, we're just following the example of Jesus Christ.
We think about this weekend, when Jesus died on the Christ, the thing that he was praying, he said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." They don't know what they are doing. And he started that example for us to say, "Hey, I can forgive people." "I'm going to make a way to change your life so that you can be forgiven."
And there is lots of people that are here with pain and with hurt. And, again, you're wondering can this really be true? It really is true. Being forgiven leads to a changed life.
And I can tell you there is a lot of people that struggle with unforgiveness. As Pastor, a lot of people will talk to me, and they'll say, "I can't forgive that person. I can't forgive them." "I don't know. I can't forgive myself of all that I've done."
And I'm telling you, Jesus Christ can forgive you and start to change you so that you can forgive those other people.
There is people that say, "Well, all right, I can forgive them because they are a long way away from me. I'm far from the hurt. The hurt has lessened."
But think about this, the example that Jesus Christ gave was while they were crucifying him, he said, "Forgive them." I mean, people that still had the hammer in their
hands, blood on their hands literally, and he's saying, "Father, forgive them."
And I'm telling you, when Jesus forgives you, you start to take on that ability to forgive others. It is just that changed life starts to happen.
And that statement that Jesus prayed, that prayer that he said, "Father, forgive them," that alone, like, makes him worthy to be praised, worthy to be worshipped. That's incredible. No other religion on the planet has a Savior that pays the price for the people's sins and then prays for forgiveness for them while they are doing that to him. I mean, when you get that forgiven life, you move from guilty to not guilty. You move from guilty to forgiven. You move from hate and anger to love and mercy, and it's an incredible thing. It's an incredible thing.
And there is more to Bruce's story, because, again, when you've been forgiven, it leads to a changed life. Let's take a look at this.
(Video clip)
BRUCE: So I wrote him a letter. He wrote me back. He offered to pay my way on the Greyhound bus to visit him. And if you have any idea of how many stops there are between Wisconsin and Washington. Wow!
My father, who was never late for anything in his life, was waiting. And he got a little nervous when he could see I was serious. I'd thought about this a lot. And I said, "Dad, will you forgive -- "
And he interrupted me. He said, "It's okay, it's okay. Everything is okay."
And I looked him in the eye, and I said, "No, Dad, you have to listen to me. I am sorry for my anger, for my mean, foul words, and for disrespecting you."
And I remember he looked down at his shoes. He look up at my shoulder.
And then he looked me squarely in the eye. And he said, "I forgive you." Then he paused
and he said, "But I haven't been the greatest dad in the world. Will you forgive me?"
Wow! He didn't have to say that. I said -- I looked in his big blue eyes, and I said "Dad, I forgive you."
And we hugged. We are not really a hugging family at that point. And we hugged. And that is still one of the greatest memories of my entire life. I'll never forget it.
PASTOR ROB: Can you join me? Let's show our appreciation to Bruce for being vulnerable and sharing that story. So thankful.
He just got vulnerable to tell us if you're living in the pain, if you're living in the hurt and you need to know you can be forgiven, you need to know that you can be a forgiver, the answer is yes. The answer is yes. But it comes by following the one that paid the price so that we can be forgiven. Of saying we're sorry for our sins and saying, "I'm sorry for all the things that I've done wrong. I need amnesty. I need forgiveness. I need hope. I want to be forgiven so I can be a forgiver."
And when someone you've wronged forgives you, you get rid of a guilty conscience. And when you forgive someone that has wronged you, you get rid of the bitterness that is there. And when you get forgiven by Jesus, you get a changed life.
Jesus suffered and he died, and he rose again from the dead, so that we can be forgiven. And today could be the day that changes everything for you. If you accept that forgiveness, you can turn from your sin, and all the things that you've done wrong to Jesus would be forgiven and be a forgiver. It could be the most amazing day. Jesus paid the price.
Isaiah talked about this. Before Jesus ever came to this earth, the prophet Isaiah prophesied this. And I want to read this before we close.
It says in Isaiah 53, "Who would have thought God's saving power would look
like this?" He said, "He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried, our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him -- our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost. We've all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong, on him, on him.
"He was beaten. He was tortured, but he didn't say a word. Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence. Justice miscarried, and he was led off -- and did anyone really know what was happening? He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people. They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man, even though he'd never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn't true.
"Still, it's what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain. The plan was that he would give himself as an offering for sin so that he'd see life come from it -- life, life, and more life. And God's plan will deeply prosper through him:
"Out of that terrible travail of soul, he'll see that it's worth it and be glad he did it. Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant, will make many 'righteous ones.'"
And because of the price that Jesus Christ paid by dying on the cross and our sins were placed on him, because of the price that he paid, we can be forgiven. Life, life and more life. From one "righteous one" more of us could be forgiven and become
righteous in the sight of God. We could be forgiven. He rose from the dead, and everything
he promised is true. Everything he promised is true. And that plan now can be yours. That forgiveness can be yours. And your bad ending could turn into a great ending if you'll say "Jesus, I want to be forgiven."
So I'm going to ask here that you would close your eyes and bow your heads, and as we take this moment, we'd look inside, and we'd say, "God it was your plan. It was your plan all along to do it this way. That's what we are here to celebrate. The fact you died on the cross, that you rose again from the dead, that your promises are true. God, I want you to take my bad ending and make it a good ending."
We all know that we've hurt others. We all know that we've been hurt. We all know that we've hurt Jesus, that we've sinned against the King of kings and Lord of lords, but we can be forgiven. If you're already done that, you know that it's the greatest feeling in the entire world. You'll never forget that moment. I'll never forget it.
But if you've not done that, this could be your moment. This could be your moment right now that you say, "Jesus, I need that forgiveness and I accept it."
In just a moment I'm going to ask those that want to be included in this closing prayer to raise their hands and look up at me, and I'll acknowledge it, and then you can put
it down. The rest of the church is praying for you right now. They are praying like crazy that you'll get in on the same forgiveness that they have experienced. But if you don't know that, if you've never said, "Jesus, forgive me of my sins, I want to be forgiven," this is your moment. And like I said, in just a moment you'll raise up your hand, I'll look at you, I'll acknowledge it, and then you can put your hands down, and we will have a final closing prayer for people to be forgiven, to get in on this great forgiveness.
So if that's you, if you're wondering can I be forgiven, could this be the start of a changed life, could I be forgiven and then become a forgiver, the answer is yes. But it starts this moment now saying, "Jesus, I'm ready, I'm ready. Will you forgive me?" And if
that's you, you're saying, "Pastor Rob, include me in the closing prayer." All across this room, as people have their head bowed and their eyes closed, they are praying right now. If you're saying, "I'm in," would you lift up your hand right now.
Yes, I see those. Yes, I see those hands. A couple there and one in front. Yes, there is hands going up all over the place. I see them in the middle. Yes, I see your hand. Yes, yes, there's others. Hands, yep, a couple over there together in the front. Yes, there is hands going up all -- yes, I see your hand. Yep, way up here in the front. Amen.
This is what it's all about. Changed life. I did it when I was seven. Yes, I see your hand. And in the back way over there. Yes, yes. Yes, it's so good. It's so good. There's hands everywhere. Yeah, another hand just went up.
People are thinking about it. There is a moment of decision. You're thinking, "Is it true, is it true, can I do this?" Yes, you can. Jesus can forgive you.
I tell you, I'm going to look one more time. Heads are bowed, eyes are closed. But it's my right, your left, and I'm looking at that far left section. Is there anyone else that just says, "I'm in, maybe you didn't see my hand." Or "I want to be in. I've been struggling. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it." You'd raise your hand.
In this side section here, my right, your left, you're saying, "Is it real? You might have missed my hand. I want to get in." Amen.
Anybody in the center section, you're saying, "Pastor Rob, make sure you saw my hand, make sure I got in." Yes, yes. Anyone else in the left section, your right? Yeah, I want to make sure you're in. Amen, I saw your hand. That's awesome. Yep, I see your hand. I don't know how old you are, young man, but I was seven when I gave my life to Jesus. It's real, it's real.
Way over in the far left. I think I saw a little hand way in the back. I acknowledge that. Anyone else in the far left? Yeah, I see you. I see you right there.
Right behind that pole. I see people behind there. Yeah, even in the middle, somebody just put their hand up now. This is changed life.
And I want to pray this prayer with our heads bowed and our eyes closed, and I want you to repeat after me. The Bible says if you believe this, if you believe this in your heart and you confess it with your mouth, he'll forgive you of your sins. It starts with a prayer of saying you're sorry for what you've done wrong, and you're going to turn from that and turn to Jesus. And he's going to forgive you of your sins.
So I want to pray a line, and then I'm going to ask you to pray it out loud. And I'm going to ask that the people around you would also pray it out loud as a form of encouragement to you. So I'll say a line, then you say a line out loud, and they'll pray along with you, and the Bible says you will be forgiven. Let's pray this prayer, and let's ask Jesus to forgive us of our sins. Let's pray.
Dear Jesus, I thank you for forgiveness that I'm about to receive. I'm sorry for all I've done wrong. I've hurt others. I've been hurt. And I've sinned against you. But you promise forgiveness if I turn to you and live for you, and right now I do that. I believe that you died on the cross and rose from the dead so I could be forgiven. I want to live for you, changed for the rest of my life. Give me the strength to do that and live that changed life as I follow you.
So, God, I pray for those that made that prayer of faith. They prayed it so simple, so true. It's real. They turn from their sins. They knew that they could be forgiven. They knew that they've done wrong, that they've wronged you, they've wronged others, and they say, God, they are sorry for the sin. And now your Word is true. You've forgiven them, you've given them a new life, and now you are going to change them. They didn't have to change to be forgiven. They are forgiven, and now they are changed.
And so I thank you for that, God. I celebrate with all those that made that
decision to give their life to you. We thank you, God. Your Word is true. They're forgiven, and now they can be a forgiver.
In Jesus' name we pray. We thank you. Amen and amen.
About 26 people raised their hand. Can we say thank God for that? Thank God. Thank God for that. Amen.
Give me one more minute. Give me one more minute. I want to say two things to those people. So it is about two dozen people. 26. Nobody left uncounted. 26 people did that. And I want to tell you two things I want to ask you to do. You prayed that prayer, you started on the journey. I'm telling you, when you prayed that prayer, Jesus forgave you of your sins. He forgave you. You say, "Did I have to work it up?" No, you didn't have to work it up. He paid the price.
And now that you've been forgiven, he says, "I'm going to change you. I want you to go on this journey with me for the rest of your life."
And we have a little book we want to give you. It's called Now What. I and the pastors at River Valley, we wrote it. And we just want to give it to you. You say, "How do I do this? How do I walk with God? I mean, I just gave my life to him, and I'm forgiven. I want the strength to do that." It's yours. It's a free gift. The prayer teams will have it all across the front. The ushers will have it on the way out. You can get it from one of them.
And the Welcome Center will have it. We're making it really easy. So, number one, get it from them. Because we don't want you to stay where you're at. We want to help you on your journey. It's very important you do that.
The second thing I want you to do is tell someone before you go to bed tonight that you gave your life to Jesus. I'm telling you to open up your mouth. Call a friend. Tell a neighbor. Tell someone in church that you're with. Call that relative that has been begging you to go to church. And you can say, "I did it, I did it, I did it, I gave my life to Jesus. I
asked for forgiveness." Maybe turn to a spouse right now, say, "I did it. I did it." Maybe they were cheating and they saw your hand go up. Maybe they weren't. So you can tell them. It's very important.
So before you go to bed tonight, be sure to get this, and then tell someone that you gave your life to Jesus.
All right. Can we stand all across this place? Prayer teams, you can make your way up there. Changed lives happen, and we celebrate that every week. And as the prayer teams come up here, they will have that Now What book. And of course the ushers will have it. It will be at the Welcome Center. If you have any other need this weekend, they would love to pray for you. It's Easter. It's Easter weekend, but we are praying for every need that people have. There's lots of prayer teams. And so if you need prayer for anything, they would love to pray for you.
God bless you as you serve the Lord this week. You've been forgiven. Now, go and be a forgiver in Jesus' name. Amen, amen. God bless.
