Forgiveness

A remarkable, loving marriage is possible, but it requires doing things differently than culture, friends, or even our parents modeled. When we are hurt, we get to choose: forget it, forgive it, or fix it — instead of memorializing the offense and building a fence that eventually hides the person we love.

Jesus offers a better way through the pain people cause us than the world's instinct for revenge. Instead of demanding equal payback, He calls us to forgive, release the offender to God, and even bless them, so that bitterness does not chain and ruin our lives, and so others might see Jesus in us.

God isn't only interested in saving souls — He wants to save marriages, and that healing starts with a new heart. Jesus teaches that adultery begins long before the act, in a wandering heart, so guarding and directing our hearts toward the people God has given us protects what is beautiful and can restore what is broken.

David's worst season began not with idleness but with a deliberate choice to isolate himself, and that isolation opened the door to adultery, deceit, and murder. The hope is that Jesus, like Nathan with David, meets us in our brokenness with conviction instead of condemnation, and offers us a way out of isolation for good.

Pastor TJ shows through the story of David, Joab, and Absalom that real friends are strong when we are weak, telling us the truth even when it costs them. When we feel alone in our pain, the Holy Spirit is the friend who is always present, always truthful, and who calls us to bless those who curse us rather than trade our destiny for our temporary feelings.

Satan is already a defeated enemy, so his main strategy is to deceive us into believing lies that keep us bound long after we're actually free. Pastor Linn walks through four of those lies — about obedience, deserving sin, God's goodness, and being too far gone — and shows that the truth of Scripture and the cross breaks every one of them.