All right, hey everybody, welcome to Valley Creek. Before we get started, let's welcome each other at all of our campuses from wherever you're joining from. Let's welcome each other together today. Because hope is here, everyone is welcome, and Jesus changes everything. Hope is here, not just in the future, not just some time away from this point right now. Hope is here because Jesus is here. Everyone is welcome, no matter who you are, no matter your past history or your present realities, you are welcome here. There's a place for you. Jesus changes everything. 

Not some things, not a little bit, everything in our hearts, in our homes, in our lives, is changed through the power of Jesus. So, welcome to Valley Creek as we wrap up 60 Days: Learning to Live as Healthy Family. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, that came at us fast. It has been a quick but such a good summer. I've been thinking about this message, just thinking I'm so glad and so thankful that my family got to experience greater levels of health this summer. We had a chance to process messages, to talk about the principles, to discuss it together; it was just so good. I know for a lot of you, you've had a summer of significant breakthrough in your family. To that, I say, man, I'm so glad for you and I'm so thankful. Many others of you had a summer that was honestly quite the opposite of that. As we were learning to live as healthy family, maybe you feel like things got more unhealthy. 

Like, as we were trying to take steps forward, it's like one step forward, two steps back. You're finishing, you feel a little disoriented right now. You're finishing up the summer like, “I'm not sure if we saw the breakthrough that we were hoping for.” Could it be that you were fighting a different kind of battle than the one that you expected? "We are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies. We're fighting against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world." Hear me, your family is not the enemy. Your spouse is not the enemy. Your kids are not the enemy. Your parents are not the enemy. Your in-laws, whoo, they are not the enemy. The enemy is the enemy. He wants to steal, kill, and destroy your family. Because he hates your family. Because it reminds him of the family of God. Because God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit have been in family since before time began. In Jesus, we're invited into that family. Satan doesn't love the unity, he doesn't love the love, he didn't love your family because it reminds him of the family of God. 

Hear me, let's stop fighting with our families and start fighting for our families. Let's realize we're fighting a different kind of battle. We have a very real enemy. The weapons that we're using are different kinds of weapons. "The weapons we fight with they're not like the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have the divine power to demolish strongholds." God wants to give us weapons, principles, tools from Scripture. We fight with those and they can demolish some strongholds. Some of you all this summer, you've been in the demolishing strongholds business. you've been saying that like the stronghold of addiction, the stronghold of anger, the stronghold of shame and condemnation, the stronghold of emotional blackmail that's ravaged generations of my family, “it stops with me." You've made a choice this summer to say, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." 

“As for me,” it starts with me. I might be the only one that really wants to take that journey. "As for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord." Some of you are hearing me right now, it really is as for you. You're the only one trying to follow Jesus. Can I just say this, keep going. Don't give up. Don't stop. Don't slow down. You may be the only one in your actual biological family, you've got an entire family, the people of God, that's cheering you on, that's calling out heavenly realities into your home. As for you, you can fight those battles. Part of what's happened this summer is I think, some of the unhealth that's gotten exposed in our hearts, in our homes, it's a little bit like unhealth in your body. It's actually good if you're sick to know and see a doctor and find out what that is. It's the goodness of God to expose the unhealth in our homes, so that we can move forward by faith. 

It's actually the goodness of God to expose those areas that are not in alignment with him, so we can be able to move forward. What I say to you is, let's keep fighting. Let's fight for our families. Let's fight for our sons and daughters. Let's fight for our marriages. Let's fight for spiritual generations. You say, “I don't got any kids.” Great, fight for spiritual generations by getting healthy, by learning to live as healthy family, by taking these principles as weapons that God has given us to use to fight the good fight. Every single week, we've been trying to give specific practical principles from Scripture; the weapons that we fight with. Every single week, we've been talking about a different principle and they've been so good. Weapons that we fight with are like surrendering our family, having a vision for our family, being present with our family, healthy communication in family, discipline as a form of love in our family, serving our family.

This week, we've got one more principle, one more tool for the tool belt, one more weapon for the armory, if you will, and it's this, forgiveness. If we want to live as healthy families, we must learn and choose to forgive one another. Even as I say it out loud, I know, I know. Holy Spirit, will You come and do what only You can do? Will You free our hearts? Will You show us what forgiveness looks like? God, I need You in my words and to just convey my heart. Will You help us, Jesus, learn to live what it looks like to be a healthy family, to be quick to forgive, to choose to forgive those that have hurt us. We need You, Jesus. Right off the bat, can I just ask you, do you have any unforgiveness towards anybody in your family? 

Are you harboring any offense towards anyone in your family? Maybe if offense is too strong a word, do you feel angry, irritated, frustrated about what they did, what they didn't say, what they didn't do, what they did do, the disappointment that you have? Because I would even just ask that you don't answer that question right away. Don't just be quick to try to answer that question. Can we go on a journey together today? Can we see what the Lord has for us when it comes to forgiveness? "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." Paul says, "Be kind and compassionate and forgive as God forgave you." He goes on to say in another chapter, "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion and kindness." There it is again. "Humility, gentleness, and patience, bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance," any grievance "against someone." 

"Forgive as the Lord forgave you." It's interesting that Paul says the same thing twice. "Forgive as the Lord has forgiven you." He uses two words, kindness and compassion. See, the road to forgiveness is actually traveled through kindness and compassion. Jesus traveled that road. His kindness leads us to repentance and on to forgiveness. Jesus traveled that road. He sees us with eyes of compassion. He carried that compassion all the way to the cross – kindness and compassion. If I'm really honest with you, I've seen people be about as unkind and lack about as much compassion for their families as I've ever seen in leadership. Any of the time I've ever been leading. Like, unkind in their words, unkind in their actions, just cruel in what they're saying to one another, how they're speaking to one another. 

It's really bothered me. I've been trying to ask the Lord for insight into why that's happening. What's going on? What does it mean? Why are we doing that? I felt like the Lord just said, "It's because we've forgotten who we are." Can I ask you, have you forgotten who you are in Jesus? That you're chosen, you're holy, you're dearly loved. That you're chosen by God. He wanted to bring you into His family. He adopted you in. He wanted you to be His. He wants to have you there. You're chosen by Him. You're holy. You're set apart. You're separate. You're not like the world, so you don't talk to each other like the world talks to each other. You're a whole different thing. You're the place where the spirit of God resides. Let me just tell you, you're not the Motel 6, you're the Ritz-Carlton. You're clean, you're beautiful. 

In Jesus, you're holy. You see, God only resides in holy places. If the Spirit of God resides in you, then you are that holy place. Finally, you are dearly loved. God loves you. God loves you. He loves you. He loves you. He doesn't just love you, He likes you. He likes being around you. He calls you His own. Is it possible you've forgotten who you are in Jesus? Because of that, we're not living with kindness, with compassion towards one another. Because of that, we're not actually walking down a road of forgiveness for one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Can I just ask you, how has the Lord forgiven you? A little bit, partially, whether or not you unloaded the dishwasher correctly this time. Come on, come on. 

Freely, fully, completely, beforehand. Every single week we say, God is good. Jesus has forgiven me. Has, past tense. Past tense, before I did anything right; even after I've done everything wrong, Jesus has forgiven me. “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing.’” Here's a question for you. When He said this, was He only talking to the Roman guards as they nailed His hands and His feet into the cross? Or was He talking about all of us for all time? All of us for all time, right. Okay, so let's keep going. How old were you when Jesus said that? Well, let's see, carry the one. Let me answer, you weren't born. That is before you had anything to even be forgiven for, Jesus chose to forgive. Fully, freely, completely, beforehand. 

What we see then is forgiveness then has nothing to do with a feeling and everything to do with a choice. Forgiveness, then, is not based on whether I feel like I want to. It's based on a choice, a posture towards someone. Do you remember that old phrase, “The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face to shine upon you, the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace?” That's a posture of forgiveness. That's God's face shining down upon you, looking at you, forgiving you, speaking life into you. That's a posture that He's already chosen. What if we made the choice to forgive our families like that? Fully, freely, completely, beforehand. Because you've got to understand our forgiveness or our lack thereof is a direct reflection of our theology. Whatever we believe about God. 

However we believe that God will forgive us is kind of how we're going to forgive those in our families. Like, if God forgives us, and He says He forgives us, but He's still a little bit angry and He's kind of disappointed with us, then very likely that's how we forgive those around us. If we believe that God forgives us, but He still has high expectations that we won't screw up again, and if we do, He's going to drop the hammer, then that's probably how we forgive our families. But, if you understand who you are and how you've been forgiven, then you're going to be slower to pick up an offense, your countenance, your heart posture towards your family will change, and you're going to be a lot quicker to forgive. Now, catch it, when you remember who you are, you forgive, and when you choose to forgive, it reminds you of who you are. When you remember who you are – you know, chosen, holy, dearly loved – you begin to forgive more completely, fully, and when you do that, it reminds you like, “Yeah, that's me. That's who I am.” 

That's who I am. I want to keep walking out forgiveness. Listen, I know there's some of you that as I say this out loud, as soon as I said the word forgiveness, it was like, pfft, inside of you. You just tensed up, you feel it, because the pain you experienced and what you went through, that is very real, and it's very painful, and quite frankly, time hasn't healed all wounds. I can remember when my grandma passed away, during her funeral, this really well-meaning pastor came up and he started saying all these nice things about her and these grandiose statements about her life. But honestly, he didn't really know her. And then my dad came up to the room, and he started having his remembrances and his reflections, it was really kind, it was honoring. 

But then he took a moment, and he said, “Some of you have taken care of my mom for years, and she didn't show you a lot of gratitude. But I want to take a moment and just say, I'm thankful for you. And a lot of you experienced her unkind words, and a lot of times, the way she acted towards you, and for that, I'm deeply sorry. You see, like a lot of us, hurting people hurt people, and she never quite got over the loss of her husband and her brother during World War II. It stuck with her for a lot of years, and it impacted every way that she interacted with people, and so I'd like you to begin to forgive her, and whatever's in your heart, because I'm asking you to. Because I'm so sorry for what happened to you.” Man, there wasn't a dry eye in the space. I've never been more proud of my dad. He took a position of spiritual leadership in that moment, and he helped hearts break through and freedom be released. 

I want to right now, take this moment, and just say to you, for the secret thing that was done, for the words that were spoken, for the pain that caused you, for what you endured, for the neglect you felt, for the abandonment you experienced, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I've done my fair share of hurting and being hurt in my life, and the pain is real, and real wounds leave real scars, but would you start a process of forgiveness? In Jesus' name, would you begin to walk out forgiveness for that person? Maybe they're not even here anymore. Would you release in your heart and begin to forgive them as the Lord has forgiven you? Because there's healing, and there's freedom, and there's hope, and there's life in that. 

Hear me, I'm not even saying that you have to forget, because the phrase “forgive and forget,” it's kind of a dumb phrase. The reason it's kind of dumb is because it's mostly used so that we can kind of say, like, “Yeah, I forget them,” and then we can like, “I forgive them, and I can put it away in the storage of my, like, the deep places of my heart, and I don't have to think about it anymore.” It's not even that you're going to be able to forget it, it's that you're going to choose not to remember. Look at this, "For I will forgive their wickedness, and I will remember their sins no more." For Jesus, He chooses not to remember. That's different than forgetting. Forgetting is like a haphazard. I forgot my car keys. I don't know where they are. But choosing not to remember, will remember no more, will no more remember. That's deeper, that's profound, that's intentional. Choosing to let it go and not keep bringing it up. I will remember no more. What if you went on that journey? 

What if you began to go on the forgiveness journey where you choose not to remember? It does not say that what they did was okay; it's not okay. But, it does say that you're going to go on a forgiveness journey and begin to live free. Remember, your heart is a garden. It can be cultivated, it can be worked, it can be fruitful, or it can be filled up with weeds, and be overgrown and have bitterness ensue; bitterness take over. Check this out, "Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many." Catch what this is saying, unforgiveness is like a bitterness in my heart, and when it begins to grow, it not only hurts me, it hurts them. "Trouble you, corrupting many." The many people in your life, the many loved ones that you have, the many plans you're trying to make, the many dreams that you have for your future. 

Your bitterness can actually take over every single area of your life if it goes unchecked, if it grows like a bitter poisonous root in your heart. This means then that your unforgiveness towards your father is actually hurting your children. You say, “No, it's not.” That's what it says right here, that it troubles you and it corrupts them, corrupts the many. Your unforgiveness towards those friends that like, ditched you all those years ago, they're just like poof, like they ghosted. It actually hurts you when you have that discussion with your roommate, or it hurts you when you have the budgeting conversation with your spouse. Why is that? You think, “Oh, they're unrelated.” No, they're not. Your bitterness actually impacts every area of your life. It troubles you, and it begins to corrupt everything around you. It's important that we look after each other and remember to receive the grace of God so that those bitter roots don't take root and begin to infect and affect every part of our life. 

Poison – drip, drip, drip, drip – affecting and impacting every part of my life. This, by the way, tells us that one of the causes of generational sin in our families is actually unforgiveness. You say, “No, it's the sin.” Well, that's not what this says. This says the bitter roots actually trouble us and they impact every part of our life and they set things in motion. Unforgiveness, then, it hurts you and it hurts them. You know the only person it doesn't hurt? The person that hurts you. That's the great irony of the whole thing. Do you remember the story of David and Absalom? It's an Old Testament story. Here's what happens. David has an older son that does something horrible to his sister, like horrible. Absalom, the other brother, sees that dad's not going to do anything about it. Now, that's really bad. See our message on discipline two weeks ago. 

He takes matters into his own hands and Absalom, the one son, kills the other one. David hears about this. He's distraught. He's really angry with the son. He honestly should have been really angry with the sin that happened in the first place. He sends Absalom out of the city and Absalom's literally scared for his life. Then, they have this moment, it's kind of this partial forgiveness moment where David's like, "Okay, well, you can come on back to the city and we'll kind of work it out together." But, the only problem is he doesn't actually fully forgive him. Because of that, "Absalom lived two years in Jerusalem without seeing the king's face." It's heartbreaking. Can you imagine that moment? Being Absalom, realizing you're in the same space, but dad totally wants nothing to do with you. Hear me, proximity without forgiveness creates bitterness. 

If we're in the same spaces and we haven't forgiven one another, that's when the bitter roots start to take over. You can have proximity, but without true forgiveness, you are never going to have true intimacy. You're never going to see each other face-to-face, heart-to-heart, and really grow in that. Families, can I ask you, does this ever look like your house? Like, in the same space, but not actually seeing each other face-to-face, passing each other, ships in the night, just kind of giving the cold shoulder, the silent treatment. Because I think that represents a lot of what happens in our homes. I've got to warn you, it's really dangerous to be in the same spaces and try to make your family pay back something that's already been forgiven by God. That is, I give you the cold shoulder, I give you the silent treatment, I act a certain way towards you, I withhold from you, because I'm so frustrated with you. That's how bitter roots ensue, that's how they begin to grow in our life. 

You don't actually want to make your family sacrifice for something that Jesus was already sacrificed for. "And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary." Come on, parents, is there ever a time, like if you're frustrated with your kids, that you're like, "I'm just not going to talk to you as much, and withhold some affection." You're not even necessarily doing it consciously. But, maybe in this space, honesty, they feel more condemned by you than forgiven by you. If so, it's really important you don't make your family sacrifice for something that Jesus was already sacrificed for. Okay, that's a lot so far. That's a lot, I know. It's big. How do we practically walk down this road to forgiveness? How do we live in forgiveness towards one another? Here we go, practical steps. The first one is, we've got to ask Jesus for help. Jesus, help me!

Because I don't want to, I don't feel it, I don't even think I have the courage to begin the forgiveness process or to say that I forgive them. Help me, Jesus. It's amazing, the Lord is a constant help for those in a time of need. He's the one that wants to come and be your help if you are struggling to even think about releasing forgiveness for that person. Jesus, help. The next thing we need to do is to go first in seeking forgiveness. You might think, "Well, wait, but they need to like, get forgiveness from me, right?” Well, here's the thing. If you have any area of your life that you need to seek forgiveness in, and you just use these amazing words, "I was wrong. I'm sorry. Will you please forgive me?" You begin to release things in the spiritual atmosphere, and that is going to create softness. That's going to create a pathway towards receiving and giving forgiveness. I was wrong. I'm sorry. Will you please forgive me? Parents, I've got to encourage you, those are amazing words to say to your kids. The next time that you just totally flub it, you're like, "Oh, I just messed up. That's not, I don't want to do that." Okay, just pride, you can feel the pride, right. 

"I'm sorry. I was wrong. Will you please forgive me?" There's so much humility in that. There's so much breakthrough in that. I got an amazing chance to do this during the series, actually, with my spouse, because I heard this amazing message on being slow to speak, and then that night, was it even close to slow to speak. I said to her, the very next day, I had to eat that pride, and I didn't want to, but I did, man, I just said, “Man, I'm sorry. I was wrong. Will you please forgive me?” There's such good connection when you do that with your family, and so you've got to go first in seeking forgiveness. Next one, don't require an apology. The people who have hurt you the most are likely going to apologize to you the least. Another way to say this is, they hurt you then, don't let them continue to hurt you now. What do I mean? Well, because if you're harboring the unforgiveness, it's just going to keep hurting you and creating all that tension, so don't even seek the apology, just say, "I'm going to go on a forgiveness journey." 

Catch it, Jesus didn't even come close to waiting for our apology before He started forgiving us. See, since I wasn't born, I guess He didn't. Yeah, exactly. He started that process first, and He didn't wait or require an apology from them. If it's somebody who maybe is literally not here anymore, I just encourage you too. You're not going to get that apology in this life, in this scenario, but you can begin to be on a forgiveness journey for your freedom, for your family, for your healing. The next one, admit to what's been lost. It's really hard to heal if I don't know what's been hurt. It's really difficult to go on the journey if it's back in the closet and the recesses of my heart, and I haven't actually admitted to what's been lost in the first place. That's hard, it's a journey, but it's super important. I have to admit to what's been lost and go through that part of the process. Then, finally, cancel the debt and credit the account. You hear us say this a lot. Canceling the debt is going to be just wiping it clean, and crediting the account is going to be to choose to bless and to think well of that person. 

When I cancel the debt, it removes it from my heart, and when I credit the account of that person, it actually fills my heart with hope. When I cancel it, it removes it. When I credit the account, it fills my heart with hope and I can move forward in hope. I can tell, even as I'm saying this to you right now, there's still places inside my heart that I need to walk out more forgiveness because I don't want to credit their account. It's hard for me to want to pray for them. It's hard for me to want to bless them, but that doesn't mean I don't keep on going through that journey. See, what I want you to catch is, this is not like a one-and-done kind of thing. This is an on and on kind of thing. It's not like just forgive one time and I never have to think about it today or again. I keep forgiving over and over and over. I forgive, I release; I forgive, I release, over and over, on and on. Do you know in heaven, God sees Jesus with the holes in His hands and the scars in His side, and he constantly looks through him and sees us. 

This constant flow of forgiveness because of the finished work of Jesus, on and on and on, over and over and over He is forgiving us. Peter has this interesting question. He comes to Jesus one time, he says, "Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?" "No, not seven times," Jesus replied, "but seventy times seven." Now, my whole life, when I would read this verse, I would think about like, like somebody just messes with me, like somebody slaps you, like I forgive you. Somebody slaps you, I forgive you. Slaps you, forgive you. Slaps you, forgives you. Like, that just sounds crazy, right. Then, I got to thinking about it. I'm like, what if this verse is actually telling us about how many times we're supposed to walk out forgiveness for the one time they did something? Because what he says, "How often should I forgive someone who sins against me?" It doesn't say that they sinned against him 490 times, you know, seventy times seven. 

That he actually forgives for that one time that situation happened. Because it's a journey of forgiveness on and on, over and over, seventy times infinity; however long it takes for me to be more free, for me to be willing to bless them, for me to walk out forgiveness, so I don't have a bitter root, so I can carry that into every other area of my life. You know, when Peter had like, super breakthrough in his life? Peter had an amazing breakthrough. You read the whole gospels, you're like, “That guy just keeps messing up over and over and over.” His breakthrough seems to come right after Jesus fully forgives him and reinstates him at the beach. He denies him three times, Jesus comes up to him, releases forgiveness for him at the beach. "Peter, do you love me, feed my sheep. Peter, do you love me, feed my lambs." Then, from that point onwards, after that moment, he seems to be a completely different person. It's like the grace that Jesus poured out on him, he remembered it, he took it in, and it was transformative. 

At the end of his life, here's what Peter says about forgiveness, "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; to goodness, knowledge; to knowledge, self-control; to self-control, perseverance; to perseverance, godliness; to godliness, mutual affection; to mutual affection, love… but whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins." Can I just ask you, have you forgotten to remember? Even this summer, if you just are really honest about like the state of your family, your home, if it doesn't look like these things, if there's not goodness there, if there's not a lot of self-control, if there's not mutual affection, love, it's probably not just those things. 

It's that you forgot to remember who you are and what Jesus has done, and that you've been fully forgiven, freely, fully, willingly beforehand. Man, we're so quick to want to hold them to what they did, we're really glad that God doesn't hold us to it. We are so quick to keep bringing up what happened, that's not the way that God interacts with us. Have we forgotten to remember what He's done? I don't want to forget to remember. As we come to the end of this series, and as we declare health over our families, we're declaring in Jesus' name goodness for your family, knowledge of Jesus for your family, self-control within your family, the ability to persevere through hard things, mutual affection towards one another, godliness, becoming more like Jesus, and love. All those things, all those healthy words, all those healthy things, they're found when we choose to forgive. 

Come on, church, we're learning to live as a healthy family. We've been taught by the teacher. The teacher says, "To forgive as I have forgiven you." To go on this journey, to forgive freely, fully, willingly, completely, and beforehand. As a way to choose not to forget to remember, we decided to end this entire summer by taking communion. As our teams come forward at all of our other campuses, go ahead and come forward and begin to distribute communion together. Communions for everybody that has put their faith in Jesus, for everybody who's called Jesus Lord. Communion is the very best way to remember who Jesus is, what He's done. 

It's really perfect, because it is a symbol of His forgiveness for us. It is a symbol of what He did for us. I've been thinking about when Jesus was with His disciples the night before He was betrayed, the night before He went to the cross. As He was doing communion, as He was setting up for them, He said, "Do this in remembrance of Me." Do this in remembrance of Me. I got to thinking about it. I'm like, on some level, what was happening right then is that Jesus was doing it in remembrance of us. The communion moment, the setup, to willingly go to the cross, He'd already made up His mind. He already knew what the outcome was going to be, and He had already chosen to forgive. 

He did it reminding Himself of us, of His why, of who He was and why He was doing what He was doing. Communion is a powerful reminder of the forgiveness of Jesus, the love of the Father, the wholeness and the healing that He offers us, the freedom He wants us to walk in, the completeness He wants us to experience in our homes and our families. He did it in remembrance of us. I think there's a profound breakthrough that God wants to give to us as a church family, as individual families. You've got to understand, there's a reason we ended this entire series with forgiveness; because it is the only way forward. 

If I harbor and I hold onto the very thing that's already been forgiven by Jesus, there's just a lot of pain that goes with that. There's a lot of future realities that are part of that. Jesus loves us too much than to leave us there in unforgiveness, in frustration, in bitterness. Communion for Him, when He showed His disciples how to remember what He was about to do, His body, His blood, His life, His death, His forgiveness for them, He loved them too much to leave them where they were. He loved them too much to leave them floundering on their own, to leave them in a place where they had to try to make up for it on their own, where they tried to get people to make up to them when they were sinned against. It just wasn't going to work like that. There was a freedom of forgiveness that was going to be found in what Jesus had done. 

The night he was betrayed, Jesus looked at His disciples, the ones that He'd already chosen to forgive, His family. He said to them, "This bread that you're holding is like my body. It's going to be broken for you. I'm going to take on a lot of pain so that you don't have to. I'm going to be broken in a way that you can be made whole." Every time we eat of that, may we remember what He's done for us. Let's take the bread together. In the same way, He took the cup, and he said, "This is a cup of a new agreement between God and man, the full forgiveness for sins. Every time you drink of it, remember how you have been forgiven by what I have accomplished." 

Let's take the cup together. Jesus, thank You for Your forgiveness. Thank You that You're teaching us how to forgive. I declare over Valley Creek Church a willingness to be kind and compassionate to one another, to forgive as the Lord has forgiven us, to seek freedom and forgiveness because freely we have received and so freely we will give. For anybody who, right now, is walking through that pain and that hurt and the very real scars that still go with it, will You begin to heal those, Jesus? Will You begin to move in their hearts and in their minds and free them for what's held them back for so long? May we be quick to forgive one another, to live as healthy families and know that You've called us to a much greater family than even the ones we were born into. This is the people and the family of God. 

We will walk out in forgiveness and we're going to walk out as healthy people, loving one another as you have loved us, in Jesus' name, amen.