forgiven for so much would enhance worship . You ’ re not just singing songs , let ’ s put it that way .
[ Stephen ] To my Mom , I say my Dad was abusive to my Mom . And we go , oh , that ’ s awful . And we put that in a category that ’ s worse than others , but a few . It ’ s all bad . It ’ s all the same . And I ’ m not condoning it , I ’ m just saying it ’ s all the same . And my brokenness , all the things I went through apart from the Lord are just as bad . But it ’ s bad . And one of the first things I learned about forgiveness in my journey , I went to my Dad and I remember becoming a Christian , which I don ’ t want to jump ahead . We ’ ll talk about that kind of my moment of coming to Christ , but I ’ ll just say this real quick . I went to my Dad and I was like , “ Okay , I ’ m going to forgive him . I ’ ve been forgiven .”
This is something that ’ s super important .
And just so you know , my Dad technically stopped physically abusing my Mom when I was around 10 or 11 , but that doesn ’ t make it okay . There was never any real making amends for anything . It was just not talked about . This is crazy . And so , I just felt like , “ Okay , I need to go and I need to just do this .” And I did . And it was totally awkward . There was nothing magical about it . He just looked at me like a deer in headlights . There wasn ’ t a light that came in and a bird landing on my shoulder . It was just awkward . But when I walked out , I knew God had done something . Because here ’ s the thing about it . Forgiveness is about a debt . A legitimate debt that someone owes you or you owe someone . And you have the ability , as a person that maybe owed the debt , to rip up , to tear up , to throw away that debt . Now you ’ re giving whatever is happening with that person over to the Lord .
That ’ s now between that person and Jesus . And reconciliation in my humble opinion , is about relationship . And you may not be in a relationship with that person , but you can tear up the debt and throw it away and you can be free .
[ WM ] And it is not dependent upon anything that they say back to you . It ’ s just you doing it in obedience . You ’ re passing the baton on to them . Whether they pass the baton on back to you is another story , but you can ’ t be looking for that . Right ?
[ Stephen ] Yeah . And there ’ s a reason why . Peter asked , “ How many times should I forgive someone ? Seven times ?” And Jesus said , “ No , seven times 70 .” Perfection , meaning it never stops , meaning it is complete and whole . And sometimes it ’ s a little ongoing . But you keep doing it knowing that that ’ s what Jesus did .
[ WM ] So I want to ask you before we get into a couple of songs here . Years ago , Sally Morganthaler ’ s book , Worship Evangelism , was published , and its premise was that authentic
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