Our Guest Richard Mull
RICHARD: [PRAYING] Let’s pray: Holy Spirit, we thank You for Your presence here, Lord. We don’t invite you, we just welcome You. We thank You that you’ve been here tonight, and Lord we welcome you to minister into our hearts to transform us into your image. Confess our absolute dependence upon You, Lord. We need you more than anyone and any words. In Jesus name, Amen.
RICHARD: Anybody here struggle with sin in your life? Yeah, we got a few people. Anybody here sin a lot? At some point maybe you wondered maybe I’ve gone too far. Anybody been there? Am I the only One? We’ve got a few other, we’ve got a lot of sinners here.
AUDIENCE: [LAUGHS]
RICHARD: But you know Jesus was a friend of sinners and he was pretty comfortable there. The thing that encourages me, Luke 7:47. This is what Jesus said. The woman that had washed his feet with her hair-
RICHARD: [READS LUKE 7:47]
RICHARD: Anybody ever get to that place where you wondered, ‘Can God really love me?’ You feel it, you know the truth, you learn it in Sunday School, but you ask the question, ‘Can God really love me?’ What about this one. I know God forgives sin, but maybe I’ve gone just a little too far. Maybe I’ve sinned one too many times. Anybody ever felt that? What about I know God forgives, but I don’t deserve it therefore I won’t accept His forgiveness. There was a woman that was about to have her hands amputated, she came to us. We knew that the root of that was intense self-hatred. And I asked her, ‘Is there anything you’ve never been able to forgive yourself for?’ She asked if her daughter could be removed. As her daughter left, she began to talk about something that happened when she was 15 years old, that she had never been able to forgive herself for. 51 years old, 36 years later, that self-hatred had begun to take its toll on her body. Severe type of arthritis that begins to attack your appendages. She’d taught Sunday School, she’d been the pastor’s secretary. She knew the truth. She knew the word of God. But she also believed she didn’t deserve it. Aren’t you glad that we don’t have to wait ’til we deserve it? Anybody ever get to this place? I accept His forgiveness but I won’t forgive myself. This woman struggled to forgive herself. She finally accepted God’s forgiveness. I said, ‘Are you ready to forgive yourself?’ and she goes, ‘No way, I can never do that. I vowed I would never forgive myself.’ I said, ‘If the highest court in the land declares you not guilty, can a lower court hold you accountable for your crimes?’ And she said, ‘No.’ I said, ‘Are you putting yourself and your justice above the court of heaven?’ She goes, ‘Well that doesn’t sound really good, does it?’ I said, ‘I don’t think so.’
AUDIENCE: [LAUGHS]
RICHARD: I said, ‘Would you forgive yourself?’ 36 years! I can never forgive myself, and that night she forgave herself. That week she went in to see the doctors, they pulled the bandages off her and her hands were restored, everything but the finger nails, they had already fallen off. And I told this story for a number of years and then I was at a home school meeting and I walked in and this grandmother was sitting there watching her granddaughter get some achievement and she was sitting there tapping her fingers and I got to see the rest of the story. I love it when God allows you to see the rest of the story. ‘Cause when He restores He restores completely. Amen?
AUDIENCE: Amen!
RICHARD: Amen!
RICHARD: Anyone ever say, ‘I hate myself, I hate myself for what I’ve done, I hate the way I look, I hate whatever it is.’ And here we have eight times Leviticus 19:18: Love your neighbor as yourself. Leviticus 19:34: Love Him as yourself. Matthew 19:19: Honor your father and mother and you will love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 22:39: the first commandment is to love the lord your God and the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Mark 12 31: the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Luke 10:27: And he answered you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. Romans 13:9: The commandments: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet-and if there is any other commandment are all summed up in this saying, namely: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Galatians 5:14: for all the law is fulfilled in one word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself, and James 2:8: If ye fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, You shall love thy neighbor as thyself. It almost sounds like heresy to talk about loving yourself. We grow up learning to almost hate our self…I’m just a sinner saved by grace. To talk about loving yourself sounds wrong, according to how we grew up. But the whole law is fulfilled in loving your neighbor as you love yourself. If you don’t love yourself it’s going to be hard to love your neighbor.
AUDIENCE: Yes. C’mon now!
RICHARD: Where is the breakdown? Do we start by going, I love myself, I love myself, I love myself, I love myself-
AUDIENCE: [LAUGHS]
