Hi, Jim Daly here. Today's cultured deeply needs help, but in times like these, the light of Christ can shine even brighter.

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And if I expect God to be merciful and patient and forgiving and generous toward me when I mess up, I must give mercy to people who also mess up.

Because mercy says you're guilty, but I won't make you pay. I release you from the debt you otherwise owe me.

Well, I wonder if you find it difficult to extend mercy to others. We're going to hear more from the late-sci Rogers on that topic today.

This is Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. And thanks for joining us. I'm John Fuller.

John, we shared the full testimony of Pastor Sy Rogers in the fall of 2021. And today we're going to hear the rest of the story, how the Lord convinced Sy that he had to forgive two different men who wounded him deeply as a child.

And as we'll hear, extending forgiveness to others is a critical aspect of our Christian walks so that we can receive God's forgiveness for our sins.

And the last Sy Rogers was a leading voice regarding sexuality, culture, and the character of God for 40 years until his untimely death in April 2020 from Kidney Cancer. He was only 63.

What a loss that was our condolences to his family. And because of the subject matter, we're going to recommend that if you have children in the room, you might want to put in some earbuds or listen later online or through our smartphone app.

With that, here's the late-sci Rogers speaking at a color conference hosted by Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia a number of years ago on Focus on the Family.

If you're not familiar with my journey, let's just kind of review that in brief. I like to always say to people, why am I not a Buddhist? And why am I not a Marxist? And why would I give up my boyfriend and my gay friends? And why would I crucify my flesh daily and swim against the tide of popular culture telling me I'm politically incorrect?

And why would I walk into church culture three decades ago that would look at me like a freak from Mars? There's only one answer. My eyes were open to God. He was no longer a code of ethics to debate with some philosophical point of view.

He was real and alive with a presence in my life. I had never known possible. Because when you have that encounter, you realize like I did, there's a big difference between what you think you know about God versus an experience.

And in spite of all I didn't know, this much I did know, he is real and how shall I live my life and light of that reality? And though I can't touch him tangibly, I could feel his tangible effect upon my life.

That whenever I felt dirty, he made me feel clean. And when people would look at me and make me feel unacceptable, he made me feel valued and understood. And so when I couldn't figure out how my life play out, I didn't have the answer, but I knew it was going to be connected to God and he would lead me on. And thus he did.

So if you don't know my story, just take a look at the journey in a nutshell, coming from a broken home with a beautiful talented but alcoholic mother, she died in a drink driving accident when I was a little kid.

But before her death, her lover began to sexually violate me as a child, teaching me things God never wanted me to know. And I know based on the stats in this country like in the rest of the world that one in four of you in this room understand that history and how wonderful God is bigger and can help me.

And so I was able to find a way to make this bigger and help you make new history. Meanwhile, my mother after she was killed and my molestation happened, I was then separated from my father. And so the connection I needed to nurture healthy masculine identity never happened. And so I hungered for masculine love, but being also sexually defiled and confused, you can understand how the foundations were established that I would go looking for love the best way I knew. And though I tried to conform to the norm growing up in the American conservative Midwest rights was expected to be one of the

most popular guys I tried and I was on swim team and football team. I was attracting. I was an eagle scout. I could do anything any boy could do. But like I said to my dad and stepmother, Mod is well be gay. Everyone else has turned in the verdict and I can't win. I embraced a gay identity as a student in Brazil. I came back to the US and promptly joined the military and lived a double life while living in Hawaii, good soldier by day and free to be the other me after dark. And you know, it was during that time that I did everything from the promiscuous gay lifestyle to later involvement

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