So tonight we're just taking another step in this series called Open Heart, and the idea is in a nutshell, we're just mirroring what's happening at 515.

So welcome to our new gathering space, we love it, we're excited about it, I got a few last things to do, so we're not quite all the way there yet, and then we got a whole lot more things we could do down the road to this place.

But what we talked about was that we wouldn't make it into this building without some serious work, some serious surgery went on here, and we had to open up the guts of the place so that we could put the right stuff into this place to do the transformation that you see and people see as they drive by, and we just are mirroring that in our own lives, that for you and me, God wants to do something transformational.

So we're not talking about just like a little slight modification, just slightly better you, that's not what scripture is about, scripture talks about the promise of a brand new you and a brand new me, not because we signed up for something or bought something online or had a treatment of some kind, but an internal renovation of the heart is what Jesus is really all about.

So we talked about how we all want that of course, but that means the same thing that happened here, we've got to kind of open up the place and let God get into the deepest parts of our lives.

And one of those places we talked about last week is forgiveness and specifically unforgiveness and how unforgiveness can be that one major thing that causes our heart to close and in the end possibly to completely grow cold or grow hard.

So beautiful night last night, people forgiving and people being forgiven, but tonight we come to this big, big question which is forgiving that last person, the person that's the hardest person of all sometimes to forgive.

You know what I'm talking about?

You know sometimes you know it's like okay I can forgive you and if God really does a huge work in my heart I can forgive you and light of what God has done for me.

I can even step over and forgive you but there's that one last person for some of us tonight and this is going to be revolutionary for a few people in the house tonight, maybe for a bunch of people in the house tonight, but the person often that's hardest to forgive is who?

It's ourselves and it's an amazing anomaly of truth.

They will come to a place of saying okay, Louis, I'll go with you to the gospel. I'll believe in Christ. I believe that God loved the world, gave his son that Christ stood in our place, took the blows, took the shame, paid the price for us so that God could say to us, I forgive you.

I'll go there with you and because of that I even can take the step of turning to the person that hurt me and I'm telling you there's some big time hurt represented in that face right there.

And because of the power of the cross I can turn to that person and forgive that person because I understand that God's power is big enough to do that.

And I can even speak the words and I hope some of you spoke the words as some of you get to that step this week where you actually spoke it out either to a close friend, a trusted friend or maybe even had the chance to speak it to the person.

Anybody have a chance to speak it to the person that's in the face just show a hands a little bit harder.

Can you hear anybody? Few people, okay, you'll do low hands. You know, but to speak it is when it really begins to click in to power.

And some people say, you know, I can do that and I'll take that step and yet they'll walk away and they'll never turn back and speak that same forgiveness over their very own life.

I believe there are people here tonight who believe everything we just say, who believe all the songs that we're about you.

You've been sort of near church for a while and you believe the story of who Jesus is.

But yet there's something in your life, something in the past that you haven't been able to get free from yourself.

And when, you know, you take a step or two forward, that thing always is kind of hanging around, right?

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