Our Heavenly Father #5: Jesus the Mediator and Forgiveness, the Love Language of Heaven

Many believers know a lot about God yet relate to Him only as a stern master, never as a loving heavenly Father. In this message, the pastor teaches that a hard heart distorts how we see God and people, that Jesus came as the mediator to change that thinking, and that forgiveness is the love language of heaven. He walks through Isaiah 1, Ezekiel 36, the prodigal son, the Lord’s Prayer and the parable of the unforgiving servant. This message continues from Our Heavenly Father #4: Your Royal Family Identity & Calling.

Below you will find the full video, a structured summary of the sermon, the Scripture behind each point (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline, and practical steps you can take this week.

Sermon at a Glance

This is the fifth message in the Our Heavenly Father series at NTC Ministries, posted on November 4, 2025. The message runs about 64 minutes and closes with an invitation to receive Jesus and know God as Father.

His starting point is that the whole world talks about “God” in general, and that even many Christians who can quote Scripture and tell Bible stories know Him only as a ruler waiting to punish. That picture, he says, comes from a hard heart, and it robs believers of the blessings and promises God has for them.

A Hard Heart Distorts Our View of God

The pastor explains that the harder a person’s heart becomes, the more distorted their thinking about God becomes, and about the people around them as well. Suspicion grows and the imagination is corrupted. That is why words matter so much: let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, only what imparts grace to the hearers (Ephesians 4:29). And the greatest hearer of your words, he notes, is you.

He uses the pity party as an example. In a pity party you quickly decide that nobody cares, and soon that God does not care either. That is a false picture of God, he says, produced only by the condition of the heart. His remedy was to pray, “God, forgive me for a hard heart,” and get back into the Word.

People who relate to God only through law do not know Him as a father, just as a taskmaster. They then judge themselves and others the same way: when something bad happens, they ask what you did wrong. “That’s religion,” he says. But Jesus said that in the world we will have tribulation, and to be of good cheer because He has overcome the world (John 16:33). Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all (Psalm 34:19).

When people blame God for a tornado, he answers that it is the thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy; Jesus came that we may have life more abundantly (John 10:10). The Lord takes pleasure in the prosperity of His servant (Psalm 35:27).

Jesus the Mediator Reveals the Father

The pastor’s foundational verse is 2 Corinthians 13:14: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Jesus brought grace, which someone once described as God’s riches at Christ’s expense. The love of God here, he explains, is the love of the Father.

Through the Holy Spirit, the love of God is poured out in our hearts (Romans 5:5). The pastor pictures a paintball exploding in a room, love splashed everywhere, so that we can grow confident in who the Father really is.

Jesus came to redeem us, but to do that He had to change people’s thinking, because their hearts were hard. God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, and “there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:3–5).

A mediator brings two parties whose thinking is opposed to a common place. The pastor teaches that in the Scriptures the order “Christ Jesus” speaks of God reaching toward man and “Jesus Christ” of man coming to God, showing Jesus mediating in both directions. He is not an ogre with a baseball bat, the pastor insists. God wants to show mercy, and Jesus wants us to receive it.

Isaiah 1 shows this mediation. “Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18–20). If you are willing and obedient, willing to hear who God really is, you will eat the good of the land. If you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword, which the pastor reads as a hard and painful life.

That is why the work begins in our own thinking. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he (Proverbs 23:7), and we are to keep our heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23). Faith comes by hearing again and again (Romans 10:17), looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil (Acts 10:38).

A New Heart and a New Spirit

The pastor addresses oneness teaching, which says Jesus alone is God and points to “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!” (Deuteronomy 6:4). He says plainly, “I believe in the Trinity.” Jesus prayed that we would be one with the Father and the Son, just as They are one (John 17:21), which does not make us God. One does not mean singular.

The Holy Spirit is the Lord of the church today, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all (1 Corinthians 12:7). He links manifestation to the word epiphany, which he explains as a shining up and over. Whatever mountain or ocean you face, the Spirit will get you up and over it.

In Ezekiel 36:23–27, God says He will sanctify His great name, which had been profaned among the nations. Israel was given the Word but kept it to themselves. That is why Jesus taught, “You have heard that it was said… But I tell you,” and why His first parable was about a sower sowing the Word (Matthew 13:3–9). Take the Word in without giving it out and you become like the Dead Sea.

Then comes the promise: God will sprinkle clean water, give a new heart and a new spirit, take out the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh, and put His Spirit within us to cause us to walk in His statutes. “Not my great effort,” the pastor says. The day he understood this and began simply trusting the Lord, changes started taking place.

The apple does not strain for juice; the tree pushes it in. When Paul asked for his trouble to be removed, the Lord answered that His strength is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). We love Him because He first loved us, and that love is what produces the change.

In John 17:25–26, Jesus says He declared the Father’s name so that the Father’s love may be in us. God’s name is not just a label, the pastor explains; God is love. Love is kind and does not parade itself (1 Corinthians 13:4–7). Jesus humbled Himself and became obedient to the death of the cross, and God gave Him the name above every name (Philippians 2:5–9). Humility comes into our hearts through that love.

The Heavenly Father of the Prodigal Son

To show what the heavenly Father is like, the pastor turns to the prodigal son (Luke 15:11–32). The younger son demanded his inheritance, partied in a far country, and lost his money and friends. When famine came, he ended up feeding pigs and longing for what they ate. When he came to his senses, he remembered that even his father’s servants lived better, and he went home intending to ask to be a slave.

His father ran to him. He did not scold him or remind him that he had squandered half of everything. He called for the best robe, a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet, and threw a party. The older brother, angry in the field, complained that he had never been given a party. The father answered that he had always been with him. Religious people, the pastor says, cannot handle a Father like that.

The pastor is clear that hard work is still good for us. But a goodness-of-God mentality finds God’s goodness in everything and everyone.

Ephesians 2:17–19 says that through Jesus both Jew and Gentile have access by one Spirit to the Father, and we are no longer strangers but members of the household of God (Ephesians 2:17–19). Yet many Christians live like orphans, which he compares to buying a mansion and living in the garage. Like the prodigal, we need to accept the Father’s love and celebrate instead of mourning what was squandered.

The pastor sums up what Jesus taught about the heavenly Father. The table below collects the points he reviews.

Jesus corrected the teaching to love your neighbor and hate your enemy, telling His listeners to love their enemies so that they may be sons of their Father in heaven (Matthew 5:43–45; Leviticus 19:18). The birds do not store up, yet the Father feeds them (Matthew 6:26–30). If earthly fathers give good gifts, how much more will your Father in heaven (Matthew 7:7–11)?

Forgiveness, the Love Language of Heaven

The final trait leads into the heart of the sermon. The pastor rereads Isaiah 1:18 in the New Living Translation, where the Lord says, “let’s settle this,” and promises to make scarlet sins white as snow. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace (Ephesians 1:7).

“The love language of heaven is forgiving,” he says. People talk about different love languages, but heaven’s is forgiveness. In Matthew 6:14–15, Jesus says that if you forgive others, your heavenly Father will forgive you, but if you do not, neither will He. The pastor stresses this is not about going to hell; it is about the hard, painful life that unforgiveness produces.

He tells of a missionary named Stan Mooneyham walking through an African jungle when he caught a beautiful fragrance. The local pastor pointed to a purple flower at his feet, which they called the forgiveness flower, because it gives off its sweetest perfume when it is stepped on. It asks for no apology. It simply forgives freely, fully and richly. That is the aroma of heaven in our lives.

When we accept God’s love, we become kind, gentle and forgiving, and we serve people instead of seeking applause. Freely you have received, freely give.

The key, he says, is forgiveness. Ephesians 4:32 says to be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. He points to a widow who stood on public television, with tears in her eyes, and told the man who had killed her husband that she forgave him. It was not easy for her, he notes, but she said it.

The Lord’s Prayer and the Unforgiving Servant

The pastor leads the church in praying Matthew 6:9–13 in the New King James Version, not as vain repetition but with understanding. “Hallowed be Your name” means, as he teaches it, set apart and known for who He truly is, the opposite of the profaned name in Ezekiel. “Your kingdom come” is a real request that God’s will be done in us first.

The most important part of the prayer, the pastor says, is what Jesus explains right after it: forgiving others their trespasses. When Peter asked whether he should forgive seven times, Jesus said seventy times seven, then told the parable in Matthew 18:21–35. A king forgave a servant an enormous debt of ten thousand talents. That servant then seized a fellow servant who owed him a hundred denarii, a small sum, and threw him into prison.

The king delivered him to the torturers. That, the pastor says, is what happens when we will not forgive: it hurts no one else, but our own hearts hand us over to a hard, painful life. If God forgave us all our foolishness and sin, we can forgive anyone.

He reads the poem Forgiveness by John Greenleaf Whittier, in which a man whose trust had been abused walks among the graves of a village burial ground. There he realizes that wronged and wrongdoer alike come to the same grave, and the poem ends, “and trembling I forgave.”

We all share one end on earth, the grave, but beyond it lies eternity: either “well done, good and faithful servant” or “I never knew you.” Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). Jesus is not your destination, the pastor says; He is the way to your destination, the Father, from whom every good and perfect gift comes (James 1:17).

Knowing Your Heavenly Father This Week

The pastor closes by inviting anyone who has never been born again to give their life to Jesus and ask God to be their Father. Here are practical steps drawn from this heavenly Father message:

• Repent of a hard heart. When you slide into a pity party, pray, “God, forgive me for a hard heart,” and return to the Word.
• Watch your words. Speak only what brings grace, remembering you are the first one who hears them.
• Stop blaming God. When trouble comes, remember the thief steals and destroys while the Father gives life.
• Let the Spirit change you. Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you and work His fruit in you instead of relying on your own effort.
• Forgive freely. Name someone you need to release and, like the forgiveness flower, give off the aroma of heaven.
• Pray the Lord’s Prayer with understanding. Slow down on each line, especially “as we forgive our debtors.”

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 Knowing God as more than a master
• 1:07 A hard heart distorts our thinking
• 2:19 The pity party
• 3:21 2 Corinthians 13:14
• 5:27 Romans 5:5 and why Jesus came
• 6:30 1 Timothy 2: one mediator
• 10:55 Isaiah 1: let us reason together
• 13:29 Oneness teaching and the Trinity
• 16:00 The manifestation of the Spirit
• 17:02 Ezekiel 36: God’s profaned name
• 19:06 Sow the Word: the Dead Sea
• 21:18 A new heart and a new spirit
• 24:43 God’s name is love
• 25:53 The prodigal son
• 32:25 Members of the household of God
• 33:47 What Jesus taught about the Father
• 37:17 Our Father is forgiving
• 39:36 The forgiveness flower
• 43:24 Ephesians 4:32
• 45:53 The Lord’s Prayer
• 49:09 Matthew 6:14–15
• 51:31 The unforgiving servant
• 56:49 Whittier’s poem on forgiveness
• 1:01:32 Jesus, the way to the Father

Our Heavenly Father Series

This message is part of an eight-part teaching series at NTC Ministries. Start from the beginning or continue where this one leaves off:

• First message: Our Heavenly Father #1: An Introduction to the Fatherhood of God
• Previous: Our Heavenly Father #4: Jesus the Mediator and the Way to the Father
• You are here: Our Heavenly Father #5: Jesus the Mediator and Forgiveness, the Love Language of Heaven
• Next: Our Heavenly Father #6 — Fellowship, a Soft Heart and the Fullness of God

Frequently Asked Questions

Does refusing to forgive mean I will lose my salvation?

The pastor says no, that is not what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 6:14–15. The consequence he describes is a hard, painful life, pictured by the servant handed over to the torturers. As the heart stays hard, he warns, you begin losing the image and likeness of God and forgetting what He is really like, and your focus turns inward to self. That, he says, is the real danger of unforgiveness.

What if someone keeps taking advantage of my forgiveness?

The pastor acknowledges that some people will live off forgiveness and never change. That, he says, is between them and God, and their hard heart will bring its own suffering. Our part as children of God is to be like our Father, who forgave us for Christ’s sake. Forgiving keeps your own heart soft and keeps you out of the cycle of always blaming someone else.

What does the Holy Spirit’s manifestation do for an ordinary believer?

The pastor describes the Holy Spirit as the conductor who leads and guides into all truth. He explains the word manifestation through epiphany, which he defines as a shining up and over. In practical terms, he says, the Spirit is given to every believer for their advantage in life, to lift them up and over whatever problem, mountain or ocean they face so that God’s will is done on earth as in heaven.

Scripture References

All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:

• 2 Corinthians 13:14 — the grace of Jesus, the love of the Father
• 1 Timothy 2:3–5 — one Mediator between God and men
• Isaiah 1:18–20 — come now, let us reason together
• Ezekiel 36:23–27 — a new heart and a new spirit
• Romans 5:5 — the love of God poured out in our hearts
• Luke 15:11–32 — the prodigal son and his father
• Matthew 6:9–13 — the Lord’s Prayer
• Matthew 6:14–15 — forgive, and your Father will forgive you
• Matthew 18:21–35 — the unforgiving servant
• Ephesians 4:32 — forgiving one another as God forgave you

How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.

Watch More Messages

If this message helped you see God as your Father, there are hundreds more teachings from NTC Ministries waiting for you. Browse the full sermon archive and keep growing in the love of your heavenly Father.