Excerpts of Richard Kaa’s Sermon of 1 December 2024 (underlining added for emphasis)

(If you don’t have time to read the entire thing, whatever you do, skip forward to the heading below called – ‘Now Richie Kaa finally gets to his point’)

Richard begins his sermon by referring to technical difficulties being experienced by viewers trying to view the sermon via Live Streaming. We believe this is a reference to the various websites that were taken down and scoured of relevant content.  We believe MCF’s live streaming may have been compromised when the sites were taken down to remove content.

Richard says:

‘’we’re also very aware aren’t we, that it’s not as easy as clicking on the link today so there’s a couple of challenges. So, for those on live stream, I hope it goes well. And it is a very narrow way today if you want to join the Word, so here we are.’

He goes on to say:

‘So in our study today, we’re going to look at the death that Jesus died. And… consider… a number of implications that we want to give some time and attention to.’

‘when something is dead to us, we no longer have a relationship with it. …there is no longer any ongoing relationship. It can no longer influence us and we are no longer controlled by it. Praise the Lord . ‘

‘Okay,… ‘for a lot of us we don’t think a lot about the law.’

‘but can I suggest to you, that it is through every fibre of your DNA.’

‘…we acknowledge that the law is good, and let’s just be clear on the point. The law is not wicked and evil, the law is good, the law is royal, the law is the definition, isn’t it, of the divine nature.’

‘But’ it ‘is no longer a reference point for a Believer’

‘it is not the means that… we can achieve righteousness’

‘a Believer is tempted to take hold of the law , … they remain carnal and in direct opposition to… His daily dying. Can you see that?

The ‘daily dying’ is a reference to Chris dying to save us from sin and calling us to do the same.  Not dying literally but dying to sin – meaning to not live a sinful way.

Richie goes on to say:

When we turn to the law for redress: ‘it only revives sin within our members’ meaning in our body.

‘as believers we are instructed to reckon ourselves dead to sin’

‘Christ …took the law out of the way, and apart from the law, sin was dead’ The inference being that if you use the law you have not died to sin.’

Richie emphasises:

‘that must be about nine times I’ve said it so far. Please don’t keep counting.’

‘We read in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church, the Sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. Okay.  This is first Corinthians chapter 15 verses 56-57, if you’re wanting that scriptural reference. The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.’

‘So, let’s just think about this word Sting okay.  A sting is the means by which an animal wounds its prey even to cause death. So, we read in Romans chapter 5 verse 12, just as through one man, sin entered the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned. If sin is the sting that injects mankind with death, then law is its power’

‘However sad and difficult your history might be, however… rotten and wicked you may have been toward another, you are. ‘no longer defined by the abuse that you have committed or the abuse that you have endured’. There’s a ‘Supernatural forgiveness, which… should not be confused with secular or human forgiveness. In fact, you cannot forgive in this manner, unless you are participating in the dying and living of Jesus each day.’

‘He… is equipping us with the supernatural capacity to forgive. Because the moment you are drawn to… unforgiveness, you are completely redundant…, the life of God ceases to flow from you’. ‘This is what the Lord wants to say very clearly… that forgiveness’ is ‘the basis for which you continue to be forgiven. Praise the Lord.’

‘So, Paul is making a very key point here when he’s writing to the Ephesian, he says do not Grieve the Holy Spirit. …and he… says let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour and evil speaking be put away with all malice. So that’s the first part of the help the Holy Spirit is giving to us.

‘Secondly, he says He’s helping us to be kind to one another, tender hearted, and…, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you’

‘as a son of god, we have been given the most extraordinary power. The most extraordinary capacity which is to forgive.’

Now Richie Kaa finally gets to his point:

‘so…, let’s now consider… the proper response of a Believer who has abused another person, and then the proper response of the Believer who has been abused by another person.’

And these are the… questions that we… put before you as the congregation…  how should a believer who has been abused respond to their abuser, regardless of whether their abuser seeks forgiveness or not?

‘There is a capacity granted to you by God and God alone for you to know and walk in the forgiveness of a matter towards somebody who has no desire to express any kind of apology or desire for reconciliation. ‘And’ they ‘can be completely free and at peace in life moving forward… ‘without any…’ need for “any interaction’.

In other words, an abuser can know forgiveness… without the person they abused ever forgiving them. Likewise, an abused person can forgive the person who abused them without their abuser ever expressing remorse or conveying an apology. Furthermore, an abuser, and an abused person, can be entirely resolved concerning a matter of abuse without ever being reconciled.

‘An abuser’s justification is not based upon being forgiven by the person they abused. Likewise, an abused person is able to forgive their abuser without an apology. I want you just to hear this carefully- this resolves the secular or… the fleshly or carnal view- that an abuser is in debt to their victim until the debt is paid… that’s a fleshly carnal mindset, and’… the lord is coming to release us from that mindset today. The lord wants to free us from… trying to find reconciliation and restoration friendship within your extended family and within the congregation broadly. If that is your understanding of forgiveness, then there’s going to be a significant limitation on every aspect of your life.

‘It’s not uncommon for a person to label a situation to have been abusive toward them, whereas… their abuser doesn’t see it like that at all.’

‘Abuse can be the outcome of ambivalence, apathy or neglect… or it can also be motivated with a very deliberate intent of taking advantage of another person, be that covertly – that is by deceit- or overly, that is by force.’

‘’let’s consider the reaction or the response of an abused… person- because we do need to be very careful’ about ‘the statements we are making here today – isn’t just looking at the abuser and feeling Sympathy for the abused. We need to be very, very careful, that we understand something very particular about the reaction and the response of the abused.

‘The response of an abused person can also come in different forms, including those defined as internalizing responses…. there’s no… overt expression. Internally there’s all sorts of tumult and turmoil going on in the mind, physically through all of the muscles systems, right through into the digestive system… this would include things like self-loathing, depression and all manner of conversion disorders. Their psychosomatic conditions, where the way were viewing the world, the way that we’re thinking about matters, is actually having a significant detrimental effect on our physical emotional, and wellbeing and person. It manifests physically.

 there is another point to consider here in regards the response of an abused person, and that’s then defined as externalising responses. And that will include social withdrawal, removing yourself from certain people, shunning other people. It will include engaging in high risk behaviors and malicious intent for revenge. This is the response and the reaction of an abuser.  We just got to get real about what we’re talking about here today, now this is the point I want you to know – that the abused person becomes the abuser. and if you are sitting today wearing proudly a hat called ‘the abused’, can I let you know, it’s very likely that the thing is playing out in your life, perhaps knowingly but very often unknowingly, that there’s now a secondary abuse that’s occurring because these things have not been resolved. The lord is wanting to minister to us all together as a congregation that we don’t overly define ourselves as someone who’s been abused.’

“Do not Grieve the Holy Spirit. He’s coming to minister the capacity forgiveness so that we can grow and mature in the divine nature. Shutting down all malicious intent so that we can be tender hearted, kind, forgiving one another. these are the things that he wants to put before us.

‘So thankfully an abused person does not require their abuser to repent for their abuse’

‘And it by this means that you keep yourself in the love of God’

‘Forgiveness is… the evidence that an abused person is dying with Christ, has died with christ, and died to abuse, sending the matter away. It’s no longer a debt that they carry within themselves with the expectation that that debt be paid. They have sent the entire matter away. and this means, they have forsaken the carnal propensity to reach for the law in order to address the Injustice.

‘Consider the life of Joseph… his brothers… sold him and feigned his death to their father.

Joseph said, ‘you meant it for evil, but God intended it for good. Your intention was malicious,but as I was gathered and drawn into the Fellowship of God,… forgiveness was granted to me for you. Praise the Lord.

‘The lord is wanting to minister forgiveness here among us today, he wants to grant to you a supernatural capacity today, and we’ve said this already, but we’ll say again – every one of us has been an abuser and every one of us has been abused. And we must… keep ourselves in the love of God… the result is that we are no longer tempted to reach for the law to address matters, demonstrating that we are learning to judge matters spiritually.’

‘The martyr Stephen, demonstrated this principle, who although he was being murdered, he did not react carnally’

‘The lord is… circumcising from us the propensity to react and seek vengeance towards those abuse us.

‘And you know, there’s a spectrum of abuse, from the very significant very serious, criminal kinds of abuse, right through the daily injustice that we, you know, impose upon others. I don’t want to be trivial here today, …considering the very significant and very severe matters.

Okay, in this regard, it is entirely feasible that an abused person can forgive their abuser but never be reconciled. This would include where a party denies the abuse, is ignorant of the abuse, is no longer alive to acknowledge or process the abuse, or where further harm is intended by refusing to apologize or by denying the intent or impact of the abuse. The point is they do not hold the key for you to gain access to forgiveness and of being restored to peace.’

‘This means the abusers power can be broken without them ever needing to apologize or repenting to the person they abused. And that’s tremendous.’

Now if an issue of abuse in a life of the Believer is not properly resolved – so that its forgiven’- then it will be commuted to vengeance, which is part of an abused response. And this is because they have succumbed to the temptation of taking hold of the law with the view of righting an injustice or addressing an abuse. And this is what we call carnality. This is the carnal dilemma.’

‘As Christians we are warned against taking vengeance because vengeance belongs only to God. We read that in Romans 12:17 to 19 and any use of the law is carnal, and it is the basis for vengeance. And it is a device by which Satan takes advantage over the believers.

‘We then… covet the law and its power… but know this, it only works in us violent desire. That’s all it can work in us. Accordingly, those who live after the flesh will carnally take hold of the law which only produces death in you…’.

‘It is never a life-giving ministry when we take hold of the law. and this is the basis of the phrase ‘abused people abuse people’… –  This is what the Lord wants to break us free from.’

‘So, we’re nearly, nearly finished. I’m just going to go to a final section, I’ll just read this section out.’

The first dimension of living for God in this sinless environment is to join the death of Christ…

‘the default program of human nature…’ is ‘self-preserve and it’s to avoid death.

‘it’s a self preserving refusal to die.

‘But, when I by Faith, choose to deny myself and willingly lose my life, someone else will live, someone else is being preferred. And this is only possible – that is to join the death of Christ.’

‘in order that we might attain to his resurrection life. This is a fantastic dimension of the gospel’

‘the soil of’ our ‘heart needs a fair bit of work. Left to our own devices, that seed will not bring forth fruit. And this is where we need to understand that the death that Jesus died, He died to sin. 

‘And he wants you to be joined to that death, for it is the death that allows you to deal with the ground of your heart… ‘without being drawn back to the carnal reflex of taking hold of the law…’

‘Knowing that every Injustice is God’s Mercy to deliver me from’ being ‘tempted…’ – ‘by carnal use of the law. amen. and we’ll finish there, I’ll invite the brethren to come. and lead us in the rest of the service, thanks Mark.

The full transcript of Richie Kaa’s sermon to MCF – 1 December 2024 can be found on this website.