Sunday May 5th
First, let start off with Matthew chapter 6 verse nine. Now, today the Lord didn’t give me a verse by verse study, but let’s read and pray this together.
Matthew 6:9-13 (King James Version) “9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”
All of us have prayed the Lord’s prayer many times. Let me ask a question. Where would we stand if God answered this prayer with a yes? Think about it. We pray. Forgive us, our trespasses as we “forgive those trespass against us.” And this is where we will start our lesson for today.
Jesus goes on to emphasize the point by saying, if you forgive others wrongs they have done to you, God will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then God will not forgive the wrong you have done.
The importance of forgiving others is clearly a major part of life and teaching. It comes up and over and over again. Did Jesus not forgive the wrong others done to him?
Let’s look at Matthew chapter 18 verse 21. Peter wants I Lord, “if my brother keeps on sending against me, how many times do I have to forgive him, 7 times?”
“No, not seven times,” answer Jesus. But 70×7. That is an old Hebrew expression for an intimate number of times. Then Jesus told this parable: (Matthew 18: 23–33). “ the kingdom of Heaven is like this. Once there was a king who decided to check on his servants accounts. He had just begun to do so when one of them was brought in who owed him a large sum of money. The servant did not have enough to pay his debt, so the king ordered him to be sold as a slave, with his wife and his children, and all that he had in order to pay the debts. The servant fell on his knees before the king, “be patient with me, he begged, and I will pay you everything.” The king felt sorry for him, so I gave him the debt and let him go. Then the man went out and met one of his fellow servants who owed him a few dollars. He grabbed him and started choking him. Pay me back what you owe me he said his fellow servant fell down and Begged him, be patient with me and I will pay you back. But he refused. Instead, he had him thrown into jail until he could pay the debt. When the other servant saw what happened they were very upset and went to the king and told him everything. So he called the servant in. “You worthless slave, I gave you the whole amount you owed me but because you asked me too.””You should have had mercy on your fellow servant just have just as I had mercy on you.”
The king was very angry and sent the servant to jail to be punished until he could pay back the whole amount. And Jesus concluded, “ that is how my father in heaven will treat every one of you unless you forgive those you need to forgive from your heart.”
What is forgiveness?
First of all, it is something you do. Forgiveness is a miracle of Grace.
It is not just a change in feelings about another person. Forgiving others means giving their imperfect humanity to God and admitting that becoming the long forgiveness process cannot be done without God’s help.
We humans like to hold on to our anger, but with God, we can begin letting go of our anger and start to free ourselves. It now becomes your decision to stop treating another person as though they owed you something. It is your promise to God to stop blaming someone for something. Failure to forgive, can destroy our lives. It takes all of our energy we might have for something good and eat away at us. Forgiveness is a choice, a decision, which may have to be made over and over again until the process is complete.
But, in the end, for our sake, and in obedience to the Lord, we love, we make the decision to forgive. It doesn’t necessarily mean that our feelings change. We may make the decision to forgive even when we are bowling with anger. God knows all about it….
Say to him God, you know how angry I am at this person. You know that if I could get my hands on him or her, I would choke them to death. But I forgive him or her because you have asked me to do so. I forgive him and her out of obedience to you. Father and I hold him or her up to you and pray for their good. I pray also that you feel me with your love and compassion and understanding for him or her. Amen
This is a prayer that he never fails to answer.
God can change our hearts about the people we hold in unforgiveness. I know that because he’s changed mine. It is hard to believe when our anger and our hatred are so great that anything can help. But God can help. He can make a new creature out of us. we just have to be willing. Sometimes the people who hurt us the most are the ones closest to us, the ones we love the most, the ones we trust the most. Jesus had that problem with Judas, and even with Peter. He still having it with me, maybe even with some of you. We have to keep forgiving, just as God has to keep forgiving us.
The spirit and I are going to ask you to do something in a moment. If you have anyone whom you hold and unforgiveness, your father, your mother, your brother, your sister, all of those people who have failed to see Jesus and you, to see you as a person of supreme importance to God. It may be even an officer, a judge, a person who witnessed you doing something, a boss, somebody superior to you, anyone you hate because of prejudice or pride, the person who doesn’t forgive you:
If you hold any of these people and unforgiveness, the Holy Spirit would ask you to write their names down on that sheet of paper. We are passing out to you and put this list someplace secure. No one else should see these names except you. I also asked you to ask the Holy Spirit to bring to mind Names of anyone whom you might have overlooked. You might continue to ask him for help in this. As the names come to you, flip to the back of the paper and add them to this page. Keep the sheet handy and as names come to you, add them to the list as I said before, no one else will read the list except you and God, so don’t be afraid to write down the names which come to you. Let’s just pause the moment and ask him to bring these names to ours. Pray this prayer with me:
Dear God, please bring to my mind the name of any person for whom my harbor will, whom I hold unforgiven, and father helped me to understand that it makes no difference if I am still angry with that person, for I can’t change the way I feel about him or her, but you can. Continue to feed me these names. Now, Lord if I have committed against you, bring that to my remembrance now. I ask all of this in the name of Jesus Christ, your son. Amen.
Before we come up here and present our names to the Lord. A question came to me this week and I want to share it with you now.
Some have said to me, Pastor “what if I’m trying to forgive someone, but they do not see their wrong?” They wronged me, but they are oblivious to it or they won’t admit fault. And they are not Christians. Do I still need to forgive them?
The answer for that is twofold. We acknowledge the complexity, but we keep it simple. There are two categories. We need to consider when we’re talking about forgiveness. There is the internal part and the external part. The external exchange causes the other person to accept or reject the forgiveness. There is some action on their part that we as Christians are not held accountable for.
So we have to view forgiveness from both angles. I like Mark 11:25 because it talks about when you’re praying and you remember that you have harbored bad feelings or you’re holding unforgiveness towards somebody. This is the time when Jesus says that we need to deal with the issues.
Mark 11:25 (King James Version) “25 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
The scripture is saying that you have somebody who has gone into the synagogue to worship God and truth and purity, but they are not pure. Then, they are trying to exchange a pureness with God, but they’re not pure themselves because they’re harboring bad feelings towards someone.
To do this, shows a heart, that does not have the true understanding of forgiveness. Unforgiveness corrupts the exchange between God and man.
However, Jesus has a remedy for this. We are to forgive those who wrong us. We are required to forgive them at the time that the Holy Ghost brings the unforgiveness to our remembrance to. And for us today, it is to write their name down on your special paper.
So there is a sense that there is an internal requirement to forgive. This means we must make it right in the heart. Then there is this external change that we are not responsible for.
So think of forgiveness as your gift that you want to give someone else. However, not everyone will accept this forgiveness. For example, I have two people in my own life that will not accept my forgiveness. I want to hand it over to them freely, as an exchange, but they simply are not willing to acknowledge it or accept it. So, they don’t value the free gift and they won’t receive it. Then it becomes between them and God. We have washed our hands clean it.
Reconciliation may never happen on this side, but we can still worship God in purity, because we have resolved in our own heart that all is forgiven and all is washed under the blood of Christ.
Now, before we come up here, I want to pray this final prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ, you have taught me to pray: forgive us, our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. In your name, I am to repair the relationship. I am broken. I am too welcome back the wanderer who returns. Lord Jesus Christ, help me to understand that this power is your power to be used for the sake of those for whom you died. Help me to understand that I cannot turn away from any who ask for forgiveness or need my forgiveness. Help me to overcome my unforgiveness! Help me to overcome any hindrance that would help me from sharing the fullness and the power of your saving and forgiving grace. I ask it in the power of your name amen.
Are you prepared to forgive those people on your list and or are you willing to forgive yourself, do you have unconfessed in your life? Here in a minute and the Holy Spirit will ask you to come up and offer your list to the Lord. I will ask you to place, your list in the water and then move to the next station handwashing and then finally moved to the drying stage.
