Forgiveness Part 2 - Matthew 6:1-14 8/21/11

Sermon 8-21-11 forgiveness part 2 forgiving one another Mt 6:1-14 kkkk

1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation,[a] but deliver us from the evil one.[b]’ 14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Forgiveness series
Part one – God forgives me, how can I forgive myself
We have to let the voice of grace become louder than the voice of self condemnation

Forgiveness part two – forgiving one another

We all get this
The business partner that stole from me
The rapist, the employer, the church member,
The cheater
The nazi’s, osama ben laden
At the core of every moment of forgiveness is the realization that Someone hurt me

Here is the sermon on the mount
The main stuff
And the lords prayer – the main stuff
And here right in the middle of his prayer and his sermon, is forgiveness

Optional for humans, not optional for Christ followers
To reject the call for forgiveness is to reject the one who teaches that we must do it
So in effect, if you refuse to forgive someone, you are rejecting Jesus

If you refuse to forgive, you are not on board with what God is trying to do in this world

What forgiveness is not
Misconceptions about forgiveness
1. Approval of what they did
2. Excusing what they did
3. Justifying what they did
4. Not pardoning what they did
5. Reconciliation - Restoration of fellowship
6. Not a denying of what they did
7. Forgetting
8. Pretending that we were not hurt

Forgiveness is a choice and a process
If I can wave my hand and forgive you, then what was between us wasn’t very much
Forgiveness – point in time and a process


Consider the consequences of not forgiving
Bitterness
Others are defiled
Broken fellowship with God
If you refuse to forgive, you are living your life in your own strength
Thoughts are consumed with anger and sadness

Consider the consequences of forgiving
Love can come back in
They get grace from me
I get grace from God

Forgiveness is beautiful
In "The Christian Leader," Don Ratzlaff retells a story Vernon Grounds came across in Ernest Gordon's Miracle on the River Kwai. The Scottish soldiers, forced by their Japanese captors to labor on a jungle railroad, had degenerated to barbarous behavior, but one afternoon something happened. A shovel was missing. The officer in charge became enraged. He demanded that the missing shovel be produced, or else. When nobody in the squadron budged, the officer got his gun and threatened to kill them all on the spot . . . It was obvious the officer meant what he had said. Then, finally, one man stepped forward. The officer put away his gun, picked up a shovel, and beat the man to death. When it was over, the survivors picked up the bloody corpse and carried it with them to the second tool check. This time, no shovel was missing. Indeed, there had been a miscount at the first check point. The word spread like wildfire through the whole camp. An innocent man had been willing to die to save the others! . . . The incident had a profound effect. . . The men began to treat each other like brothers. When the victorious Allies swept in, the survivors, human skeletons, lined up in front of their captors (and instead of attacking their captors) insisted: "No more hatred. No more killing. Now what we need is forgiveness." Sacrificial love has transforming power.
We have the power
When the first missionaries came to Alberta, Canada, they were savagely opposed by a young chief of the Cree Indians named Maskepetoon. But he responded to the gospel and accepted Christ. Shortly afterward, a member of the Blackfoot tribe killed his father. Maskepetoon rode into the village where the murderer lived and demanded that he be brought before him. Confronting the guilty man, he said, "You have killed my father, so now you must be my father. You shall ride my best horse and wear my best clothes."

A couple married for 15 years began having more than usual disagreements. They wanted to make their marriage work and agreed on an idea the wife had. For one month they planned to drop a slip in a "Fault" box. The boxes would provide a place to let the other know about daily irritations. The wife was diligent in her efforts and approach: "leaving the jelly top off the jar," "wet towels on the shower floor," "dirty socks not in hamper," on and on until the end of the month. After dinner, at the end of the month, they exchanged boxes. The husband reflected on what he had done wrong. Then the wife opened her box and began reading. They were all the same, the message on each slip was, "I love you!"

Thomas A. Edison was working on a crazy contraption called a "light bulb" and it took a whole team of men 24 straight hours to put just one together. The story goes that when Edison was finished with one light bulb, he gave it to a young boy helper, who nervously carried it up the stairs. Step by step he cautiously watched his hands, obviously frightened of dropping such a priceless piece of work. You've probably guessed what happened by now; the poor young fellow dropped the bulb at the top of the stairs. It took the entire team of men twenty-four more hours to make another bulb. Finally, tired and ready for a break, Edison was ready to have his bulb carried up the stairs. He gave it to the same young boy who dropped the first one. That's true forgiveness.

How can I learn to forgive
1. Choose to forgive and say the words
2. Make a choice not to tell anyone what they did
3. Be pleasant to them when around them
4. If conversation comes up, say words that release them from bondage
This allows them to feel good about themselves
5. Protect them from their fear
6. Pray for them –
forgive them,
bless them
7. Keep it up – next week, next month, next year

The greater the hurt, the greater the amount of the holy spirit that you need to forgive

The greater the hurt, the greater the blessing that comes from forgivenss


John 8:36 - He whom the son sets free is free indeed