Good morning. As I mentioned last week, today, I want to share with you another thought that our speakers at Summer In The Son left us with. I will use a bit of what they shared, along with my own thoughts, and we will see if we can’t all grow from our time together.
Last week, I asked you to write down some of the things that you struggle with, and listed on this board are a mixture of the things given last week, and a few other things that we may deal with.
Now, I wanted to make sure that I covered something today, that I knew we would all deal with. And at some time or another we have all been guilty of sin. Romans 3:23 tells us that, “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And wherever there is sin, there needs to be forgiveness.
So in our time together today, I want us to take a look at forgiveness. And as we do that, we are going to take a look at 3 dimensions of forgiveness:
- We need to be willing to forgive others.
- We need to seek forgiveness.
- We need to accept forgiveness.
Now, you may ask, which one is the most important? Well, to show you their importance, I need 3 volunteers…
(3 legged stool – seeking forgiveness, forgiving others, and accepting forgiveness…
When one is missing, the stool falls…)
Now, as you are heading back to your seats, allow me to open with a word of prayer.
Let’s Pray!
First, we need to be willing to forgive others.
And that means forgiving others as God has forgiven us. Let me ask you something, how many times has God forgiven you? If you are like most people, God has done a lot of forgiving when it comes to your life.
It’s like this, if you have your Bibles with you, you can go ahead and turn with me to Matthew 18:21-35. In this passage, Jesus is talking about forgiving others. Matthew 18:21-35 says, “1”
So, Jesus tells this parable about some money that was owed to a king. And then, we see this man who was forgiven a huge debt go out and be unforgiving to someone who owed him a small amount. When the king finds out, he has the man thrown in prison and tortured until he can repay the debt. But take a look again at verse 35, “This is how my Heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”
Someone has hurt you, all of us have had people do us wrong. And you know what, you have every right to get even, be bitter, and hold a grudge. But that will never solve anything, and most importantly, it is not very Christ-like!
Remember this, Matthew 6:12-15 says, “2”
If we want God to forgive the multitude of sins that we have committed against Him, then we have to be willing to forgive those who have sinned against us. Even if they don’t seek that forgiveness, we have to forgive them in our hearts, just as God has forgiven us.
When we forgive, we are then free from the worst kind of prison and torture, and then God takes over. So, we have to be willing to forgive others.
Secondly, we need to seek forgiveness.
I won’t spend much time on this one, but when I say that we need to seek forgiveness, there are 2 areas that we need to do this.
One, we need to seek forgiveness from others. I am sure that there are a couple of people right now that you can think of, that you need to go to and say sorry. Perhaps you have said something to them, or maybe you have done something to them.
And for that, you need to say sorry. It may even be something that you didn’t do, that you need to ask for their forgiveness.
And secondly, we need to seek forgiveness from God. God already knows what you did, He’s not looking for you to clue Him in on something. He just desires that you would come to Him, and confess it, and seek His forgiveness.
So, we have to seek forgiveness, both from others, and from God.
And finally, we need to accept forgiveness.
And when I say this, I mean that we need to accept God’s forgiveness.
Now, I have a little experiment that I would like to try…
(Take rope to people, and tell them, “Don’t let go of this rope!” Do a few, and then ask, “Why did none of you just get up and go with me?”)
So, why did none of you just get up and go with me? You see, it is our nature to fight back, we have to hold our ground. And that is why it is so hard for us to accept the forgiveness that God desires to give to us.
Here’s what I want you to do. Right now, I want you to open up your hand. With your other hand, I want you to write with your finger the one thing that you can’t forgive yourself of. If you don’t have anything, write down the one thing that you need to seek forgiveness of.
Now, no one can see what you write, simply write that on the palm of your hand, and then close your fist tight like a rock. And I want you to keep that fist closed tight while I talk for a moment….
A lot of times, we cannot forgive ourselves. The hardest thing a person will ever have to do is forgive himself or herself. A lot of people today, and probably a lot of people in this room right now, are suffering from guilt. We simply cannot forgive ourselves. Things that you have done in the past are haunting you still today. You can forgive others alright, but when it comes to allowing yourself to forgive you, then it gets difficult.
Scripture tells us that when we come to God, when we become a Christian, and when we seek out His forgiveness, He no longer holds our sins against us. In fact, that word “forgiveness,” in the original Greek language means pardon, deliverance. The penalty of sin is death, and when we enter into a relationship with God, He forgives us, He pardons us from the penalty that we deserve.
You know, when it comes to accepting the forgiveness that God wants to give to us, it can be a humbling experience. I mean, being rescued is a humbling thing.
For example, when someone is drowning. Their face turns blue, they begin coughing up water, and it’s an embarrassing situation. But it beats the alternative.
Or what about the person who is choking on a piece of food in a restaurant. They can’t breath, the food is stuck, and someone comes over and performs the Heimlich. They cough up the food and spit it out. That is an embarrassing situation. But again, it beats the alternative.
God has offered us this great opportunity. God is willing to saves us. He is willing to forgive us of all the junk we have done. It is a humbling experience, but it beats the alternative.
Now, I want you to slowing begin to open your fist, just a little at a time. Do you see how hard it is to open that fist? Well, that is the way it is for us to forgive ourselves sometimes. But as we begin to open those fists, we can begin to experience a new kind of forgiveness.
We may have a hard time forgiving ourselves, but God doesn’t. In fact, in Psalm 103:12 it says, this, “…as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
Now, I want you to think for a moment about the things that you wrote down. I want you to think about the things that will flash on the screen.
I am going to play a song, I want you to meditate on the words to this song, and understand this, Christ died so that you could be forgiven. And maybe its time that you forgive yourself.
(Play Song – What Sin) (While song plays, have on screen “While we were yet… list of sins …Christ died for us.”) (Dim the lights.)
(As song ends, have sins on white paper…Have lights dimmed… Put paper in front of projector… have “I Forgive You” written in lined up over the page…)
What we have to realize is that God has already forgiven us, and we need to allow ourselves to accept that forgiveness.
Let’s Pray! |
