Is This True, "To Forgive Is To Forget?" Series

Urban Legends Part 4

“To forgive is to forget”

I Cor 13:5, Heb 12:6, Psalm 99:8, II Sam 12:13-14

Introduction

A. We have been doing a sermon series on Urban legends. It seems with the invention of the internet and emails urban legends get passed around much more quickly. The sad thing is that they are believed and then passed along without being looked into. It makes it hard to know what to believe and what not to believe.

B. Sometimes it can get a bit overwhelming. Here is an email about some of the urban legends I received last week. I think most of us have bought into at least one of them.

1. I just want to thank all of you for your educational e-mails over the past year. Now I am totally screwed up now and have little chance of recovery.

2. I no longer open a public bathroom door without using a paper towel

3. I no longer ask for lemon slices in my ice water without worrying about the bacteria on the lemon peel.

4. I have trouble shaking hands with someone who has been driving because the number one pastime while driving alone is picking your nose.

5. I can’t touch any woman’s purse for fear she has placed it on the floor of a public bathroom.

6. I now have to use a wet sponge with every envelope that needs sealing because there is poop in the glue.

7. I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl who is about to die in the hospital for the 1 millionth time.

8. I have also learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward an e-mail to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.

9. I no longer eat KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers.

10. I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.

11. I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains.

12. I no longer can buy gasoline without taking someone along to watch the car so a serial killer won’t crawl in my back seat when I’m pumping gas.

13. I no longer drink Pepsi or Dr. Pepper since the people who make these products are atheists who refuse to put ’Under God’ on their cans.

14. I can’t boil a cup of water in the microwave anymore because it will blow up in my face, disfiguring me for life.

15. I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.

16. I no longer receive packages from UPS or Fed Ex since they are actually bombs from Al Qaeda.

17. I no longer shop at Target since they are French and don’t support our American troops or the Salvation Army.

18. I can’t ever pick up $5 in the parking lot because it probably was placed there by a sex molester waiting underneath a car to grab my leg.

19. I can no longer drive my car because I can’t buy gas from certain gas companies because they are owned by Satanists.

20. And I now keep my toothbrush in the living room, because water splashes over 6 feet out of the commode.

C. Just like there are urban legends that just seem to never die and are passed around and believed by many, there are many urban legends that are believed about God, Jesus and Christianity. They are passed around without looking to find out if they are true or false. They seem to live on even though they are not true. Before passing them along it would be good to check into them to see if they are true. We have already covered three of the most popular spiritual urban legends, “There are many ways to God,” “The Bible is full of contradictions.” and “All sin is the same” We discovered that all of them are false. Today we are going to continue our sermon series as we look into another very popular ‘Urban Legend.’ This one is about forgiveness.

Online Text question

A. Today I have another online text question

To forgive is to forget. You chose which of the following is the correct answer.

This is true all the time.

The is never true

This is true some of the time.

B. Go ahead and text in your answer. You only get one vote. This survey can only accept a limited amount of votes so if you wait to long you won’t be able to text your vote.

C. Lack of forgiveness is the cause of most people’s problems. There is a lot of confusion about forgiveness especially among Christians. Because of this confusion many people don’t know how to deal with offenses and as a result carry bitterness and anger for many years of their lives. Today I hope to clear some of this up. We are going to start in the I Corinthians 13:5