Are You An Unforgiving Slave Of Jesus
Matthew 18:21-35
Prayer
Introduction
Recently, one of the most severe storms in many years pounded our five little acres. It came out of the northwest embedded in dark, angry clouds. We saw it approaching in the twilight and could hear its snarl off in the distance as it rolled over farm and forest with a vengeance. It was calm where I stood, anchored to the deck on the back of the house. The birds were still twittering in the bushes, Your Creek was babbling and the ever-present mosquitoes were about their business with little regard for the fury to come. We have seen many a storm approach our little valley over the years so we are accustomed to a good blow every now and then. But this one looked and felt different. For one thing, the thunder was continuous, not intermittent. It sounded like a slow rumbling freight along some lonesome rail line in the distance, wheels pounding and clicking on the same loose rail as car after car slowly trundled by. The clouds before the storm were swirling masses of white popping up here and there and then disappearing almost like forewarning smoke signals telegraphing some distant and brooding attack. It began to rain, then hail, and I was forced into a watch behind closed windows. Soon the wind picked up dramatically and the rain moved horizontally pressing against the house. There was no watch for there was nothing to see but gray, wet smears on the windows. The sirens began to whine and we knew that it was time to take pets and ourselves to the basement and wait out the storm.
It didn’t last long, only ten or fifteen minutes and the storm was past. We emerged from our shelter to see a world bathed in the eery light of the storm’s aftermath. It was rapidly getting dark and it was difficult to assess any damage but it seemed that house, antenna, garage and outbuildings were reporting for duty. Yet, I had the strange sense that all was not right with the beech and maple sentinels posted somewhere out in the darkness. I could see that the ground was strewn with leaves, twigs, beechnuts and other debris. The wind had taken its toll; there was no doubt. Several hours later as I was retiring to bed, I heard an ominous sound. It was the nearby chatter of chainsaws ripping apart some poor, unfortunately fallen tree. The sound was close, so I put on slippers and jacket, flashlight in hand, and trudged up the driveway. There were branches everywhere and in the darkness I spied a faithful beech split, twisted and bowed to the ground. The chainsaws, I discovered, belonged to a highway crew working on another of our large beech trees whose boughs had caught the wind’s fury and, like a sail, had pushed the poor tree over onto the highway roots and all.
With morning’s light the awful truth was revealed. Nine of my stoutest beeches had been either uprooted or snapped off completely. The storm had cut a narrow path straight through our front yard from the northwest to the southeast. It wasn’t a wide path, maybe only twenty yards wide. But nearly every beech tree in its path had been either stripped, cracked, split or completely dispatched. Limbs were hung up upon limbs and trees entangled with their neighbors. Clean-up would take days, if not weeks. As I slowly walked the scene I noticed something quite remarkable. Although almost every beech tree had been damaged, there wasn’t a single maple tree that had lost more than a small limb here or there. As several maples stood in the storm’s path as well, what saved them while the beeches were so ravaged? The answer was simple. Upon observation I could see that the beech limbs point proudly at a stout angle straight to the sky. The maples, on the other hand, spread their limbs outward. When the wall cloud smashed into Beechsprings, it caught the beech limbs like a sail. They gave only a little and then twisted and snapped. The maples boughs, subject to the same fury, simply bowed and swayed in the breath of that angry cloud. They lost leaves but their limbs stayed intact.
How like these trees we are when the storms of rent and broken relationships blast unexpectedly into our lives. Under the great pressure of wrongs and hurts not righted, we twist and turn as the fury of our own anger and bitterness blasts through our hearts. We try to withstand the tremendous pressure this brings to bear upon our lives by telling ourselves that we were the ones who were wronged. But, anchored in our emotions, we can only reach out and hope to withstand the fury of our own unforgiving spirit. Such resistance, however, is futile; it will only destroy us in the end. Without a merciful spirit and the willingness to forgive, we become stripped, broken and useless Christians. Like the maple, we need to be able to let the wind of our anger and bitterness rush through and past us. This can only happen when we employ a merciful and forgiving spirit, one that humbly bends and bows to the angry clouds of life, embedded with the hurts and pains of the wrongs that others inflict upon us. Is their someone in your life that has wronged you? Don’t try to bear up under the fury of your own hurt emotions. Be merciful and forgive and keep your heart green and growing.
We have been forgiven much. There is not a one of us here that can claim we have never committed a sin. We are all guilty and deserve any and all punishment that comes our way. But God elected to provide a way for us to be saved. He sent His son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for us. He chose to pay our sin debt. And He is the one given the right to judge us. Some of us commit sins and we spend a complete lifetime in remorse for that sin but Jesus has forgiven us that sin and he no longer remember that sin. He says in 1 John 1:9 9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In “A Forgiving God in an Unforgiving World”, Ron Lee Davis retells the true story of a priest in the Philippines, a much-loved man of God who carried the burden of a secret sin he had committed many years before. He had repented but still had no peace, no sense of God’s forgiveness. In his parish was a woman who deeply loved God and who
claimed to have visions in which she spoke with Christ and he with her. The priest, however, was skeptical. To test her he said, “The next time you speak with Christ, I want you to ask
him what sin your priest committed while he was in seminary.” The woman agreed. A few days later the priest asked, “Well, did Christ visit you in your dreams?” “Yes, he did”. she replied
“And did you ask him what sin I committed in seminary?” “Yes.” “Well, what did he say?” “He said, I don’t remember”. Now my question is do we ever forgive and if we do do we forget. We as Christians are to immolate our Lord and Savior.
I.What have we been forgiven of?
1.We have been forgive of the sin of pride.
1.It was Satan’s pride that caused him to rebel against God. It was Adam’s pride that caused him to hide from God in the garden of Eden. And it was Adam’s pride to cause him to try and place the blame on Eve.
2.It was David’s pride that prevented him from himself in Nathan’s story.
1.David caused the death of Uriah. He murdered him by his orders. And David even rationalized the whole event as Uriah fault.
2.But once Nathan pointed out David’s sin David repented of His sin.
3.Understand once David confessed his sin God forgave him of it but he still had to pay the penalty for that sin, which was the child of adultery died and war in his very own household.
3.It is our pride that prevents us from stepping out of our pews and come accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
2. On easter morning Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey.
1.Every one thought he had come to establish an earthly kingdom. They celebrated his coming but for the wrong reasons. They thought that Rome was about to be overthrown and they would once again be free from domination. Their pride would not let them see the truth. That Christ’s kingdom was spiritual instead earthly.
2.This was not the messiah they wanted or believed would come. Their pride kept many from accepting Jesus.
3.Today that very same pride keeps many from accepting the free gift that Jesus wants to give them.
We have also been forgiven o f murder.
1.Cain may have committed the first murder.
2.We too are guilty of murder when we refuse to witness for God. If we don’t talk to people about God we may be condemning them to eternal damnation.
II.Why are we to forgive others?
1.We are to forgive because God has commanded us to forgive. We were guilty. We all owed a debt that we could never have paid yet God forgave us. How can we do less? A bank owner wanted to settle an overdo account with a farmer who owed him several million dollars, so he called him and asked him to come to his office. As the two discussed the situation it became apparent that the farmer couldn’t even meet the monthly premium. The owner sighed and said, “Well, sir, I’m afraid we are going to have to repossess your house and car and all your equipment. We also need to liquidate all your stock to get this debt paid.”
The man pushed his chair back and dropped to his knees in tears. He plead with the owner saying, “Times are hard sir. My crop failed, and I cannot find another job. Besides, this farm is all I’ve ever known. Please be patient with me, and I will pay you everything!”
The owner looked at the man and felt compassion. He thought to himself, “This has been such a great year. I have made so much money that I can take a hit like this without really feeling it. Besides, what if I was the one in that chair?”
“I am moved to compassion by your situation,” he told the man. “I have received so many blessings…I tell you what, forget the debt. You don’t owe me a penny.” The man leaped to his feet and nearly jumped over the desk hugging the owner. “O, thank you so much!” he exclaimed. “This is incredible!” He ran out of the office rejoicing.
Now on the farmers land was a small share cropper’s house. It wasn’t worth much but an old man rented it from him. Not long after his meeting at the bank, the farmer went to his tenant’s house to collect the rent money. “Have you got your rent?” He asked.
“No.” replied his tenant. “I’m sorry. I know I said I would have it, but I lost my job, and I had to use it on food.”
“You’ve been late nearly every month for almost eight years,” the farmer screamed. “I am tired of it. Pay what you owe me now!”
The tenant begged him, “Please be patient with me, and I will get it.”
But the farmer wasn’t willing. He stormed out of the house and had the man evicted.
Now the bank owner heard about everything that had happened, so he called the farmer and asked him to come back to his office. As soon as the farmer stepped inside his office the owner hollered, “You wicked man! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Shouldn’t you have had compassion on your tenant, as I had compassion for you? Now I will do everything I had planned to do before!”
2.We are all guilty at the worst of sins yet our Lord has forgiven us.
1.It is complete the debt is fully paid.
2.Our Lord actually paid the debt with His own blood. His very blood bought us out of the slave market of sin.
3.His forgiveness is freely given all we have to do is ask for it.
Jesus is our Lord and Savior. He is our example.
1.Jesus has shown us how to forgive.
2.We are to forgive even those who don’t want forgiveness.
3.When people seek to hurt or destroyed we are to forgive them. We are to be like our Lord. He forgave those who were seeking to hurt and kill them.
4.Just as Jesus forgives freely so are we to forgive. No strings attached we simply forgive.
5.Jesus’ forgiveness was complete so must our forgiveness be complete.
III.How are we to forgive?
1.We are to have compassion on the one we are to forgive.
1.We are not to do it our of duty but we are to do it our of love.
2.We are not to do it grudging.
3.We are to release them from our hurt, pain, or whatever emotion that may have been evoked.
1.That is the hardest thing to do we want to hold onto the pain, the hurt the emotion. We want to wallow in it.
2.But it is what we have to do. We must release it. Forgiveness is more then just forgiving someone it is also about forgiving ourselves.
IV. Conclusion.
