“Forgiving Others in an Unforgiving World”
Forgiveness is a wonderful life changing and empowering experience given to mankind by a loving God.
To be a Christian we must have the spirit of Christ abiding in our hearts; and to have the spirit of Christ means that we will forgive people, even as He forgave them.
God’s forgiveness cannot be effectively received except by those who are ready to forgive others. Jesus emphasized the importance of the forgiving mood and the danger of holding an unforgiving attitude.
When asked how many times one should forgive a person who has trespassed against him, Jesus said, “Seventy times seven.” He meant that a real Christian will forgive everybody everything all the time, no matter what they have said or done.
Jesus’ teaching is addressed to a community based on the giving and receiving of forgiveness, from which those who refuse to forgive their enemies exclude themselves.
Right after Jesus had taught his disciples the Lord’s Prayer that he said,
“If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt. 6:14–15).
How can we understand forgiveness if we haven’t recognized the depth of our sin?
Luke 7:36-50 NIV
36 Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38 and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. 39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is — that she is a sinner." 40 Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you." "Tell me, teacher," he said. 41 "Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?" 43 Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled." "You have judged correctly," Jesus said. 44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven — for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little." 48 Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." 49 The other guests began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?" 50 Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."
God sent a savior to make unholy man holy.”
a. If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent an educator.
b. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist.
c. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist.
d. But since our greatest need was forgiveness, God sent us a Savior.
Forgiveness is an act of faith.
a. By forgiving another, I am trusting that God is a better justice-maker than I am.
b. By forgiving, I release my own right to get even and leave all issues of fairness for God to work out.
c. I leave in God’s hands the scales that must balance justice and mercy.
This prayer was found in the clothing of a dead child at Ravensbruck concentration camp. O Lord, remember not only the men and woman of good will, but also those of ill will. But do not remember all of the suffering they have inflicted upon us: Instead remember the fruits we have borne because of this suffering, our fellowship, our loyalty to one another, our humility, our courage, our generosity, the greatness of heart that has grown from this trouble. When our persecutors come to be judged by you, let all of these fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness.
If you don’t forgive your enemies, you’re going to run out of friends
Tony Hillerman told his story: He was 14 when Mr. Ingram knocked on our farmhouse door in Sacred Heart, Okla. (pop. 38). The old sharecropper lived about a mile down the road and needed help mowing an alfalfa field. It was the first time I was actually paid for work -- about 12 cents an hour, not bad when you consider it was 1939 and we were still mired in the Great Depression. Mr. Ingram liked the job I did and ended up hiring me to dig postholes. I even helped to deliver a calf. One day he found an old truck that was stuck in the soft, sandy soil of the melon patch. It was loaded up with melons that someone had tried to steal before their truck got bogged down. Mr. Ingram explained that the truck’s owner would be returning soon, and he wanted me to watch and learn. It wasn’t long before a local guy with a terrible reputation for fighting and stealing showed up with his two full-grown sons. They looked really angry. Calmly Mr. Ingram said, "Well, I see you was wanting to buy some watermelons." There was a long silence before the man answered, "Yeah, I guess so. What are you getting for em" "Twenty-five cents each." "Well, I guess that would be fair enough if you help me get my truck out of here." It turned out to be our biggest sale of the summer, and a nasty, perhaps violent, incident had been avoided. After they left, Mr. Ingram smiled and said to me, "Son, if you don’t forgive your enemies, you’re going to run out of friends."
Forgiveness frees and un-forgiveness enslaves.
A little boy visiting his grandparents was given his first slingshot. He practiced in the woods, but he could never hit his target. As he came back to grandma’s back yard, he spied her pet duck. On an impulse he took aim and let it fly. The stone hit its target. The boy panicked. Desperately he hid the dead duck in the woodpile, only to look and see his sister watching. Sally had seen it all, but she said nothing. After lunch that day, Grandma said, “Sally, let’s wash the dishes.” But Sally said, “Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen today. Didn’t you, Johnny?” And she whispered to him, “Remember the duck!” So Johnny did the dishes. Later Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing. Grandma said, “I’m sorry, but I need Sally to help make supper.” Sally smiled and said, “That’s all taken care of, Johnny wants to do it.” Again she whispered, “Remember the duck.” Johnny stayed while Sally went fishing. After several days of Johnny doing both his chores and Sally’s, he couldn’t stand it. He confessed to Grandma that he’d killed her duck. “I know, Johnny,” she said, giving him a hug. “I was standing at the window and saw the whole thing. Because I love you, I forgave you! I wondered how long you would let Sally make you a slave.”
Why should I not forgive?
Deweese Eunick (mother of a 6 year old girl, killed by a 12 year old boy who was wrestling with her) The boy, Lionel Tate was being sentenced for life in prison for this murder. The mother said to reporters on ABC, "It’s more that he’s a human being, you know?" she said. "And in spite of him murdering my daughter and taking my daughter’s life, the thing is back in the olden days, you did an eye for an eye, right? Jesus came, Jesus died for all our sins. When we do things wrong, we can go to him, we can ask for forgiveness, right? So who am I not to forgive him for what he did to my daughter and did to my — to my life?"
"Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future."
Forgiveness is to release, to let go, relinquish, get rid of sin
a. When you forgive a person, this does not mean you are immediately healed.
b. When you forgive a person, this does not mean you are going to be buddy with him.
c. When we forgive a person, this does not mean that we trust them.
d. When we forgive a person, we are not avoiding pain, we are opening the door to healing.
Finding God’s Love to forgive
Corrie ten Boom was a Dutch Christian who helped Jews escape from the Nazis during World War II. Throughout her early life she helped hide people from the ugliness that is humanity at its worst. She was arrested and put into one concentration camp after another, one of which being a place named Ravensbruck. In 1947, after she had been teaching a class in Germany, one of the cruelest guards of the Ravensbruck camp came up to her and asked her for forgiveness. She was reluctant to forgive him at first, but she prayed that she might gain the strength to. She wrote, “For a long moment we grasped each others hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely as I did then.”
Without forgiveness we tend to stack events of the past one on top of another.
It is similar to CO poisoning. Carbon Monoxide begins collecting at the floor level and you never notice it. But, as it continues to fill a room it stacks up until it is at the level that you begin to breathe it in. Then, you experience headaches and stomach problems. The CO continues to stack until the entire room is filled with the poison and you die because there is no fresh air left to breath. Stacking our sins and negative events eventually fill the room and we die.
