TOTAL FORGIVENESS.
1 SAMUEL 24: 9-13.
LUKE 23:34.
EPHESIANS 4:32.
In the daily newspaper there was an article with the following heading; “Can you learn to forgive?” The opening words were, “bearing a grudge can and will hold you back and it will even do damage to your health if you don’t learn to forgive.” The writer of the article had interviewed Dr. Ken Hart from Leeds University who was going around doing lectures on forgiveness. Dr. Hart task was employed at Leeds University teaching the world’s first course on forgiveness. Dr. Hart was asked if this isn’t what the Bible teaches. He replied that he didn’t know because he had never read the Bible nor did he believe in a God. I found it very interesting that a secular University would recognize the merits of forgiving people according to the formula that Jesus taught. I also found that the article informed one that all the people who took this course and attended the lecture were people who were filled with anger, bitterness and when asked everyone said that they wanted to get even with the people who had hurt them.
The mother ran into the bedroom when she heard her seven-year-old son scream. She found his two-year-old sister pulling his hair. She gently released the little girl’s grip and said comfortingly to the boy, "There, there. She didn’t mean it. She doesn’t know that hurts." He nodded his acknowledgement, and she left the room. As she started down the hall the little girl screamed. Rushing back in, she asked, "What happened?" The little boy replied, "She knows now.
In his book "What’s so Amazing About Grace," Philip Yancey tells a story about a man and wife who one night had an argument about how supper was to be cooked, it was so heated that night they slept in separate rooms. Neither has approached the other to say I’m sorry or to offer forgiveness and they have remained in separate room’s years after the argument, each night they would go to bed hoping that the other will approach them with and apology or forgiveness, but neither goes to the other. God’s forgiveness does not wait for repentance; it initiates and calls out repentance by offering forgiveness. Jesus said in Matthew 6: 14-15, "Forgive people when they sin against you. If you do, your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive people their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Matthew 18:35.
This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.’’
Mark 11:25.
And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.’’
Paul says it in Colossians 3:13.
Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
James says it in James 2:13.
Because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!
We delude ourselves think that forgiveness is just something that we are asked to do; that not true; forgiveness is what we are commanded to do by the Lord Jesus Christ and the Word of God.
Another way we delude ourselves is that we think that those who have hurt us are more likely to be punished only if we keep thinking about what was done to us. The problem is that we have been hurt and our human side wants to get even, we want revenge. We want then to feel as much hurt as they have made us feel. Sometimes people actually make plans so they can make sure that their concept of justice is done. This whole idea of getting even is directly from Satan.
The only people we actually hurt is ourselves, and then when that happen we say that the reason why we have gotten hurt again is because of so and so who hurt us the first time.
What many born again Christians may not realize is that when we fall into this trap of Satan we also grieve the Holy Spirit of God who is living within us.
Ephesians 4:29-32. Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
When we are not following the path that the Lord Jesus has for us isn’t that rebelling against the Lord.
Isaiah 63:10b. But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit.
TOTAL FORGIVENESS HAPPENS WHEN WE FORGIVE PEOPLE WHO HAVE HURT US SO THAT WE SET THE LORD FREE FROM HAVING TO PUNISH THEM AND FROM TAKING REVENGE ON THEM.
When Jesus was on the cross He set for each one who believe in and has accepted his offer of Grace how we are to respond to those who have hurt us.
LUKE 23:34. But Jesus was saying, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves. In an old Candid Camera episode, an actor is on a busy sidewalk and begins looking at the ground. He walks around a bit and continues to look down. People are passing by him and a few give him strange looks. After a couple minutes, he decides to get down on his hands and knees and begins feeling around with his hands. People begin to slow down and watch what he’s doing. Finally, one person stops and starts looking at the ground. Then another one begins searching the sidewalk. In a few minutes, the camera shows about a dozen people looking down, some even on their hands and knees! At that point, the actor, who got all this started in the first place, quietly gets up and walks away. No one else notices that he has left. They’re so intent in their search that they never even bothered to ask what it was they were looking for. This is a good picture of how people are today. Many people today just don’t want to even think about offering forgiveness because then they wouldn’t be like every one else.
How do you feel about people? I think there are times that we are like the people in this story. A pastor arranged for a gathering of the women’s auxiliary of his church. It was to be a garden party on the church lawn, under the old oak. At the last moment, the morning of the party, the pastor’s wife discovered that there was one person who was accidentally left off the invitation list. The pastor called the woman and explains what happen and he asks for forgiveness. I’m so sorry we didn’t catch this sooner said the pastor, the lawn party just wouldn’t be completer if you aren’t there; won’t you please come to the garden party? Asking for forgiveness won’t help now, pastor, replied the woman, I’ve already prayed for rain.
This story make one ask whether we are the pastor or the woman.
Do remember the newspaper story that I mention at the beginning. Well all the people who were attending those lectures were searching for something because they know there’s got to be more to life. But, they’ll never find it if they don’t know what it is that they’re missing.
Albert Tomei is a justice of the New York State Supreme Court. A young defendant was convicted in Judge Tomei’s court of gunning down another person execution style. The murderer had a bad record, was no stranger to the system, and only stared in anger as the jury returned its guilty verdict. The victim’s family had attended every day of the two-week trial. On the day of sentencing, the victim’s mother and grandmother addressed the court. When they spoke, neither addressed the jury. Both spoke directly to the murderer. They both forgave him. "You broke the Golden Rule——loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind. You broke the law——loving your neighbor as yourself. I am your neighbor," the older of the two women told him, "so you have my address. If you want to write, I’ll write you back. I sat in this trial for two weeks, and for the last sixteen months I tried to hate you. But you know what? I could not hate you. I feel sorry for you because you made a wrong choice."
Judge Tomei writes: "For the first time since the trial began, the defendant’s eyes lost their laser
force and appeared to surrender to a life force that only a mother can generate: nurturing, unconditional love. After the grandmother finished, I looked at the defendant. His head was hanging low. There was no more swagger, no more stare. The destructive and evil forces within him collapsed helplessly before this remarkable display of humaneness." In choosing the path of forgiveness, that grandmother unleashed a power that could not be tapped in any other way. And that power was what caused the defendant to hang his head for the first time.
