We are studying the different ways in which we Edge God out of our lives. The ways in which we separate ourselves from God. Till now we have examined the issue of Ego, Pride and Fear.
Today we will take a look at the biggie, Unforgiveness.
All of us have gone through situations where we have been hurt by others. All of us have hurt others in some way or the other. Some knowingly, some unknowingly.
There are two ways unforgiveness manifests. One is when we do not forgive ourselves. We are unable to get past our own past mistakes and our own sins and we cling on to them and do not forgive ourselves. The second is when we do not forgive others for the things they have done to us.
First let us examine the aspect of unforgiveness for our own past. How does that affect our relationships with God? How we do we Edge God out when we do not forgive ourselves? Why don’t we forgive ourselves? We don’t forgive ourselves, because we believe we are incapable of undoing the wrong that we have done. We think we cannot undo the past, we cannot rectify the mistake, we cannot repair the damage that we have caused. And that is all true. All those statements are true. We by ourselves cannot repair the damages that we have caused. We by ourselves cannot heal the wounds that we have caused to ourselves or to others. So what we end up putting ourselves into different prisons. Prisons of Guilt, prisons of the past, prisons of perfection, prisons of obligation, prisons of Gurus etc etc. And we are unable to release ourselves from those prisons. But go through the statement again, where is the focus? The focus is on ourselves isn’t it? Where is God in this? When we attempt to repair the past damages ourselves, are we not depending on our own strengths? Are we not trying to solve the issue of sin by ourselves? Where is God in the equation? When we try to (and most certainly fail) to repair the damages that we have caused, when we try to release ourselves from the prisons by our own strength, we are Edging God Out. But what did Jesus do on the cross. He took all our sins and past mistakes and nailed it to the cross. So if we change the focus from ourselves for a moment and focus on the cross, on the salvation that comes to us through the cross, the whole scenario can change and change drastically.
Take this example. When we come back from work, or playing and sweating, we take off our dirty clothes. We throw them on the ground. Imagine after we have done that we pick them up again, and wear them again. Would we do that? Have you done that? Wouldn’t we consider ourselves as looney is we do that? Not giving up on our past mistakes is just like that. All of us sitting here are baptized isn’t it? What does Baptism mean to us? Romans 6:3-6 (MSG) 3 Or didn't you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land! That's what baptism into the life of Jesus means. 4 When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. 5 Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we're going in our new grace-sovereign country. 6 Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the Cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin's every beck and call! What we believe is this:. So if we believe in Baptism, once we accepted Jesus through baptism, this is what should happen. We should be able to leave our sins, all our dead works back and never ever pick them up. If we pick them up again, it as if we removed our dirty clothes to change and forgot about it and put on the same dirty cloths again to come to church. Are we in that situation?
So we may ask, we take baptism only once. But there are times when we do mistakes after Baptism. So does it mean that we are not cleansed after the baptism? NO, there is an ongoing cleansing required for all of us. 2 Timothy 2:20-21 (MSG) 20 In a well-furnished kitchen there are not only crystal goblets and silver platters, but waste cans and compost buckets—some containers used to serve fine meals, others to take out the garbage. 21 Become the kind of container God can use to present any and every kind of gift to his guests for their blessing. It is our responsibility to be cleansed , daily, so that we are used as the vessels of honour that our Lord will be proud to use to serve to others. This cannot happen if we hold on to our past. This cleansing cannot happen, if we do let go of our past. This cleansing cannot happen if we Edge God Out through unforgiveness. We cannot be used as vessels of honour if we do not allow ourselves to be cleansed.
This cleansing can happen only by the blood of Jesus. We have to let the blood of Jesus cleanse us. For that we have to first accept the Grace that was released to us through the death of Jesus Christ. When we do not let the blood of Jesus cleanse us, we are actually falling away from Jesus. We are then actually turning back to our old ways, we are turning back to our own strength. There is a very tough passage in the book of Hebrews for us to remember in this context. Once again, I warn you it is a tough passage, so let us read it with that in mind. Hebrews 6:4-8 (ISV) 4 For it is impossible to keep on restoring to repentance time and again people who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have become sharers of the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of God's word and the powers of the coming age, 6 and who have fallen away, as long as they continue to crucify to themselves the Son of God and to expose him to public ridicule. 7 For when the ground soaks up rain that often falls on it and continues producing vegetation useful to those for whom it is cultivated, it receives a blessing from God. 8 However, if it continues to produce thorns and thistles, it is worthless and in danger of being cursed, and in the end it will be burned. Strong words isn’t it? What is told here is that those of us who have come to the knowledge of the saving grace of Jesus Christ, if we fall away, it is like we crucify Him again and again, and insult him publicly. Wow.. what a strong image. I am sure none of want to think of us in that manner. Yet, that could be the truth sometimes. A bitter truth. The verses also say that if the farmers ground continues to produce thorns and thistles only, it becomes worthless for the Lord and is in danger of being cursed.
So let us examine ourselves this morning. Have we become bitter in our lives? Has God’s truth never worked in our lives? Have we held on to our own past to such an extent that God’s blessings never produced fruit in and through our lives? Do we look no different now than when we never met Jesus? Have we let God’s cleansing water to be used to produce wickedness in our own lives?
If we are in any of those situations today, let us stop Edging God out of Our lives by unforgiveness, and let the forgiveness of God bring us back to life.
The second aspect of unforgiveness is when we are unable to forgive others for what they have done to us. Enough sermons have been preached on this, and yet this continues to be the most difficult problem in relationships, in families, in churches, in offices, everywhere. We all have valid reasons for not forgiving others. The hurt is too deep. The other person is unworthy of forgiveness. It is not my mistake, so why should I forgive? Let the other person forgive first. The other person might not appreciate my forgiveness. What if the other person take advantage of my forgiveness and harms me again? The list of reasons why we do not forgive others can on and on. And all of them are valid reasons. But what we ignore is the fact that forgiveness is for our own benefit. Not for the others. There is saying that not forgiving others is equivalent to drinking poison, hoping that the other person will die when you drink poison. By staying with unforgiveness, we are only hurting ourselves. I use the demonstration often. We all carry around this small baggage with us always. When we open it we will see that it contains a knife. This knife is what I hold on to stab the other person what he/she has done to me. But wait a moment. If we closely look at the knife you will see that there is a string attached to the knife. And at the other end of the string is another knife. This is the knife that the other person is holding onto to stab me for all the things that I have done to him/her. So we are bound by this string. God wants us to be released and God wants us to be free of this. But God cannot make us free unless the string is broken. If I keep holding onto my knife, hoping that the other person will release the knife first, it is not going to happen. What can I do? All that I have to do is to release my end of the string by letting my knife go. When I do that I am free of the knife. I am free to receive God’s grace and forgiveness. I do not need to worry whether the other person is still holding on to his/her knife or not. I am free.
You see, the power of forgiveness is that it releases you from the bitterness that you have been living with. When you forgive, you Exalt God only. You invite God into your life when you forgive others. Unforgiveness Edges God Out of our lives. We can change the situation. We can forgive. If we have not tried it yet, let us try it now. Identify those whom we have not yet forgiven. Let us commit to forgive them , immaterial of whether they forgive us or not. After all, we follow Jesus who while on the cross, spread out his arms and still said, Luke 23:34 “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”. He did not wait for them to forgive him. He did not rationalize the act saying that he is the victim and not the culprit. He did not wait to fix the blame. He did not wait for others to accept their mistake. He said, Father forgive them. And earlier on he had made his stand on it very clear. Matthew 18:21-22 (ISV) 21 Then Peter came up and asked him, "Lord, how many times may my brother sin against me and I have to forgive him? Seven times?" 22 Jesus said to him, "I tell you, not just seven times, but seventy-seven times!. And then he went on to tell them the parable of the unforgiving servant.
So this morning, may I encourage us to examine ourselves? What are the prisons that we have put ourselves into? What are the dead works , dead past that we keep picking up? In what ways are we crucifying our Lord again and again and insulting Him in public by not letting His work on the cross work for us? Who have we not forgiven? What is preventing us from forgiving that some one? Can we stop Edging God out of our lives by unforgiveness. Can we begin to Exalt God only by receiving God’s forgiveness graciously and then extending that forgiveness to others?
Let us pray.
