Regifting Forgiveness

REGIFTING FORGIVENESS

Eph 4:32

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR: THE BASS BOAT

1. Boudreaux won a bass boat in a raffle drawing. He brought it home & his wife looked at him & said, “What you gonna do wit dat? There ain’t no water deep enough to float a boat within 75 mile of here”.

2. He says, “I won it and I’m gonna keep it.” Thibodeaux, his friend, came over to visit several days later. He saw the wife & asked where Boudreaux was.

3. She says, “He’s out there in his bass boat,” pointing to the field behind the house. Thibodeaux headed out behind the house & saw Boudreaux sitting in a bass boat with a fishin rod in the hand, down in the middle of a big field. There wasn’t a drop of water in sight.

4. Thibodeaux yelled from the porch, “What do you think you’re doing?” Boudreaux replied, “I’m fishing…What does it LOOK like I’m a doing?”

5. Thibodeaux yelled back, “You know, it’s people like you that give people from Louisiana a bad name, making everybody think we’re stupid. And if I could swim, I’d come out there & whip you!”

B. THESIS

1. As we approach the Holiday Season of Thanksgiving and Christmas, we approach the “Season of Regifting!” The Urban Dictionary defines “regifting” as: “the act of taking a gift received from a friend (or family) and giving it to another friend as if you had actually purchased it for them.”

2. This is actually a pseudo-scriptural practice (minus the deception) of passing on a blessing you have received to someone else.

3. So we’re going to look at why we CAN forgive, that we’re COMMANDED to regift forgiveness, and the PENALTIES of not regifting forgiveness.

I. THE BASIS OF ALL FORGIVENESS

A. THE SOURCE OF ALL TRUE FORGIVENESS

1. Being a just God, He CAN’T just dismiss our transgressions; EVERY ONE OF THEM MUST BE PAID FOR! The scales of Justice MUST be balanced. But that’s what Jesus came to earth to do.

2. “And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” Isa. 53:6. “…and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” Heb 9:22. “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” 1 John 2:2.

3. JESUS FULFILLED THE REQUIREMENTS OF JUSTICE by taking our sins on Himself, and suffering the death penalty in our place. We who were locked up awaiting trial have now been freed!

4. So now we can be forgiven, but this isn’t due to anything WE have done. Our forgiveness is wholly an act of God, undeserved by us. It’s a miracle that God is a forgiving God! As a perfect Being maintaining strict Justice, forgiveness should not be allowed. Each action of sin should be met with the (equal & opposite) reaction of judgment.

B. THE ALLOWING OF A SUBSTITUTE

1. The great Escape Clause, or, Loophole, is that God allowed a substitute to take the penalty of another, as long as it was the substitute’s free will (& without spot/sin).

2. Jesus, the Son of God, loved us so much that He volunteered to take our place and suffer for our collective sins. One died for all, that all might live to pass on the forgiveness they had received.

C. STORY OF THE SUBSTITUTE

1. W. E. Nelson tells the true story about a ship that was wrecked at sea. When they let down the life boats, they realized that there wasn't room in them for all of the crew.

2. They agreed to decide who would stay behind by drawing straws. One of the short straws -- to be left to die -- was drawn by a young, wild, and very lost sailor. When he faced the reality of his death, he began to cry, "Oh God! I'm going to hell!"

3. Suddenly he was picked up bodily and thrown into one of the boats. The man who had done so, called to him, "You aren't ready to die, but I am, and I'm willing to die for you. My only condition is that you get your heart right with God so that you someday make it to heaven."

4. It was an older sailor who had often told him of the Lord, but he had laughed him off. But now that death was a certainty for him, he was terrified. He finally realized the importance of the death of Jesus for him. He watched as the ship finally sank and the abandoned sailors died.

5. Later when he told his story to other Christians, he ended with the words, "Two men died for me!"

6. Just as certainly as that sailor died for him, Jesus died in your place, so that you could go to heaven!