Total Forgiveness

Total Forgetfulness

Dr. Fernando Cabrera

Genesis 37:1-50:26

1. Forget emotionally what was done against you

a. First born – Manasseh “to forget”

i. Joseph had not forgotten emotionally, but factually

ii. Forget the pain

1. In Hell, says C.S. Lewis, part of the punishment will be to remember all, all the hatred, malice, bitterness, slandering words, back stabbinig

2. In Heaven, we will remember no more because all would have passed away and all things will be new

b. Second born – Ephraim – “double fruitfulness”

i. There is no divine fruitfulness and multiplication until there is forgetfulness.

ii. Because Joseph learned to forgive, God trusted him with a strategic position

1. Some of you have been prophesied that God would do mighty things and use you, but nothing has happened

2. Is it possible that you need to release your grudge before God release his glory and destiny upon your life

c. The first person to benefit from forgiving is the person forgiving

i. It releases you from your past and living in the past

1. Martin Luther King Sr.

a. His son, Martin Luther King Jr., killed by James Earl Ray

b. His other son drown the next year

c. His wife was killed while he was preaching from the pulpit

d. And yet listen to what he says, “There are two people I am supposed to hate. One is a white man, the other is a black man, and both are serving time for having committed murder. I don’t hate either one. Nothing that a man does take him lower than when he allows himself so low as to hate anyone”

e. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “I rather die than to hate you”

ii. Matthew 18:35 Story of the King and the Servant

1. owe $50,000 million dollars and somebody owe about 50.00 dollars

2. Send to the tormentors: anger, bitterness, hatred, ulcers, high blood pressure, migrane headaches, sleeplessness and amnesia

d. Forgiveness GIVES YOU FREEDOM

i. Forgiveness warms the heart and cools the sting

2. Don’t tell anybody what they did

a. We tell others to hurt the offenders reputation and smear their name

b. Control the tongue

i. Exemption – only for counseling reasons with your mentor or leader, or court of law

ii.

c. Some of you may say, “I don’t need to forgive”

i. General Oglethorpe of the colony of Georgia during the early days of America once said to John Wesley (the great evangelist), “I never forgive,”, Wesley replied, “Then Sir, I hope you never sin”

3. You won’t let them be afraid of you

a. 45:5 “Do not be grieved” the word grieve is the word Atsab, which means to “worry” or being in anguish

b. God is not that way

c. If you see a person come in and they freeze and you say, “good” it shows that there is a grudge in your heart

4. You won’t let them feel guilty

a. Joseph said to them “do not be angry with yourself”

b. We love to punish people by sending them in a guilt trip

i. Big cop out is: “I will forgive them when they accept that they done wrong:

1. problem with this type of thinking is that most people don’t know they did wrong or do not think they did wrong.

c. Faultfinders

i. Are people who give judgment on others

1. judgment=final judgment on someone

2. Faultfinder become cynics

a. Warning: A critical spirit has a way of boomeraging

ii. The problem is this: We don’t see ourselves as very big sinners, therefore, we don’t appreciate how greatly God has forgiven us. When your sins seems small everyone else looks bigger.

d. Matthew 6:12 “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors”

i. The key word here is “as”

1. You set the standard and God follows your lead

2. When was the last time you really wanted God to forgive your sins the same way you forgive people who hurt you?

ii. Forgiveness is another way of admitting, I am human, I make mistakes. I want to be granted privilege and so I grant you that privilege.

5. Let them save face

a. Notice what he says, “for God did send me before you to preserve life”

b. He could have crush them

i. However, he was a broken man this time in his life

1. v. 2 “and he wept aloud”

6. Protect them from their darkest secrets and greatest fear

a. He even gives them a script of what to tell their father: “Thus saith your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt: come down unto me and tarry not …” – never once they he exposed his brothers darkest secret and greatest fear of having almost killed his brother Joseph and having sold him into slavery.