Forgiveness

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. If you would stand with me, I would like to read a passage out of Matthew chapter 18, verse 23 to the end of the chapter. Peter, Jesus here gave a parable after Peter asked him how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him till seven times. This is verse 21 and then verse 22 Jesus said unto him I say not unto thee until seven times but until seventy times seven. [00:00:44] Now, the reading for this morning, verse 23 and following. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which owed him ten thousand talents. And forasmuch as he had not to pay, the Lord commanded him to be sold and his wife and children and all that he had in payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. [00:01:17] Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion and loosed him and forgave him the debt. But the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him a hundred pence, and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. and his fellow servant fell down at his feet and besought him saying have patience with me and I will pay thee all and he would not but went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt [00:01:47] so when his fellow servant saw what was done they were very sorry and came and told unto their Lord all that was done then his Lord after that he had called him said unto him O thou wicked servant I forgave thee all that debt Because thou desirest me, shouldst not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. [00:02:19] So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses. Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, we come to you this morning with gratitude for your word We just pray, Father, that you would enlighten our minds Help us, Father, to understand what it is that you are saying to us from your word We pray that you would bless the preaching, that it may fall on fruitful ground [00:02:51] And it might bear fruit for you abundantly We pray in Jesus' name, Amen The title of my message is just simply Forgiveness this morning. As I look to see what it is that forgiveness entails, the Webster's is still a help to me sometimes. This is what the Webster's, these are several of the things that the Webster's says about forgiveness. [00:03:22] It says to cease to feel resentment against an offender, for example. And that's in parentheses. An offender is in parentheses. Pardon is a word that is given here. And then also to give up resentment or claim to requital or compensation. Requital is not a word that we use as much, but compensation I think we understand better. For, that may be for an insult, or it could be for other things. [00:03:53] And then the third definition, to grant relief from payment of, like for a debt. The synonym that is given is excuse, and somehow that seems weak to me. I don't like the synonym there that they gave, although I guess if a person is excused, he is also forgiven in one sense of the word. As I think of forgiveness and what it will do for us, forgiveness frees. Unforgiveness, on the contrary, brings bondage with it. So, forgiveness will free a person. [00:04:37] Sometimes we think that we're freeing the other person, but there is one thing that I determined in my study more than ever before, and that is the person we're really freeing is the person behind my face, behind your face. That is really the person that you're freeing. Strong's also gave a few helps to understanding the word forgive. [00:05:08] It says, it uses the word forgive, that's rather unusual, usually you don't use the same word, but forsake, lay aside, leave, let alone, omit, put away. That's what Strong's helped us out with. I looked in vines and I didn't find any entry for it and I was disappointed. And maybe it's because I don't know how to use vines. I don't know. Maybe I'll have to get some help from some of you in knowing how to use vines. [00:05:42] But as I think of forgiveness this morning, I'd like to think of some of the things that it does to us. and then what not forgiving does to us as well. One of the things that I think of in forgiveness is that it frees a person. That is one of the main things. I think that's the reason why God tells us to forgive. Sometimes I think when I forgive another person, I'm releasing that person. [00:06:19] This is true. But the important thing to remember is the real person we're releasing is right here. That is so important to remember. It frees us. It frees most of all ourselves. More than any other person. There are other things that forgiveness does. Forgiveness opens the way to God. Not forgiving. Well, we'll look at that in just a little bit. [00:06:50] But it opens the way to God. It opens communication with your fellow men, if you forgive your fellow men. In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus, there is one verse that I would like to just notice. Matthew chapter 5, verse 7, it says, Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. In other words, if I forgive others, I can be forgiven myself. [00:07:24] If I do not forgive others, this is only implied here, but this is told, Jesus told us more clearly in many other places, we cannot receive forgiveness. I think it was David Augsburger that said this about unforgiveness now. He said, unforgiveness burns the bridge over which you yourself must pass to get to heaven. And that is sobering as I think of that. [00:07:55] It is sobering because of the fact that I recognize that sometimes I don't forgive immediately when somebody wrongs me. And it's such a dangerous thing to do, to not forgive somebody else immediately, unconditionally. That's the way that God forgives us. In Hebrews chapter 12, I'd like for you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12, because I think it tells us something that not forgiving will do to us here. [00:08:28] This is not original with me. I'm not even sure where I got this. I think I remember that I'm not sure. But Hebrews chapter 12, I'd like to look at one verse here, well actually I'd like to look at several verses, verses 14 and 15 of Hebrews chapter 12 says this, Follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. [00:08:59] Looking diligently, lest any man fall of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. The root of bitterness here, I believe, is talking about not forgiving somebody. Can I have a root of bitterness if I have a spirit of forgiveness for somebody else? And I think, as I think of that, I don't think the answer can be positive there. [00:09:32] I think if I have a root of bitterness, it means that there is some kind of way that I have not released the other person. Forgiveness is release. I no longer hold you to it. If I forgive you, if you forgive me, you no longer hold me to a certain thing, but it's release. And as I see that here, it says, lest any root of bitterness springing out trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. [00:10:08] In other words, releasing the person releases me from being defiled, releases the other person as I understand it here. There are many people that are affected negatively when we do not forgive, but most of all, I am the person that is affected negatively. I remember somebody saying something like this. He said, if a person doesn't forgive, it's as though you were bound to that other person. [00:10:41] And you can't function freely if you are bound to that other person. I'd like to digress just a little bit from forgiveness and think just a little bit about relationships with you here this morning now. And we'll come back to forgiveness in just a little bit. Sometimes we talk about relationships as being high or low maintenance, and I'm not sure what is meant by that term. [00:11:12] But perhaps the people with whom we have to do tend to be more of a high maintenance relationship than people that we have just a rather casual acquaintance with. As we meet, perhaps here on Sunday morning, but as we meet with our family members, you know, it takes more doing. As we interact with people, forgiveness is more important. But what about our relationships with our friends at church? [00:11:44] What about other relationships? How involved are we? Are we always there? Now, there are legitimate reasons for not being there. But I am very aware this morning that I am talking to a larger group than Daniel was talking to on Wednesday evening. And I recognize that there are legitimate reasons for not being here. But we are the losers if we are not here. [00:12:19] And especially on Wednesday evening, I thought that service was so meaningful. It was so encouraging to be here on Wednesday evening. And I know there are legitimate reasons not to be here. But I'd like to just simply have each of us ask ourselves the question, you know, why is it that I am not there? And I'd like for us to ask ourselves the question, how does God view the reasons I have for not being here? [00:12:57] And I think that we do well to ask ourselves that question. As I think of relationships and as I think of forgiveness, I'd just like to have us think, If we're a married person, how is my relationship with my spouse? Is your spouse your best friend, humanly speaking? If indeed, your spouse, if you're married and your spouse is your best friend, do you cultivate it? [00:13:30] Do I spend time cultivating it? And I'm asking myself these questions as well. And I think there is no way that we can cultivate a relationship without devoting time to that. Some of us do that with flowers. Some of us do that by other means, by helping. Some of us do that by spending time. We may go out to eat together. But it is important that we cultivate these relationships that we count dear to us. [00:14:06] And I'm not going to tell you how you should do that. I had a good friend who once told me, well, he expressed surprise at buying flowers for my spouse. Evidently, from what he said, he had never done that. And I leave that to him. I think he has a good relationship with his spouse. He is a dear friend of mine. But as I think of this, I think we need to do what we can to cultivate a relationship with one another in the church, [00:14:39] with your husband or your wife, with your family, with the people with whom you have to do. What about your relationship with God? Do you spend time cultivating that? And I had to think, I'm reading a book currently on prayer by E.M. Bounds, and he puts me to shame, but he says that we need to cultivate a relationship with our Heavenly Father. We need to cultivate a relationship with Him above all. We also need to cultivate a relationship with those that we hold dear. [00:15:18] Prayer. Do we spend time in prayer? Do we spend time with those we love? Somebody has said that children spell love with four letters, but they have four different letters than L-O-V-E, and it's T-I-M-E. Do we spend time with our children? Do we spend quality time with our children? One of the things that I think of in forgiveness, as I think of forgiveness, is that, maybe I should say unforgiveness. [00:15:58] I remember some people talking, I have never experienced a tornado. I have never lived where a tornado hit. Some of you have. I remember my wife saying that when they wanted to get home from church on a Sunday evening after the Palm Sunday tornado, they needed a chainsaw to get home. And I had to think of what unforgiveness, what we may liken it to. Sometimes it helps us to liken it to something else. [00:16:29] And I thought of the blocked way to their house. They had to use the chainsaw to get there. It seems to me that that blocked road was a picture of unforgiveness. Just can't get through there. And they had to use the chainsaw to get home that evening. And is it that way with us? Do we need to get out the chainsaw to open up relationships with one another? [00:17:04] I remember what Brother Yoon wrote in his book. He has a more recent book. I don't even have the title. It was given to me one evening in this past week. And he writes about forgiveness. Brother Yoon, do you know who I'm talking about? Brother Yoon, the Heavenly Man? How many of you have read the book, The Heavenly Man? Okay, I see quite a number of books. There is another book out that Brother Yoon wrote, and I have read only, it was given to me, I have read only briefly in the book. [00:17:39] But as I read in this, Brother Yoon said this, when he got into prison, he expected, because of the fact that he was after all a godly man, he expected preferential treatment. Maybe he did get preferential treatment, but the treatment that he got was not easier than that of other prisoners. If anything, he was singled out for especially bad treatment. And he talked about the fact that one day he was bloody all over, his hair was mostly missing, and that's what he was faced with. [00:18:16] Brother Yoon said it was awfully difficult for me to live with this. After all, he had been living a godly life and he was a very godly man for those of you who have not read any of the books about Brother Yoon. But he was a very godly man. And it was very hard on Brother Yoon's faith. But then he came to the place where he recognized that he was just getting what Christians can expect. And although this was extra difficult for him, the Lord came through for Brother Ewan and he blessed him with his presence. [00:18:55] And it seems to me that as we forgive, it can open up the way. It's a little bit like, I think my wife's family needed a chainsaw to get home after the Palm Sunday tornado. I wasn't here. I wasn't here at that point. I was living in Kansas at that point. But perhaps we have to get out the chainsaw and we have to make way to get through. Sometimes it feels like that. Sometimes we're not sure why things happen. [00:19:32] Brother Ewan had no reason to suffer except that he was living a godly life. But one of the things that is written in that book is that if we as God's people lived godly lives, we would suffer more than we do as well. And it just behooves me to examine my life. It behooves us to examine our lives and ask ourselves, should we be persecuted? [00:20:07] for the way we're living? Or are we just living in a way that we avoid that? You know, it's pretty easy to be the stille in London. It's easier for me to be that. If I were living the way that I should be living, would I invite more persecution? Brother Yoon knew what it was like to suffer persecution, and he knew what it was like to live above that persecution as well. [00:20:39] And he had some times when he needed to learn some lessons and I need to learn lessons and I think all of us need to learn lessons. But there is one thing that Brother Yoon discovered and there is one thing that God's word teaches us And that is that the way to release is through forgiveness. If I hold a grudge against somebody, I am indeed binding somebody. [00:21:12] But the person I am binding is really myself. And that is the important thing. As I grant forgiveness, I am freeing myself first, and then, yes, I free others as well. And I was reminded of this in a very real way. The Lord has been working in my heart. I have had a relationship with a person, and not so long ago, some time ago, that relationship suffered. [00:21:43] And the Lord has been talking to me to go and to do what I can. And I said, well, Lord, I was in the right, wasn't I? And just in this last month, I was able to make that contact and I determined that there was one thing I was going to do and that was I was not going to say very much Because I knew that one thing would happen if I would say very much. [00:22:14] That is, I would say some things that I don't want to say. And I don't know if I did the right thing or not. But I did have a good talk. I had a freeing talk. And I just encourage us, as we get to, if we have something like that, dogging ourselves to not wait, but to just simply go and to free ourselves. There is one thing that going and talking with somebody else did for me [00:22:45] and that was it opened my eyes to the way it looked from the other side. And I know the person that I talked with was frustrated by how little I said. But I determined I needed to do that in order to not regret some things. Because I had some things I could have said. But you know how I found out most about myself and about the other person? It was by having an open ear to hearing that other person. And the Lord wanted me to hear some of the things that this brother had to say. [00:23:22] Shall we pause for prayer? Our kind Father in heaven, we come to you at this hour just remembering that we have a debt that we cannot pay. We thank you that you paid the debt that you didn't owe so that we could go free. Father, we pray that you would help us to know how you want us to forgive, how you want us to live with one another. [00:23:53] Father, as we relate to one another, we pray that you would help us to open our ears and our hearts to our brothers and our sisters, our spouses, our family, whoever it is. Help us, Father, to hear what it is that you want to say to us through our brothers, through our sisters. And I pray, Father, that you would help us to heed that which we hear and help us to honor you by being the person you want us to be. [00:24:25] We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.