The Door of Forgiveness
Matthew 6:14-15
Matthew 6:14-15
“If
you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But
if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
Ernest Hemingway wrote a story called “A Day’s Wait”
which was about a father and his son and they had some serious misunderstandings
between them.
·
In the story, the
boy finally ends up running away from home.
·
And the father with
not being so content on letting his son go.
o
So, in a bold move
to find the boy, the father puts an ad in the Madrid, Spain’s newspaper.
o
It contained only 17
Words:
§ Dear Paco,
Meet me at the town square at noon on Sunday.
All is forgiven...Your father
Meet me at the town square at noon on Sunday.
All is forgiven...Your father
And on that Sunday, This Father who placed the ad
saw 800 men, all with the name of Paco, who showed up at the town square
seeking their father.
·
They all came looking
for that forgiveness from their fathers.
Isn’t
that sad?
Alexander Pope once said,
·
“To err is human, to
forgive is divine."
Did you know,
That at the very center,
Ø At the very Heart of God
Ø And of our Christian Faith
Ø There lies the Principle of Forgiveness.
Come with me as we take a closer look.
I.
FORGIVENESS IS AN EXPERIENCE – It’s a Journey
Maybe since I am a man, my view point is that there
is never more forgiveness given than from a Father to his son.
Let me give you an example.
I have a close childhood friend whose name is
Charlie and he is a few years older than I am. Now Charlie was the youngest
child in his family and he had 3 older sisters.
·
I would have to go
on record and say that Charlie was not the average child. No, not by a long
shot.
·
But it was widely
known in our neighborhood that when you heard sirens in the town of Hays,
Charlie is either involved or he knows what they are for.
·
And as things goes, Charlie
was never able to shake that identity even as he grew up.
·
Now his dad, Mr.
Paterson would always say that ‘when he would answer the phone and Charlie’s
first words were, “I have a problem,” he knew that he was in for a long night."'
Just Like Mr. Paterson,
Ø Did you know that the Bible tells us that you and I have a problem?
·
And that problem is Our SIN.
·
And did you know
that SIN is like getting bit by a large Diamondback Rattlesnake.
·
His venom is for
ONLY One purpose. To Kill!
·
So – That tells me
o
If You and I want to
keep living,
o
We must find a
remedy!
o
Am I right?
But what could be a remedy to this Evil Killer’s
Venom?
IT’S FORGIVENESS.
Ø No, there is no need to have a sack up here filled
with rattlesnakes in it, and one by one, we would all line up and stick our
hands in it and trust in the Lord to heal us.
Ø No, there is no need for that.
Ø Because you have already done that yourselves.
Ø We have already sinned.
Ø We all have already done that to ourselves.
But – what I do need to ask is this:
Ø Just how seriously are you about addressing this
issue today?
Ø We are talking about something that is very serious,
it is deadly and we all have been bitten.
·
We need to make it the business of today.
·
There is something wrong
within us and NOW, we need to make it right.
But
some say SIN is exciting.
·
Hollywood glorifies
sex and violence
o
You cannot go to the
theaters today,
o
No, let me reword
that – you can’t even watch a TV show today without being infected by this
evil.
o
It is As-If it was
as “innocent” as having a “romp” in the sun,
§ And even the fun
word of “romp” has taken upon a new meaning within our world of today.
§ So that ruins that saying.
o
Can we say It is As
simple as “rolling down a hill”?
§ But there again, with today’s language, that too has
been altered from the once innocence into the meaning of something else.
o
So maybe we should
just say
§ It is as simple as getting a punch in the mouth!
We see Today’s Movie Stars, Our Sports Heroes and even
Our Politicians of Today,
Ø Don’t they often consider themselves as exceptions
to “Our Community Standards”.
·
They question,
o
NO - I think they DEMAND
the WHYS
o
WHY should They have
to abide by the rules?
o
They have the Money
and
o
The Resources to do and
to act as they please! RIGHT?
·
But as they JUMP
from one Accountability Platform to another,
o
Often, they take
others down the same path with them.
§ Yes, they are taking the charge
·
But they are also leading
the average Joe right down that same gutter.
So, you ask – what
is wrong with that.
Ø If they want to live that way, Let them!
o
Whom am I to tell
them anything different.
o
Right?
Just this past week, we have held ELECTIONS, Right?
And No-One likes Higher Taxes. And I totally agree.
So, let’s take a look at something that I didn’t
ever think I would ever be talking about from the platform within a church, but
here it goes.
Just a little while back,
·
Our Lovely Neighbor
State to the West, Colorado,
·
Was looking for an
out.
·
They were interested
in how they could improve their state Without
Raising Taxes?
So, here we go:
In the years since,
Colorado has legalized marijuana, it has seen an increase in marijuana related traffic deaths, poison
control calls, and emergency room visits.
The marijuana black market has increased in Colorado, not
decreased.
And, numerous Colorado marijuana regulators
have been indicted for corruption.
SIN BREEDS SIN!
• In 2012, we were
promised funds from marijuana taxes would benefit our communities, particularly
schools. Dr. Harry Bull, the Superintendent of Cherry Creek Schools, one of the largest school districts in the
state, said, "So far, the only thing that the
legalization of marijuana has brought to our schools has been - marijuana."
• In fiscal year 2016, marijuana tax revenue resulted in $156,701,018. The total tax revenue
for Colorado was $13,327,123,798, making marijuana only
1.18% of the state's total
tax revenue.
• The cost of marijuana legalization
in public awareness campaigns, law enforcement,
healthcare treatment, addiction recovery, and preventative work is an unknown cost to
date.
T
The State of Colorado has sold their soul for less than 1.2 cents on the dollar and when all of the Truth is known about how much the public awareness campaigns, law enforcement, healthcare treatment, addiction recovery, and preventative work has cost them, I would guess they are loosing much more than that 1.2 cents on the dollar.
So, you say – what
is wrong with that.
Ø If they want to live that way, Let them!
o
Whom am I to tell
them anything different.
o
Right?
What about Our children?
Ø Do
you honestly believe that having children bringing marijuana into the schools
is Good for Them?
Ø And what about having
it at home around them?
Ø My Parents
and their friends do it all of the time, so why not?
Ø It’s
not like it is against the law
or anything.
Ø By the way, where did under age children get it anyway?
·
Our Teens are confused!
·
Our Teens are Suffering!
·
The Women, even the young children are being abused and raped.
·
Lives are being destroyed all in the name of innocent fun.
Now Some say sin is Exclusive.
But Where I came from,
The lines were drawn Straight and True
§ Between the Good and the Bad;
§ Between the Right and the Wrong;
§ Between the Moral and the Immoral.
§ But where are they in our World of Today?
The problem is that SIN got into the Inside of us.
·
It expresses itself from within us
o
Through Our Prejudices,
o
Through Our Gossip,
o
Through Our Bullying,
o
And Through Our
Spreading of Rumors
o
Which like the Rattlesnake,
§ Its ONLY goal is to kill and to destroy
§ And what better way than going after
·
The jugular, “people’s
character.”
Some
say sin is excusable.
Let say we have 2 mothers who both have a daughter
who are on drugs.
One mother sticks her head in the sand and pretends
that nothing is wrong.
Ø In the name of her Love for her child
o
She always makes
excuses for her,
o
She posts Bail to
get her out of jail,
o
She ignores all the
facts and signs,
o
And in the back of
her mind, she hopes that it will all go away somehow.
Now, the other mother is different.
She is devastated to say the least.
Ø Her heart is broken.
Ø The pain goes deep within her.
Ø She earnestly prays for her daughter.
Ø But she doesn’t make excuses for her daughter.
Ø She doesn’t post the bail money.
Ø And she is determined to get to the bottom of the
problem.
Ø And get her daughter some help.
Now Which 1 of these 2 mothers really - truly loves
her daughter?
The Bible says sin is a deadly disease!
We all suffer from it.
We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of
God.
There is none of us.
Not even one of us who is righteous on our own account,
no not one.
We err and stray from God's ways like lost-frighten-sheep.
·
We follow the
devices and desires of our own heart.
·
We have all broken
God's Laws.
·
We have left undone
those things
o
We ought to have
done,
·
And we have done
those things
o
We ought to have not
done.
·
May God have mercy.
·
May God have mercy upon
us all.
And
That is what He does.
Did you know that God Designed?
·
That He Created ‘Forgiveness’!?!
Forgiveness is a Remedy,
·
It is an Antidote to our past that not even God can change.
However
- Forgiveness is costly
but it is also completely free.
·
That is what God has done for you and for me.
·
He has done this for us through Jesus Christ.
Did you know
·
That the very first words from Jesus while on the cross were:
o
“Father forgive them
for they know not what they do."
·
That came:
o
Before He prayed for His own pain;
o
Before He mentions His mother;
o
And instead of putting a band aid on His frightened disciples,
§ Jesus
healed them.
§ He
Interceded for them
§ And He opened
the door of forgiveness to his enemies.
By the way, “WE”
are His enemies.
·
Do We Not choose to sin and to turn from Him?
o
But you say – “I
want to be His Friend”,
§ “I
want To Be His Best and Closest Friend”,
·
But do we not still choose to sin?
Let me ask you a question concerning
·
The Mel Gibson's
movie “The
Passion of the Christ”.
From time to time, we have shown this moving to the
church.
·
So, what do you
think of it?
o
Do you love it?
o
Do you hate it?
o
Have you even seen
it?
o
Does it make it real
to you?
o
Or is it just too
full of that Hollywood Stuff?
But here is the thing about it.
·
I sense that most of
our discussions
·
On how we feel about
the movie,
o
And maybe even the
movie itself, miss the point.
The question
is not who killed Jesus.
·
The question is why did Jesus have to die?
o
See, The point of the Cross
§ Is
Not To Throw the violence into
your face,
§ But rather it is about God's amazing Grace.
§ Of Having God’s
Grace Displayed,
§ Putting
it into Life Right There for you and
me.
Don’t get me wrong.
I do not pretend
to comprehend,
·
I don’t pretend to understand the act of
atonement.
o
It remains a total mystery to me.
o
Even if the Lord were to send me a revelation,
o
I am not sure if my
small mind could contain it.
So where does that leave me? And Us?
·
It leaves us to stand in awe.
But
since God is God, and no one is
Greater than God,
·
It does seem odd, or
strange to me that God - Jesus Christ,
o
He would need to be the Lamb slain for the foundation of the world.
·
Yet there are those times
when I am forced,
·
When I am driven to
my knees
o
And I realize that
o
There is this beautiful
fountain
o
And it is filled with
the blood of Our Savior,
o
And we as sinners,
o
We are plunged
beneath that surface in the fountain,
o
And that flood comes
over us,
o
And in that, we lose
all of our guilty stains.
That
first evil, yes it began so
many years ago
·
But we can’t point blame
upon Adam and Eve for it
·
No - Because how
long has it been since we have chosen to sin?
·
How many times within
even today that we have Chosen ‘Ourselves’ over Our God?
·
Chosen ‘Our Own
Pleasure’ over His Truth?
SIN is powerful!
Sin is Powerful Enough
·
That it required a ransom from God to overcome it.
·
This ransom from God to save my soul.
So, Does that
make God seem weak and helpless to you?
No,
Not to me!
·
I am so privileged
to be, as the song goes,
o
“Jesus paid it all,
all to him I owe.
o
Sin had left its
crimson stain.
o
And He washed me
white as snow."
I do understand the word remission, to cutback, to
decrease.
·
I do know that
radical problems require radical cures.
·
I do know that you
have to nearly die in order to get a chance to live.
·
I do know that
Christ comes to us in the midst of our suffering.
·
I do know that by
His Grace, By His Love we are All Healed.
Here is the gospel as I understand it.
·
At the cross of
Jesus Christ your sins and mine are forgiven.
·
Either our sins have
been forgiven by God or they remain in us as sin, for only God can forgive
sins.
o
I am a pastor.
o
I will preach
sermons and lead others to Christ.
o
But, even as a
pastor, I need God’s Grace.
o
I am a servant of
the Lords.
o
I can go door to
door helping others,
§ But days are not long enough to get rid of our guilt.
o
So, there is only one
remedy to the disease that threatens to destroy us.
o
It is through the
unearned, undeserved, unconditional forgiveness of God.
o
It is in the name of
Jesus Christ,
o
We are forgiven.
II.
FORGIVENESS IS AN EXPRESSION
Jesus said, “If you forgive people when they sin against you, your
heavenly Father will also forgive you."
Forgiveness
is something to be shared as well as received.
Let
me say that again.
·
Forgiveness, is something to be shared,
·
As well as received.
Doris Donnelly said,
“Forgiveness is an
empowered form of giving."
·
Forgiveness is not a
passive acceptance to a bad situation.
o Rather, forgiveness
is a positive, joyful movement
o In which we change
from seeing ourselves
o As victims, to
seeing ourselves as victors.
·
Forgiveness enables us to
move from weakness to strength, from insufficient to self-affirming.”
Forgiveness
is a gift,
Forgiveness is a present, a favor, an offering.
·
We do not earn
gifts, we are given gifts.
People do not earn gifts, they are offered gifts.
·
A gift is just that
– a gift.
·
Nobody can demand
forgiveness.
We only give forgiveness.
·
If you choose to
forgive someone.
·
You will give them
the best gift that you can humanly give another person.
Forgiveness is an active form of freeing.
·
To forgive is to let
go.
·
It is to break free.
·
It does take two to
reconcile,
o
But it only takes one
to forgive.
Wouldn't you like to be set free from the weight of
wrong that you have carried so long?
Resentment is when you let your hurt become hate.
·
Resentment is when
you –
o
Allow what is eating
you - To eat you.
·
Resentment is when
you
o
Poke, Encourage, and
Feed the fire of your Hurt
§ Stirring up the flames and Reliving the Pain.
·
Christ wants to set
you free from resentment.
Did you know that the ONLY animal that a bear will
not challenge for his food is a ?
·
Nope, it is a skunk!
·
But you say that it
would only take one swing of that powerful paw of the bear to crush the skunk.
·
So why does the bear
allow the skunk to eat with him? Because the bear has discovered the high cost
of getting even!
Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison in South
Africa.
·
When he was released,
he said,
o “Everything and everybody
that means anything to me had been taken away.
o It was all gone and I hated
them for it.
o Then I remembered what
Jesus said about forgiveness.
o God spoke to me and said,
'Nelson, for 27 years you were their prisoner, but you were always a free man.
o Do not let them now turn a
free man into their prisoner.' It was then I realized the importance of
forgiveness."
Forgiveness does not change the past,
·
But it does enlarge
the future.
Forgiveness does not cause us to forget,
·
But it does set us
free.
We will know that forgiveness has begun
·
When we can recall those,
who have hurt us
·
And feel the power
to wish them well.
Matthew 6:9b-15
“Our
Father in Heaven,
May
your name be kept holy.
May
your Kingdom come soon.
May
your will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven.
Give
us today the food we need,
And
forgive us our sins,
As we
have forgiven those who sin against us.
And
don’t let us yield to temptation,
But
rescue us from the evil one.
If
you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But
if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
In the name of Jesus Christ,
·
We are forgiven
·
And we are empowered
to forgive.
·
The time to start is
now.
Amen.
