If you have your Bibles turn with me please to the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 6, verse 14 as we talk this morning about love that forgives.
There are many of you here this morning that are living in an emotional prison because you cannot forgive someone who has hurt you or you WILL not forgive someone who has offended you. I want you to hear this message because your emotional life and perhaps your very soul hangs in the balance. Read with me Matthew 6:14-15; ""For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. "But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. -- Mat 6:14-15
Father, let us see the power of forgiveness that Jesus taught and then let us leave here and DO IT, in Jesus name, and all of God's children said, Amen
Here's the first powerful thought of this text. FORGIVENESS IS NOT OPTIONAL. Say that with me. Forgiveness is not optional. Matthew 6:14 says, "If you forgive men not their trespasses, neither will your Father in heaven forgiven you your trespasses." So I'm telling you plainly, forgiveness is not for everyone in this room. If you will not forgive another, God will not forgiven you.
Eph. 4:32, "And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you."
The phase is, "forgiving one another". Col. 3:13, "..., and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do."
How did Christ forgive you? Christ forgave you when you were in sin and you didn't deserve forgiveness. Luke 6:37, "...Forgive, and you will be forgiven."
The message is very clear. If you don't forgive others, God will not forgive you. There are 62 words in the New Testament that deal with forgiveness and 22 times that word, forgiveness means, forgiving another person. Without that there is no forgiveness for you, not now, not ever.
I want you to hear that. Forgiveness is not optional. A man went to the hospital to visit his dying business partner and his partner said, "John before I die I want to ask your forgiveness. I robbed the firm of $500,000, I sold our secret formula's to our competitors and I'm the person who supplied your wife with the evidence that got her a handsome divorce and most of your money." John said, "That's alright partner, I'm the guy who poisoned you."
What is forgiveness? Jesus Christ taught a love that forgives in the Lord's prayer, "When you pray, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." The last moment of His life on the cross Jesus Christ was demonstrating that forgiving love. He said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" His concern was for them. After the resurrection He was still practicing that kind of forgiveness.
If you understand anything about theology, Peter, denying the Lord 3 times had literally separated himself for Christ and Jesus Christ said in essence, "you cannot get far enough but what the grace of God can't reach out and get you." And there are some, possibly even here today, that Satan is whispering in your ear, "You've sinned to greatly to be forgiven." I want you to know that the God we serve saves from the gutter most to the utter most and He can save you where you are, like you are and give you a new beginning today in Jesus name.
What is forgiveness? Forgiveness is a full pardon. It's a fresh start. It's a new beginning. It's the lifting of a heavy burden. Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred. It is the supernatural power that breaks the chains of bitterness. Forgiveness demands change.
Forgiveness is not soft hearted, mush-mouth foolishness. Forgiveness is full of compassion, but it demands a change in the character. To forgive someone without demanding that they change is to make the grace of God and accomplice to evil.
When the Pharisees caught the women, caught in the act of adultery, which makes you wonder where they were to catch her, Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn thee--GO AND SIN NO MORE" Repeat that, "go and sin no more." "Go and sin no more" He expected her to change.
Forgiveness is not earned, it is accepted. Because you are responsible. God is extending to you today amazing grace, that can save you, and heal you, and give you joy unspeakable and full of glory. But you are responsible as to weather you except it or not.
There are those of you in this room that are playing the blame game. I am like I am because my mother and father abused me. I am like I am because God has forsaken me. I am like I am because the government hasn't been fair to me. I am like I am because my boy scout leader didn't give me enough chocolate chip cookies when I was a cub scout and it frustrated me.
Forgiveness is not earned, it is accepted. Many religious people try to earn God's forgiveness, by giving money to the church, by doing some kind of work. Your goodness will never get you the forgiveness of God. You are not forgiven because God loves you. You are not forgiven because you are sorry for your sin. You are not forgiven because you go about doing good things. You are forgiven for this one reason, Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son, went to the cross and He died for you and His shed blood demands that God the Father forgive you. That's why you are forgiven.
Paul wrote in I-Cor., "You have forgiveness thru the blood", therefore when you look at the cross, you are looking at the very reason that God the Father MUST forgive you. Listen to this. One thing God cannot do is remember sin that has been washed in the blood of Calvary. There is a new start in Jesus. There is a new beginning in Jesus. He is the God of New Beginnings. You can leave this place today with a new song. With a new marriage. With new relationships and new hope. Nothing is impossible to the blood bought church of Jesus Christ.
If you don't have to beg for forgiveness from God, Who is perfect, why is it that we who are imperfect, cannot forgive another person? It is like a skunk saying to a city cat, "you have a body odor!"
Be reconciled, you take the initiative. You go to your brother, your sister and say "There's this matter between us, let's get it solved, we are brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ. Take action.
A wife had a husband that snored very heavily. How many of you wives have husbands like that....raise your hands. Someone suggested that she tie a ribbon around his nose the next time he snored. Later that week the husband came home in the early hours of the morning and when he had fallen to sleep, he started snoring. And the wife tied a big blue ribbon around his nose. The next morning his wife asked him, "Where were you last night?" The husband said, "I don't remember but where ever I was I won first prize."
Take action. You go get it solved. Totally forgive. Forgiveness can save your life. I close with this story. It is the story of a rebellious son that had broken the law, that had broken the law and was sent to prison for 8 years. He knew his parents were deeply hurt by his foolishness. They were hurt by the shame of his imprisonment. As time passed, he didn't know if his father would let him come home or not, because his father had never answered his letters while he was in prison.
So he wrote a letter to his mother and said, "Mom, in a few days I'm going to be released from prison and I'm going to take the train that comes by the family farm.
And if you and dad will forgive me and give me a new chance I'd like you to tie a piece in the oak tree beside the railroad track. And as I am in the train, if I see that ribbon of cloth in the tree, I know that I can jump off the train and that I'd been forgiven.
If I don't see a ribbon, I'll stay on the train. I will never come home again and you will never hear from me again. The day came for his release from prison. He walked to the train station and he bought a ticket and with every turn of the wheels on the train, the tension mounted within, wondering if that piece of cloth was going to be in the tree.
As the train rounded the bend that led to the family farm, he could not stand to look, so he asked the man sitting across from him, "Sir, would you mind coming to the window and look out the window to see it you can see a ribbon in that tree. It's my family farm and I want to know if there is a ribbon in that tree. And the man said, "Yes, I'll do it for you." And as they came to the family farm, the boy said, "DO YOU SEE THAT RIBBON?" The man said, "No, I don't see a ribbon, I see hundreds of ribbons tied to every branch. I see ribbons tied to the clothes line. I see ribbons on the rose bushes. There are ribbons down the fence, it looks like it snowed at that farm and it snowed ribbons."
What does it mean? The boy jumped off the train and said it means, "I'm forgiven and there's a new beginning with my mother and my father."
Love forgives. Love forgives. A man is not great because he can find FAULT. A man is great because he has the grace enough to forgive.
This illustration from Abraham Lincoln and I close. You destroy your enemies with forgiveness. At the height of the civil war, when the feeling between north and south was so bitter and so intense, Abraham Lincoln made a very charming and gracious remark about southerners in the White House. And a lady was indignant and said, "Why have you made such a gracious statement toward the southerners, when we are at such bitter war with them?" He looked at her with his great brooding eyes and said, "Lady, when I forgive my enemies, they become friends and they are destroyed as enemies forever."
I am sure there are many in this room today who need to forgive, for you healing, for the peace of God, for the restoration of your relationships, for the healing God can do with the relationships in your life, because the love of God forgives. Listen to this verse, "Forgive us, as we forgive those who trespass against us"
