FAITH
PART 1 – UNFORGIVENESS
First Baptist Church of Tawas City Michigan
Rev. Bruce A. Shields
www.tawasbaptist.org
WELCOME
• Visitors (Visitor Cards & Prayer Request Cards in pews)
• Food Bank Success (Approximately 900 lbs. of food.)
• Please keep donating (especially with the holidays coming.)
SCRIPTURE READING
Mark 11:22-24
“22"Have faith in God," Jesus answered. 23"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ’Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen; it will be done for him. 24Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
People get all excited when they read these three verses.
Perhaps it’s because they tell us what we can get from God, what God can do for us, and how we can use our faith to receive.
Nearly everyone stops reading with verse 24, but this principle Jesus is trying to teach to us which started in verse 22, describing what some call “possibility faith,” doesn’t end with verse 24!
In the following verses, Jesus makes two more statements that are vitally important for faith.
The first is in verse 25;
Mark 11:25
“25And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."
Jesus ties this thought to verse 24 with a conjunction.
If this had been edited correctly, there would be a comma between verse 24 and 25 not a period, joining these two verses as they were meant to be together.
Most people though stop reading at the end of verse 24 and get all excited about receiving things they desire.
Too many Christians live in this kind of fantasy world saying “I can move mountains! ‘Cause Jesus said so!” yet, they can’t stop the sin in their lives.
We need to get focused as Christians.
Believers need to get their feet planted on the Rock if they are to get anything done for themselves and the rest of the kingdom.
Remember we are part of a whole, as Christians we are the body of Christ.
Notice in verse 25 that God calls holding grudges against our fellow man “trespasses.”
This is serious.
He didn’t say against our brother which would mean other Christians.
He says, “If you hold ANYTHING against ANYONE”
In your NIV you will notice that there is no verse 26, but it jumps right to 27.
This is because verse 26 was not found in some of the older transcripts and is believed to have been added by King James.
But if you turn to the book of Matthew 6:15, we will find the same verse.
Matthew 6:15
“But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
Really, it is a sin to hold grudges against people.
People will say, “Well, I can forgive, but I’ll never forget what they’ve done to me.”
That’s not forgiving.
“..I’m never going to forget what they did to me.”
The Amplified Bible says, “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him and let it drop.”
“Yeah, but you don’t know what they did to me,”
Have they killed you?
Have they hung you on a cross?
Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, because they don’t understand what they are doing.”
When did He say that?
While they were STILL doing it.
He didn’t wait for them to stop, of until He wasn’t mad anymore.
Jesus didn’t say, “Father forgive them, but let’s not forget what they are doing.”
Just, Father forgive them.
When somebody says something about you that you don’t like, you say, “I’m not going to let them get away with that!”
“They’re not going to make me look like a fool and get away with it!”
Then, out of the other side of your mouth, you say, “Oh, thank God, I’m confessing that God will meet all of my needs.”
How can God meet your needs when you are not living in line with God’s word?
Look at what He says in 26 again;
Matthew 6:15
“But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
If grudges are a sin against God, and these scriptures show that, then how can you sin against God and expect God to answer your prayers?
Terri and I ran into some extended family members last week.
One of which is gay.
Her girlfriend is seriously ill in the hospital.
She is a convicted child molester, and drug abuser living a gay lifestyle.
Does God love her? Absolutely!
But the only prayer that can go out in a situation like that is a prayer for salvation.
We can not live in complete disobedience to God, sinning against Him and expect to receive the benefits and blessings which are reserved for His obedient children!
God loves her and wants her to be saved. It is God’s will that ALL be saved! The scriptures tell us so.
1 Timothy 2:3-6
“This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time.”
But we can not live in sin and claim God’s kingdom on earth.
Notice, LIVE IN SIN.
This is not the same as committing a sin.
Romans 3:23
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
If I am living in a way that is sinful to God, or have unrepented sin in my heart, I am living in sin. Continuing to do what I know is wrong.
If I sin, and repent from it, which means to STOP DOING IT, literally to GO IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION, then I have committed a sin, but I am no longer living in it, because I have repented and confessed it to God.
So we know that all have sinned, but not all are living in sin.
This unrepented sin when held on to will grow.
Any sin you hold on to only grows and becomes greater. No sin ever just goes away.
This is why those living in sin are in bondage.
But Christ came to free us! And this happens through our faith, repenting and confessing to the Lord.
Getting to know Christ, who is the truth.
Then you will know the truth, and the truth shall set you free!
John 8:32
Every believer has a measure of faith.
Every believer can make that faith grow by feeding it on God’s word.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Romans 10:17
This God kind of faith is of the heart, not the head.
But it can not work where there is unforgiveness.
We don’t often hear of these kinds of things being taught.
We want to live the way we want to live and enjoy everything the way we want to enjoy it.
It’s sometimes difficult to come in line with the real truth of God’s Word.
It’s time the Church wake up!
There are a lot of doctrines in the Word of God besides faith and healing.
The Apostle Paul warned in Second Timothy 4:3 that the day would come when people would heap to themselves teachers who would teach what the people wanted to hear because they had “itching ears.”
There are some who would walk out of a service which had a teaching such as this and say, “I’m not going to listen to anything but faith!”
They won’t endure sound doctrine.
Feeding on only one part of the Word of God will do you harm.
You need balance for your spiritual man just like you do for your natural man.
If we were to indulge ourselves on just the feel good stuff in the scriptures, it would be like the natural man only eating the candy, ice cream and other junk food.
You would start off big and strong, but after a while, you would become weak and wasted.
The same is true with the Word of God.
If you don’t get balance, you will become imbalanced.
We know what happens to imbalanced people, they develop weaknesses in an area of their life that hasn’t been developed or built up by the Word of God.
Because it didn’t feel good to hear, or learn.
Where do you think the devil will attack them?
He’s not going to attack them where they are strong in the Word; he’s going to attack them where they are weakest!
Where you lack understanding.
Where you don’t feed yourself in the word of God.
Where your faith is already weak.
By using some simple logic, we could save ourselves a lot of problems, but for some reason, when people get saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, they throw all their natural knowledge and experience out the window.
The natural and the supernatural working together become an explosive force for God.
It takes both working together.
We live in a natural world, and the way God chooses to bring the super natural into the natural is to have us, as His body, bring the Holy Spirit into this natural world through our fruits.
To effectively bring the fruits of the Holy Spirit into the world as the body of Christ, is to read the scriptures, this will grow our faith and fill our hearts with God’s word, which will build up our understanding so that we do not have underdeveloped areas in our lives which make us vulnerable to the devil.
Colossians 3:12-15
“12Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
15Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.”
Are you one of God’s chosen people? You are if you’re a Christian!
Holy and dearly loved by God!
We are to have compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
We are to bear with each other!
Forgive any grievance we may have!
Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
Do you want unity in this church?
This scripture instructs us to put on love which binds all of these virtues together in perfect unity!
Since you are members of one body, you are called to peace, be thankful.
What does it mean to be thankful?
Do not grumble gossip or as Jesus would say if you even talk bout your brother, you are in danger of the fire of hell.
Matthew 5:22
This is necessary for unity in the church.
Without unity we will not grow, we will not act as one body, and we will not live according to God’s will and purpose for this congregation.
God has enabled us to do this.
Matthew 19:26
“Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
He has given all those who ask the Holy Spirit to fill and empower them.
Therefore, if the scriptures tell us to do so, we must be able to do so.
All things are possible through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Praise God!
CLOSING PRAYER
