Forgiveness

2 weeks ago I said God loves us,

• And because of that we can love ourselves,

• And in turn we can love others.

But in order for us to love others, we need to be able to Forgive others.

• Because everyone of us has already been forgiven through Jesus.

• When He became our sacrifice . . He paid for the sins of the whole world"

• In life it’s impossible for someone to do something to you

• That’s worse than what you have already been forgiven for.

Our forgiveness of others is to be like God’s forgiveness of us.

• It had to come from love.

We need to understand just how important forgiveness is?

• Without forgiveness we wouldn’t be allowed in heaven.

• Without forgiveness we always be forever from God.

In the Old Testament

• Man was given the laws that would allow him to be saved,

• And over and over man failed to do what was needed.

• It’s only thru Christ that we are allowed to have a relationship with God.

So if Christ is willing to forgive us,

• And we are supposed to model Christ life why can’t we forgive others?

• Jesus promised that He wouldn’t remember our sins

• So we should be able to do the same.

If Christ was willing to forgive us for everything,

• And I do mean everything isn’t it extremely selfish of us

• To pick and choose who we’ll forgive and what we’ll forgive them for

• The fact is we ‘re all continuing to sin because

• We aren’t doing what God wants us to do

There are 4 basic rules about forgiveness.

1 Don’t seek revenge.

Pr 24:29 Do not say, “I’ll do to him as he has done to me; I’ll pay that man back for what he did.” Pr 20:22 Do not say, “I’ll pay you back for this wrong!”Wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you.

When we are hurt this seems like a natural reaction.

• It goes back to a savage civilization.

• It falls in line with the animal kingdom.

• When we are attacked we lash out at others

• And by doing so we try and cause pain before we have pain inflicted on us.

• The biggest problem with this attitude is we’re not animals.

Ge 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

We aren’t animals that prowl looking for something to attack.

• We better than that.

• We are created in the Image of God.

• And since we are we’re expected to behave like we have been told to behave.

Someone once said that revenge is a dish best served cold.

• We would have to be cold carry out the things that people do.

• Pouring sugar in someone’s gas tank.

• Calling someone’s employer and telling them that the person is using drugs.

• Putting less than appropriate pictures of an old boyfriend or girlfriend on the web.

These don’t sound like the kind of things Jesus would do.

• But these kind of things are done everyday,

• And they cause long-term effects to the people that they’re done against.

Where is the forgiveness?

Ro 12:19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.

Ro 12:20 On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

Ro 12:21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good

• We see in these verses that if any discipline is to be done

• It’s God’s job not ours

• God will take care of the problem for us.

• It is our job to show Love thru the course of the event.

2 Don’t bring it up again.

Pr 17:9 He who covers over an offense promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.

Forgiveness means that we forget what the person has done, and we move on.

• It doesn’t mean that every time we get mad

• We drag the incident back up and go thru it again.

In the world today more marriages fail because of a lack of trust.

• One spouse goes out and has an affair.

• And somehow the other spouse finds out.

• And after many apologies they decide to work it out