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| Walking in the light. |
Today I had the privilege of leading the worship at the Parkrose Village United Church. Lesley played the piano.
The theme was on forgiveness from a very challenging passage in Matthew 18. Look up the various translations on the Bible Gateway website.
Here is the order of service.
Welcome and Opening Prayer
Hymn: “God of Mercy,God of Grace” 218 3v
Announcements: Geoff
Bible reading: Matthew 18:21-35Living Bible (TLB)
Pat
Hymn: “Here at thy Table Lord” 238 4v
Communion:
Offering:
Church Prayer: Geoff. (Include the Lord’s Prayer)
Hymn:”Open my eyes Lord” 172 4v
Sermon: “What about forgiveness?” Geoff
Hymn: “God forgave my sin” 3 verses.
Benediction and Vesper: Now unto
Him
Here is the sermon outline which had a few off the cuff remarks added as we went.
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Sermon:
What price forgiveness?
Or What about forgiveness?
This passage we had read today is one of the most
challenging in the New Testament.
Many seemingly fine Christians find it a great
stumbling block.
It seems a very hard teaching.
Let’s talk about forgiveness.
You might know someone who has been seriously hurt
by someone else’s behavior.
It may even be you, or me.
This has been a serious hurt and very wrong.
It might be a sudden action,
a one off,
or it might be something that happened over many
years.
How do we deal with it?
When we read todays reading it is obvious as
Christians we need to forgive those who have wronged us.
For us to go up to someone and say you should
forgive that person,
for what they did to you,
while it
might be well intentioned,
it can be met with a very painful reaction.
You might be met with the retort;
“Why should I?
“Why should I forgive?”
Not after what they have done to me or my family!”
The person reacting like this obviously is
suffering from very painful memories and sometimes physical scars of what has
been done to them.
Some might say I know I have to forgive but I
can’t.
It was too
bad!
what was
done!
to me!
I was hurt so much!
In any case I can’t forgive until I feel I can!
And I can’t forgive until I see justice served.
Until I get my revenge!
So if it is so hard for people to do this
what is the consequences of our unforgiveness?
Before we tackle that let’s get back to our own
forgiveness by God.
Was it because He loves us?
Yes it is.
He does love us,
but not
because we are good people worthy of His love.
Our forgiveness is not based on any good qualities
He sees in us!
His love for us is unconditional.
His forgiveness is the result of His sacrifice for
us,
His death on the cross,
In reality we are no better than anyone else.
It is only through God’s providence,
and how we
have been blessed,
that we have not committed the horrible things that
others do.
Given the same circumstances, we are quite capable of the
same evil.
If we think we are above others we are fooling
ourselves.
We don’t understand the Gospel.
The consequences of our un-forgivness of others are
many.
Unforgiveness
in our hearts can cause us:
to lose
sleep.
to become emotionally crippled and withdrawn,
to always be full of anger,
to have a short fuse,
to be super critical and judgemental of everyone,
to be full of fear,
to never have any joy,
to have all sorts of pyschosomatic illnesses,
like ulcers and other things,
and the list can go on and on.
Our unforgiveness will cut us off from really
knowing the peace and fellowship of God.
That’s why our passage today tells us we should
forgive 70x7.
So,
two things to ponder!
1. Our lack of forgiveness is
sin.
God clearly requires us to forgive when we read the
scriptures.
What caused our distress in the first place was likely
the sin of someone else.
We don’t have to say “well that person was quite ok
to do what they did!”
We don’t have to feel love for them before we
exercise our forgiveness.
Forgiveness is an act of the will.
It is not a feeling!
We use our will power to forgive and ask God to
help us with that.
If we are walking in the Light, as He is in the
Light, continuing in unforgivness is not an optional extra.
The passage read to us today is very severe in it’s
consequences.
I don’t think it is saying we lose our salvation if
we don’t forgive others, but it is saying our unforgiveness will cause us a
lifetime of grief.
The second thing to ponder.
2.Healing from the effect of other
people’s sin.
Healing from all
these consequences will often only come about as we forgive the perpetrators
but also as we ask Jesus to heal our many unhappy memories.
Often we have
things deep down that we have suppressed.
Hurts that we have
suffered even as little children.
We are not necessarily conscious of them.
We just know
things aren’t right.
We can ask Jesus
through His Holy Spirit to heal us of these unhappy memories.
In summary,
if we truly forgive others,
from our hearts,
it will be,
that for those we have forgiven,
they will sense a change in us, if we are
still in contact.
Often the person
who has wronged us is full of guilt themselves .
It is important
that we know how to forgive ourselves,
but also how wonderful when the person we have
wronged forgives us.
How wonderful is
reconciliation with someone when it really takes place.
The disciples of
Jesus remonstrated with Jesus over Mary,
the prostitute, who anointed Him with expensive perfume.
Jesus told them “Where much has been
forgiven, the same shall love so much.”
Folks we are so
blessed to have received the Grace of God.
To know God’s
forgiveness.
One of the
statements I hear often these days, and you do to, is when someone being
interviewed on TV, often after a court case says “well now we might have some
“closure”.
They know in
reality that there is not closure even when justice seemingly has been served.
The wrong that has
been done is still not healed,
The only true
statement and act of “closure” was by Jesus on the cross.
He said. “It is
finished!”
The reason He came
to earth was accomplished.
He had finished
His work so that His cross could become active in our lives.
The work of
reconciliation and forgiveness and healing.
I close with a
reasonably well known story of Corrie Ten Boom.
Corrie and her family
were locked up in a prison camp in the second world war.
It was one of
those places where many Jews and their supporters were murdered in the gas
chambers.
Corrie and her
family were imprisoned there because thay had been hiding Jewish people in
their house in Holland.
The Ten Booms were
a fine Christian family.
Corrie was the
only one who was released eventually from the prison.
The only one of
her family.
While in the
prison Corrie and her family were treated very badly and she witnessed her
sister, on one occasion, being badly beaten by one of the guards.
After the war
Corrie became a Christian author and travelled around the world conducting
Christian meetings throughout Europe.
At one of these
meetings she was approached afterwards by a man who said this to her.
“Frauline, I was a
guard in your prison, I am a Christian now. Will you please forgive me?
He extended his
hand to her.
Corrie immediately
recognized him as the man who had cruelly beaten her sister.
Her memories and
image of her sister suffering at the hands of this man came flooding back.
She thought how
can I possibly do this?
She thought I
can’t,
Look what he did
to Betsy,
but she knew she
had to forgive him as a Christian.
She asked God to
give her the power to take his hand.
She grasped his
hand in forgiveness.
She said she felt
a current of love run through from her head to her toes as she did this.
You can imagine
what this meant to this contrite man.
I am going to pray
now and ask God to help us, if we are harboring unforgiveness, to really
forgive from the heart.
We will thank Him
for our own forgiveness,
that we don’t deserve,
that was bought
for us on the cross.
We will ask Jesus to heal our often damaged
emotions that might be buried deep down.
Shall we pray?
