Forgiveness is a full pardon. It's a fresh start. It's another chance. It's a new beginning
It's the lifting of a heavy burden. It's the canceling of a debt
Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the
Handcuffs of hatred some of you have those handcuffs on right now
It is a supernatural power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of rage and resentment
Forgiveness is not optional
Jesus said in Matthew 6:14 for if you forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you
But if you don't forgive men their trespasses
God will not forgive you of your trespasses
Luke 6:37
Forgive and you shall be forgiven
The message is clear from one end of the New Testament to the other if you don't forgive others, God will not forgive you
Jesus Christ taught forgiveness in the Lord's Prayer when you pray forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those
The last moment of his life on the cross. He was still
Demonstrating that love that he wanted us to copy as they were killing him
He said Father forgive them for they don't know what they do
He had the power to call legions of angels. He could have destroyed the Roman Empire with just one word
But he let those men kill him. For you
to be redeemed
After the resurrection he continued to demonstrate forgiving love toward Peter. Peter who said I'll die for you
Jesus said before the rooster crows in the morning you are going to deny me three times and he did the last time he cursed
I don't know that man
And the first thing Jesus said to those who came
Go tell my disciples that I'm alive and tell Peter
Tell him I want to see him and forgive him
Isaiah 43:25 says for your sin and iniquity I will forgive and
Remember no more one of the Hebrew translations of remember is it will never be brought up again
You need to remember that
Peter told the Jewish people on the day of Pentecost acts 3:19 that your sins may be blotted out
Look at the word blotted not erased when you erase something you can still see the shadows of it
When you take the inkwell and dump it over that piece of paper, it's totally gone
God is eager to forgive he crumbles the page. He dumps the inkwell of heaven on
Your record in the books of life never to be remembered anymore. You don't have to beg God for forgiveness
Why should we who are full of imperfections
withhold forgiveness from each other
Secondly be reconciled you take the initiative to go to your brother and sister and make the matter right
Remember nothing is ever settled until it's settled right. Oh, I'll talk to them
sometime. It's been 10 years
Do it now
Forgiveness is possible. It's a new beginning. It's a fresh start
So how do you forgive biblically Jesus taught us how to forgive one another
Because there is a pattern Jesus said if therefore you are representing your offering at the altar
You've come to the house of God and you're presenting your offering
And there you remember that your brother has something against you leave your offering
Before the altar and go your way first be reconciled to your brother
And then come and present your offering Matthew 5:23 24. The point is forgive
Immediately. Stop praying, leave the church
Get reconciled before you believe that God is going to hear your prayer. Stop being religious. Stop the facade
God's not listening to you
He will not receive the offering of your phony tears and your hypocritical smile
over the stench of an unforgiving spirit
1st corinthians 13:2 through 4
Husbands listen to this. God does not hear the prayer of a husband who will not forgive his wife
1st Peter 3 and 7
Peter says your prayers are let. Let is an old English word
We still use it in tennis when the ball hits the net and goes to the ground
It's let and you have to do it over
God is saying husband when you are being abusive to your wife
And you will not come together in a reconciliation with her
When you pray your prayers hit the net and fall to the ground
George Herbert said he who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass
End of quote. Several years ago
I sat beside Corrie Ten Boom in Dallas at a
luncheon for Christian authors as we set there side by side
She described the horror of the Nazi concentration camp where she was sent for helping the Jews
Escape the iron fist of Hitler's Nazis
There she lost her sister
Her father and her nephew if there was ever a reason to hate she had one
The beatings the starvation the sadistic brutality of Hitler's monsters were etched into her brain
For years, she kept records of those who had abused her after she got out of the prison camp
Every offense, every date, every officer involved, every circumstance in graphic detail
Waiting for a judge who would come along who would give her justice
And she said one day
while I was praying
The Lord spoke to me
And said I have forgiven you
Why don't you forgive them
And she said I went and got those records
and threw them all in the fire
And she said when tears were flowing down my cheeks
I felt an invasion of the love of God that flooded my soul that I had never known in all of my life
Who is it in your life?
You need to take the mental records
And throw it in the fire
So that you can have a wonderful life
Why forgive not for the benefit for the other person but for your benefit
Well, how often should I forgive that's always the question. It was the question Peter asked
Shall I forgive seven times and Peter did it because in the Mosaic law if you forgave someone three times you were really special
So Peter up the ante to 7 because 7 is the number of perfection and he thought he was really being
spiritual by offering the number 7 and Jesus said no 70 times seven, which is
490 times
Look at the prodigal son
And Jesus said the prodigal son had gone into a far country
And he wasted his substance with riotous living
And when no man came to him. He was in that pigs pen
Fighting them for something to eat
In his heart he knew back home
That he had a father that loved him enough to forgive him and that knowledge saved his life
He got up and he shook the slime off of his body and started walking the long road home
The father was watching for him and while he was a long way off the father ran down the path to his boy
Here was the boy in rags
who had the stench of a pig and he put his arms around him
and embraced him
And said bring the rope, bring the ring, bring the shoes
My son is home his forgiving love saved that boy's life
How many prodigal sons and daughters are in the far country right now
wondering if there's enough love in their home, in their fathers heart, in their mother's heart to give them the
opportunity to try one more time. If there's love enough in the mother's heart to save them.
I challenge you to pick up the phone and give your prodigal's another chance. It might save their life
Two questions, who do you need to forgive and do you need God's forgiveness yourself?