Participants: Pr. Fred Dana
Series Code: OTR
Program Code: OTR000887
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01:02 Shout joyfully to the Lord all the earth.
01:06 Serve the Lord with gladness, 01:08 come before him with joyful singing. 01:12 Know that the Lord himself is God, 01:15 it is he what has made us and not we ourselves. 01:19 We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. 01:23 Come let us bow down and worship and let us kneel 01:28 before the Lord our maker. Where we can find peace, 01:32 rest, inspiration, fellowship and love, 01:38 inside your temple O God we think of your 01:42 constant love, you are praised by people 01:46 everywhere and your frame extends over all the earth. 01:51 You rule with justice, let the people of Zion 01:55 be glad, this is our God 01:58 forever and ever. He, God will lead us 02:04 let us exalt him. Amen. 02:09 We worship for God's benefit. The Bible says 02:17 that the Lord is pleased with those who worship him 02:20 and trust his love. When we worship our goal 02:24 is to bring pleasure to God and not to ourselves. 02:28 For worship isn't about us, worship is for God. 02:32 Of course, there are many benefits for worship, 02:35 but we don't worship to please ourselves, 02:37 our motive is to bring glory and pleasure to our creator. 02:41 In Hebrews, it says that let us 02:44 be grateful and worship God in a way that will 02:47 please him with reverence and awe. 02:50 And it so with the spirit of worship on behalf 02:54 of the pastor and the members of the Newburgh 02:56 Seventh Day Adventist Church, I welcome everyone 02:59 to our worship service today. 03:01 Not only do I welcome our guests here in Newburgh, 03:05 New York, but a very heartily welcome 03:08 to those who are watching around the world. 03:10 May your blessing today be an everlasting blessing 03:14 and may your life be changed forever 03:17 because you have met Jesus today. Amen. 03:21 Hi, our opening hymn will be 294 03:32 "Power in the blood". We'll be singing 03:34 all three verses, please stand 03:36 Would you be free from the burden of sin? 03:58 There's power in the blood, power in the blood; 04:03 Would you o'er evil a victory win? 04:07 There's wonderful power in the blood. 04:12 There is power, power, wonder working power 04:16 In the blood of the Lamb; There is power, power, 04:23 wonder working power In the precious blood 04:28 of the Lamb. Would you be free from 04:33 your passion and pride? There's power in the blood, 04:38 power in the blood; Come for a cleansing 04:42 to Calvary's tide; There's wonderful 04:46 power in the blood. There is power, power, 04:52 wonder working power In the blood of the Lamb. 04:58 There is power, power, wonder working power 05:03 In the precious blood of the Lamb. 05:07 Would you do service for Jesus your King? 05:12 There's power in the blood, power in the blood; 05:17 Would you live daily His praises to sing? 05:21 There's wonderful power in the blood. 05:25 There is power, power, wonder working power 05:30 In the blood of the Lamb. 05:35 There is power, power, wonder working power 05:39 In the precious blood of the Lamb. 05:45 Let us remain standing and bow our heads as we approach 06:00 the throne of God in prayer. Kind and loving Father, 06:05 we ask for your presence to be with us now dear Lord, 06:10 we pray that you would tabernacle with us, 06:12 because we need in a powerful way 06:14 dear heavenly Father. We thank you dear Lord 06:17 for the blessing that you have given us, 06:20 the opportunity to be here, the opportunity 06:22 to have awakened this morning in our right minds dear Lord. 06:27 The opportunity to have gotten here safely 06:30 and we pray dear Lord that you will continue 06:32 to bless and be with us in a special way dear Lord. 06:35 Dear Lord, all of us have gone through weeks, 06:38 some of us have gone through weeks 06:39 that have been tough and we pray that everyone 06:43 within the voice, the hearing of my voice 06:47 dear Lord, would be blessed 06:50 by your presence dear heavenly Father, 06:52 that you would touch them in a special way, 06:54 that you would search their hearts in a way 06:56 that would allow them to know the need to have 06:59 you in their lives, dear heavenly Father 07:01 and in a way that would allow them 07:03 to know that you are caring for them in a special way 07:05 dear Lord. We pray dear heavenly Father 07:07 that you would be with our pastor 07:10 as he is about to break the bread of life for us dear Lord. 07:14 We know that we are about to hear a message from 07:17 on high and we pray that you would give us 07:19 all wisdom and understanding to discern it and to use it 07:23 in a way that's powerful dear Lord. 07:24 We pray that as we continue on through this day 07:27 that we would be a light that would shine in the 07:30 community and a light that would shine to all those 07:33 who we come in contact with dear Lord. 07:35 We want to decrease so that you might increase 07:38 and we pray this all in the wonderful name of Jesus 07:41 our Lord and savior, in Jesus name we pray. Amen. 08:06 In the morning, when I rise In the morning, when I rise 08:16 In the morning, when I rise Give me Jesus. 08:29 Give me Jesus, Give me Jesus. 08:42 You can have all this world, but give me Jesus. 09:03 And when I am alone, oh! When I am alone, 09:13 When I am alone, Give me Jesus. 09:27 Give me Jesus, Give me Jesus. 09:57 You can have all this world, but give me Jesus. 09:58 It's a blessing to have the Lord on our side, 10:04 I am so grateful that God has, 10:06 our God that we serve is a loving God. 10:10 He is a forgiving God, he is a God of mercy 10:14 and a God of grace and he is also 10:17 a God of judgment and through our obedience 10:22 and faithfulness, we will hear him say 10:26 well-done by good and faithful servant. 10:32 Oh! Blessed be the name of the Lord. 10:40 And When I come to die, Oh! When I come to die, 10:51 When I come to die, Give me Jesus. 11:03 Give me Jesus, Give me Jesus. 11:16 You can have all this world, You can have all this world, 11:30 You can have all this world, But give me Jesus. 12:03 The scripture will be taken from Matthew 12:05 chapter 18, verses 15, 21 and 22, chapter 18 12:11 verse 15, 21 and 22. Moreover if thy brothers 12:21 shall trespass against thee, go and tell him the fault 12:24 between thee and him alone: 12:26 if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. 12:32 Verse 21, Then came Peter to him, 12:35 and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother 12:38 sin against me, and I forgive him? 12:40 Till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, 12:43 I say not unto thee, Until seven times, 12:46 but, until seventy times seven. 12:48 May the Lord add his blessing 12:50 to the reading of his word. Amen. 13:26 We know not the hour of the Master's appearing, 13:34 Yet signs all foretell that the moment is nearing 13:43 When He shall return 'tis a promise most cheering 13:52 But we know not the hour. There's light for the wise 14:05 who are seeking salvation, there's truth in the 14:12 Book of the Lord revelation Each prophecy points to the 14:23 great consummation. But we know not the hour, 14:34 But he will come, let us watch and be ready: 14:44 he will come. Halleluiah, Halleluiah! 14:53 He will come in the clouds of his Father's bright glory, 15:02 but we know not the hour. But I want to be ready, 15:15 how about you, how about you? 15:17 We'll watch and we'll pray, with our lamps 15:28 trimmed and burning, We'll work and we'll wait 15:35 till the Master's returning, We'll sing and rejoice, 15:43 every omen discerning. But we know not the hour. 15:57 But he will come, let us watch and be ready, 16:06 he will come, halleluiah, halleluiah! 16:14 He will come in the clouds of his Father's bright glory, 16:24 but we know not the hour. He will come 16:35 let's watch and be ready, 16:42 he will come halleluiah! Pray to the Lord, 16:50 he will come in the clouds of his Father's bright glory, 17:00 but we know not the hour. He will come, 17:14 I want to be ready, Jesus will come 17:21 halleluiah, halleluiah! He will come in the clouds 17:32 of his Father's bright glory, but we know not the hour. 17:45 He will come, Jesus will come halleluiah, 18:03 halleluiah! He will come in the clouds 18:10 of his Father's bright glory, but we know, 18:19 we know not the hour, we know not the hour, 18:33 we know not the hour. Be ready, be ready. 19:10 It's great to have good music. 19:11 When I was 13 years old a bigger guy with whom 19:20 I went to school put me down literally in some deep thick 19:27 constructions site mud, he just wiped me, 19:32 wiped the ground with me. My coat was smeared 19:36 and oozing, my pants felt soaked 19:39 through to the underwear, I was a dripping mess. 19:44 My feeble attempt for some self dignity 19:48 was to angrily announce to him that he would 19:50 be paying for me to have a new coat 19:54 and that big shot just walked away laughing at me. 19:59 I was furious but could do nothing. 20:03 My thoughts were screaming in my mind, 20:05 he has to pay for this and later at home 20:12 I tried to persuade my Mom to call his Mom 20:16 and demand that they buy me a new coat. 20:21 She was unmoved, she actually told me 20:24 I needed to learn to get along better 20:25 with my classmates, she asked me what I did 20:30 to provoke him and I reluctantly admitted 20:34 that I had called him a name, 20:36 but you know that was kind of beside 20:39 the point wasn't it. Well, she just brushed off 20:44 the mud as best she could and threw everything 20:47 in the wash and that was it, I thought can't we at least 20:51 bring it over there so, they have to put it in their 20:53 washing machine, she said don't be silly. 21:00 I was humiliated, I had told him he was going 21:03 to pay for that coat, and I want it to go 21:04 back to school for the next day and, 21:08 but I had to go back and just be quiet. 21:14 I thought of revenge, but that would be risky 21:19 because well like I said he was bigger than me, 21:23 he'd get me back again and it might be worse next time, 21:25 he didn't actually hit me, he just used me like a mop. 21:32 I thought of just cutting him out of my life 21:35 you know, rejecting him, 21:37 somehow I didn't think it would bother him 21:39 all that much, besides we were in the 21:42 same class all day, it wasn't going to easy 21:46 to cut him out of my life. The only option that 21:49 I could see was to just hate him, 21:54 just resent him, didn't he justify 21:57 my resentment, didn't he, 22:02 was there any other option? Forgive him. 22:09 Forgive him? Yes. 22:11 Make peace with him? Yes. 22:13 No way. Have you ever felt that way? 22:18 Yes. I mean why would 22:24 I want to forgive when resentment felt so good 22:27 and anger was so justified, I could just punish him 22:32 in my mind and but Jesus said, 22:38 to pray, asking God to forgive us our debts 22:43 as we forgive our debtors. Matthew 16:12, 22:49 that's part of the Lord's prayer, 22:52 but when someone wrongs us, usually forgiveness isn't 22:58 the first impulse of our nature now is it. 23:03 Repayment, getting even or revenge, 23:07 those are usually the impulses we have. 23:13 In fact, I believe an unforgiving spirit 23:15 is one of the most common of sense. 23:22 You know, think about those options I shared you know, 23:24 repayment, or restitution of some kind, 23:27 revenge or retaliation, resentment, rejection. 23:32 Let's look at repayment for a minute. 23:35 Repayment sometimes just isn't even possible, 23:38 you know that? You could just ask 23:42 for this bank janitor, he was doing his usual 23:46 clean up at the bank in the evening and as his normal 23:49 procedure was, he had to put all the 23:51 paper trash through a shredder. 23:55 Somehow he put the record of the full days 23:58 bank deposits through the shredder. 23:59 He didn't know how it happened 24:02 and he was thinking how can I make restitution. 24:06 Well, the bank didn't see anyway 24:10 he can make restitution, they fired him and then 24:14 he stated scrambling to figure out how 24:15 to fix this mess, I mean the money was there, 24:17 but they didn't know who it came from, 24:19 how much for so many hundreds of people 24:21 that went to the bank the day before. 24:23 Sometimes you just can't fix it and what about 24:28 when a parent loses is a son or a daughter to murder. 24:38 Can the murderer repay, can they fix it? 24:40 Is restitution really possible? 24:42 It's not, nothing can bring back their loved one. 24:48 And you can think of other situations, 24:49 you know how does a rape victim receive restitution. 24:57 Now, if this bully had actually torn my coat 25:04 I might have been able to persuade my mom 25:06 that he needed to make restitution to get 25:10 me a new coat, because that probably 25:13 would have been right, but he would have said 25:16 Fred started it when he called me and so there 25:21 would have been something for me to deal with too. 25:25 So, repayment, restitution, as far as it can be done 25:27 it should be, but very often repayment 25:31 and restitution is impossible to correct wrongs. 25:37 But I want you to consider the cost of retaliation 25:41 and revenge, you know not being 25:44 willing to forgive has a price also. 25:52 And so when you consider the cost of retaliation 25:54 or revenge think of it this way you know, 25:56 spiteful words lead to actions 25:59 and people sometimes get hurt physically 26:02 as well as hurt emotionally or with their feelings. 26:06 One statistical review of hospital emergency 26:10 room cases revealed that nearly 50 percent of the 26:13 injuries are that brought people to the 26:16 emergency rooms, were caused by family, 26:19 friends, or acquaintances. Now I don't know 26:23 how many of them were just honest to goodness accidents, 26:25 but we know they all weren't. The famous Quaker 26:30 and leader of the Pennsylvania colony, 26:33 William Penn, explained the danger 26:35 of revenge this way, he said not to be 26:39 provoked is best, but if moved never correct 26:44 till the fume is spend for every stroke 26:50 our fury strikes is sure to hit ourselves at last. 26:56 Jesus agreed with that, Jesus put it this way 26:59 all they that take the sword shall perish 27:03 with the sword. It's a principle, 27:05 what you dish out comes back. I want you to consider 27:11 the price of resentment, bitterness, poisons of life, 27:18 takes the soul hostage and stunts our human development. 27:24 You know psychologist deal wiht chronic 27:26 human dysfunction because of trauma 27:30 that people can't deal with. It's often some physical, 27:35 emotional, or sexual abuse in childhood, 27:37 painful experiences that haven't been dealt with, 27:42 they've been repressed, certainly not forgiven, 27:45 these things often result in repressed 27:48 hatred and anger that create havoc in the lives of people, 27:54 messing them up so they can't handle 27:57 marriage very well, they can't handle 28:00 parenting very well, or maybe they can't 28:03 even handle employment very well. 28:07 The anxiety and bitterness even effect their 28:10 physical health, eventually resulting 28:14 in disease. A famous missionary 28:19 Hannah Moore put it this way, a Christian will find 28:26 it cheaper to pardon than to resent, 28:28 forgiveness saves the expensive of anger, 28:33 the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits. 28:39 Resentment and bitterness have a price don't they? 28:43 It costs our emotional and our physical health. 28:48 Consider the cost of rejecting someone, 28:50 cutting them out of our lives, 28:52 this one doesn't sound quiet so bad, 28:54 in fact, this is the preferred choice 28:57 of our contemporary western culture. 28:58 Let me explain, you know when someone 29:01 has hurt us, we just put some distance 29:04 between us and largely forget it, 29:12 we just get some distance, give me my space 29:16 and stay way, I'll be polite 29:19 when we have to cross paths, but don't expect more, 29:24 that's really a form of rejection, 29:27 you're trying to cut him out as far as possible. 29:29 You know, but you may think you can forget it, 29:32 but the effect often stays with us 29:33 in ways we don't realize. For example, 29:42 if you cut somebody out of your life, 29:49 you are robbing yourself and them 29:51 of what could be a genuine friendship 29:56 and we fail to work for something 29:58 that would make us bigger 29:59 bigger and deeper and more mature persons. Meet the 30:04 challenge, overcome it, overcome evil with good. 30:07 Consider the spiritual cost of rejecting somebody to 30:13 fail to forgive stunts Christian growth. Amen. 30:18 And it puts us at odds with what God would have us to 30:22 do. So, the cost of not forgiving robs us of peace 30:30 with God. According to the scriptures, we must learn to 30:35 forgive, it's not optional. And, Matthew 6:14 and 15, 30:40 Jesus said, for if he forgive men their trespasses, your 30:45 heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if he 30:47 forgive not men their trespasses, neither will 30:50 your Father forgive your trespasses. See, one who 30:53 cannot forgive others, breaks the bridge over which he 30:57 himself must pass if he would reach heaven, for everyone 31:02 has need to be forgiven. So, there is a great lesson 31:06 here. The great lesson of forgiveness must be 31:09 perfectly learned by all of us. Amen. In fact, it's a 31:14 great wrong to allow our hearts to become hard and 31:17 unforgiving to one we think has wronged us. You know, 31:22 one of my favorite books, it's a book called Christ 31:27 Object Lessons about the Parables that Jesus told. 31:30 On page 251, it puts that really sharpening focus, it 31:34 says this. "Nothing can justify an unforgiving spirit. 31:39 He who is unmerciful toward others shows that he 31:44 himself is not a partaker of God's pardoning grace. 31:46 You see the grace of God moves into my heart that 31:51 it may be passed on to others. We are not forgiven because 31:59 we forgive, but we are forgiven as we forgive. As 32:04 As the heart opens and receives God's unmerited 32:08 love. If we have received God's unmerited love our 32:13 attitude toward others will show whether we have made 32:17 that love our own. So, to be faithful to Christ, 32:28 we must forgive others. Amen. Fortunately, God himself 32:29 gives the ability to do this, it doesn't come natural 32:33 folks, it has to come from God. If you are struggling 32:36 with resentment toward someone in your family or 32:46 someone in the church family or someone at work or for 32:47 those of who are in schools, someone at school, 32:48 Jesus can set you free. Amen. In fact, this is so 32:54 important I thought about making the title of the 32:56 sermon, the freedom of forgiveness, because when 33:01 we forgive, we find freedom. Amen. That we didn't know, 33:05 we were missing before, so what exactly is 33:09 forgiveness? Well, I went to my concordance in the Greek 33:14 and I found out that the Greek word meanings for 33:18 forgiveness show that it means and you would expect 33:21 this, it means to pardon, it means to free fully, it 33:27 means to let go or let it die. Amen. What I was 33:32 interested in noting is, it does not mean to overlook, 33:35 but rather to lay aside, to put away or to yield up. 33:42 You see it's not pretending that something didn't 33:46 happen, but it's facing it's square, putting it aside. 33:50 Now, the best way to understand forgiveness, 33:55 of course is to look at the greatest example of it on 34:00 Calvary. Can any of us fully grasp the love that led 34:04 Jesus to suffer, to give us forgiveness of sin with his 34:09 own shed blood, can we really grasp that. Ephesians 4:32 34:15 says that, we should be kind to one another, 34:18 tenderhearted, and it says forgiving one another even 34:22 as God for Christ sake has forgiven you. Now, when you 34:33 through on the Cross. Do you think it's easy to 34:37 forgive others as he has forgiven you, providing 34:44 our forgiveness really hurt Christ. It's beyond our 34:49 comprehension. Does forgiving others ever cause us to 34:57 suffer? Is this why it's so hard to forgive? You know, 35:06 even for followers of Christ, it is most difficult to 35:11 forgive as Christ forgave us. A friend of mine, he is a 35:18 man who was an elder in his church. Number of years 35:23 ago, he learned that his wife had committed adultery. 35:25 She was repentant and asked his forgiveness, he said he 35:35 forgave her. His work took him away from home, most 35:42 of the days of every week, for several days in a row 35:46 every week. And, she tried for several years to get 35:51 him to make a job change so he could be home with her 35:54 and with the children, and he wouldn't do it. Later, when 36:01 divorce proceedings were underway and she was trying 36:07 to figure out why? Because nothing new would happen. 36:11 She hadn't fallen again and when she was pleading with 36:17 him not to get the divorce. In a way he admitted that 36:21 he had stayed away from home all those years working to 36:27 punish her for her adultery. And, he acknowledged that 36:35 he didn't believe he had done it consciously, but that he 36:42 realized now looking back that that was the truth, he 36:48 really didn't forgive her after all. In fact, his, 36:53 the official reason for divorce was adultery. Why 36:59 is it so difficult to forgive? We have already seen that 37:05 natural feelings, they just tend toward resentment, 37:09 retaliation, revenge and things like that, but there 37:13 is another reason why forgiving is hard that we 37:16 often don't see and it's that we can easily accept 37:20 substitutes or counterfeits of forgiveness in place of 37:26 the real thing. Give you an example, one of these 37:32 counterfeits, we could call it memory fatigue. You know, 37:37 we get tired of holding a grudge and as time passes, 37:41 we don't feel quite so mad anymore, in fact we almost 37:43 can't remember why we were. And, in fact, you know, 37:47 that's what happened with this guy that put me in the 37:49 mud. We are in class together and sometimes things happen 37:54 and we'd forget about it and time just helped it fade 37:58 away. Of course another thing that really helped a lot was, 38:01 I had another friend that kind of decided to be my 38:05 protector and, my enemy backed off. Treated me a 38:12 little better. They say that time heals and that you can 38:17 forget anger and so it does to some extent, but that's 38:21 not forgiveness because true forgiveness and 38:24 reconciliation didn't happen between me and that guy. 38:28 We got along better, but we never did become good 38:34 friends. Does that describe how you get along with 38:41 someone. It's more of a tolerance of them, maybe 38:48 even at times is somewhat pleasant tolerance, but 38:55 things were never made right. Not fully, to substitute, 39:02 are you willing to pay the price to get and to give 39:07 true forgiveness. I'll give you another counterfeit, 39:13 sometimes forgiveness doesn't really happen because we 39:17 confuse it with some kind of denial that allows us to 39:22 pretend that all is well again. Listen closely, 39:27 because this is really, really common. Instead of 39:31 talking things through, instead of recognizing true 39:35 repents in the other person or them recognize it in 39:38 you, for what has happened. Instead of restoring the 39:42 relationship, denial just says forget it, we don't 39:46 need to talk, it was nothing. Now, if it really was a 39:52 little thing that might be okay, but when a person 39:58 responds to your request for forgiveness by saying Oh! 40:02 That is nothing, don't worry about it, and then they 40:04 still keep their distance from you. Real forgiveness 40:08 did not happen. Not fully, but they think it did, they 40:15 think it's over. When people forgive effortlessly they 40:23 are just fooling themselves. So, what's the goal of 40:30 forgiveness. Does it cost something? Does it cost 40:36 something regarding our pride? If we try to forget a wrong 40:42 done to us without properly dealing with it, it really 40:45 won't go away, we maybe professional, we maybe 40:50 courteous, but it wasn't taken care of. Forgiveness 40:56 and forgetting are not the same thing. Forgives 41:02 requires us to deal with the facts of what was done to 41:07 process things, there are things to be understood, 41:11 lessons to be learned, proper forgetting is the result of 41:19 complete forgiveness. Forgetting never causes 41:24 forgiveness. Sometimes, I'm gonna give you another 41:32 counterfeit, it's a little bit different than that 41:34 one, but it's close. Sometimes people really try 41:36 to forgive, but they really just went through the 41:39 motions. Because they underestimate what true 41:44 forgiveness is. Superficial forgiveness doesn't work, 41:49 it's a poor substitute. I want you to take the case 41:53 of Marty. Marty was a grown women in her 40s with a 41:58 family and she could not break her dependence on 42:03 her mother. Her mom had totally dominated her life 42:07 as a child and youth, she hardly had any friends 42:11 growing up and as a married woman she was still 42:15 controlled by this need for her mother's approval. And, 42:23 yet at the same time she felt hostility and resentment 42:26 towards her mother. In Marty's life, she struggled 42:33 desperately with strong feelings of insecurity and 42:45 fearfulness, lack of confidence. Her husband 42:46 and her children were very frustrated with her. Marty 42:49 felt messed up enough that she decided to try 42:53 counseling, fortunately for her she got a good 42:56 counselor and in the counseling process she 43:00 began to become aware of how her mother's control 43:05 of her life had actually damaged her. And sometimes 43:11 in counseling she expressed anger when she recalled 43:14 specific things that her mother had done. But one 43:20 day, she turned to the counselor and she asked, 43:22 where is all this talk going? Where are we going with 43:27 this? He said, you really wanna know. Yes, she 43:34 snapped. You really wanna know, he said Marty, if all 43:41 goes well, you will come to the point, where you can 43:44 forgive your mother for the harm she has done you. 43:47 Forgive her, she cried, I will never forgive her, 43:52 never. The amazing thing about this particular 43:56 session is that only a few minutes later, Marty said, 44:01 you know, now that I think about it, I have forgiven 44:05 her hundreds of times, every time she did something that 44:10 hurt me I'd forgive her. I guess it didn't work so 44:15 well did it, it didn't work did it. You see what passes 44:21 for forgiveness among us much of the time really 44:24 isn't forgiveness at all. At best, it is a social 44:29 convention just designed as smooth ruffled feathers. 44:34 At worse, it's something that gets buried deep inside of 44:40 us and it hurts. You see true forgiveness must process 44:46 our emotions or it just ends up being excusing. Going 44:53 through the emotions of forgiving is superficial it 44:56 doesn't work. Folks, forgiveness is far more 45:00 rare than one assumes at first thought. In the 45:07 devotional book that I may know him, the author 45:09 reminds us that it's very difficult to forgive as 45:12 Christ forgives. You see something more thorough is 45:16 supposed to take place. Christ did not say, you may 45:21 tolerate your neighbor, but he said, thou shall love 45:26 thy neighbor as thyself. Amen. So, are you just 45:30 tolerating somebody. When I prepared for this sermon, 45:34 I had to come to conclusion that I do that with some 45:37 people and that God is not pleased with it. So, what 45:42 is the goal of forgiveness, you know in Matthew 5:23 45:46 and 24 it says. Therefore, if thou bring your gift to the 45:49 altar, and there remember that thy brother hath aught 45:52 against you, leave there thy gift there before the altar, 45:54 and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother, 45:58 and then come and offer thy gift. In that classic on 46:04 the life of Christ, the Desire of Ages, page 11, 46:06 we are told that this verse means that worship services 46:08 are not accepted by God when we are avoiding 46:12 reconciliation with those with whom we have conflicts 46:16 and hurt feelings. In fact our prayers are not 46:20 acceptable to God while we leave this duty undone. 46:23 Now, often we had trouble going to the one we should 46:29 go to and instead we talk to others about our difficulty 46:34 with that person. We might be tolerating the one we feel 46:40 has wronged us, but we are certainly not loving them as 46:44 ourselves, as Jesus commanded. The counsel of 46:48 Matthew 2:23 and 24, the counsel is to be 46:51 reconciled, so I went back to the Greek to find out 46:53 what reconciliation actually means and I found the Greek 46:57 word diallasso, which means to change thoroughly. Amen. 47:02 That's what it means, reconciliation is a change 47:04 thoroughly. True reconciliation is a level 47:09 of forgiveness that leaves no more reservation or reserve 47:16 about the other. None at all. As a matter of fact, I 47:24 think it's true reconciliation that will teach us how to 47:27 get ready for heaven. Whether there is no reserve, you 47:31 won't be in heaven just tolerating people, so we 47:35 got to quit accepting that here. Amen. It's no longer 47:40 keeping a distance, it's a thorough change. 47:45 In Matthew 18, our scripture reading, verse 15 said, 47:53 moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go 47:57 and tell him his fault between thee and him alone, 48:01 if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. So 48:07 what is the goal of forgiveness. The goal of 48:11 forgiveness is restoration of a true Christian relationship, 48:15 to gain the brother, is there a risk in going to someone 48:22 who feels some alienation towards you, is there a 48:25 risk? Obviously this must be done prayerfully, in a 48:32 loving, non-judgmental way, without acquisition or 48:37 someone across or coming across as self-righteous or 48:41 superior. Is that easy to do when you have differences, 48:45 is it easy to do? No. Might it cost you. Yes. 48:51 In fact, Luke 17:3 says, if your brother sins rebuke 48:57 him or some translation say confront him. Can you do 49:02 that and still win him over. You know, sometimes this is 49:11 so hard that it might be worth it sometimes to write 49:16 out your thoughts because you wanna make sure that your 49:18 rebuke is a loving rebuke. And, I received one this 49:23 week, a written letter and I'm happy about it, because 49:28 it's a whole lot better then going to talking to 49:29 somebody else. And, I'm working it out with the 49:33 person, we're not done yet folks, but I am confident 49:35 about it, and she's smiling real big, right now. You 49:41 see even with your best effort, even with your best 49:42 effort there maybe retaliation, talking to 49:49 others about you and making you the one who is stirring 49:51 up trouble. Can you see why forgiveness can be so 49:56 difficult and costly. Now, I'm not gonna spend hardly 50:06 anytime on this, but a lot of times people won't respond 50:07 right, a lot of times they won't. Does that mean you 50:11 can't experience forgiveness. Well, it does mean that the 50:18 goal of forgiveness reconciliation, has been 50:20 thwarted, but you can still have that first stage of 50:26 forgiveness, where you have let go and you are free and 50:28 you have peace with God and peace in your mind. You 50:32 can't control whether people are gonna accept your 50:34 apology or accept your correction. But the Bible 50:40 is go forward. Amen. And, how often does 50:45 Matthew 18:21 or 22 say, we should forgive. Yeah, what's 50:51 the, what's the, point here with 70 times 7. You know, 50:55 the Rabbi said, we should forgive three times and 50:58 Peter said seven. He thought was pretty 51:02 good because seven is a perfect number and 51:04 obviously that must be the maximum of human patience 51:06 and Jesus shocked him when he said 70 times 7 because 51:12 to Peter 70 times 7 was like no limits at all and that 51:19 was exactly Jesus point. Do you get the impression 51:24 that Jesus is very serious about our duty here, 51:30 after all, if we're gonna live in heaven. We got to 51:36 learn how to live at peace with all men. Now, if you 51:41 feel like I do, you are realizing that this is an 51:44 area where you need some growth because I know 51:46 I need it, you might even be thinking about someone that 51:49 you just really, you resent them, you might even hate 51:52 them and you're wondering how is it possible to 51:55 forgive that person. You know, it could be a 52:00 parent that wronged you deeply, it could be a 52:04 sibling or someone at work, perhaps Ray's story will 52:08 help. Ray felt such hatred toward his father in his 52:12 teenage years, it was so strong, he wanted to kill 52:14 his father and when he was 18, he asked his father 52:17 to go for a walk with him, he had it all planned out, 52:20 where and how to kill his father. But he wanted to 52:27 know one thing first, so without his father 52:30 suspecting anything, Ray just came right out and asked 52:34 for the very first time ever, why he had been so brutally 52:39 abusive toward him. Tears welled up in his 52:44 father's eyes, Ray was shocked. He didn't know 52:50 that his father had any trace of softness. Ray said, dad 52:56 told me how his father, my grandfather, had done 53:00 the very same things to him when he was a boy, only he 53:03 beat him with a horse whip and he even whipped grandma 53:07 once when she tried to stop him from hurting my dad. 53:09 Ray and his dad walked in silence, then his father 53:17 stopped and he turned and he said to the Ray, you know, 53:21 there were times when I just wanted to kill my father. 53:26 After that conversation the murderous rage in Ray's 53:34 heart subsided. Oh! There were still many 53:38 things that didn't make sense and he still had anger, but 53:43 he has something else now that he didn't have before. 53:45 He now felt sorrow for what his father had gone through. 53:50 He now recognized that the one who had wronged him 53:54 was a fellow human being, with real feelings and real 53:59 needs, a being of worth and of value. And, when we look 54:07 for and recognize the humanness, the worth and 54:11 the value of a person that's the beginning of letting go 54:16 and the beginning of forgiveness. Amen. 54:20 In fact, a new discovery of love can begin as well, 54:26 when we can actually love our enemy and not merely 54:33 tolerate them. As love grows, forgiveness can grow deeper 54:37 and this is what we should ask for, when we pray 54:44 we say, God, help me see this person, who has wronged me, 54:49 how he really is, see him as a human, see their value 54:52 and then ask Jesus to put love in our hearts for that 54:55 person and finally we can have that forgiveness that 55:01 surrenders my right to hurt you for hurting me. 55:04 Then, then we can move forward into full 55:10 reconciliation. Will Norton came down with terminal 55:20 cancer at only 25 years of age and he took a trip to 55:25 spend sometime with a college buddy that he hadn't seen 55:27 for a few years and his friend asked them what do 55:32 you do when you realize that you are about to die. 55:34 Will Norton said, it's really quite simple, you get right 55:39 with God, you spend as much time as you can with those 55:43 you love and you will settle up with everybody else. 55:46 And, then Will said something that is really the point 55:52 here, he says you know, you really ought to live 55:55 everyday like you have only a few more days to live. 55:59 You know, Jesus paid a heavy price on Calvary, so that 56:08 we could be forgiven, you know I've wondered why 56:10 God couldn't have forgiven us in a less costly way, 56:14 you know, no cross, no suffering, in fact if 56:20 erasing our sin was all that was needed, I think he 56:23 could have done it that way, but the fact that Jesus 56:27 went through the suffering on Calvary proves that 56:30 forgiveness in not merely a way to erase ours sins. 56:33 But that forgiveness is meant to reconcile to God, to 56:39 change us thoroughly. Roman 5:10 says, that when 56:43 we were enemies we were reconcile to God by the 56:45 death of his son. So, forgiveness that Jesus 56:49 provides is not complete until there is 56:52 reconciliation, till there is a thorough change. 56:55 To be reconciled to God we must see the damage sin has 57:00 caused and Jesus let us see it, when he demonstrated 57:03 what it does on Calvary. He counted the cost of 57:07 forgiveness and Jesus went for a full reconciliation 57:12 with us, he wants no barriers between you and him and he 57:16 asked us to be reconciled with all others. You know, 57:20 who you need to go to, who has God put in your 57:24 mind this morning. |
Revised 2014-12-17