Sermon Tone Analysis

Looking to Long Island, Jay Evensen editorialized in the Desert Morning News that "forgiveness has power to change the future"….

He wrote about Victoria Ruvolo, a 44-year-old collection agency manager, and 19-year-old Ryan Cushing.

Mr. Cushing and his friends stole a credit card and then took off on a shopping spree…for no reason.

They stole a 20-pound frozen turkey and proceeded to throw it from their speeding vehicle headlong into the windshield of the automobile driven by Victoria Ruvolo.

The result: the victim underwent surgery for six hours as metal plates and other pieces of hardware were fitted together in an effort to rebuild her face….

The prosecutor in Ruvolo's case stated that for crimes such as this one, victims often "feel no punishment is harsh enough."

In fact, "Death doesn't even satisfy them," the attorney stated.

How did Victoria react to what had happened to her?

She was primarily concerned with "salvaging the life of her 19-year-old assailant."

She did not seek revenge in any way.

She sought information about the youth and how he was raised, insisting that he be offered a plea deal.

He could plead guilty to second-degree assault, be put in the county jail for six months and placed on one year's probation.

He could have been sent to prison for 25 years, returning to society middle-aged with no job skills or prospects.

According to editor Evensen, "this is only half the story.

The rest of it, what happened the day this all played out in court, is the truly remarkable part."

The young man walked "carefully and tentatively" to where his victim was seated in the courtroom.

With tears and in a whisper he apologized, "I'm so sorry for what I did to you."

He and Victoria embraced, both weeping.

She stroked his head, patted him on the back, and comforted him.

"It's OK," she said.

"I just want you to make your life the best it can be."

It was reported that "hardened prosecutors, and even reporters, were choking back tears."

The editor concluded: "Slowly, humans seem to be learning to understand the power of forgiveness.

As a healing agent, it appears to be stronger than any surgery, counseling or anger-management course."

The power of forgiveness.

The power, the author implies, is a power that could change the world.

It could change the future.

But the reson why forgiveness is a hard pill to swallow, is because it all comes with a cost and for many of us the cost is a whole lot.

A pastor wrote...Choosing to forgive somebody means that you are agreeing to absorb the cost of the injustice of what they've done.

Imagine you stole my car and you wrecked it, and you don't have insurance and or the money to pay for it.

What are my choices?

I could make you pay.

I could haul you before a judge and request a court-mandated payment plan.

If you were foolish enough to steal my $1.5 million Ferrari (No, I do not actually own a Ferrari), you might never pay it off, and you'd always be in my debt.

But I have another choice.

I could forgive you ….

What am I choosing to do if I say, “I forgive you”?

I'm choosing to absorb the cost of your wrong.

I'll have to pay the price of having the car fixed.

...

You have no debt to pay—not because there was nothing to pay, but because I paid it all.

But as Christians today… we don’t have a choice about it.

We are commanded to pay the cost, to pay the bill, to forgive.

Lets take a look...

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.

Clothe Ourselves

Forgiveness

The Lord Forgave You

The first thing we will look at today is what it is that we are to clothe ourselves with.

Second we will look a bit deeper on forgiveness.

And finally, we forgive because the Lord forgave us.

Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world cause us to live life in the despair of unforgiveness, it is the power of the Holy Spirit and the truth of scripture that will cause us to see that we have freely received, so now we freely give.

I. Clothe Ourselves

- 5 things that characterize Christ.

A. The first up is compassion or tender mercies … its interesting that the king james version says “bowels of mercy” it literally is our stomach or entrails which is where so much of our emotion is felt.

What she did to him literally made me sick to my stomach.

Dr. Peter O’Brien says that “this term forcefully expressed personality at the deepest level, especially in the matter of living.”

B. We as Christians especially in this day and age we have got to keep up the ministries of mercy.

“It is not too much,” says William Barclay, “to say that everything that has been done for the aged, the sick, the weak in body and in mind, the animal, the child, the woman has been done under the inspiration of Christianity.”

C. The next is kindness.

The quality of being warmhearted, considerate, humane, gentle, and sympathetic.

And this one does not come easy.

One of the things I have seen growing up.

When it came to my friends who just get their license … it is sooo common for there to be road rage in them.

Getting mad at others behind the wheel is natural.

It is almost unnatural for us to just be nice.

D. The third is humility.

Assessing oneself appropriately.

Something really interesting here… this greek word for humility, was a word the Greeks never uxed for themselves.

William Gladstone, the learned prime minister of England, once remarked to his scholarly peer John Morley: “It is a pathetic reflection that while humility is the sovereign grace of Christianity, the Greeks had no symbol in their language to denote it.

Every word akin to it has in it some element of meanness, feebleness, or contempt.”

But the gospel took this word of contempt and made it one of its chief graces.

It was used to describe Christ’s humbling himself by becoming obedient to death (Philippians 2:8).

The weak thing of this world to shame that which is strong.

E. Next up is gentleness… it is a manner that is mild and even tempered.

Many times gentleness is seen as weakness, but it is far from the truth.

It is a characteristic that Christ commends and it was used to characterize Moses who was the most meek man on earth.

F. Finally, we see the ever elusive patience defined as the endurance of pain and unhappiness.

One commentator defines it as - long-suffering in the face of insult or injury.

Thomas Kempis writes, “He is not truly patient who will suffer only as much as he pleases or from whom he pleases.

A truly patient man gives no heed from whom he suffers, whether from his superior or from his equal or from someone below him.”

G.

So we have Heaven’s wardrobe collection from the hand of the Ultimate fashion designer.

It is important to note, as sooo many commentators have before, that all of these garments were perfectly worn by Christ.

Therefore, when we put on these five graces, we are seeing what it means to be like Christ.

We are wearing the same clothes.

II.

Forgiveness

- We are to be in community.

A. All of the characteristics we are to put on as Christians are to be displayed in the realm of community.

Which teaches us that we as Christians are supposed to be in community.

Oh how much easier it is to think that these garments would be so much easier to wear if we did not have to wear them among people.

So much easier to think about compassion, kindness, and humility than to do it.

So much easier today to just cut people out of our lives than to have to deal with them.

B. And we need to wear those garments in the community and in the world because there are gonna be people that are difficult.

There will be people that are hard to deal with.

There will be people that are impossible… we are commanded to bear with them.

Dr. Doug Moo writes, “The demand acknowledges that every Christian fellowship is made up of all kinds of people and that we will accordingly sometimes find ourselves in close fellowship with people who are very different than we are.

For the sake of maintaining community, we will sometimes have to “put up with” people with whom we would not normally choose to associate.”

C.

And not only are we supposed to bear with each other, we are supposed to forgive each other.