The Seeds of Forgiveness
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THE SEEDS OF FORGIVENESS
THE SEEDS OF FORGIVENESS
Intro
I have a riddle for you this morning...
It's the hardest thing to give away
And the last thing on your mind today
It always goes to those who don't deserve
It's the opposite of how you feel
When they pain they caused is just too real
Takes everything you have to say the word
It flies in the face of all your pride
It moves away the mad inside
It's always anger's own worst enemy
Even when the jury and the judge
Say you've got a right to hold a grudge
It's the whisper in your ear saying set it free
FORGIVENESS!!!
The truth is it is less a riddle, and more of a song. Specifically, it’s a song by Matthew West called “Forgiveness.”
Now a real question… How many of you just sighed when you heard the word?
How many of you thought to yourselves, Here we go again?
How many sermons have you heard on the subject?
How many times have you left a church service after hearing a sermon about forgiveness knowing you needed to take action, but you dismissed the feeling, “Because of how bad they hurt you.”
Let me make this even more real… You continue to remain in the SIN of unforgiveness, because of the sins of other people.
The fact is that unforgiveness makes people sick.
It ruins relationships.
It steals your peaces
The simplest fact is that it ruins lives, and if you aren’t careful, it will ruin the most important relationship you can ever have. Unforgiveness can cost you your salvation!
My prayer today is that not one person will leave here with the slightest bit of unforgiveness.
My prayer is that someone, or someones will find freedom today from a lifetime of pain and regret!
9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,
15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
PRAY
This morning I am going to preach to you or at you (the choice is yours). But don’t we always have a choice? We can choose to feel condemned, or we can treat this as encouragement.
For the next few minutes I am going to preach from the title...
“THE SEEDS OF FORGIVENESS”
Very little in this life happens on accident. More often than not we have to work for good things to happen. We have to be intentional to achieve and receive the things that we want, or the things that NEED to happen.
Forgiveness is no different. There aren’t very many people that forgive accidentally. There aren’t very many people that go through difficult and often very hurtful situations brought on by other people, and walk away shrugging their shoulders like OH WELL!
Unfortunately, it is most often the exact opposite!
How many of you know we live in an age of offense. Every time you turn around somebody is mad at someone else because they had “Their feelings hurt.”
Probably a rabbit trail, but I am amazed at the number of people that CHOOSE and DESIRE to be completely different, but then get mad because they are completely different. If you choose to get a face tattoo don’t get mad at me for staring at it. You can plug in dozens if not hundreds of scenarios that follow the same point.
The fact is being offended is a choice.
Being mad is a choice.
Forgiveness is a CHOICE
This morning as I talk about forgiveness let me be very clear, when I talk about forgiveness and the need to forgive, I AM NOT talking about “forgiving” the guy that cut in front of you at Walmart.
I am not talking about forgiving your wife for giving you a dirty look.
I am not talking about silly, minor offenses.
More often than not, those situations are things you just need to get over. Recognize that JUST LIKE YOU AND ME, other people have bad days, people get sick, and most of us are walking around tired. That means there are times that someone snaps at you when they really aren’t snapping at you as much as they are responding to something that happened far before you entered the picture.
What I am talking about is those grievous events in life that take your breath. In many cases they take your breath for days, weeks, and even years. These are the situations that make you want to question goodness, humanity, and in extreme situations maybe even question God.
I’m talking about about offenses and grievances that happened years ago, but you have struggled to get past it.
I’m talking about situations like: an unfaithful spouse, abusive relative, prodigal and ungrateful grown children, the unknown assailant that murdered a loved one, the thief in the night that robbed you of your life savings… I’m talking about life altering situations that you couldn’t control, and instead they control you because you choose to carry the offense around like a trophy.
Many times its because you don’t know how to let them go
Many times its because you give it to God, but you don’t trust Him to take care of it.
...
This isn’t to say that they weren’t hurtful situations. Actually its the complete opposite. It’s because of the deep hurt and pain that’s caused by these situations, that forgiveness becomes so vital!
BURNS HURT, BUT THE HEALING AND TREATMENT IS EXCRUCIATING!
Now, before I come off as condemning or better than you, please know that I’ve had these situations in my life. I’ve been in situations, where I allowed decades of my life to be swallowed up in grief, because I refused to let something go.
Forgiveness is no different than anything else in life.
It takes work.
It takes planning.
It takes preparation.
It takes intentionality.
Just like a garden, you get out of it, what you put into it.
If you plant the right seeds, you harvest the right fruit.
If all you’re after is fruit salad, you want to plant grapes, berries, and fruit trees… NOT TOMATOES.
However, if you’re after salsa, you might want to lean away from cabbage.
In the same thought process, every situation in life has the potential to produce 2 different kinds of seeds. You can choose to sow seeds of forgiveness, or seeds of bitterness.
So, what are some of THE SEEDS OF FORGIVENESS?
I. LOVE
a. Defines our relationship with God and dictates how we should treat others.[1]
b. Matthew 22:37-40
37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
38 This is the great and first commandment.
39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
c. Love is the premise and the principal by which EVERYTHING else in our lives should be based.
d. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
e. 1 John 4:8
1 John 4:8 (ESV)
8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
II. PATIENCE
a. Colossians 3:12-13
Colossians 3:12–13 (ESV)
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,
13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
b. The Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible says patience is, “Ability to take a great deal of punishment from evil people or circumstances without losing one’s temper, without becoming irritated and angry, or without taking vengeance. It includes the capacity to bear pain or trials without complaint, the ability to forbear under severe provocation, and the self-control which keeps one from acting rashly even though suffering opposition or adversity.”[2]
c. Many times we can skip forgiveness altogether if we will learn patience.
III. GRACE
a. Undeserved favor, typically from someone of a higher position towards a person of lower position. Most typically this is a word used primarily in religion referring to God not holding our sins against us.
b. Ephesians 2:8
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
c. As ambassadors we. MUST SHOW GRACE (2 Corinthians 5:17-20)
d. Matthew 18:21-35
Matthew 18:21–35 (ESV)
21 Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”
22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.
23 “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.
24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.
25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.
26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’
27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.
28 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’
29 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’
30 He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt.
31 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place.
32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.
33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’
34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt.
35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
e. The master forgave based on his patience and Grace. The servant failed to exhibit the same grace!
f. Pumpkin story
IV. HUMILITY
a. By show of hands, how many of you have ever offended someone in a manner that required forgiveness?
b. Proverbs 16:18-19
18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
19 It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud.
c. It’s hard to be humble, when you’re perfect in every way.
d. It’s hard to forgive when you expect everyone to be “As Good As You.”
V. FORGIVE YOURSELF
a. I imagine that more than a few of you have heard me talk about my dad at some point. When I was just 16 (he was 39) he suddenly passed from a massive heart attack. It was likely stress induced from different causes. But ultimately, IN MY MIND, I was the stressor that killed him. I was the one that knelt over him and performed CPR. So, in the end, I blamed myself…
b. When I finally got to the point of understanding that Jesus died on a cross for my sins. He forgave and continues to forgive me. Because I understand the great cost, it becomes easier for me to forgive others.
[1]Benjamin I. Simpson, “Love,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).
[2]Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, “Patience,” Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 1619.