Mark 11:25-26

“Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.

26 [“But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.”]

There is the word give in forgiveness. One of the greatest challenges to our relationship with God is forgiveness. Have you ever wondered why it is so hard to forgive? I mean forgiveness like God forgives us, not our conditional, partial and manipulative forgiveness. I’m talking about true blue forgiveness that remembers it no more.

Talking about forgiveness can be one of the most some of the most difficult conversations we as Christians can have, because we want to forgive on our own terms. We want to forgive in convenience or when it suits our own needs.

I have had the conversation with more that a few people about forgiveness in marriage, but you can apply it to every instance of life. I will say that there is nothing my wife can do that I will not forgive her for, and each and every-time there will be a moment of silence and they will eventually say, oh now there are somethings I can’t forgive and if they did this or that I’m out.

Now all that sounds good but none of it, lines up with how God, forgives us. All of the excuses and rationalizations about forgiveness must always be filtered, through, the Word of God.

Now check this out. Every time I take them back to the Word of God they dismiss it and hold to their own view of forgiveness that suits their needs. “ I’m not Jesus”. .

You see what we do is, we make forgiveness, match our own needs. If we are honest with our selves, we have to admit, that forgiveness ,is hard and sometimes, feels, impossible. That’s why I believe that God, blesses us so much, when we finally, do it right.

Forgiveness, releases, the power, of the love ,of Jesus Christ Christ into our hearts and lives. We grow, from being ,spiritual midgets, to spiritual giants, when we genuinely, forgive.

Shhh everyone being quiet for just a second. Do you hear that? If you listen carefully you and I can almost hear some of the time honored excuses and justifications for not forgiving. These are reasons that the world we live in, have taught us, to justify and rationalize, un-forgiveness.

One of the most quoted sentences about forgiveness is “I can forgive but I can’t forget”. This, is an excellent sentence, to filter, through the Word of God and see how it matches up.

God’s standard is summed up in Psalm 103:12. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgression from us. And again in Psalm 51 when David asked God to blot out all his transgressions.

The plea, blot out, means ‘wipe away’, like the writing from a book.My challenge to you is this, If you can’t forget you haven’t forgiven yet. Forgetting is the thing that tells you, that you have forgiven.

Let me share this story with you:

Years ago in a large city in the far West, rumors spread that a certain Catholic woman was having visions of Jesus. The reports reached the archbishop. He decided to check her out. There is always a fine line between the authentic mystic and the lunatic fringe. “Is it true ma’am, that you have visions of Jesus?” asked the cleric. “Yes,” the woman replied simply. “Well, the next time you have a vision, I want you to ask Jesus to tell you the sins that I confessed in my last confession.” The woman was stunned. “Did I hear you right, bishop? You actually want me to ask Jesus to tell me the sins of your past?” “Exactly. Please call me if anything happens.” Ten days later the woman notified her spiritual leader of a recent apparition. “Please come,” she said. Within the hour the archbishop arrived. He trusted eye-to-eye contact. “You just told me on the phone that you actually had a vision of Jesus. Did you do what I asked?” “Yes, bishop, I asked Jesus to tell me the sins you confessed in your last confession.” The bishop leaned forward with anticipation. His eyes narrowed. “What did Jesus say?” She took his hand and gazed deep into his eyes. “Bishop,” she said, “these are his exact words: ‘I can’t remember.’”

Instead of holding your past sins and failures over your head, God will turn your past into a beautiful story of grace and redemption worth sharing with the world.

Forgetting, is how God, forgives us. God clearly says in His Word that He moves our sins as far as the east is from the west. I know somebody in here is saying to themselves BUT, But what God says one thing BUT you want to say another.

Ok Ok her, is the clincher Listen to what God says. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.

Ok so you don’t want to forget that’s cool. just don’t expect to be forgiven. Its pretty simple to me. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.

Can we get really real for just a moment? Now I know what we are really thinking about is the hurt and pain that whatever we need to forgive has caused us.

Thats the real reason is so hard to forgive. We have been hurt deeply in some way shape or form and that pain is debilitating sometimes. It depresses us and sends us to a dark place, and yes it even makes us hate if we are not careful.

That’s not easy to come back from. Particularly when its from someone we love, or someone we thought loved us. Yo know that tough think about when you love someone, is that you are actually giving them permission to hurt you.

We open ourselves up to be vulnerable to them and in their human-ness they hurt us and it may not always be intentional. That kind of pain ids difficult to come back from and even more difficult to forgive.

But family that’s exactly what we are asking God to do for us when we fall on our faces and beg for forgiveness. we want what we do not want to give.

I said at the start that forgiveness has the root word give in it. You see forgiveness is about faith. Its about do we really believe and trust God enough to allow Him to handle our grief and pain, our disappointment and hurt.

So when we struggle to forgive we must ask ourselves where is my faith? Why am I not trusting God in this hurt? Why am I giving this person authority to change the way I feel because I won’t forgive them and forget what they did or said and move on.

I’m going to need God’s forgiveness and I can’t afford to let them block my blessing. I have learned a long time ago, and I have shared this many time with many people that un-forgiveness is the poison we drink expecting someone else to die.

So stop poisoning yourself. Un-forgiveness does not hurt or affect the other person at all. In fact in some cases it helps them because they are in control of you. They can change how you are feeling just by their presence.

You are giving them more authority in your life than you give God. the Gospel fo Jesus Christ in you most overcome the world in you. You are allowing them to stop your prayers from being answered.

Look at verse 25:

“Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.

Our un-forgiveness blocks our prayers from being answered. so now the questions becomes, Is this person, is this hurt and pain and disappointment worth my prayers not being answered? Only you can answer that question. Now the outcome is solely in your hands. Its not about anyone else but you. The power is in your hands.

Remember what Jesus said, When, not if you stand in prayer.... You see beloved there is an expectation from God that we forgive. Un-forgiveness is a wall that separates us form God. The only person who can tear down that wall is you.

is your un-forgiveness worth your relationship with God. There is a tradition in the Bible linking prayer and forgiveness. Back it up preacher, Ok here you go. In the Lord’s prayer is the principle that stands behind one of the petitions of the Lord’s prayer, “And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive [or: have forgiven] our debtors” Matt 6:12

This is a ‘condition’ of prayer stated by Jesus that is forgiveness of our fellow man. This, is not arbitrary; we have no inherent right to be heard by God; all is by His grace and undeserved favour. But, unless we forgive freely, it shows that we have no consciousness of the grace that we ourselves have received and need, and so it shows, that we, are expecting, to be heard, on our, own merits, which cannot be.

Now let’s be clear here: This is not an arbitrary refusal by God to forgive us. We, by our own, unforgiving spirit, have made it impossible, to accept, the forgiveness, freely, offered by God, since we refuse, to adopt, the only attitude, in which it can be given.

so the question now becomes to we continue to drink for the cup of grudge holding, do we continue to hold on the past, do we continue to give authority to the very people who hurt us to continue to impact us, do we continue to have our prayers blocked by those who have wronged us, do we continue to not be forgiven by God because we won’t forgive.

Is it critical to distinguish between interpretation and application? Yes. Rushing to application before discovering God's meaning is a sign that you want to control the text. You want to privatize or personalize the text, but the text is God's. The Bible should be applied by every person, but it is God's meaning that must be applied, not one's own.

Make a decision today, right now to forgive and move on from the hurtful past you and I are giving power to in our lives and here is why. Because our God is real.

There are some things I may not know, There are some places I can’t go. But I am sure of this one thing. that God is real and I can feel Him deep in my soul. You see I ned to feel God, I need to hear His voice and if forgiving you can do that for me, then guess what. You are forgiven. For my God is too real for me to let you or anybody else block my blessing and my prayers.

For God real and He has washed and made me whole. His love for me is like pure gold. some folk my doubt, some folk may scorn, all can desert and leave me alone. But as for me, I’ll take God’s part, for my God is real and I can feel Him in my heart.

You see each step we take we need God to go before us, and with His loving hand He will lead the way, un-forgiveness blocks us from seeing His hand signals. There will be times when my faith begin to waiver and so when I look up ahead I don’t need any un-forgiveness block my way.

You see I am strong when I am He is by my side.