Don't be an Elephant

prayer forgivness  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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An Elephant never forgets

I’m sure most of you have heard this phrase and it comes from a Greek proverb that started with a camel never forgets an injury and somehow morphed into an Elephant or a woman never forgets an injury.
I’m not sure why they lumped a woman with an elephant....but...
Elephants do have the largest brains of all mammals weighing over 11 lbs.
Scientist say they do not ever forget a face.
Dr. Seuss even uses this adage in his story Horton hears a whose main character is an elephant.
But tonight in regards to our topic at hand of prayer. We are going to talk about prayers for forgiveness and if you are needing to forgive you don’t want to be an Elephant you want to be as close to God as you can because God forgives and he wipes the slate clean as though we had never sin. He forgets the offences. So we don’t want to be like Elephants we want to be more like God.

Everyone need to ask for forgiveness.

Why do i need to ask for forgiveness Pastor Deadra i’m a pretty good person? I go to work i go to church. I know Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior he already for gave me.
Yes he forgave you at the moment you asked Jesus Christ into your heart that moment you became cleansed and white as snow and you became a Christian, but after that you continued to live life in a sinful body with your will and desires that are not always holy like the God we serve. So chances are you have sinned since then and you have fallen short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:23 NKJV
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Romans 3:10 NKJV
As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one;
1 John 1:8–10 NKJV
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
We are forgiven and added to the family of God the Holy Spirit lives in us our sins are still covered in that they do not disqualify us from entering heaven the debt has been paid.
Repentance is required to keep us healed from the effects of sin in this world. Our debt has been paid so when we incur a debt from sinning we go to the Bank of the blood of Jesus and make a with draw and balance it our again asking him to cover the new offences.
Acts 3:19 NKJV
Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,
Proverbs 28:13 NKJV
He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.
Repent to turn away from and ask for forgiveness. And forgiveness means to remit a debit.

We need to forgive others.

Mark 11:25 NKJV
“And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.
When we don’t forgive someone we are Bitter, Anger, Hatred.
If you are a very angry person it is possible that you might have some deep seeded forgiveness.
Staying mad at someone is like taking poison and hoping your enemy will die.
God would not ask you to do anything you cold not do.
Take authority over your feelings don’t wait for them to catch up and tell them NO. No I’m not going to be angry at Bishop any more.......etc.
Forgiveness is a decision that you make daily if that emotion comes up. Unforgivenss is hurts and hurts are based on emotions.
If you have been abused in a very physical or mental way you may need professional help don’t be afraid to seek that help. It is for your benefit.
The person that hurt you whether intentionally or unintentionally is not thinking about you as much as you are thinking about them. Your unforgivness towards them is keeping that person in control of your emotions and you need to be in control.
Who ever makes it right first is the most spiritual. lol If God convicts you and you see the problem then your the solution. Your not the complainer that tells the person to fix it. If you see it your supposed to fix it. Now of course around here make sure its ok to fix stuff so your not stepping on someones toes but if you see the problem its because God is giving you the solution.
And if your not willing to fix it shut it.
Physical effects of long term anger- anxiety, depression, high blood pressure, headache, digestion problems, insomnia, skin problems, heart attack, stroke,
Bitterness-metabolism, immune response, organ function, physical disease
Your emotions can make your sick.

b. Forgiveness is a commandment from Jesus

Matthew 18:21–22 NKJV
Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
Matthew 6:14–15 NKJV
“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Colossians 3:13 NKJV
bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.
There isn’t much left to say here Jesus tells us to forgive and the Apostle Paul references in Colossians that Jesus forgives you so you forgive others.

b. Forgive yourself

Philippians 3:13 NKJV
Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
Psalm 32:5 NKJV
I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
If God the Holy Almighty creator of the universe forgives you then who are you to decided you cannot forgive yourself.
Don’t play God you are not the judge it’s not yours to keep holding on to. The righteous fall and they get up. You cannot get up as the scripture here says if you don't forgive you.

a. God forgets after he forgives we do not

Psalm 103:12 NKJV
As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Isaiah 43:25 NKJV
“I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.
God is the great forgiver and forget-er.
Why do we not forget our sins or transgressions once we have forgiven people
I have no idea, but i do know that because we don’t forget we have to make a decision to keep forgiving it is an action word.
Even if we are not conscious of the memories of the hurt we can lash out at people we love because we have not forgiven the people in our past and our unconscious mind is reacting.
PTSD is a diagnosis for people who are going through life and are triggered and go through horrible scenarios of reliving traumatic events in their life because something happens that reminds them of the traumatic event. This can happen on a smaller level with the unconscious mind if we do not forgive the people who have hurt us.
Another good reason to forgive and forget is because Hurt people hurt people. If you are still hurt and harboring forgiveness you will hurt other people out of that anger bitterness hatred etc.

If you are not easily offended you will spend a lot less time forgiving.

There are always opportunities to be offended.
Its not always directed at you or about you.
-the people who always say they looked at me dirty....i mean i give dirty looks when i got to burp or something needs to happen on the other end is it possible that i just happened to look in your direction and a gas bubble hit me.
It reminds me of those high school fights. Why did you hit her cause she was staring at me and giving me a dirty look......oh my goodness that’s just someone looking for something to be wrong.
Sometimes it is our expectations we put on people that hurt us. And a lot of the time those expectations are not known by those people. We assume they know how we like things or it should be common sense to them because it works that way in our minds.
If your less offended you will have less resentments.
Ecclesiastes 7:21–22 NKJV
Also do not take to heart everything people say, Lest you hear your servant cursing you. For many times, also, your own heart has known That even you have cursed others.
James 1:19 NKJV
So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;
For alot of people the first emotion they feel is anger. Anger is the emotion of offense.
Offense means resentful or annoyed, typically as a result of a perceived insult.
What do we do in recovery with resentments?
Did you catch that a Perceived insult?
What does that mean that means that it is your perception. A lot of the ways we get offended by people are assumptions as when we assume things about people we make a......... if you don’t know that adage see me after the sermon.
Assigning motives to people, trying to read peoples minds when it is not literally spelled out that. Pastor Deadra your too young to not be dying your hair you got gray wiry pieces sticking up everywhere. In fact my daughter August had to go write a descriptive of me one time and that’s exactly how she wrote it might of sounded a little worse than that she took the assignment very literal and i just decided not to be offended and if i wanted people not to see me that way i needed to take care of my hair. thought about it last night still didn’t dye it lol.
Jesus said one of the Signs that the end of days is coming near is that many will be offended i don’t know about you but i don’t want to be one of the many he speaks about in this verse because they don’t sound like they are followers of Jesus
Matthew 24:10 NKJV
And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.
Conclusion:

Offences everybody’s gonna get one

Proverbs 18:19 NKJV
A brother offended is harder to win than a strong city, And contentions are like the bars of a castle.
So once we get offended it’s over is it possible that the devil is using offences to tear apart the unity in the body of Christ.
The bible says its like bars of castle harder to win back than a strong city.
We have to ask for forgiveness, forgiveness to others, don’t be easily offended and don’t be and elephant.
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