And When You Pray | And Forgive Us As We Forgive (Part 8.4) - Embracing God's Heart on Forgiveness - Excuse-Proof Forgiveness - 05/23/2021

Grady’s Upshurs Nealy Part 3 May 23, 2021 “…And When You Pray” And Forgive Us As We Forgive #3 Matthew 6:12; 14 & 15 Embracing God’s Heart on Forgiveness: Excuse-Proof Forgiveness Matthew 6:12; 14 & 15 12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. Matthew 6:14 & 15 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. 14 Colossians 3: 12 – 14 12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 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. 14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. (forgiveness is more than just a head thing; it requires us accessing and putting on all the virtues that God has made available to us in order to obey His command to forgive as He forgave. Page | 1 START HERE: This morning we’re resuming our verse by verse teaching through the “Lord’s Prayer” found in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 6. Our main focus today is on verse 12 12 Forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. This verse is one of 6 petitions Jesus placed in the Lord’s Prayer as a model for how we should properly pray and what we should pray for. Petition #5 is the focus of this message and it centers on FORGIVENESS. If you are just joining the series for first time, let me catch you up. We’re doing a verse by verse walk through of the Lord’s Prayer. So, far we have covered four of the Six petitions found in the prayer. They are: • • • • #1 God’s Name be Hallowed v.9 #2 God’s Kingdom Come v.10 #3 God’s Will be Done on earth as it is in heaven. V.10 #4 11 Give us this day our daily bread. V. 11 We’re now on petition # 5 12 Forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. I have entitled this mini-segment: [SLIDE] Embracing God’s Heart on Forgiveness: Excuse-Proof Forgiveness. Page | 2 Our focus text is found in Matthew Chapter 6 Verses 12, 14 & 15. [SLIDE] Matthew 6:12, 14 & 15 12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. Matthew 6:14 & 15 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. 14 The topic of forgiveness is considered one of the hottest most often discussed, and most confusing principles addressed in Scripture. It is probably so because it has to be lived out, not talked out. It ranks with other most-talked-about topics like money, divorce, death and the hereafter, fasting, prayer, healing, sin, salvation and eternal security. My hope is to uncomplicate your understanding of biblical forgiveness so we all can began to live it and not just wonder about it. We can understand “forgiveness”, but we can do so only when and if we see it from God’s perspective. Each of us has a perspective on the world and on life – a way of looking at things, of judging things, of holding things in the memory. We need to recognize that our perspective is something we have learned, and we Page | 3 need to recognize that we may have adopted a wrong understanding about certain things. I have found that when it comes to subject of forgiveness, very commonly, a wrong perspective is held by many believers; and questions on this principle abound. Many of us have misconceptions about why God forgives us, who God forgives, what it means to be forgiven, and how we are to go about being forgiven and forgiving ourselves and others. For the right perspective on forgiveness, we have to go to God’s Word and stay there. The Bible is God’s foremost communication to us on this subject. It is the reference to which we must return continually to compare what is happening in us and to us vs. what should be happening in us and what can happen to us. Our perspective is wrong anytime it doesn’t match up with God’s eternal truth. Not seeing forgiveness from God’s perspective is a major roadblock to fully understanding true and complete forgiveness. Primarily, God’s perspective teaches us that forgiveness is a principle of the heart, not of the head. So many Believers (and non-believers) have been conditioned to deal with forgiveness from the head, and when they do, a Condition of Tradition follows. Page | 4 In the Bible, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave us a new order on many things – including forgiveness. Let me cite two places in Scripture in particular: Matthew 18: 21 & 22 and 5: 21-24. [SLIDE] First listen to Matthew 18: 21 & 22: Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” 21 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. 22 [SLIDE] Now, Matthew 5: 21-24 21 You have heard that it was said to those of old, you should not murder and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment . . . 22 But I [Jesus] say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ [empty headed] shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire. 23 Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Our goal in every situation, especially in the household of faith, is reconciliation and putting in the work it takes to forgive so that we can Page | 5 be forgiven – not by man, but by God. Both reconciliation and forgiveness are as much heart work as they are hard work. [SLIDE] [Colossians 3: 12 – 14 proves something to us: it says: 12 Therefore, as the elect of God [Believers, Saints, Christians], holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 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. 14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. (forgiveness is more than just a head thing; it requires us accessing and putting on all the virtues that God has made available to us in order to obey His command to forgive as He forgave. Maturity and Love are paramount. Nevertheless, Jesus knows forgiveness is a matter of the heart; that’s why He first demonstrated His loving forgiveness toward us from His own heart and not the head. And He did it while we were yet sinners. Thank God He didn’t deal with us according to what we deserved. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Rom 5:8 8 Let me reiterate, the best place to gain God’s perspective is from the Bible using the very verses that speak to and about forgiveness. Page | 6 When it comes to forgiveness, the one supreme truth we must embrace is that “above everything, we need God’s forgiveness”. Every man, woman, boy and girl. Without a personal understanding of this truth, this fact – you cannot comprehend, nor pleasingly meet Jesus’ requirement “to forgive and be forgiven”. Jesus said in Matthew Chapter 6 Verses 12, 14 & 15 that we ought to pray: 12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. Two verses down, in Matthew 6:14 & 15, He reinforced what He said in verse 12. He said: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. 14 Let me put these verses in context by pointing out three significant developments going on in the setting that Jesus is presenting this to His followers. First, we know that verse 12, “And forgive us, as we forgive” is the 5th petition Jesus incorporated in the proper manner we should pray. Also, significant, it is the only petition in the Lord’s Prayer that comes with a condition. If the conditions are met, then God blesses. If the conditions aren’t met, then God withholds His forgiveness which leads to colossal Page | 7 repercussions like future unanswered prayer, being held enslaved to those we don’t forgive, and unforgiveness of personal sins which lead to sickness and other things. Second, Jesus is talking to Believers in these verses, not unbelievers. He has already declared in Matthew 5: 13 – 16 . . . These are salt of the earth and these are the light of the world . . . among other evidence [that these are believers]. Why is this significant? Because Jesus knows the seed of truth implanted in them and its power to make them free from the lie of unforgiveness now makes them capable of choosing to embrace or resist Matthew 6: 14 & 14: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you [choose not to] forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. 14 Thirdly, because this group of Believers has experienced God’s Judicial Forgiveness of their sins, then they were expected by Jesus to exercise Parental Forgiveness. [SLIDE] What is Judicial Forgiveness? It is when God judicially forgives us of our sin and the penalty of sin by justifying us making us new creations on the basis of Jesus’ shed blood and death on the cross. Though we are Page | 8 as guilty as sin, because of Jesus, God declares us righteous. (John 3:16). Now, let me remind you of what Parental Forgiveness is. Parental Forgiveness is the forgiveness addressed in the Lord’s Prayer. [SLIDE] “Parental Forgiveness” is the type of forgiveness that is necessary to maintain fellowship with our heavenly Father. When a Believer refuses to forgive, it breaks their fellowship with God because they are now acting in disobedience. If Believers are unwilling to forgive those who wrong them, how can they expect to be in fellowship with their Father who has freely forgiven them for their wrongdoings? [SLIDE] Ephesians 4:31-32; says "Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." Embracing God’s Heart on Forgiveness: Excuse-Proof Forgiveness END Page | 9 Page | 10