INTRODUCTION:

Of all the attributes of God, one of the greatest is His forgiveness. Forgiveness and mercy is something we can yearn for, but we cannot demand. Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” How two parties process a problem between them will determine how their hearts are able to be reconciled past that point. Let's seek to minister the mercy and forgiveness that Christ has made available.

SHOW NOTES:

• When we reach an impasse in our relating to someone, it's important to draw on the Lord's attribute of forgiveness.

• The initiative to bring a reconciliation with the party you are having problems with is up to you-don't wait for him.

• A good starting point is the Lord's Prayer: “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

• See that God has called the lame, the halt, and the blind, then realize that even though we have all failed, He has forgiven us all.

• The state of heart is the real issue; we choose to forgive.

• We believe in the forgiveness of God when we need it in times of our own weaknesses and faults; let us also believe in it for others.

QUOTATIONS:

• I am responsible to forgive: I give up my right to be unforgiving.

• To be able to just erase things that come up in your brain against your brother, whoever it is, you just erase them.

• Have mercy, love, grace, forgiveness: That's the eraser.

• It was mentioned as an eraser and then as a discipline, and then as a practice. We build that like a muscle, we build that up.

• It is a very good thing to forgive, like our Father forgave us. He is forgiving!

• The Lord says to Zaccaeus (the tax collector), today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. No matter what people thought in their hatred toward this man, Christ saw the heart of this man. Hatred just blinds everything. Christ saw the man's heart, and that's what really mattered.

• He who is forgiven much, loves much.

REFERENCES:

Matthew 6:12

“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors”

Ephesians 4:32

Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

Luke 19:8

Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Matthew 18:23-35

the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying “Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.” And the lord of the slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt.

But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying “pay back what you owe.” So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, “Have patience with me and I will repay you.” But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed.

So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. Then summoning him, his lord said to him, “you wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, and the same way that I had mercy on you?” And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him.

“My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”

I Corinthians 13:1

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or clanging cymbal.

Acts 9:3-6

As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus who you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.”

TAKEAWAY:

These references from the Scriptures are illustrations of the impact needed and demonstrated for forgiveness. Even though Paul, previously known as Saul, was called to be an apostle by the risen Lord, in spite of the fact that he had been a tremendous persecutor. The importance of forgiving others as we have been forgiven was illustrated in the recount of the master and slave. Our hearts draw from the Lord the quality of forgiveness, We continue to ask that we be forgiven as we forgive other.

Jim:

For forgiveness to take place, forgiveness is between two people. The actual completion of it would be called reconciliation. Reconciliation only comes because both are willing to forgive, but it only takes one to begin that process. So I'm not waiting for reconciliation to happen before I forgive my brother. I am the Kick-starter of that process.

Debbie:

Before the Lord, I am responsible to forgive my brother no matter what. If he doesn't forgive me, it doesn't matter. I mean it does, but it doesn't matter. I am responsible to forgive. I give up my right to be unforgiving.

Christine:

When I offend somebody and they react, then I react to their reaction, and then we're both in a big block that doesn't allow the Lord to move.

Even if the other isn't reciprocated, you still have to forgive and you have to move forward because otherwise that person won't move forward. Remember what the Lord said, "Those who you forgive, I forgive." If you forgive a lot, then He'll forgive you a lot. If you expect God, who has forgiven you everything and then you go and you don't forgive somebody else.

That's that whole story about that slave that we read about how the slave, his master forgave him and then he went out and just, clipped the ears off of the other slave that owed him 50 cents or something, when he owed a lot.

Ron:

I love the idea of the eraser. To be able to just erase things that come up in your brain against your brother, whoever it is, you just erase 'em.

Our job is to have mercy and love, and grace and forgiveness. Have mercy, love, grace, forgiveness. That's the eraser for me. That's what I'm counting on, that's my spiritual eraser. All my own spirit and about me. Everything about me that myself would bring up. I erase it. Everything about you that this my mind would bring up, I erase it because He's the Lord and He decides who's worthy.

He's the one. He's the one. We don't have that. We don't have a right. We don't have that right. Every time something comes up as a problem, it's really not a problem. I just have to erase it and go, no. He is the one that decides. I don't decide.

Dale:

Wouldn't you call that Ron, that you are a perpetual forgiver? Yes. We ask God. God trained me to be a forgiver. As a forgiver, am I gonna stumble? I'm sure, but because I'm still going forward, I'm still forgiving. That my forgiveness is complete because I stuck with it. I didn't leave it.

Christine:

A discipline of forgiveness. I've never thought of a discipline as being forgiveness. I've always thought as a discipline of waiting on the Lord or discipline of prayer. It was mentioned as an eraser and then as a discipline and then, as a practice. So they're all the same but we build that like a muscle, we build that up.

Debbie:

We give up that right to be unforgiving. We humble ourselves before the Lord.

Christine:

And we take the right to forgive. It is a very good thing to forgive, like our father forgave us and He is forgiving.

Mike:

There's an example in Luke, the 19th chapter. It's a story of a guy named Zacchaeus. He was a tax collector. And this guy heard about the Lord coming in town and he's a short guy. And so he runs ahead of the crowd and he gets to the sycamore tree and he climbs up into the sycamore tree, and the Lord walks by and the Lord says," Zacchaeus, hurry and come down for today I must stay at your house.' And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly. And when all the people saw this, they started grumbling. 'cause they hated him. He was a tax collector, he was rich. They thought he was skimming off the top and everything else. But the Lord had called him down. And Zacchaeus stopped and said to the Lord, behold, Lord, half of my possessions, I will give to the poor.

And if I have defrauded anyone, anything, I will give back four times as much. And here's what the Lord said. He says to Zaccaeus today, salvation has come to this house because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. No matter what the people thought in their hatred toward this man, Christ saw the heart of this man. Hatred just blinds everything. Christ saw the man's heart, and that's what really mattered.

Ron:

Can you imagine being Paul and having killed Christians and destroyed families and he had to forgive himself? He had to forgive himself of doing those things. To such an extent, he moved as one of the most effective apostolic ministries of the New Testament times. That's an amazing forgiveness.

Mike:

And he had to carry this thing with him all those years that he had been responsible for messing up some families and people dying. And what Christine ported out in the very beginning here about he who is forgiven, much, loves much. Paul was the example of that. You talk about being forgiven much.

I sense in his spirit there was such, such a humility of the grace of God that came to him when he had that meeting with the Lord on the road to Damascus. And it carried with him his whole life. He never forgot. I marvel at this man. He had, he had wisdom and knowledge and all this stuff, but it didn't amount to hill of beans. Like he said in, in chapter 13 of Corinthians about the love chapter. If I don't have love it's like, it's nothing. You have to have that love.