Luke 17:3 Take heed to yourselves: if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him, and if he repent, forgive him.
Ah Friends, today we preaching…hn! the ole fella only joking, we talking about the second most important act in our lives, forgiveness and the need to forgive. Obviously LOVE is #1, and forgiveness runs a close 2nd. The only thing Jesus preached on more intensely than forgiveness was LOVE. Even on the cross, some of His last words were, ‘Father forgive them; for they know what they do.’ (Luke 23:34) Oh people, that’s the whole idea behind Christ’s coming to earth; LOVE and forgiveness! The Father LOVED us a whole heap, even in our sinful state, but because of His just and righteous nature, He couldn’t simply forgive us, a price had to be paid for it. And that’s where Jesus comes in. He was the only one sin free and capable of paying for the forgiveness the Father wanted to bestow on us. I read this interesting quote today, attributed to Dag Hammarskjold, one of the early U.N. Secretary Generals, which turned my thoughts to forgiveness. It says; ‘Forgiveness is the answer to the child’s dream of a miracle, by which the broken is made whole again, what is soiled, is again made clean.’ Now doesn’t that sound rather appropriate to our situation? We were not only torn and broken by sin, but also disgustingly dirty. However, through the miracle of Jesus; His birth, death and resurrection, we were made whole again, and washed white as snow by His cleansing blood. Wow! We’ve always had the Father’s LOVE, except for those real disobedient times, but through Jesus, we also received His forgiveness. And how can we say thanks for that? By doing just as Jesus did; show LOVE and forgiveness to our fellow man. Note Jesus’ warning; ‘Take heed to yourselves.’ Yes Friends, be careful, cause forgiveness is neither simple nor easy, but it’s very profitable. ‘If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him, and if he repent, forgive him.’ Yes, we all know that’s easier said than done, and Jesus further compounded it by saying that we should confront our brother alone, and tell him his fault, if he hears us, we’ve gained a brother. But if he doesn’t, then we should take witnesses. And if he doesn’t listen to them, then tell it to the church. And if he still doesn’t listen, ‘let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.’ (Mat.18:15-17) And as if that wasn’t sufficient, when Peter asked if seven times was enough to forgive his brother, figuring that was a most generous number, Jesus shook his head and replied. ‘I say not unto thee, until seven times seven, but until seventy times seven.’ (Mat.18:22) Yes people, at least that many times, we’re supposed to forgive our brethren. And oft times, according to the nature and seriousness of the offence, it’s difficult to even forgive them once, much less so often. But from the early days, the Lord instructed Moses and the Israelites; ‘Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt LOVE thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.’ (Lev.19:17-18) So this forgiveness thing is nothing new people. And believe me Friends, it’s always in our best interests to forgive. And we don’t have to wait for others to come to us for forgiveness either, we can start the process by first making amends. There are two main benefits to forgiveness: First, it shows our Christian nature; we’re following in Christ’s footsteps. Him and His Father forgave us, so it’s showing immense gratitude to return the favour to some other poor sinner. But even better yet people, forgiveness makes us feel good, clean, it lightens our spirit, removes the dark disgusting stain of anger, bitterness and all the other negative emotions from our souls, and sets us free to walk in LOVE again. Oh Friends, when we have an unforgiving nature, it affects us much more than the person we’re not forgiving; they might not even know or care. And ‘unforgiveness’ is one of the major causes of a lot of the nonsense currently happening in our troubled world. Like it’s cousins; hate, anger, jealousy, bitterness and vengeance, ‘unforgiveness’ in our souls behaves like acid in a plastic bottle; it sadly eats away the container. Oh people, please don’t let it destroy our souls! It can do it both literally and figuratively. Jesus didn’t sacrifice Himself so that we could be hard hearted and unforgiving, but tender hearted and forgiving; like Him. Much LOVE!…remember…as we forgive others…so shall we be forgiven…
Ah Friends, today we preaching…hn! the ole fella only joking, we talking about the second most important act in our lives, forgiveness and the need to forgive. Obviously LOVE is #1, and forgiveness runs a close 2nd. The only thing Jesus preached on more intensely than forgiveness was LOVE. Even on the cross, some of His last words were, ‘Father forgive them; for they know what they do.’ (Luke 23:34) Oh people, that’s the whole idea behind Christ’s coming to earth; LOVE and forgiveness! The Father LOVED us a whole heap, even in our sinful state, but because of His just and righteous nature, He couldn’t simply forgive us, a price had to be paid for it. And that’s where Jesus comes in. He was the only one sin free and capable of paying for the forgiveness the Father wanted to bestow on us. I read this interesting quote today, attributed to Dag Hammarskjold, one of the early U.N. Secretary Generals, which turned my thoughts to forgiveness. It says; ‘Forgiveness is the answer to the child’s dream of a miracle, by which the broken is made whole again, what is soiled, is again made clean.’ Now doesn’t that sound rather appropriate to our situation? We were not only torn and broken by sin, but also disgustingly dirty. However, through the miracle of Jesus; His birth, death and resurrection, we were made whole again, and washed white as snow by His cleansing blood. Wow! We’ve always had the Father’s LOVE, except for those real disobedient times, but through Jesus, we also received His forgiveness. And how can we say thanks for that? By doing just as Jesus did; show LOVE and forgiveness to our fellow man. Note Jesus’ warning; ‘Take heed to yourselves.’ Yes Friends, be careful, cause forgiveness is neither simple nor easy, but it’s very profitable. ‘If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him, and if he repent, forgive him.’ Yes, we all know that’s easier said than done, and Jesus further compounded it by saying that we should confront our brother alone, and tell him his fault, if he hears us, we’ve gained a brother. But if he doesn’t, then we should take witnesses. And if he doesn’t listen to them, then tell it to the church. And if he still doesn’t listen, ‘let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.’ (Mat.18:15-17) And as if that wasn’t sufficient, when Peter asked if seven times was enough to forgive his brother, figuring that was a most generous number, Jesus shook his head and replied. ‘I say not unto thee, until seven times seven, but until seventy times seven.’ (Mat.18:22) Yes people, at least that many times, we’re supposed to forgive our brethren. And oft times, according to the nature and seriousness of the offence, it’s difficult to even forgive them once, much less so often. But from the early days, the Lord instructed Moses and the Israelites; ‘Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt LOVE thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.’ (Lev.19:17-18) So this forgiveness thing is nothing new people. And believe me Friends, it’s always in our best interests to forgive. And we don’t have to wait for others to come to us for forgiveness either, we can start the process by first making amends. There are two main benefits to forgiveness: First, it shows our Christian nature; we’re following in Christ’s footsteps. Him and His Father forgave us, so it’s showing immense gratitude to return the favour to some other poor sinner. But even better yet people, forgiveness makes us feel good, clean, it lightens our spirit, removes the dark disgusting stain of anger, bitterness and all the other negative emotions from our souls, and sets us free to walk in LOVE again. Oh Friends, when we have an unforgiving nature, it affects us much more than the person we’re not forgiving; they might not even know or care. And ‘unforgiveness’ is one of the major causes of a lot of the nonsense currently happening in our troubled world. Like it’s cousins; hate, anger, jealousy, bitterness and vengeance, ‘unforgiveness’ in our souls behaves like acid in a plastic bottle; it sadly eats away the container. Oh people, please don’t let it destroy our souls! It can do it both literally and figuratively. Jesus didn’t sacrifice Himself so that we could be hard hearted and unforgiving, but tender hearted and forgiving; like Him. Much LOVE!…remember…as we forgive others…so shall we be forgiven…
SCRIP-BITS 