July 18, 2021
Evening Service

Has anyone had a difficult time forgiving anyone? I can think of numerous times I have wronged people and I wondered if those people have ever found the ability to forgive me for my transgressions. You know the bible does not tell me other people have to forgive me for the wrongs I have done to them, but it does say I have to forgive others for the wrong they have done to me. Why is it different for me than it is for them? Well, if they are believers in Christ Jesus, there is no difference between their obligation to forgive and mine. Forgiveness is a must for believers in Jesus because Jesus tells us we must forgive if we expect our Father in Heaven to forgive us! Why is this forgiving others so important? Simply put, it is because Jesus has forgiven us for our iniquities and therefore we must forgive others in the likeness of Christ. We cannot hold something against another thinking we should have received an apology at least or some other kind of justification for their actions. The bible is very clear about forgiveness and what is required of us to receive the forgiveness from God.

Matthew 6:14  "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 

Matthew 6:15  But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. 

The words from Jesus are very difficult to interpret as anything except what they say; forgiveness is a must if your sights are set on Heaven. This is a foundational element of our faith, we have to lay down these feelings of being wronged and owed something from anyone on this earth, even if they were doing wrong and knowingly did so. I think of some of the people I have come to forgive and honestly, by my means only, I could not have accomplished this level of humility. I have turned several aspects of life over to Jesus to let Him heal my broken spirit and let go of long held grudges against others. I admit that a lot of my resentments I held onto were from another life when my soul was in jeopardy. The master I served during these times was not Jesus, but Satan and his undeserving servitude. Scripture related to this type of living is also recorded in the bible and easy to understand.

Matthew 6:24  "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. 

Here Jesus states the fact of the two masters, hating one and loving the other or loyalty to one and despising the other. At the end of this verse, Jesus states you cannot serve God and mammon. Now most will say this mammon is money and rightfully so, but it also refers to anything related to materialism, wealth, greed, or any entity that will drive the need to acquire the pursuit of gain. It is not wrong to have nice things or to work for them; it becomes a problem when this is taken to the level where your worship to God suffers because of this pursuit. Then it can easily be seen the drive to have worldly materialism inhibits your love and worship to God. It becomes your God in a sense because, devotion to the material world is taking much more of your precious life given by God and devotion to God becomes the thing you fit in to your schedule rather than the priority God deserves. These kinds of things with money and wealth sort of sneak up on a person also. It is not like one day you are devoting all your time and attention to material things, it begins subtly with a taste of the (quote; unquote) “good life” and within a short period of time, you are overtaken by work to continue keeping those material things. Shortly after that, you become aware your attendance in church has fallen off and then after it has been missed for a time, then it becomes the norm that you just don’t go anymore. Sundays had become the big money making day of the week instead of the day of worship devoted to God. This is how it manifests itself into worship for money and not for God. Jesus also said to rebuke someone who sins against you, but when he repents, we are to forgive.

Luke 17:3  Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. 

Luke 17:4  And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, 'I repent,' you shall forgive him." 

This calling from Jesus to forgive our brother or neighbor this many times is given from our Lord because that is what He does for us! If only I could say, I only sinned once against my God and only needed to repent once for my sinning. This would be a very obvious lie, I find myself sinning without even devoting thought to the sin at times and I am embarrassed by my lack of self control. It shows me how much I really need my Lord and Savior Jesus to keep me and guard me from the evils of this world and the evils within myself. To me, this is the bold evidence of how weak the flesh really is and how strong the Spirit is to convict me of the sin and to ask for the needed forgiveness. Once again, Jesus who died for me and you will forgive me and you when we repent and ask. Peter got to thinking about forgiving and how many times it should be done.

Matthew 18:21  Then Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" 

Matthew 18:22  Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. 

Now when you have a mind like my own, you would immediately calculate this 70 X 7 and come up with 490 times. So with an evil mind and a mind of sin, I could nail this man who sinned against me on the 491^st time, right? Wrong! Jesus used this number of 70 X 7 to represent, you shall always forgive those who sin against you no matter how many times it happens! Jesus went on to tell Peter of the man who owed a great deal to his king and the king wanted to settle the accounts. This man owed 10,000 talents to the king and the king demanded it of him and the man could not pay the king. So the king commanded the man to be sold, along with his wife and children, and all that he had to repay the debt. The man fell and pleaded with the king to have patience with him to repay the debt and the king had compassion on him and forgave the debt. The man then went out from the king and found a servant who owed him 100 denarii and took him by the throat and demanded he pay him (6,000 denarii = 1 talent). This man fell at his feet and begged for patience to allow him to pay his debt and he would not allow it and had him thrown in prison until he repaid the debt. Now his fellow servants saw what had happened and they were troubled by it and told the king. The king then recalled the man who he had released from his debt and said, “You wicked servant, I forgave all your debt because you begged me, should you have not had the same pity on your servant as I showed to you?” The king then had him delivered to the torturers until the full debt was paid. The Jesus said this to Peter.

 

Matthew 18:35  "So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses." 

 

There is one group of scriptures all of us as Christians should know and take heed to concerning sin and how to address this in our walk with Jesus. It tells us the truth of ourselves and the truth of our Lord in a few short verses. Saint John the Evangelist penned these words.

 

1^st John 1:8  If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 

1^st John 1:9  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

1^st John 1:10  If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. 

So in conclusion, we should always confess our sins and ask God for forgiveness. We should always forgive others for any sin against us. We should be thankful our Father in Heaven created a way for us as sinners to not perish through the covenant of His only Son coming to earth to live, teach, and give His life for our sins. Jesus knew no sin and willingly laid down His life for our sins, then to take it up again and never to die again. Our Lord is Great and His power is all-powerful. When He comes again, He will gather us unto Himself to be with Him forever.

 

Father, help us to live for Jesus and to share the Good News with all who will listen and heed the

Word! In Jesus name I pray! -Amen