Winners Forgive

Memory Verse: Ephesians 4:32 “Instead, be kind to each other, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, just as God has forgiven you because you belong to Christ.”

A man, let’s call him Joe, owed the king a huge sum of money. Joe could not pay it. The king was not only going to punish Joe by selling him into slavery and selling all Joe’s earthly possessions, but the king was also going to punish the man by selling Joe’s family into slavery too. Joe fell on his face and promised he would pay the king every cent. The king had mercy on Joe and forgave him the whole debt. Joe was now free and owed no money.

We owe God for our sins. We cannot pay for them on our own. Jesus, the Word that was God, became human and volunteered to die to atone – pay for-- our sins.

John 1:1-2,10-14 1”In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. 10 He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. 11 He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. 12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They are reborn— not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. 14 So the Word became human[d] and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.[e] And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.”

John 10:17-18 “The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. 18 No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.”

When Jesus died for our sins, He died for all of them. The slate is wiped clean when we repent and accept His gift of forgiveness. Repenting is seeing that what you are doing, saying, thinking or feeling is wrong. You decide that you aren’t going to do, say, think or feel that or those things anymore. You ask God to forgive you and you try very hard, with Jesus’ help NOT to do those things. God forgives those sins – wipes the slate clean as though they never happened when we repent and ask His forgiveness. That is the wonderful gift Jesus gave us.

Notice that after Joe was forgiven his debt, he went out and found someone, we’ll call him Fred, who owed him a much smaller amount of money than the debt Joe had owed the king. Fred fell on his face and promised he would pay the debt just as Joe had fallen on his face and promised the king he would pay every cent. Did Joe forgive Fred that small debt as the king had forgiven his huge debt? NO! He did not! He did not do as the king had done for him. He did not forgive Fred the debt he owed. Joe took Fred and threw him in prison until he could pay all he owed. When the king found out, he was angry. Joe should have had mercy on Fred as the king had shown mercy to Joe. The king was so angry that he took Joe and threw him in prison to be tortured until he had paid back the king all of the huge debt he owed.

Jesus said that is what will happen to us if we do not forgive as we have been forgiven. We are commanded to forgive. God tells us we will be forgiven by Him the same way we forgive others. In other words, if we do not forgive, we are not forgiven either. Jesus forgave us, now we are expected to forgive others. Jesus set the example for us.

Matthew 18:35 “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters[m] from your heart.”

Matthew 6:14-15 14 “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. 15 But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins."

Jesus said if we do not forgive, our sins will not be forgiven either. That is pretty serious.

He not only told us to forgive, but we are to do good things for those who hurt us. What?! We are to be LOVING to our enemies!? How can we do that?

Matthew 5:43 - 48 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. 46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47 If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. 48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect."

Again, Jesus set the example for us in His life. Jesus died for ALL mankind for ALL time! Jesus died for the Roman soldier who nailed Him to the cross. Jesus died for the soldier who whipped and scourged Him. Jesus died for Judas who betrayed Him. Jesus died for the Pharisees and Sadducees who conspired to have him crucified. Jesus died for the Jews who rejected Him. Jesus died for Hitler. Jesus died for the Muslims. Jesus died for the terrorists that attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. Jesus died for you and me. Jesus loved His enemies and did GOOD to those who hated Him and persecuted Him. We are expected, as His brethren, as children of the Father, to do the same. It is hard. It was not easy for Him either – He was fully human, yet fully God. He hurt just like the rest of us – but He lived His whole life without ever committing a single sin. As the unblemished “Lamb” was sacrificed on Passover, so our unblemished Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ was also sacrificed – voluntarily. He volunteered to die a horrible death to save his enemies – mankind – you and me and everyone that has ever lived, now lives, or yet will live in time to come. He set the example for us.

We are to forgive just as God forgave. It is a part of the command to love our neighbor as ourselves. We obey, we forgive, because we love Him. It also becomes part of the command to love God. Forgiveness embodies both love of God and love of our neighbors, which includes all our enemies.

How do we forgive? Our lesson shows a young lady named Sally who wasn’t popular, but who befriended formerly popular people who were out of favor with the in-crowd. She would become their friend when no one else would have anything to do with them. After those people would turn their back on her, having nothing to do with her – even making fun of her, after being received back into the in-crowd, popular kid groups, she would still stay friendly and loving toward them. She was consistently friendly and loving no matter how they treated her. They were fair-weather friends, but she was still loving toward them. She didn’t carry a grudge or seek revenge or even feel sorry for herself when these people would just use her friendship as long as they needed a friend and then toss her away like a used Kleenex when their popular friends wanted them back in the popular group.

Jesus did that for us. When we were still sinners, He died for us.

Romans 5:7-8 7 "Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. 8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”

When someone seeks our forgiveness we are to forgive them. When someone doesn’t care if they hurt us or not, and doesn’t ask us to forgive them, we are still to forgive them. Forgiveness is not only for them, but more importantly for us. Sally realized that anger, bitterness and hatred would eat her alive. It would destroy the loving person she was. So she forgave those that had hurt her or used her. She showed Jesus’ example in her life. Sally was truly a winner! Hebrews 12:14-15 14 Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord. 15 Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.”

How many times are we to forgive those that hurt us? Matthew 18:21-22 21 "Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone[i] who sins against me? Seven times?” 22 “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!”

In other words, Jesus commands us to forgive an unlimited number of times.

How many times does God forgive you when you ask him? Every time. Again, Jesus set the example for us to follow. We are to forgive every time. Have we truly forgiven the people in our lives that have hurt us? Are we carrying around a list of wrongs that we can drum up on command to justify our anger at those people or that person that wronged us in some way?

I think if we are truly honest with ourselves, the natural tendency after being hurt by someone – especially someone we love – is to seek revenge. We give them the silent treatment, or blow up at them or someone else for something not even related to the situation that caused the hurt. (The technical term for this is “displacement”. We displace our anger for one thing over which we have no control, on someone else. A good example is a teacher that made you mad. You can’t take anger out on a teacher, but you can displace that anger on your dog, or a brother or sister that is getting on your nerves.) Or we plan on how to get even with them.

We can be so very glad that God does not treat us like that. He had and has every right to wipe us off the face of the earth for our sins. Instead, He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, who volunteered to die a horrible death in order to atone or make up for the sins of all mankind. Jesus died not only for those who had already sinned and died, but also for those living who were still sinning, and even for those of us who had not even been born yet who had not even committed a single sin yet. He died for the sins we would commit in our lives. His forgiveness is available to all. His forgiveness covers all our sins. His forgiveness enabled us to be reconciled to the Father and have a relationship with the Creator of the Universe. All we have to do is realize that we are sinners – that nothing we can do in this life could ever make up for the sins we commit every day, and then repent – ask for His forgiveness – accept His atoning sacrifice. We get baptized to show the world that we are His. He promises to forgive our sins, give us His Holy Spirit, and give us eternal life with Him. We could be the most wonderful, kind, loving person on earth, but none of that would wipe away a single sin. Jesus is the only way we can ever be reconciled to God. Jesus’ sinless life and horrible death and glorious resurrection is the only way back to a relationship with God.

What a wonderful gift He has given us!

We want to think that we are “good”, but God sees none of us as “naturally good” – all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23) -- but we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags (Isa. 64:6)

It is hard to admit that you need God’s forgiveness when you think that you don’t need God. Sometimes God has to bring us to the point where we admit we need Him – like He did with Joseph in Egypt. The Joseph in Egypt was a much humbler, not so arrogant a person than the Joseph with the Coat-of-Many Colors.

Just as Joseph, we all need Jesus. We cannot have eternal life without Him. He has given us a great and wondrous gift – forgiveness. We are to give that gift to others. We are commanded to forgive others as we have been forgiven by God.

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