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Offering Grace

Sermon Series

All Have Sinned–But, There's Grace! – Part 4

"Offering Grace"

Pastor Jerry

Matthew 10: 1, 5-8, 38-39

 

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This week I have discovered four words that probably define grace better than any other phrase -- God is for us. God has so many reasons to be against us because of our sin, but because of Jesus, God is for us. We've been looking for the past three weeks at the grace of God. We are in a series called “All Have Sinned—but, There’s Grace!”  We've looked at Saving Grace, Sustaining Grace and Healing Grace. Today I want us to look at Offering Grace. If you've been forgiven by God, He wants you to forgive others. Jesus said it like this in Matthew 10:8 "Give as freely as you have received." Whatever you've been given by God you are to offer to others. How do we give forgiveness to other people? Before we do that I want us to take a little test. Five questions, right or wrong, true or false. Answer according to what you believe about these statements.
  1. A person should not be forgiven until he asks for it. True or false.
  2. Forgiveness includes minimizing the offense and minimizing the pain cause. True or false
  3. Forgiveness includes restoring trust and reuniting a relationship. True or false.
  4. You haven't really forgiven until you've forgotten the offense. True or false.
  5. When I see someone else hurt, it is my duty to forgive the offender. True or false.
If you were to take the word of God and you were to particularly read through the Gospels and read what Jesus said about forgiveness, you would come to the conclusion that all five of these statements are false. We're going to look today at what forgiveness really is. But before we can look at that, we need to look at what it isn't. The Bible says there are five things that forgiveness is not:
  1. Forgiveness is not conditional. In fact, the Bible says the exact opposite. It is unconditional.
  1. Forgiveness is not minimizing the seriousness of the offense. It's not saying, "It's no big deal. Don't worry about it. It didn't hurt me that bad."
  1. Forgiveness is not resuming a relationship without change. Forgiveness is not the same thing as reconciliation. Forgiveness is instant, but trust has to be rebuilt over time.
  1. Real forgiveness is not forgetting what happened. A very popular cliché in America is -- forgive and forget. You can't do it. The more painful something is, the less likely it is that you're going to forget it.
  1. Forgiveness isn't my right when I wasn't the one that was hurt. Only the victim can pronounce forgiveness to the person who has offended them. If you weren't hurt, it's not your place to proclaim the forgiveness.
WHAT IS REAL FORGIVENESS? The Bible says real forgiveness is four things.
  1. REMEMBERING HOW MUCH I'VE BEEN FORGIVEN.
Forgiveness is remembering how much grace I've received from Christ. Ephesians 4:32 "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you.” You're not forgiven because you deserved it. You're forgiven because you've put your faith in Christ. The more forgiven you feel by God, the more forgiving you're going to tend to be toward others.
  1. RELINQUISHING MY RIGHT TO GET EVEN
That's the heart of genuine forgiveness.  Romans 12:19 says "Never avenge yourselves. Leave that to God for He has said that He will repay those who deserve it." Leave that up to God. You say, "But that's unfair!" Who said forgiveness is fair? There's a word for fairness. It's called justice. Justice is fair. Forgiveness is grace.
  1. RESPONDING TO EVIL WITH GOOD
Luke 6 "Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you and pray for those who mistreat you." How can you tell when you've really genuinely forgiven somebody? When you come to the point when you can actually pray, "Bless that person who hurt me."  We hurt other people because we're hurting ourselves. Hurt people hurt people. When you can bless those who curse you, you're responding to evil with good. 1 Corinthians 13:5 "Love keeps no record of wrongs."  There's a fourth thing that's a part of genuine forgiveness. It's not just remembering how much I've been forgiven and relinquishing my right to get even and responding to evil with good but also...
  1. REPEATING THE PROCESS AS LONG AS NECESSARY
You do these things over and over. Forgiveness is not a one shot event. How long do you have to keep forgiving a person? You do it as long as the feeling of revenge keeps coming back. Peter asked that question of Jesus. "Peter asked, `Lord, how often should I forgive somebody who sins against me? Seven times?'"  Jesus says, "Not quite. How about seventy times seven." The point is -- for infinity. For as long as it takes. Genuine forgiveness is never easy. Some of you may be filled with resentment this morning.  What do you do? You say, "Why? Why in the world should I forgive that person who hurt me so much? You ought to do it for three reasons:
  1. I need to be gracious to others, to forgive others who've hurt me because God has been
gracious to me. You will never have to forgive anyone else more than Jesus Christ has already forgiven you. God has been gracious with you. And the Bible says because we've been forgiven by Christ we're compelled to forgive those who hurt us.
  1. I need to be gracious to others, to forgive others who've hurt me because the alternative is bitterness.
Science tells us that the most unhealthy emotion there is, is the emotion of resentment. It always hurts you more than anybody else. You're not hurting anybody but yourself with your resentment. Resentment will not change the past, no matter how much you resent it.  The Bible says in Hebrews 12 "Be careful that none of you fails to respond to the grace which God gives, for if he does there can very easily spring up in him a bitter spirit which is not only bad in itself, but can also poison the lives of many others."
  1. I need to be gracious to others, to forgive others who've hurt me because God expects you to do it.
Matthew 6:15 Jesus said this, "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." I don't know how to make it any clearer than the way Jesus said it right there. Jesus says we cannot receive what we're unwilling to give. That's why you need Jesus. You are going to be hurt in life and you don't have enough love to overpower the hurt on your own. You need Jesus Christ. And you need His love in your life to help you forgive. You need Him to fill you with love every moment of the day. This week I discovered four words that probably define grace better than any other phrase -- God is for us. Jesus said in Matthew 10:8 "Give as freely as you have received."
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