Series: “Connecting with God” - Part 6
"The Prayer of RELEASE"
Pastor Jerry
Matthew 18:23-35
------------------------------------- Message Synopsis -------------------------------------
We’re in a series called
“Connecting with God” as we go line by line through the Lord’s Prayer.
We first looked at the
Prayer of Connection. Then we talked about the
Prayer of Surrender. Next was the
Prayer of Dependence. Last week we looked at the
Prayer of Cleansing. This week we want to look at the
Prayer of Release which deals with resentment.
The Bible says,
“Forgive us our sins just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us.” That is about t
he Prayer of Release. In your life you’re going to be hurt by other people. Sometimes intentionally! Sometimes unintentionally!
If you don’t learn how to release that hurt it’s going to pile up in your life. It’ll poison your spirit inside you.
It’s one thing to forgive people who just hurt you one time , but what about repeat offenders who keep doing it over and over.
How often am I supposed to forgive somebody who continually keeps on hurting me? That’s the question the apostle Peter asked Jesus 2000 years ago. Jesus told the story in our scripture reading in response to Peter’s question.
The truth is about ninety percent of all resentment starts in the family. It is the people around us that we’re closest to that often hurt us the most. The Jewish law required that you had to forgive a person three times. After three times, it’s not your responsibility!
So Peter says, Do I forgive
“seven times?” thinking that’ll really impress Jesus.
“Jesus answered ‘Not seven times but seventy-seven times.’ The point is if I’m counting it’s not really forgiveness.
He’s saying an unlimited number of times. Today we’re going to talk about what that means and what that doesn’t mean. Jesus said you’ve just got to keep on forgiving the people in your life. So he told the story in
Matthew 18 which is called
the story of the Unforgiving Servant. It is about a
King who feels sorry for a servant who owed him millions of dollars but says I’m going to forgive your debt.
He released him and forgave him, canceling his entire debt.”
Why would anybody do that?
More important, why must you let people off the hook who’ve hurt you deeply and badly? God’s word gives us three reasons why we have to let go of our hurt, why we have to forgive, why we have to not hold on to our resentment.
- Because God forgives me.
God has forgiven me many times. So I am to forgive other people. That is the
Prayer of Release! God sent Jesus Christ to pay for our debt. The wages of sin is death and Jesus Christ died for all of your sins. If you were this servant in the story, how would you feel if you were told by someone you owed millions dollars, let’s just call it even? I would feel like being nice to everybody else because somebody had just forgiven my tremendous debt.
But that’s not what the servant did. In fact what he does is once he’s forgiven he walks out and finds a guy who owes him just a little bit of money and he has him thrown in jail. Although he had been forgiven millions of dollar of debt, he shows no mercy to a guy who owes him a little bit. We have such a hard time forgiving other people when we don’t feel forgiven. In Ephesians it says,
"Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” The most forgiving people in the world are those who feel the most forgiven.
- Resentment is self-torture.
Resentment is a self-inflicted wound. Whenever you’re resentful, it always hurts you more than the person you’re bitter against. They’ve gone on with their life. And you’re still worrying about something that happened a long ago. Your past is past and it can’t hurt you any more unless you hold on to it. And holding on to the hurt is called resentment. It’s self-torture.
Job says
“To worry yourself to death with resentment it would be a foolish, senseless thing to do.” You’re only hurting yourself. That’s why Job says this
“Some men stay happy until the day they die and others have no happiness at all. They live and die with bitter hearts.” What memory tortures you every time you think about it? Friends, it’s not worth it.
You’ve got to let it go. You’ve got to learn how to pray the
Prayer of Release. Forgive us our sins
as we forgive everybody who sins against us.
- I need forgiveness every day.
The Bible teaches very clearly that we cannot receive what we are unwilling to give. Do you want to be forgiven?
The Bible says you need to be forgiving. The Lord’s Prayer says. Forgive us our sins as much as we forgive others.
Forgiveness is a lifestyle. It’s not just something you do one time. You need it every day of your life. We
need it because we mess up a lot and we need forgiveness. But you’ve got to give it to other people – over and over. In fact in Jesus’ story the king treats the servant exactly the way the servant treats the other guy.
“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”
How do I release my hurt? The Bible says there are three things to do to release your hurt, to find freedom so you can have peace of mind again There are three things.
How do I release my hurt? What do I do with my anger…
- I leave it to God.
It’s saying, God
I’m going to let you handle the justice. I have a right to get even with this person who hurt me but I’m not going to.” The Bible says in Romans 12:19
“Never avenge yourselves. Leave that to God for he has said he will repay those who deserve it.” Leave it to God. Forgiveness does not mean the instant restoration of trust. Forgiveness is instant.
Trust must be rebuilt over time. Forgiveness is based on grace.
You earn trust. You don’t earn forgiveness. So, how do I release my hurt?
First, I leave it to God.
- I heal it with grace.
Friends, the only cure for your hurting heart is with grace
. God’s grace. Hebrews 12:15 says
“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.”
Friends, if you don’t get God’s grace in your life, life will make you bitter.
“Is forgiveness fair?” Absolutely not! It is not about justice.
It’s about grace. You don’t forgive a person because it’s the fair thing to do.
You forgive a person because it’s the right thing to do. You don’t want your heart holding on to the hurt and the hate.
It is the grace of God that gives you forgiveness.
You don’t deserve God’s forgiveness. But Jesus paid for it with his life. It’s not fair that you don’t have to pay for your sins. But it’s not about fairness.
It’s about grace. The Bible says:
“Christ carried our sins in his body on the cross. He did it for us so that we would stop living for sin and start living for what is right. You are healed because of his wounds.” What Jesus did on the cross has paid for all your sins, to heal all the hurts in your heart.
Forgiveness is free but it is not cheap. It cost Jesus his life. And as Jesus was dying on the cross and his arms outstretched and the blood was dripping down he was saying,
“Father forgive them! They don’t know what they’re doing.” He was saying
“I love you.” Father forgive them.” How do I release my hurt? First,
I leave it to God. Second,
I heal it with grace. There’s one other thing that I need to do with my hurt and with that hang up.
- I need to nail it to the cross.
Everything you need in life is found in the power of the cross. Jesus on the cross broke the chains of sin and death and bondage and addictions and habits and all of the things.
The cross has the power to free you. To free you from your regrets and to free you from your resentment. Nothing else can heal you like that.
Nothing is going to release you from the hurt of people who’ve hurt you and the guilt from people you’ve hurt except the cross. It is God’s answer to all of our needs.
My natural inclination when you hurt me is to hurt you back. All of the things that I’m naturally inclined to do actually make it worse.
“We know that our old life died on the cross so that our sinful selves would have no power over us and we would no longer be slaves to sin, slaves to the past.” When Christ died on the cross…your old life died there too…Jesus rose from the dead, and He is alive and here right now …and you can come here today and Christ can change you and give you a new life …if you will let Him!
