Forgiving Sinners

So we are right in the middle, or we're actually at the end of a short series called Love Like Jesus. And next week we'll be launching a new series on Easter, and that's another reason to encourage people to come out. It's called Bad Things, Good God. Bad Things, Good God.

What does that have to do with resurrection and Easter? Come and find out. We'll share that with you. Bad Things, Good God. So just invite somebody out as we launch our new series, a five-part series called Bad Things, Good God.

So we are in this series, and the idea of this series is that we're looking at snapshots of Jesus, of Jesus serving people, Jesus doing the last, practically in the last week of Jesus to see what He did, what He showed us. Last week we talked about washing feet, how sometimes, you know, Jesus showed us to get dirty. And I gave, kind of gave you the story, how much I hate feet, you know, disgusting, gross things, feet are. But Jesus showed us, sometimes we've got to get down dirty, into the dirty and nasty to help people and reach people, right? And last week we talked about breaking bread, how community is important.

And this is actually three elements of our church. If you look at our t-shirts, it says God, community, mission. So we talked about the first week, mission, and what our mission is, serving others, reaching out to others. Last week was community, talking about breaking bread together, fellowshipping together, growing together, healing together, sharing together, all those things that we do together to grow in Christ and with each other. This week I want to talk about a really, really, really hard one.

And that's love forgives sin. This is what, this is where it comes down to what God is all about. Love forgives sin. And the theme scripture for this is, my commandment is this, love each other as I have loved you. So the same love that God shows us, we want to turn around and give that love to others.

It was a commandment from our Lord Jesus. He called us to do that. So we want to, to break bread, we want to wash feet, and we want to learn how to forgive sin. Everyone in here, if we live long enough on this earth, and if you haven't already, most of us already have, probably, you will be hurt. You will be hurt at some point in your life.

It's just a reality. Things are going to happen. For some of you, this has already happened, and you're living with that pain. You're, it's hard to get past the past because you're dealing with the hurt. It's hard to forgive.

You can't trust, and you can't love like Jesus because the pain is just too hard to bear. And there's a few, there's a lot of reasons why we, we go this direction, or we become so hard when it comes to forgiving. And I just want to share with you kind of five things that, that, that come out to me. But there's a lot more, and you probably could fill in the blanks here. But the first one is, that I wrote down is betrayal.

If you're following in your notes, you can, you can write this down, betrayal. Perhaps you've been betrayed before, and there's nothing worse than a best friend, or a family member, or a business associate betraying you. You never saw it coming, right? Most situations, you just never see it. You never think that would happen.

And then it happens to you, and it really hurts, and the trust isn't there. And it's hard to get past that moment in time when you were betrayed. A dear friend of mine had a business associate, a very good close friend of his that started a business together and from my hometown. And uh, and uh, during that, during that situation, his business associate not only tried to ruin his business or take his business away, he took his wife away because of some, that they got too close in a relationship. And, and, uh, and his, his wife ended up, they ended up going through a divorce, and his wife left him for this other thing.

And I can't not tell you the pain when we talk about that. It's in his voice and in his heart when he, when he talks about the pain of betrayal. Not only betrayal, you know, business-wise, but betrayal in his family and what he went through. And he's still dealing with the pain of unforgiveness because of betrayal. Sometimes we just don't know, and we don't see it coming, and we just don't expect it, but it does happen.

And God forbid anything ever happens to you that way, but it happens. Betrayal. Betrayal. The second one is false accusation. False accusation.

I don't know about you, but I can't stand to be misrepresented. It, it hurts and misunderstood, right? Like somebody says something about you or does something behind your back to, to, to, to belittle you without really knowing your heart. Now I can tell you as a pastor, this happens often. People don't, don't even know what you're doing in your church.

I mean, people that haven't even come to the church are talking about me, right? And it's really, really hard because they don't know my heart. They don't know why I choose to do things certain ways. And, and, and, and, and, and for you, it may, it may be the same thing. You, you, you, you, maybe somebody misrepresented you and, and, and, and the emotional and painful experience is just too hard to bear.

And you know that your intentions are good, but they don't know that. And they see it, they see it that, they see it wrongly and they falsely accuse you of that particular thing. And that's hard. And another thing, number three, that a lot of us deal with when we're dealing with unforgiveness is abuse, abuse. Maybe it could be physical.

It could be verbal. It could be emotional. And God forbid it could be sexual abuse. And many of you are going through the pain and the memories of those things. And, uh, I, um, attended a workshop one time.

I don't know if you're familiar with, with, with Josh McDowell. He's a great, he's an apologist, writes a lot of books, uh, for the average person, lay person or whatever, how to defend the faith about Christ and, and different things. And, and he shared with us that painstaking experience that he had when he was a boy. Not only did he, was he sexually abused by his neighbor when he tried to communicate it to his parents, they didn't believe him. So he had a double whammy there and, and, and, and, and the experience that, that he had to go through in his life to really shed off that unforgiveness of that person and the unforgiveness he had for his parents for not trusting and believing him as their little boy.

And the pains that we go through, many of you have experienced that, uh, uh, it's shocking the amount of physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, whatever that is that happens to us that defines who we are now. We allow it to define us and we're, it's hard to get past those moments because they're so painful. They hurt, they hurt and they, they go deep. Another one, rejection. Rejection.

Maybe some of you have faced rejection. Maybe when you're a little kid, you know, you weren't picked for the kickball team. It began there, right? And then as you grow older, you know, there's things that people didn't accept you. They rejected you.

Maybe it was a family thing. Maybe you were trying to earn approval from your parents and you didn't receive that approval. Or, God forbid, you were neglected. And the pain of a child being neglected and their parents not being there can be very damaging and it's hard to move past being rejected and neglected. And the last one I wrote down is humiliation.

Being humiliated. Maybe you've been humiliated. And it's shameful. It discredits you, once again. It embarrasses you.

It dishonors you. It degrades you. And it's really hard when somebody calls you out or does something or even misrepresents you in front of people and then how embarrassing that is and it's humiliating. And maybe you face some humiliation in your life and you haven't been able to get past it. And, you know, there's these people in our lives that just are hard to deal with, right?

It's hard to forgive. It's hard to look past. Maybe it's an in-law. Maybe it's a family member. And they're always putting you down.

And, you know, every time you're around them, it's like the scratching of a chalkboard. You know, you're like, ah, I just can't be around this person. And you're trying to avoid them at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Or maybe it's a friend of a friend that you have to be around all the time. And sometimes that can be very hard for us.

And we all have those people in our lives. And we all have those situations in our lives. And how hard it can be to move past those things because of all the pain we've experienced. All of us have a framework, an environment in which we came into and grew up in that affects where we are now. And today I want to offer you something that's counterintuitive.

And some of you, as I talk about these things, and the first thing you're going to say as I talk about this, Pastor, you don't understand what I've gone through. You have no clue the things I've faced in my life. And you're going to talk about this? Maybe not. But there's somebody who has.

And his name is Jesus. In fact, he understands it so well. He absolutely qualifies because on all accounts, he experienced pain. Not because he's God, because he was fully human. And he experienced every bit of agony, every bit of defeat, every bit of humiliation, abuse, all these things we talk about.

He experienced every one of them. But we can look to him. In fact, the scripture even says he prays to the Father on our behalf. Hebrews 4.15.

It says, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are. Yet, he did not sin. In Romans 8.25, I don't have this in your notes, but it says he intercedes for the Father. So do you know what that means?

He actually prays for you. And when you're going through hurt and pain and defeat and agony and all the abuse and all the humiliation and all the things that we go through, Jesus is talking to the Father. Did you know that? He's actually with the Father. He's praying for us.

He says, You know, Daddy, I know what they're going through. I know what they're going through. Can you help them? Can you touch them? Can you do something for them, Lord?

Because I know. He hears your pain. He knows your hurt. He knows everything. Not just because He's God, but because He experienced it.

So we can actually look to Him when it comes to unforgiveness and see how He responded. And this is going to be counterintuitive. This is against everything we say it should be or think it should be. When I'm hurt, what do I do? I hurt somebody else.

When somebody says something at me, I react by saying something else to them. But what did Jesus do? Well, He shows us. In fact, we're going to a real important part of Scripture, a real popular part of Scripture. Whether you're a believer or unbeliever, you've probably heard the story of Jesus' crucifixion.

We're entering into Easter. What a perfect season to talk about this because this is exactly why Jesus gave His life. It's because of this very thing that we're dealing with. And it says in Luke 23, 32, 34, it says, Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with Jesus to be executed. And when they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified Him there along with the criminals, one on His right and the other on His left.

And so He had these criminal, these people on the cross, they were criminals. And one looks over at them and just kind of paraphrase. One of them says, If you're the Son of God, take us off this cross, right? Come on, prove yourself. Come on.

Jesus, King of the Jews, the Messiah, show us. And what does the other man do? I mean, these people were awful people. These weren't just petty thieves. These were murderers.

These were people who did awful things. Crucifixion was a horrifying, horrifying death, a slow death. And people were placed on the cross at crucifixion. It was the real deal. These were bad, bad people, abusers, criminals, thieves, humiliators.

All the things that we talked about, they were those things. And this one man looks over at Jesus. And he says, Jesus, will you remember me? Will you remember me? What was Jesus' response?

Today you will be with me in paradise. I don't care what you've done, what you've been through, the abuse you face. God has a place for you. Jesus loves you. He forgave Him.

And He forgives those who abused you. And He forgives you. Now let me give you some context about crucifixion. We kind of have the pretty pictures of, you know, like the tall crosses and stuff. This was a slow, agonizing death.

And the Roman soldiers were on these, you know, just the abuse that was taking place. And just for fun, they would, if you look at the history of crucifixion and the Roman historical documents and things like that, you learn a lot. There's a lot of different types of crucifixion. But particularly during this time, they either had them really close to the ground, which some people believe that Jesus was probably real close to the ground. Or they put a pedestal on the cross so that the criminals could rest their feet.

But they put it under them just enough to tempt them to push themselves up just a little bit. You know, they would push them up. They would push themselves up. Why? Because while they were hanging there, they actually couldn't breathe.

They were being suffocated as, and they could die quickly by hanging from nails on a cross. But to keep them alive just enough so that they would experience the pain of an agonizing, slow death, they could push their feet up barely. And it would take, it would build their lungs back up just to take one more breath. And over a period of time, exactly why we see in Genesis, the account. In Genesis, this is the prophetic show where he was talking to the serpent, he was talking about the lady, and he says, you will, I will crush your head, sorry, I'm a little fuzzy here, I will crush your head and you will bruise his heel, bruise my heel.

That's exactly what was going on there, they would bruise, their heels would be bruised. That was prophetically speaking about the cross, the cross of Jesus. So, we see this happening, and he's being spit on, he's being abused, he had the cat of nine tails and, you know, whacked, and he was just naked on a cross, humiliated, absolutely faced everything. And what is Jesus' response in verse 34? He says, Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.

Father, forgive them. Now, if we put ourselves in that position, would we be able to look down at the people who are abusing us and hurting us? And I want you to even take for a moment, and I know this is painful and this hurt, to think about that time in the past where you were abused and hurt. Are you able and willing to say, I forgive you? It's so counterintuitive, but God shows us.

In the middle of being sinned against, Jesus is forgiving, right in the middle of it. So, with all of that, how do I forgive? I mean, this is just hard, Pastor. I don't know if I can do it, and how do I do it. Well, there's a scripture in Luke 6, and it says this, but I tell you who hear me, and this is what Jesus said, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you.

Now, that just doesn't go into it. Jesus, that doesn't make sense at all. Well, let's just talk about those for a minute. Let's just break those down for a minute. What should your first response be?

If you're following your notes, the first response should be prayer. Respond by praying for them. You've got to start by praying for that person, because you're not going to be able to forgive them until you go to the Lord first and ask Him to change your heart. And it's just shocking and hard. And for us, I mean, for me, you know, when somebody hurts me, what do I want?

I want to pray for them. I'm going to pray for them, all right? You know? I'm going to pray that they get a disease and get sick or something. You know, you're thinking that, right?

That's your first response. I mean, even the Bible says, strike my enemies on the jaw. We can use Bible. Strike my enemies on the jaw, crush their teeth. There's actually a scripture that says that.

And we want to pray that, right? That's how we want to respond. But if we can come to terms with, you know, I want to have my heart right first. And I want to come to this with a certain response that is godly rather than fleshly and my own response. And it's really hard to do this prayer.

But we want to get our hearts right and pray for him. He says this in verse 34 of Matthew 5. He says, you have heard it said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Now, just like you, this is shocking to the people in that day because they had always been taught a certain way. The Jews had been taught an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. And they had always gone with that. And this Jesus guy shows up and tells them to do it differently. And it just, it's so counterintuitive.

Even, even the Romans, they worship the God of revenge. They talked about revenge. They were always about revenge. And they lived in a culture and their entire lives, they've been taught this principle. And Jesus comes along and says, pray for those who persecute you and love your enemies.

This was so shocking to these people. And for us, you know, we read the Bible and we say, oh, that sounds wonderful and everything until it happens to us. Right? I don't know if I can forgive that person. I don't know if I could go that far.

And what is the antidote to unforgiveness and revenge? It just doesn't make sense. But we pray for them. We start out by praying for them. We've got to get into the right attitude because right attitude precedes a right action.

If I pray, my attitude will change. I won't respond the way I shouldn't respond. My attitude, it all starts with your attitude. And prayer helps us have the right attitude. Right attitude precedes a right action.

Praying for others may not change them. See, we think, well, they're not going to change. They're not going to change. Praying for others may not change them, but it always changes you. So we need to begin by praying, praying for others.

The second point is react by doing good to them. Wow. That's a hard one. Romans 12, 17 says, do not repay evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, to live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath for it is written. It is mine to revenge and I will repay, says the Lord. What does that mean? Let God handle that part.

You do what Jesus shows us to do. It is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.

In doing this, I love this, you will heat burning coals on his head. Do not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. What does it mean like heat burning coals on their head? It means when you respond with good, you actually win. That bothers them.

I mean, wow, why is this person drawn? If you're drawn into an argument and you're battling back and forth and it's getting heated, then the enemy wins. That person wins because they want that. How can we respond? We can respond by doing good.

Don't overcome evil with evil. Overcoming evil with good works every time. So we react by doing good to them. Doing good to them. Just be positive and love them.

And if they give you a scorpion, give them a meal, give them a meal, right? Respond with love and it will shake their world. What in the world is going on? It kills it instantly. Thirdly, refocus on the real enemy.

Refocus on the real enemy. Guess what? It's not people that you're fighting against. It's something far more sinister going on. Ephesians 6 says this, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood.

When you're battling that person, when you're going through that thought that you had back in the past that really hurt you and caused unforgiveness, try to refocus on the fact that this is the devil's strategy. To keep you locked in the past. To keep you locked in that instant. He wants you to stay there. He wants you to be unproductive.

He doesn't want you to heal. He wants you to die. The enemy comes to destroy. That's their sole purpose. Whether it's religion, whether it's abuse, whether it's hatred, whatever it is, he's going to lock you in that.

And He's going to keep you there. He wants you to die. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of the dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms. When Paul was given, was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write this down, he knew what was going on all the time. Right now, there are heavenly realms at work.

There is a battle going on right now in heavenly realms that we don't see. And it's a very strategic battle. It's not war like we know it in this world with nuclear warheads and military instruments and guns and all that kind of stuff. You know, it's not camo and anything. It's a very strategic battle.

And you're being studied. Your personality, your past, and everything that you have going on that made you who you were. You're very highly studied. And the enemy will attack you there. But if we can refocus on who's really in control, and who's going to win in the end, and that it's not that person.

It's not that person. Okay? It's not that person. Can I say that again? It's not that person.

Whoever's hurt you, whoever's influenced you, whoever makes you think the way you're thinking, and the unforgiveness that's set in your heart. It's not that person. There is something far more evil happening. Refocus on the enemy. The next point, remember, I've been forgiven.

I've got to remember that, you know, I've been forgiven. You've been forgiven. We need to remember that. We need to bring that back into our minds. Romans 3.

23 says, for all have sinned. Right? And they fall short of God's glory. We all. I included.

I sin all the time. It's an ongoing battle. Whether intentional or unintentional, whatever you're going through, we've all sinned. Bring it back to that. I've sinned.

You've sinned. We're all sinners, right? But what happened? Matthew 10 says, freely you receive, freely give. I've given you a gift.

Salvation is not by works, but grace alone. I've given you a gift. I've forgiven you. Jesus looked at that guy on the cross and he said, you're forgiven and you're going to be in heaven with me today. Everything is washed away.

Whatever you did yesterday, whatever you did last week, whatever brought you up on the cross, whoever, wherever you are in your life, you have been forgiven. All you have to do is receive it. Receive what God has for you. Remember that I have been forgiven. Maybe you've lied.

Maybe you've betrayed. Maybe you've abused. Maybe you've done all these things that we talked about. You've been forgiven. Maybe you're on the other side of the coin.

God forgives you. God forgives you. I heard this said by Anne Lamott, who is a famous writer, poet. She said this, unforgiveness is like drinking rat poison and watching the other person die. It's like just, hey, I'm going to kill you.

You know, how foolish. It's so counterintuitive. But here's what I want to say. Unforgiveness is a choice we make to mess out on the life God originally intended us to have. Can you just write that down?

Unforgiveness is a choice we make to mess out on a life God originally intended us to have. What was that life? A life abundantly. A life to the full. A life where you can actually experience joy in your trials and miseries and all the things around.

There's something greater that you can experience. You were intended to live a good life. Sin tainted the world, but you can still experience that. And if we have unforgiveness in our heart, we will miss out on all God has for us. And lastly, receive God's love.

So this just kind of piles on to what I was already saying. It's easier to love. It's easier to forgive. It's easier to accept. It's easier to approve.

It's easier to do all these things when we receive love. 1 John 4, 19, 21 says this. We love because He first loved us. We love because He first loved us. People ask us, why do we do what we do?

Why salt church? Why are you going through, you know, planting this church and going through things? I could easily respond because I love Jesus. But it's more than that. Because He first loved.

He first loved me. John 4 goes on to say, and I don't have this in your notes, but because I didn't have a lot of room. It says, if anyone says, I love God, yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. If you can't love the people that you see, then how can you love a God that you can't see?

And he has given us this command, whoever loves God must love his brother. So we need to make a choice. It's a choice we make through the eyes of Jesus. Through the eyes of Jesus to love. To love.

So radical. So counterintuitive. Doesn't make sense. But it works. So if you haven't received the love today that God has for you, we're getting ready to go into communion here in a second.

We do this every so often. This isn't a normal. It's kind of a little different today. I'm going to offer you, you know, two opportunities to receive the love of Christ. You could do it, you know, through prayer here in a second.

Or you can do it as we take communion. Because communion is an open statement by believers saying that I received the blood. I received the body. We remember what God has done for us. So if I can ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes just for a moment.

And some of you have come in here with a lot of hurt and a lot of heartache. And you've come in here with abuse. And I'm not just talking about unbelievers. I'm talking about believers. I'm talking about everybody in here.

And you need somebody to pray with you. You need somebody to pray for you. I'm going to tell you there are people in this church that would love to pray for you even after this church. We'll just come around the stage if you need prayer. I'll meet you here.

One of our elders will meet you here. And we'll love to pray for you. But right now I just want to pray corporately for you. And if that's you today, if you're just experiencing some pain and some unforgiveness, if you could just quietly, gently raise your hand. I just want to see you.

I see you. I see you. I see you. There's a lot of hands going up because there's a lot of pain. And some of you...

Is there anybody else? Is there anybody else that just wants to... Maybe it's a loss in the family. Maybe it's just a hurt from a best friend. Maybe it's something simple.

There's nothing that's too far. I see another hand. I see another hand. Donnie, prayer. And I want to pray for you.

Because there's a Jesus that knows. There's a Jesus that paid it all on the cross. So if you would just come and let's pray together. Lord Jesus, everyone who raised their hand, I pray that they could experience your forgiveness in a whole new way, Lord Jesus. That they would know you.

And they would know that you faced it all, and you know the pain and the hurt they've gone through, and that you would touch them, God, that you would meet them where they are, and guide them through it. Give them the power to forgive those who had sinned against us, as you called us to pray. Those who sinned against us. Pray for those who sinned against us. Help us to give us, Holy Spirit, give us the ability and the power to do it, Lord.

Because we cannot do it on our own, within our own flesh. Inspire us, Lord. Show us, Lord. We receive your healing. We receive your grace.

Maybe for some of you here with heads bowed and eyes closed still, maybe there's some of you that have never, ever given your life to Christ. Maybe you've never received His love. Maybe you've never had that opportunity. I don't know, whatever your ground is today, this is a safe place to do that. I want to tell you, today is the day to make that decision.

And I want to pray for you, too. So I ask you, if you're here today, at this moment, this is very, very important. Lord, everybody, just keep in that spirit of prayer. Believers, pray with us. Pray with us.

If you're here today and you're ready to give your heart to Christ, if you're ready to receive Christ, to make a decision for Christ, if that's you, if you could just gently raise your hand. Amen. I see that hand. Any other hands? There's another hand.

Anybody else? Amen. This is powerful. Anybody else? Come on.

Eternity's hanging. Eternity's hanging. Pray this with me. Pray this with me. Everyone here, pray this with me.

Lord Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God. And you died on the cross for my sin. I ask you to come into my heart, to come into my life, to live with me. I follow you from this day forward. I receive you as my Savior.

And today I walk with you from here on out. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.