REVIEW
FLIP CHART: SOM’S KEY VERSE, GOAL, MOTTO
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness ….” (Mt. 6:33a).
The law sends us to Christ for justification; Christ sends us back to the law for sanctification.
FLIP CHART: Show new “Perfect Righteousness” chart explaining steps to coming to Christ (As a worm, mourning, meek, spiritual hunger/thirst with the result of legal righteousness). Explain: moral righteousness, immediate moral change at conversion, gradual change through life’s challenges and speeding up moral change via CCRC (Concentration, Choice, Reflection and Confession/Thanksgiving). Key verse, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb. 10:14).
FLIP CHART: John Stott’s outline of SOM.
This then is how you should pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. (Matthew 6:7-13)
REVIEW:
We are owned by our Creator. We are his and all that He gives us is given on loan as a trust. The misuse or lack of use of all or any of our facilities engenders moral debt. Our sins, both sins of commission and omission, are a great accumulation of moral debt that is absolutely impossible for us to pay down.
I. JUDICIAL FORGIVENESS AND PARENTAL FORGIVENESS
The forgiveness talked about here is not “judicial forgiveness.” People who pray this prayer are assumed to have received “judicial forgiveness” for they are calling God “Father.” The forgiveness focused on here is “Parental Forgiveness,” the forgiveness needed to maintain an intimate relationship between parent and child.
II. GOD’S WORD STRESSES IMPORTANCE OF FORGIVENESS
Forgiveness means to let go, to release, “to let the pot drop” and is the “Master Key” to human relationships. Thus there is much emphasis in the Bible on forgiveness. In fact the Sermon on the Mount praises those who show mercy, the peacemaker, those who reconcile, those who love their enemy etc. We will not live happily in this world if we do not become great practitioners of forgiveness.
III. FORGIVENESS IS NOT EASY
ILL: In his book, Letters to Malcolm, C.S. Lewis writes these words, “Last week in prayer, I discovered, or at least I think I did, that I suddenly was able to forgive someone that I had been trying to forgive for over thirty years.”
IV. PEOPLE WILL WOUND US, BE INDEBTED TO US
You can only really protect yourself from injury and hurt by isolating yourself from other people. But then you will become a dried up, shriveled, twisted piece of humanity. You need to reach out in love to others, accepted the fact that you will be hurt and use forgiveness as your major tonic against all the hurt that comes your way.
V. THERE MUST BE NO LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS
The Pharisees thought three times was adequate, Peter thought seven would be an improvement. Jesus said 7 x 70 and thus really said, “Don’t count.” By so doing he reversed the OT “Law of Revenge” established by Lamech in Genesis.
VI. GOD’S FORGIVENESS OF US IS OUR MOTIVATION FOR BEING FORGIVING
The whole point of the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant is the discrepancy between what he was forgiven and what he was willing to forgive. If we view rightly our sins of omission and commission we will realize the enormous debt of sin that God has forgiven us and thus be motivated to forgive others.
VII. AN UNFORGIVING HEART BREAKS OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR FATHER
An unforgiving spirit towards others puts a chill in our relationship with our Father. We are still His child but one who is out of fellowship, who does not and cannot have an intimate relationship with him. “When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! …” (Isa. 1:15-16).
OUTLINE FOR TODAY:
1. Judicial Forgiveness & Parental Forgiveness
2. God’s Word Stresses Importance of Forgiveness
3. Forgiveness is Not Easy
4. People Will Wound Us, Will be Indebted to Us.
5. There Must Be No Limits on Forgiveness.
6. God’s Forgiveness of us is Our Motivation for Being Forgiving
7. An Unforgiving Heart Breaks Our Relationship with Our Father
8. God’s Forgives Us in Proportion to our Forgiveness of Others
9. A Forgiving Heart is the Mark of the Child of a Forgiving Father
QUESTION: What do you consider to be the most challenging concept in this sixth request about forgiveness?
FORGIVING OUR DEBTORS (Part 3)
VIII. GOD’S FORGIVES US IN PROPORTION TO OUR FORGIVENESS OF OTHERS
Forgive us our debts, AS we also have forgiven our debtors.
St. Agustine called this request “the terrible petition” because he realized that if we pray “Forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors” with an unforgiving heart, we are actually asking God not to forgive us, for “debts” here really mean “sins.” (Hughes, 188)
Charles Williams, a friend of C.S. Lewis and famous British author wrote, “No word in English carries a greater possibility of terror than the little word ‘as’ in this clause.”
Of all the Inklings–that group of Oxford-based Christian writers that gathered around C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien–one might say that Charles Williams was the wild card. Deeply committed to the Anglican church, as a young man he also joined the esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn (a fellow member was poet W.B. Yeats) and had a lifelong interest in such non-orthodox pursuits as gnosticism and magic, about which he wrote a serious study. A wonderful (if challenging) poet, literary critic, and theologian, in some ways his novels–described as “supernatural thrillers”–best show that for Williams the material world was simply the spiritual with a thicker skin. A combination of romance and thriller, mysticism and good humor, they make for great reading whether you’re looking for diversion or spiritual direction.
“As” means that there is a definite correlation between the way we treat our debtors and the way God treats us.
The literal meaning is: “Forgive us our sins in proportion as we forgive those who have sinned against us. . . . It is, therefore, quite clear that, if we pray this petition with an unhealed breach, an unsettled quarrel in our lives, we are asking God NOT to forgive us.” (Barclay, 222)
When we pray the Lord’s Prayer with an unhealed relationship we are asking God to limit his forgiveness of us.
Charles Spurgeon is quoted as saying, “Unless you have forgiven others, you read your own death-warrant when you repeat the Lord’s prayer.” (Hughes, 189)
In Mt. 18:35 Jesus warned, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.” …. The Unforgiving Servant was excluded from the King’s presence, jailed, tortured etc.
So this prayer that we are commanded to pray by our Lord can be a self-inflicted curse.
READING: Awareness of this solemn truth occasioned one of John Wesley’s famous statements. Wesley was serving as a missionary in Georgia and was having a terrible time with General Oglethorpe, who was noted for his pride and unbending nature. In a particularly prideful moment Oglethorpe said, “I never forgive.” To which Wesley replied, “Then I hope, sir, you never sin.” Wesley knew that if we pride ourselves on never forgetting a wrong, if we make an unforgiving spirit a virtue, we cannot be forgiven. (Hughes, 189).
“He who cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass.”
So God will not forgive sin that is clouding our relationship with Him if we will not forgive others.
QUESTION: What does the “as” is this verse and verses 14-15 tell us about God?
If we are stubborn and will not forgive a person, we need to remember that God is twice as stubborn and will not forgive us.
Just because God is gracious and loving does not mean that He has to forgive an unforgiving person. Just the opposite is true, because He is love, holy love, he can not have an intimate relationship with us while we are living with the sin and hardness of an unforgiving spirit.
In Matthew 5:23-24 we are told that if, while giving an offering to the Lord we remember that our brother or sister has something against us, we are to leave our gift and go be reconciled. Then we may return and offer our gift.
FLIP CHART: The Principle of Reciprocity. Make a diagram of reciprocity on the flip chart going north/south and east/west with the middle “r” being the center.
QUESTION: What verses in the Bible speak of reciprocity between individuals?
“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the law and the prophets” (Mt. 7:12).
“Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 22:38).
“In the same way you judge, you will be judged” (Mt. 7:1-2)
“If a man shuts his ear to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered” (Prov. 21:13).
Justice without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful (James 2:13).
“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Luke 6:37-38)
We all know that “Reciprocity” runs east and west and in fact it is somewhat of a business management principle and a key principle of social interaction. But our verse teaches us that “Reciprocity” also has a north/south dimension. God’s judgment of us, His response to our cry, His forgiveness of our sins are based on our relationship with others.
In simplest language, you can not cultivate an intimate relationship with your Father in Heaven if you have an unforgiving spirit.
ILL: When Robert Louis Stevenson lived in the South Sea Islands he always used to conduct family worship in the morning for his household. It always concluded with the Lord’s Prayer. One morning in the middle of the Lord’s Prayer he rose from his knees and left the room. His health was always precarious, and his wife followed him thinking that he was ill. “Is there anything wrong?” she said. “Only this,” said Stevenson, “I am not fit to pray the Lord’s prayer today.”
No one is fit to prayer this prayer if they have an unforgiving heart.
ILL: Walter Wink, who spoke at Redland several years ago, tells of the Grossmeyers, a couple on a sort of peace-making mission in Poland a few years after WWII. They were emissaries of Christians in Germany and they went to Christians in Poland and asked, “Would you be willing to meet with some Christians from West Germany? They want to ask for forgiveness for what Germany did during the war and begin a new relationship. Would you meet with them?” There was a long silence. Then one of the Polish Christians said, “What you ask is impossible. Every stone of Warsaw is soaked with Polish blood that they spilled. We cannot forgive.”
The Grossmeyers understood their emotional response. They finished their visit and were about to leave but they asked if they could conclude their visit by gathering together and praying The Lord’s Prayer in unison. The Polish Christians automatically agreed. So these believers knelt down and prayed as Christians have in every country, through every century, for 2,000 years now: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread…and… They stopped and couldn’t pray anymore. There was a long tense silence in the room and finally the one who said they couldn’t forgive said, “I must say ‘yes’ to your request because if I don’t forgive, I can no longer pray this prayer. I can no longer call myself God’s child if I don’t forgive. Humanly speaking, I can’t do it. But God will give me the strength.” So they finished the prayer, and 18 months later Polish Christians and West German Christians met in Vienna and established a friendship that lasts to this day.
TABLE DISCUSSION: Having been forgiven so much what keeps us from forgiving those who have wronged us?
IX. A FORGIVING HEART IS THE MARK OF A CHILD OF A FORGIVING FATHER.
GOD IS LOVE AND HIS MAGNANIMOUS GENEROSITY TO US SHOULD MAKE US A FORGIVING PEOPLE.
I am never more like God, more like Jesus when I am forgiving other people. Jesus prayed from the cross, “Father, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing.” (Lk. 23:34) “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Eph. 4:32).
“To err is human, to forgive is divine.” (Alexander Pope, the third most frequently quoted writer in the English language.)
A FORGIVING SPIRIT IS THE TRUE MARK OF A REGENERATE HEART.
The emphasis in the Sermon on the Mount: Blessed are the merciful …. Blessed are the peacemakers …. Leave your gift … go be reconciled to your brother … love your enemies … pray for those who persecute you.
ILL: Ray Stedman tells the story of one man’s explanation for his lack of forgiveness. He said, “A man once said to me, ‘I know I’m a Christian, but someone once did an awful thing to me – something I just can’t forget or forgive.’ I replied, ‘Are you sure you can’t forgive him?’ He maintained that he had really tried to forgive this man, but was unable to do so. As we continued talking, I said, ‘I know, I have found that we often use the word “can’t” when what we really mean is “won’t.” Isn’t possible that what you are saying is not, “I can’t forgive him,’ but ‘I won’t forgive him?’ If it is really true that you cannot forgive this man, then it indicates that you yourself have never been forgiven and you are only kidding yourself about being a Christian.’ This shook him a bit. He thought it through and then, with a rather sheepish grin, he said, ‘I guess you’re right. I guess I won’t.’ It wasn’t long before he came to me and reported with joy that he had finally forgiven the man who had injured him.”
[Ray Stedman. Talking With My Father. ( Grand Rapids; Discovery House, 1997, p. 73)
God only forgives the truly penitent and one of the important signs of true penitence is a forgiving spirit.
A BLESSING OF BEING WRONGED IS THE CHANCE TO IMITATE CHRIST BY BECOMING A FORGIVING PERSON.
FORGIVENESS MUST BE OUR CHRISTIAN LIFESTYLE
“Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude.” (Martin Luther King)
A person who has experienced the grace of God, been immersed in the grace of God should be dripping with grace. A person who has been immersed in forgiveness, experiencing the forgiveness of God should be dripping with forgiveness just as much as a person is dripping with water when he/she comes out of a pool.
You can only authentically pray the Lord’s Prayer when you have moved into a lifestyle of forgiveness. God has a big thing about forgiveness. He is a forgiving God and mandates that his people become forgiving people.
ILL: Corrie Ten Boom shares this true story in her book, The Hiding Place: It was a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there – the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie’s pain-blanched face. He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. “How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein,” he said. “To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!” His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side. Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him. I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness. As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.
SO WHAT???
1. Although forgiven judicially we must, as believers, forgive others in order to maintain and cultivate an intimate relationship with our Father.
2. Have we been praying down a curse on ourselves, e.g. asking God not to forgive us because we have not forgiven others?
3. Is forgiveness a part of our lifestyle? Do we ‘drip with forgiveness?’ Is it possible for us to go throughout even one day, one hour with an unforgiving spirit?
4. If you do not have a forgiving person, if there is someone who you will not forgive you need to check your heart to make sure you are a true Christian believer.