“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Eph. 4:32).
Love, acceptance, forgiveness-those three things are absolutely essential to consistently bring people to maturity and wholeness.
If the church-the living presence of Christ in His people-is to be the force for God in the world that it should be,
it must learn to love people, accept them and forgive them. Why are these qualities absolutely essential?
I want to propose to you that when we are truly Loving, And Acceptance and Forgiveness are regular and expected events that flow from us on a regular basis,It is then and only then will the church be understood as a powerful FORCE.
There is a Divine Purpose for the Church, And that purpose is it to be and active FORCE for love, acceptance and forgiveness to a hopeless and dead world.
We, The Church, do not exist as a place where we come and go each week, Where we bring OUR offerings, sing OUR songs, spend time with OUR people,
Where our dogmas, teachings and traditions define who we are. The intent of the Church was never meant to be a place where people would drive by
And wonder what is going on inside.
The church was never intended to be a stagnant, and self-centered place whose purpose is to remain stationary and fixed in a time, a place, or for a sole purpose.
I believe that Jesus raised up the church for several simple things- As an Inward Force…and As an Outward Force:
1st- An Inward Force- As a place for us to regularly remind each other of God’s Great Grace, His Love and Forgiveness, and to remind us to continue and know we are not alone….and that God Loves Each of us.
2nd- As an Outward Force – To regularly remind the World of God’s Great Grace, His Love and Forgiveness, and to remind others that we are not without HOPE… and that God Loves Them.
The world needs us to be an un-relentless FORCE who can be guaranteed that when they come to us, whether in this building, or outside of it,… That when they come to us… they will find True Representatives Of Jesus Love, Acceptance and Forgiveness. Living Jesus on the Outside,.. not just storing Him on inside for some special occasion, or when the time is just perfect to bring Him out of Hiding.
When we, a FORCE of Justice, Liberty, Grace, and Kindness, fail to live Jesus’ principals daily, the World will never ever find Him.
We are His tools to bring people to Him for redemption. We are the ones He chose to Light this World up.
To Display His GRACE like a flag waving in the Wind… Free and without fear. An unfurled Flag uses the Invisible FORCE,.. the Wind,.. and shows everyone what the WIND is doing. The Winds FORCE pushes the Flag in the direction it desires,..and the submissive Flags obeys. When the submissive flag whips through the air… stands firm and proud,… All who gaze upon it’s prestige and grace,.. are reminded of what it represents. The virtues of past events,.. and great hope for future ones.
Are you? Are we? Are we??? Are we allowing the invisible FORCE of Love Acceptance and Forgiveness to blow us in the direction it desires us to go?
Are we allowing the incredible purposes of Eternal Salvation, GRACE and Love to make a difference in the lives of the thousands of people we come across each month? At your work? Neighborhood? In our Families? At School?
Does your life remind people of what HOPE may look like?
Folks, unless love, acceptance and forgiveness are guaranteed, a person will not risk the honesty and openness required for true wholeness.
And if we are not,.. How dare we call ourselves followers of Jesus?
If we don’t turn inside-out, what has happened to us,.. then the world will not see it.
It is not enough to SAY we are Christians. We have to prove it.
It is up to us to be JESUS on display to this dying world.
This world that is dead,.. is waiting for revival.
Waiting for LIFE.. not as it deems it, but a better one..
Folks—the world is crying out for someone to hear them.
With their loneliness, fears, anxiety, pain, and hopelessness.
They need us to be people who don’t condemn, ever.
They need us to be people who Love unconditionally, always.
They need us to Accept them just as they are, just like Jesus did.
They need to know that they are Forgiven, just like we do.
In this area of Forgiveness,.. we need some work on this.
In the book “Something More”, by Catherine Marshall, there’s a concept of forgiveness that suggests that forgiveness is releasing another from our own personal judgment.
Is it possible to forgive a person without implying that what they have done is okay or, at least, not so bad?
Taking our personal judgment off a person doesn’t mean that we agree with what he has said or done;
it simply means that we will not act as his or her judge.
We will not pronounce a guilty verdict on that person.
“But he was wrong,” you say.
Okay, but he’s not standing under your judgment.
You are to release him or her.
“You don’t understand what they’ve done to me”
You are to release him or her.
“They are still doing it”
You forgive them, and move to place where you know you’ve done what Jesus would have done.
He wouldn’t have held a grudge.
He wouldn’t have allowed bitterness to seep His souls.
I would not have punished them.
He would have forgiven them, and He did,.. Scripture tells us “that while they were still hurling insults at Him( from the cross), that He forgave them.”
To keep others under our personal judgment is to play God with them.
And since we believe we are granted some sort of authority to judge others,
We inherently choose NOT to forgive. It is in that area that we choose to Play God.
We stand here, each one of us under the powerful work of the Forgiveness of God.
The Work of Christ on the Cross offers to all who ask, No matter what the offense,…. No matter how bad the crime,… No matter how evil the evil,…
He offers and gives Forgiveness.
A working definition of forgiveness is “choosing not to punish a person for something that he or she did to you.”
What are some specific ways you tend to punish people for hurting, mistreating or disappointing you?
I am not going to provide you with a list or menu of choices today.
We each have our own way(s) that we hold others in a state of not being forgiven.
We put them in a state of suspense.
We hold them in a place that doesn’t allow life, love, and peace to flow.
When we don’t forgive we restrain God’s Love from flowing from us.
We dam up Gods love when we don’t forgive,
What we acutally do is we put them on a “conditional release”. A conditional release is like what parole or probation is.
A release that says you are free to go, if you don’t repeat the offense again, isn’t a release but a postponement of what we deem to be a proper judgement.
And there is no forgiveness invlolved here at all, because true forgiveness is redeeming, and free from judgement… not a postponement. When we don’t truly forgive we make it all about us.
We actually punish those when we don’t forgive,.. and this is a real action.
The very words like HOLD and RESTRAIN area action/ACTIVE words. So even if you think you are doing nothing in NOT forgiving, you REALLY are.
You are passively being active in NOT forgiving. In that we are actually trying to PUNISH that person for what they’ve done.
Think about, in your experience, some of the results of punishing some of those relationships perhaps between you and your:
• Husband or wife? Your Parents , Your children? How about your Friends?
Romans 12:19 says, “‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord.”
And because He’s going to repay, we don’t have to.
“But that person hurt me, Lord. Did You know that?”
“Of course.”
“Well, are You going to do anything about it?”
“What do you think?”
“Are You going to strike him dead?”
“Probably not.”
“But, Lord…”
He says to us, “Do you want to play God? If so, remember this: The moment you step in to bring judgment onto that person, you will come under My judgment.”
“Do not judge, and you will not be judged…. Forgive, and you’ll be forgiven” (Luke 6:37).
Release people from your personal judgment! For unless they can be assured of your forgiveness, they cannot really open themselves to you.
Most of our relationships fail because of this.
But we but we need to understand, that sooner or later, people will disappoint you and fail you. Not by design or desire, but because they are imperfect.
They must know that you will not condemn them when their weaknesses, flaws and sins begin to show. They need the assurance of your forgiveness-a forgiveness with no bitter aftertaste.
Forgiveness is simply the choice not to punish, but it gets tangled up with all sorts of other ideas and becomes almost scary to us.
It is because we have been told before some things that aren’t true about Forgiveness.
Here are some myths we struggle with:
• “Forgive and forget.” Try pulling that off sometime and let me know if you succeed!
• “When you forgive, you will feel better”.
There are events so painful in your life that whenever you remember them you will always sense the hurt. How you feel after you forgive is irrelevant.
You may feel better, or you may feel nothing.
The issue is not how you feel; it is whether you intend to keep punishing and getting even with the person.
Isn’t that interesting.. we use those words… “Getting Even”.
What does that mean?
Is there something they have taken from you? Perhaps.
What needs to be EVENED out?
Is there something that is out of balance since they have wronged you? Probably.
Its time to bring things into balance.
Let’s look at some other myths we struggle with with Forgiveness..
Some think that Forgiveness means that you must move back into a destructive relationship.
The fact is that there are people with whom you may never be able to have a healthy relationship.
Some people are so damaged emotionally and socially that they are not capable of sustaining a healthy relationship with anyone.
Folks, Forgiveness can provide a basis for re-establishing a healthy relationship, but it doesn’t demand the reestablishment of an unhealthy one.
Another myth says that
• If you forgive, you are compromising or condoning wrong behavior. Forgiveness doesn’t deal with guilt or innocence. Justice deals with guilt and innocence.
You forgiving someone else doesn’t mean that what he or she did was okay. What he or she did may never be okay in anybody’s book.
Ultimately, forgiveness is not an emotion; it’s a decision. We don’t forgive with our memory or emotions-we do not have to worry about being each other’s guardians. There’s a big difference, and it’s the difference between loving and judging.
When love, acceptance and forgiveness characterize our lives and our churches, the Lord will send us people who need to be made whole.
You know folks that as true follower of Jesus, We become garbage collectors. That’s exactly what we were: garbage collectors.
What were we before Jesus found us? Weren’t we all just garbage? Jesus finds us and recycles us.
In many cities across America,. There is something occurring called URBAN SPRAWL, that’s were people have moved out of the cities to the outskirts of town.
Where, in many cases, tight where the old city DUMP used to be. The dump is where all the stuff no one wants goes. The trash, the broken, and the discarded. All go to the DUMP. And they build on top of those old garbage dumps homes are built where family grows in loves. Schools are erected and children learn their ABC’s. Parks are built and Joys an Giggles of happiness resonates all around the neighborhood.
Folks That’s our business.
Where is God going to send the “garbage” of people’s lives for recycling? To us.. The Church…That’s why we are here.
You know as a church,… there’s a lot of garbage in here,.. isn’t there.
OK, I know we’ve all heard it,. God doesn’t make garbage. That’s true,.. He doesn’t.. But we all sure have tarnished a lot of the things that God has given to us…. Especially each other. God brings many hurting people who have a lot of garbage into our lives.
Personally,.. and here at our church.
As individuals, we have great opportunities to come along others as they are going thru their trials.
But as a church we can become so much more.. A literal FORCE of LOVE ACCEPTANCE and FORGIVENESS.
And we will lose a great opportunity to bring healing in a hurting person’s life if we do not embrace them.
When love, acceptance and forgiveness prevail, the church that Jesus designed, becomes what Jesus was in the world: a center of love designed for the healing of broken people and a force for God.
We need to ask God for help to deal with the issues of Forgiveness we have. And there are some,.. perhaps many, that we need to forgive.
We need to be as specific as possible, and ask the Holy Spirit to help you see these individual people through Jesus’ eyes.
How does this concept of love, acceptance and forgiveness change your view of-
Your spouse? Your children? Your immediate family-your parents, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, cousins? Your friends? Your church family? Your fellow workers?
• The stranger crossing your path?
• The homeless person carrying a sign at the intersection?
• The angry road-raging driver on the freeway?
• The grocery clerk at the local shopping center?
• The waitress/waiter at a restaurant you frequent?
• The teenage skateboarder with green hair, tattoos and piercings?
• Your own life?
How do we forgive?
The following is a summary of how to forgive an offense.
1. Read, Study, and meditate on the word of God. Build a strong fellowship with your heavenly father. This brings faith and confidence that you will need when you are offended. This should be practiced on a regular basis and not when the offense comes. You may have already acted according to your resentment and there was no WORD to stop you.
2. Regard the offense or situation as insignificant. Know that God is greater than any situation or offense in your life regardless of how big you think it is.
3. Place God’s ability to bless you above the offense. That is, trust God in your life and know that no situation can change what God has for you.
Nothing matters except God.
This is the attitude that you want to obtain. If God is greater then the offense (the effects of such) then it won’t matter to you.
This is not a mental assent however. God’s ability has to be real to you and not something that you conjure up in your mind.Practice the love of God when dealing with people. If you love people, even your enemies (those who offend you), then it will be easy (or easier)to forgive them. You don’t resent who you love (or you can’t for long).
This sounds so easy when talking about it… but actually putting these into practice, takes a Holy and Righteous Loving God to make happen.
Folks—when we are an active FORCE, a Forgiving FORCE, it is ONLY because we are being POWERED by an INCREDIBLE and HOLY GOD. The FORCE of Forgiveness exists only because the Ultimate and SOLE FORGIVING POWER, JESUS,.. has empowered us with His Spirit to do so.
His Holiness is what we need to make us what He wants us to be. It is not ever about our strength,… but rather our obedience to His will.
It is about us bending to the blowing of His Spirit, and to the absolute sway of His will.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way! Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will, While I am waiting, yielded and still.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way! Search me and try me, Master, today!
Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now, As in Thy presence humbly I bow.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way! Wounded and weary, help me, I pray!
Power, all power, surely is Thine! Touch me and heal me, Savior divine.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way! Hold o’er my being absolute sway!
Fill with Thy Spirit till all shall see Christ only, always, living in me.
pkriskent 