007. The Joy of Forgiveness

We were out shopping, looking for signs with good positive thoughts that could be used in the Butterfly House. 

We picked this one up that says … 

PP (sign picture) 

Laugh your heart out 

Dance in the rain 

Cherish the moment 

Ignore the pain 

Live, Laugh, Love 

(then in big bold letters it says) 

FORGIVE AND FORGET 

(and finally) 

Life is too short to be living with regrets 

Well I thought, that’s pretty interesting, because our message today is covering some of those points, especially the ‘FORGIVE AND FORGET’. 

So I’m asking the question, and maybe you could give me a show of hands --- 

PP Who’s ever done anything wrong? 

I think that’s all of you! ---- If you haven’t put your hand up, then I have a feeling that you may be telling lies, or that you’re asleep, or maybe even dead. ---- 2 

PP When you’ve done something wrong against someone, have they always forgiven you? 

Hands up for ‘No’! That’s quite few hands. 

PP Would you like them to always forgive you? 

Hands up! That’s all of you! Of course we would. 

PP Have they sometimes forgiven but not forgotten? 

Hands? ----- Yes! 

PP Would you like them to not only forgive, but to forget also? 

Of course! ---- People have said to me, 

PP “I can forgive, but not forget!” 

Have you ever said that? ------ 

------ I must have been about 16 years of age. An apprentice refrigeration mechanic – and a thief. I didn’t call it stealing or anything like that. I called it souveniring. ---- That sounded nicer. I did the most stupid thing. I was down in a hotel cellar where only the cellarman goes – down in the dungeon you might say, underneath the hotel. 

Joe the cellarman had his little office down there and I was helping a tradesman repair the beer cooling equipment. I did a really stupid thing. The cellarman had left his watch on a shelf, and I thought to myself, “I’ll have that watch!” So I stole it. 

He came along a little later while we were still down there and he looked for his watch to check the time and he couldn’t find it. 3 

Joe thought about it and knew that there were only two other people in the cellar who could have taken it. It was it either the tradesman, who was a very honest man, or the apprentice kid, Ray Archer. And of course it was me. Well I was pretty embarrassed. 

------ Months later, I was back in that same hotel cellar and Joe said, “You’re the kid who stole my watch!” I was so embarrassed. And then he said to me, “You should say to me, ‘OK Joe, that was months ago!’” ---- What was he saying? He was saying to me, “Ray, it’s over, finished, forgotten, let’s move forward!” ------ 

----- You know friends, God is like that. Does He say, “I’ll forgive but not forget?” No! 

In the Bible, in … 

PP1 Jeremiah 31:34 (He says) “I will remember your sins no more.” 

And just so we don’t forget, God says it again about His followers, His children, in … 

PP2 Hebrews 8:12 and 10:17 

“Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” 

Wow! Isn’t that absolutely fantastic? 

God says again about our sins in … 

PP3 Psalm 103:12 

“As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions (or sins) from us.” 

How far is that? Well, you can keep going east if you want to. 

And if you keep going east, do you think you’ll ever meet the west? 4 

Not at all! You can keep going east around and around this earth but you’ll never meet the west. Or you can say, “Look, blow it, I’m not going to go that way, I’m going to go west. ---- And you keep going west and you’ll never meet the east, you’ll always be going west. 

So that’s what the Bible says, that God will remove our sins as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our sins from us. 

So how far is that? Infinity! … 

PP (In) Micah 7:19 (God says) 

“I will cast your sins into the depths of the sea.” 

How deep’s that? Well, a man’s father was visiting him, and this older man, his father, would often read books, and he’d be reading interesting things in them and all of a sudden, he’d embarrass his son by calling out, “Hallelujah, Praise the Lord,” because of something he’d just read in the book. 

So the son was going to have some friends home and therefore , the son carefully took away a lot of the books and only left a few around because he didn’t want to be embarrassed in front of his friends. 

His friends turned up, and dad was sitting by himself reading, and all of a sudden he shouted out, “Hallelujah, Praise the Lord.” And the young fella came out and he said, “Well what have you found this time?” 

And his father said, 

PP “Some oceans are many kilometres deep. And I remember that God says that He’ll cast my sins into the depths of the ocean. Praise the Lord, Hallelujah!” 5 

---- Well, God has certainly taught us in His Word to Forgive and Forget. But there’s an old saying --- 

PP When we are right, no-one remembers. 

When we are wrong, no-one forgets. 

If that’s the way you and I live our lives, then that’s anti-Christian. 

We have a spirit of anti-christ. … 

PP Christ said and taught, ‘Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they do.’ We call ourselves followers of Jesus. Therefore we should set an example to the world and practice ‘forgiveness’, and ‘forgetness’, from our hearts. 

But you say, “But Ray, you couldn’t have been hurt like I have.” ---- 

Well maybe, maybe not. ----- 

----- In 1959, Ceylon’s Prime Minister, Solomon Bandaranaike was shot 4 times by a Buddhist monk on the verandah of his home. As he lay dying, his last words were, “I appeal to all concerned to show compassion to this man and not to try to reek vengeance on him.” 

----- Friends, if this Buddhist Prime Minister who has not accepted a forgiving Saviour, can show this spirit of forgiveness toward his assassin, then can we not forgive as Jesus has taught us? 

Another example :- 

The troops were preparing to move into action. The chaplain’s last sermon was based on the Saviour’s words from … 

PP Luke 23:34 (where Jesus said) 

“Father, forgive them. For they don’t know what they are doing.” 6 

----- A tall, battle-weary youth leapt to his feet. “It’s all very well for you to talk that way,” he challenged. “Your loved ones are safe back home. You’ve never seen your friends machine-gunned. Well, I have; and I hate the enemy.” ---- 

----- “Would you mind talking it over with me in my tent, son?” the kindly chaplain asked.----- 

Once in the tent, the man of God spoke quietly. “I want to tell you a story. I knew a young airman once, just about your age. During a dog fight his plane was blasted. He bailed out and landed in the water, diving under to escape the hail of lead that followed his parachute down. The enemy waited and dropped a small bomb when he came up for air. He did not escape that time.” 

The chaplain paused and choked a bit. “That’s a true story son,” he said. “I saw it happen. Here’s the picture of the boy.” 

Taking the photo, the young soldier looked into eyes strangely like the chaplain sitting before him. Across the bottom of the picture he read, “To Dad, with all my love.” ----- 

PP Friends, we’ve got to learn to forgive if we want real peace in our lives. 

---------- Let’s look at some verses. 

PP Matthew 5:7 

“Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.” 

That’s saying, that if we show mercy to others then God will show mercy to us. ----- 

------ Look at Matthew 6:12. This is part of the Lord’s Prayer where He taught us how to pray. … 

PP Matthew 6:12 “And forgive us our debts (or trespasses or sins) as we forgive our debtors.” (those who’ve sinned against us) 7 

PP We know that the word ‘debts’ here is not talking about money because in the Book written by Luke, in chapter 11 and verse 4, Luke, describing this same prayer, says “And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.” 

Now back to the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6. When Jesus finished telling us how to pray and told us in that prayer to forgive others, He then went on to say in … 

PP Matthew 6:14 

“… for if you forgive men their trespasses (or sins), your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” 

PP Matthew 18:35 (Jesus was speaking again and He said,) 

“So My heavenly Father will do to you, if each of you from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.” 

So Jesus says, you must forgive people from your hearts or God won’t forgive you. 

PP Micah 7:19 (tells us that) “God will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” 

There’s one place in the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean that is almost 11 kilometres deep. 

PP Jeremiah 31:34 (God says) “For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” 

PP Hebrews 8:12 (God says) “.... their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” 8 

PP Hebrews 10:17 (He says it again.) 

“Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” 

------- When I was a kid, my Dad told me how the blood of Jesus blots out our sins, and they’re gone. And one day Dad accidentally cut his finger and he took a piece of paper and wrote something in pencil on it and he rubbed the blood from his bleeding finger on it and when it dried you couldn’t read the pencil writing. Dad said “Blood blots it out.” The blood of Jesus blots out our sins. 

So friends, when Jesus blots out our sins, we read these words in … 

PP 2 Corinthians 5:18,19 

“Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us, (made us in harmony) to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing (counting) their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word (or ministry) of reconciliation.” 

Friends, we are not to hold people’s trespasses or sins, against them. We are given the ministry of reconciliation. 

PP God wants to blot our sins out, and He wants us to blot out the sins, and the memory of the sins, that people have done against us. 

Are you ready to do that? 

----- When, in his old age, the American General, Andrew Jackson, asked for membership in a church, the minister examined him as to his faith and asked him a question that some may not have asked. He said, … 9 

PP “General, there is one more question which it is my duty to ask you. Can you forgive all your enemies?” 

This question was a reminder of the many feuds, duels, and personal bitternesses in Jackson’s troubled career. After a moments silence, he responded! … 

PP “All my political enemies I freely forgive. But as for those who abused me when I was serving my country in the field, and attacked me for serving my country, and those who slandered my wife .... Pastor, that is different.” 

----- The Pastor made it clear that none who harboured bitter feelings against a fellow man, could make a sincere confession of faith. 

------ Again there was silence, ---- a long silence. ----- At last the old general said that he would forgive them all. Then his name was entered onto the church roll and he received the communion. ----- 

---- And so, we too should forgive – must forgive – as the days speed us on toward the judgment seat of Christ. 

It is love, true Christian love, that the world is needing - the forgiving love of God spread into our hearts. Someone has said, … 

PP “There may be many who will get to heaven whose minds are muddled, but none whose hearts are bitter.” 

------- The apostle Paul said in … 

PP Ephesians 4:32 “Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” 10 

Some people get eaten up in bitterness towards other people who have wronged them. It almost seems they must stay awake at night thinking bad thoughts about them. -------- 

------ You can take a block of ice and smash it and smash it and smash it, but you’ve still got ice. The only way it can be dispelled is to just melt it. Melt it with our love. ----- 

The law of this world is retaliation. 

“You hit me and I’ll hit you back.” But that’s not the law of the kingdom of God. … 

PP The law of God’s Kingdom is Forgiveness --- from the heart. 

It’s not something we can force ourselves to do. 

----- True forgiveness must be from the heart. ----- 

----- In Matthew, Jesus told a story about the consequences of not forgiving others where He said in … 

PP Matthew 18:35 “So my heavenly Father will also do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.” ------ 

---- Friends, as we spend more time with God, as we spend more time with Christ, we become Christ-like. 

PP We grow like the company we keep. 

If we’re having trouble forgiving, then it’s almost 100% certain, that we’re spending very little time with our forgiving Jesus. We grow – like the company – we keep. ------ 11 

------ Robert Louis Stevenson was a Christian. He and his family would read the Bible and pray together in the mornings and they would finish that with the Lord’s Prayer. One morning when they came down to finish with the Lord’s Prayer, he quietly left the house and his wife prayed the prayer with the children. Then she went out into the garden to see if he was OK. ----- “I can’t pray the Lord’s Prayer this morning,” he said. ------ 

------- Friends, can you pray the Lord’s Prayer honestly? When did you last genuinely confess your sins to God and say sorry? ----- When did you last confess genuinely, the wrongs that you have done to your friends, to your wife, husband, son, daughter, brother, sister? ----- 

Mothers and fathers, listen, … 

PP I think Johnny and Mary can be kept in the church and close to Jesus not so much by the prayers of the preacher, (although I believe in this), but by us putting our arms around Johnny and saying, “Johnny, Mary, I didn’t treat you fairly. I’m sorry, please forgive me.” 

----- At that point, suddenly, our religion becomes real. Not just a ‘one day a week’ religion but a real relationship between us and our kids and our fellow man. 

PP We need a religion that works, and only a religion that has forgiveness in it, works. Anything else is not true Christianity, but an anti-Christian counterfeit. 

Look at this statement, … 12 

PP “Because our mind operates our hands, it is impossible to keep one hand in the hand of Jesus, and the other hand, a fist in the face of our partner or someone else.” 

Friends, it’s impossible, because the sad fact of the matter is that both hands always match. What are your hands doing? What are mine? 

PP The Joy of Forgiveness. To live in the joy of forgiveness brings the greatest happiness that a human being can have. 

----- The most precious possession you and I can have is not our car, it’s not our house, it’s not furniture or a boat, not dollars in the bank. … 

PP The most precious possession we can have is to be able to put our heads on our pillows at night, knowing that we have truly, from our hearts, forgiven others who have wronged us, and as a result, know that God has forgiven us for our sins against Him. 

PP 

Friends, if you’ve been blessed and challenged by this message then please take time now to send it on to your friends.

‍