Daily Hope with Rick Warren - Friday, 24 January
2014 – “What Forgiveness Really Is”
“Father, forgive them, for they do not
know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34 (NIV)
Forgiveness may be the most misused,
misapplied, and misunderstood quality in our culture. We think we know what
forgiveness is all about, but we really don’t. Before reading further, take a
minute to do this little quiz by deciding if each statement is true or false.
1. A person should not be forgiven until he asks for it.
2. Forgiving includes minimizing the offense and the pain caused.
3. Forgiveness includes restoring trust and reuniting a relationship.
4. You haven’t really forgiven until you’ve forgotten the offense.
5. When you see somebody hurt, it is your duty to forgive the offender.
When you read the Bible and see what God
has to say about forgiveness, you discover that all five of those statements
are false. How did you do?
We’re going to spend the next few days
looking at what forgiveness really is, because most people don’t understand
forgiveness.
First, real forgiveness is unconditional.
There’s no attachment to it. You don’t earn it. You don’t deserve it. You don’t
bargain for it. Forgiveness is not based on a promise to never do it again. You
offer it to somebody whether they ask for it or not.
When Jesus stretched out his hands on the
cross and said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are
doing,” nobody had asked for it (Luke 23:34 NIV). Nobody had said, “Please
forgive me, Jesus, for what they’re doing to you.” He just offered it. He took
the initiative.
Second, forgiveness isn’t minimizing the
seriousness of the offense. When somebody asks for your forgiveness and you
say, “It’s no big deal. It really didn’t hurt,” that actually cheapens
forgiveness. If it wasn’t a big deal, you don’t need forgiveness and you don’t
need to offer it.
Forgiveness is only for the big stuff.
You don’t use it for slights that are just minor issues. If something really
requires forgiveness, then you should not minimize it when somebody asks you
for forgiveness. You shouldn’t say it wasn’t a big deal. It was a big deal! If
it wasn’t a big deal, just say, “You don’t need to ask forgiveness.” But if it
is a big deal, then you need to admit it.
There are a lot of big deals in life.
Have you noticed that? But there is a difference in being wounded and being
wronged. Being wounded requires patience and acceptance, not forgiveness,
because the person did it unintentionally. Being wronged requires forgiveness.
Talk It Over:
·
What are the wounds that you’ve been
waiting for someone to apologize for but that you just need to accept?
·
Why is it so hard to offer forgiveness to
someone who has not asked for it? How can you move past this?
·
How does your attitude on forgiveness
change when you consider how Christ forgave you?
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Saturday, 25 January 2014 “Requirements
of Restored Relationship”
Forgiveness is not resuming a
relationship without change. In fact, forgiveness and resuming a relationship
are two different things. One of them is what you do as the offended person.
Resuming the relationship is what the other person does in order to get back
into your good graces. Saying “I’m sorry” is not enough. In fact, the Bible
teaches three things that are essential to resume a relationship that’s been
broken. These are all what the offender has to do.
1. Restoring a relationship requires repentance. In other words, you’re
truly saddened about what you did. That’s not just saying, “I’m sorry.” It
means saying, “I was wrong. Please forgive me.” You can be sorry that the
weather was bad or something like that, but repentance is admitting wrong and
being truly sorry.
2. Restoring a relationship requires restitution. Sometimes you have to
do some kind of physical or material restitution. Even when you’re forgiven, it
doesn’t mean you’re off the hook. You still have to pay a debt to society or to
someone for what was damaged or destroyed by your actions.
3. Restoring a relationship requires rebuilding trust. That, friends,
takes a long, long time. When somebody hurts you, you have to forgive him or
her immediately. But you don’t have to trust that person immediately.
Forgiveness is built on grace and is unconditional. Trust has to be rebuilt
over a period of time.
Most people in our culture don’t get the
difference between forgiveness and rebuilding trust in a relationship. Whenever
a political or religious leader gets caught in a scandal, there will always be
people who say, “We’re all imperfect. We’re all human. We need to just forgive
him and keep on going.”
No! You must forgive him immediately, but
you don’t have to trust him. The Bible says trust is built with time.
Credibility is what a leader leads with. All leaders must have trust; it’s the
currency they live in. If you lose trust, you have lost your right to lead at
that moment. You may have the title, but you’re not the leader until you
rebuild trust. And that isn’t going to happen instantly.
Talk It Over:
·
What does it take for someone to regain
your trust? What are you willing to do to regain someone’s trust?
·
Give some examples from your life when
you were sorry and when you were truly repentant.
·
In these three factors for restoring a
relationship, what is the responsibility of the person who was offended?
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Sunday, 26 January 2014 “You Don't Have
to Forget”
“And we know that in all things God works
for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his
purpose.” Romans 8:28 (NIV)
You’ve heard this phrase over and over:
“Forgive and forget.” There’s only one problem with it: You can’t do it. It’s
impossible! You really can’t forget a hurt in your life. In fact, you can’t
even try to forget it. Because when you’re trying to forget, you are actually
focusing on the very thing you want to forget.
Forgetting is not what God wants you to
do. Instead, he wants you to trust him and see how he can bring good out of it.
That’s more important than forgetting, because then you can thank God for the
good that he brought out of it. You can’t thank God for things you forget.
Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in
all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called
according to his purpose” (NIV).
It doesn’t say that all things are good,
because all things are not good. Cancer is not good. Disease is not good. Death
is not good. Divorce is not good. War is not good. Rape and abuse are not good.
There are a lot of things in life that are evil. Not everything that happens in
this world is God’s will.
But God says he will work good out of the
bad things in life if you will trust him. When you come to him and say, “God, I
give you all the pieces of my life,” he will return peace for your pieces. He
gives you peace in your heart that comes from knowing that even if you don’t
understand the hurt in your life, you can still forgive, knowing that God will
use that pain for good.
You don’t have to forget the wrong thing
that someone did to you. You can’t do it even if you tried! But God says you
don’t have to forget it. You just have to forgive and then see how he will
bring good out of it.
Talk It Over:
·
Who have you not forgiven because you
haven’t wanted to forget or let go of what he or she did to you?
·
What do you need to do today to forgive
that person and move on?
·
How have you seen God work good in your
life from difficult situations?
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Monday, 28 January 2014 “Forgive Because
You're Forgiven”
“Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you
must forgive others.” Colossians 3:13 (NLT)
The Bible says there are three reasons
you have to let go of your past and the people who’ve hurt you, and the reasons
have nothing to do with whether that person deserves it or not.
1. You have to forgive those who’ve hurt you because God has forgiven
you. Colossians 3:13 says, “Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive
others.” (NLT). If you want to be a forgiving person, you need to first accept
the forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ. The Bible said that God came to
Earth in human form in Jesus in order to forgive everything that’s ever been
done wrong. He paid for it so we don’t have to. That’s Good News.
2. You have to forgive those who’ve hurt you because resentment controls
you. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 7:9, “Only fools get angry quickly and hold
a grudge” (CEV).
Resentment makes you miserable, and it
keeps you stuck in the past. And when you’re stuck in the past, you are
controlled by the past. Every time you resent something, it controls you. Some
of you are allowing people who hurt you five, 10, or even 20 years ago to hurt
you to this day. That’s stupid. Don’t let it happen. They can’t hurt you any
more. Your past is past. You’ve got to let it go.
3.You have to
forgive those who’ve hurt you because you’re going to need more forgiveness in
the future. Jesus said in Matthew 6, “For if you forgive other people when they
sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not
forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (NIV).
Forgiveness is a two way street. You cannot receive what you are unwilling to
give.
Someone once told John Wesley, “I could
never forgive that person!” Wesley replied, “Then I hope you never sin.” You
don’t want to burn the bridge that you’ve got to walk across to get into
Heaven.
Talk It Over:
·
In what situation do you need to offer
forgiveness so that you can move on from your past?
·
What is a sin that you believe you could
never forgive?
·
How do you think God feels about that
sin?
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Tuesday, 28 January 2014 “How Do You
Forgive?”
“God has done it all! He sent Christ to
make peace between himself and us, and he has given us the work of making peace
between himself and others. What we mean is that God was in Christ, offering
peace and forgiveness to the people of this world. And he has given us the work
of sharing his message about peace. We were sent to speak for Christ, and God
is begging you to listen to our message. We speak for Christ and sincerely ask
you to make peace with God.” 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 (CEV)
Nearly 60 years ago, five American missionaries
headed to the rainforest of the eastern Amazon in Equator to make a second
visit to the Huaorani tribe, which anthropologists said was the most vicious,
violent society on the face of the earth. They had a culture of killing, and
studies showed 60 percent of the tribe died by homicide.
As soon as the missionaries got out of
the plane, they were speared to death by members of the tribe. The brutal
murders made news around the world and the cover of Life magazine, Time, and
Newsweek. Many newspapers reported the deaths of these men, who included Nate
Saint and Jim Elliot.
A couple years later, Elisabeth and
Valerie Elliot, wife and daughter of Jim, and Rachel Saint, sister of Nate,
moved into the Huaorani village to show love and forgiveness and minister to
the people who had killed their family. Eventually, Mincaye, the leader of the
tribe, and the five men who participated in the missionary murders all became
Christians.
The kind of forgiveness that Elisabeth
Elliot and Rachel Saint modeled doesn’t make sense until you have been forgiven
by God. Once you’ve experienced it, how do you forgive? You do the four things
that these women did:
Relinquish your right to get even. Romans
12:19 says, “Don’t try to get even. Let God take revenge” (CEV). Leave it up to
God. He’ll take care of it, and he’ll do a much better job than you ever could.
Respond to evil with good. How can you
tell when you’ve completely forgiven someone? You can actually pray for God to
bless the person who hurt you. The Bible says. “Do good to those who hate you,
bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27b-28
NIV).
Repeat these steps as long as necessary.
Peter asked Jesus in Matthew 18:21, “How many times should I forgive someone
who does something wrong to me? Is seven times enough?” Jesus replied, “Not
just seven times, but seventy-seven times!” (CEV) Sometimes forgiveness has to
be continual.
Rescue others with the Good News of God’s
forgiveness. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, “God has done it all! He
sent Christ to make peace between himself and us, and he has given us the work
of making peace between himself and others. What we mean is that God was in
Christ, offering peace and forgiveness to the people of this world. And he has
given us the work of sharing his message about peace. We were sent to speak for
Christ, and God is begging you to listen to our message. We speak for Christ
and sincerely ask you to make peace with God.”
Talk It Over:
·
Why do you think it’s so difficult to let
go of our need to get even or “have the last word”?
·
What can you do to model forgiveness in
your life?
·
Who in your life needs to hear God’s
message of peace and salvation?
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Wednesday, 29 January 2014 “Dream Big”
“Now glory be to God, by his mighty power
at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even
dream of — infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes.”
Ephesians 3:20 (LB)
Faith is choosing and believing God’s
dream for your life. Nothing starts happening in your life until you start
dreaming. God gave you the ability to dream, to create, to imagine. Dreaming is
an act of faith. Everything you see on this planet started as a dream.
So, how do you get God’s dream for your
life? You do three things:
First, you dare to ask for it. Ephesians
3:20 says, “Now glory be to God, by his mighty power at work within us is able
to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of — infinitely
beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes.” (LB).
If you want God’s blessing on your life
this year, you must dare to ask for it. You must say, “God, what’s your dream
for my life? What do you want me to do?” Then you ask yourself, “What would I
attempt for God if I knew I couldn’t fail?” Let that expand your vision.
Second, you believe God’s promises. The
Bible says in Jeremiah 32:27, “I am the LORD, the God of all the peoples of the
world. Is anything too hard for me?” (NLT)
Never let an impossible situation
intimidate you. Let it motivate you to pray more, believe more, trust more,
experience more, learn more, and grow more. Faith always works in the realm of
the impossible.
Hudson Taylor said there are three stages
to God’s will in your life: impossible, possible, and done.
Third, you dream big. “Ask me, and I will
make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.”
Psalm 2:8 (NIV).
The size of your God should determine the
size of your goal. You haven’t really believed God until you’ve attempted
something that can’t be done in the power of the flesh. If you want to know how
big your dream should be, ask yourself two questions: How much time do you have
to give to it? If it’s a dream you can give the rest of your life to, then you
can really dream big.
Second, what are you shaped to do? What
are your spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, and experiences — the
five things that make you you. What do you love to do? What are you gifted to
do?
Dream great dreams for God. It’s the
first step in your walk of faith.
Talk It Over:
·
Have you been waiting on God to make your
dream happen? What have you asked of him concerning your dream?
·
What is the seemingly impossible thing
you would attempt if you knew you wouldn’t fail?
·
How do your dreams reflect the amount of
faith you have in God?
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Saddleback Community Church
1 Saddleback Pkwy
Lake Forest, CA 92630 United States
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