Forgiveness is one of the hardest teachings of Christianity, and it is one of the most essential. I think people think other things are harder than forgiveness, but if you've ever been hurt, forgiveness is one of THE most radical and most difficult teachings of Christianity.
In fact, at the center of the Lord’s Prayer, we pray, "God, don't forgive me if I don't forgive those who've hurt me." Alright that is sort of what we pray; “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” And so we realize the stakes are high when it comes to forgiveness. So today let’s talk about what, like what does forgiveness mean?
But before we do that what are some misconceptions of forgiveness. First thing, forgiveness doesn't mean you're no longer hurt. Forgiveness doesn't mean that you have to be friends with this person again and forgiveness doesn't mean that you trust them. Now again, those are huge things. Sometimes, people think that forgiveness means, "I have to now not feel bad anymore, "or "I'm not angry anymore" or "I Feel like I've forgiven them", but you don't have to feel any of those things because forgiveness is not a matter of feeling, it's a decision.
Second, you can still be hurt because, a lot of times the stuff that people have done against you hurt. You do not have to be past that hurt in order to be able to forgive or else we'd be stuck, while we're still hurting.
Lastly, you don't have to trust the person again in order to know that you've forgiven them. Sometimes if someone's hurt you, they've demonstrated that you shouldn't trust them. And so, to trust them again would more be foolish than it would be forgiveness.
So how do we understand forgiveness? Well, I think we can only understand forgiveness in terms of justice, which means this; Justice is what I owe or is owed me. When it comes to forgiveness, it's essentially saying, "I'm not going to make you pay me back what you owe me."
In the Gospels, Jesus gives the parable about the master of the king and he has a servant who owes him an incredible amount. In fact, the Greek is 10,000 talents. It's more than he could possibly pay back in multiple lifetimes and so, he begs for forgiveness. The master says, "I release you from your debt." Then, the guy goes out, and there's another fellow servant who owes him a significantly smaller portion. He assaults him and says, "Pay me back what you owe me."
Those are the two different perspectives. One is "I release you from your debt", the other is "Pay me back what you owe me”. The second is obviously not forgiveness, but I release you from your debt, that is what forgiveness is.
If you've been hurt by someone or many people, I think one step is, in a healthy place write down what that person owes you. What are all the things taken from you? You could say the person has hurt me and they cost me trust. Their actions against me have influenced my relationships, or how I see myself. It's affected all these kind of things. To weigh it up, and really count the cost, what is justice; that's what they owe you.
Then, the next step is really important. It's then looking at this list and then saying, "OK, with God's grace, I set you free. With God's grace, I'm not going to make you pay me back. We can still hurt; we can still experience those old wounds. We still have to make the decision again and again to forgive but a huge thing that forgiveness does, is it gives the freedom to move forward. We're not anchoring ourselves by holding on to someone by the throat saying, "Pay me back what you owe me". We're saying, "You know what? It was a huge deal that you did what you did. It was expensive to me, I counted the cost. This is all what you owe me, but I release you from your debt. I won't make you pay me back what you owe me and I'm going to move on from here, with God's help."
We can only do this with God's grace and so, I invite you, before you do any of this stuff, ask the Holy Spirit to come and help you. Ask Jesus to guide your actions and your thoughts and trust the Father in all this.
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
Pastor Jeremy
Coming Up At Mount Carmel
Missions Focus for Month of June:
It is not to late. You can give to WMB for another 6 days online. Here is the link. Make sure you use the drop down and select Monthly Mission Focus. For more information on on WMB here is a great page to read up on it.
Senior High Camp:
July 29th– August 2nd, $325. High School students save the date for our Senior High Camp. We would love to see you and your friends be able to go. For more information and registration, see Chelsea or you can go to our district website: socalnaz.org
Fall Festival Planning Meeting:
Wednesday, July 18. Save this date for our Fall Festival planning meeting. We want to make sure that we have all hands on deck for these outreach events so please come and be a part of the planning meeting.
Offering:
To all those who give during out service or online, THANK YOU!!! The money you give goes to helping our community and the global church. If you missed giving this week, just visit our giving page here and give online.
We also are set up to receive Faith Promise through our online giving here just make sure that you select Faith Promise instead of general offering.
Tithing is a discipline that will strengthen your faith and the church cannot function properly without your support. If you consider Mount Carmel your church home, please pray about being obedient to the Lord in this way.
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July 29th– August 2nd, $325. High School students save the date for our Senior High Camp. We would love to see you and your friends be able to go. For more information and registration, see Chelsea or you can go to our district website: socalnaz.org
Fall Festival Planning Meeting:
Wednesday, July 18. Save this date for our Fall Festival planning meeting. We want to make sure that we have all hands on deck for these outreach events so please come and be a part of the planning meeting.
Offering:
To all those who give during out service or online, THANK YOU!!! The money you give goes to helping our community and the global church. If you missed giving this week, just visit our giving page here and give online.
We also are set up to receive Faith Promise through our online giving here just make sure that you select Faith Promise instead of general offering.
Tithing is a discipline that will strengthen your faith and the church cannot function properly without your support. If you consider Mount Carmel your church home, please pray about being obedient to the Lord in this way.
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