Sermon

Rev. Robert A. Kem

So “Why Forgiveness”

Sermon Series One

Forgive and Get Your Life Back

By Dennis Maynard

2/11/07



The people from Jerusalem Judea and Tyre and Sidon come to hear Jesus teaching and to be healed of their diseases and those who were troubled with uncleam spirits were cured. Power came forth from him and Jesus healed them all. As we take a look at Jesus earthly ministry we find that he was doing two things with his disciples: teaching and healing. Jesus healed those who came to him with physical needs such as the blind and the lame, those with leprosy.



But he also healed those with spiritual needs like the man who came to him brought by his friends on a bed paralyzed and to this man Jesus said, “Your sins are forgiven pick up your bed and go home.” He did.



But today we see another need and that was to heal those who came with unclean spirits.

“Unclean spirits” covers many of the emotional illnesses that have to do with forgiveness and unforgiveness. We see emotional illnesses treated today by doctors in such illnesses as depression, fear, anger, anxiety disorders.



Unforgiveness can impact our relationships with family members, a father, a mother, brothers or sisters and other close family and friends. Unforgiveness begins as an emotional issue but can and will manifest itself in physical illnesses in the human body. Ultimately unforgiveness affects our souls and becomes one of the most important spiritual issues in our relationships with God and one another.



Jesus was the great psychiatrist and physician of all times. He knew that the emotional pain caused by unforgiveness could crop up and make us physically sick. So Jesus made certain that he addressed unforgiveness with his disciples.



Peter asks him, “Lord , how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times? Jesus said to him; “I do not say to you seven times but seventy times seven.”



In another teaching about prayer he taught in the Lord’s Prayer; “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”



Here is the central reason why we are to forgive. “Our refusal to forgive others involves our denial of the whole principle of forgiveness as such and is therefore our rejection of God’s forgiveness towards us. He who does not forgive his neighbor has not repented of his own sin, and hence cannot find forgiveness for himself.”



Why should we forgive? Jesus provided by his life and witness the model of complete forgiveness by our God. Forgiveness is key to our salvation and our own healing and wholeness.



As humans we chose to break from God in the garden by our sin. We willfully broke away from God and what he asked us to do. We were living in alienation as human beings from our God.



God loved us so much that he came up with a plan to send His only Son to heal us and to forgive us so that we might be brought back into a relationship of wholeness with God and one another.



But we turned against God. Jesus was arrested byhisown people, falsely accused, and suffered punishment and finally death on a cross. We hear Jesus response on forgiveness in his own words from the cross just hours before his death.



“Father forgive them for they know not what they do”. He did not say “I am angry because I was treated unfairly. I will seek my revenge to get even with these men.”



No, Jesus shows us that true healing comes when we have truly forgiven those that have hurt us. Forgiveness is when we actually get control of our lives back. We are set free from those that would try to hurt us. We are set free and no longer enslaved by their actions. By forgiving Jesus was in a position of freedom on that cross.



Jesus Christ took forgiveness to the next level which is described in the book by the author as reconciliation. By his going to the cross Jesus took our sins on his back and we call this the atonement or reconciliation where God and man were reconciled through the cross of Christ.



Full restoration came later by his death and resurrection. Jesus resurrection brought all of humanity back into its former harmony and love with God.



Dennis Maynard says that we must begin with the first step in the journey of forgiveness.

Forgiveness is not just Let go of it. Move on forget it. But how do we go about forgiving and forgetting? Forgiving is a difficult journey. It is not easy.



It is especially difficult when one human being can bring pain upon another. Some the most destructive stories of our inhumanity to one anther come out of war, persecution, and the various blood baths that mar human history. Whether we call them racial, religious, or ethnic cleansing, a the stories themselves are tragic. We wonder how those who are subjected to such torment can ever forgive the nightmare that was inflicted on them and their loved ones. Archbishop DesmondTutu reminds us”withoutforgiveness there is no future.”



Forgiveness is a process. It is difficult when our faith and trust in someone is shattered,

and we are hurt emotionally and physically, forgiving will also come at a price.

The betrayal of another has cost us and will cost us. Forgiving those who have hurt us will come at a price. The pain and betrayal may have been thrown into our lives in matter of seconds. Forgiveness will take time. Just as the body takes time time heal from a piercing, so does the soul. Forgiveness is a spiritual work.



The promise is this by traveling the journey of forgiveness we will reach the other side where there is joy, laughter and wholeness restored to your life. As we journey the path of forgiveness we will be able to trust again, love again, and laugh once again. But in the same way, there are no easy, pain free shortcuts to forgiveness.



But as Jesus Christ was the model for us of forgiveness reconciliation and restoration we cannot be guaranteed that we may go beyond forgiveness to the next level of healing.

Forgiveness is the first step. It may be the only one that we can obtain but forgiveness brings healing. It is the key that unlocks the doors to the torturous chamber we are currently calling home.



However, we may or may not reconcile with the person we have forgiven,

We may not be able to go to the third step which is restoring them to their former place in our lives and that is yet another decision we have to make if possible.

This book will enable us to define each separately so that we can make our decisions about each step individually.



The author points out that it is imperative that we understand that we can find healing for ourselves by forgiving those who have hurt us without reconciling with them. Obviously reconciliation is the ideal. Jesus set that out in front of us.



Restoration is the ultimate objective but that cost Jesus his life. That may not be possible for us.But there are situations and circumstances and particular people when neither reconciliation nor restoration is possible. In those cases forgiveness still remains only path for setting ourselves free and getting our lives back.



Over the next six weeks Dennis Maynard will help take us through a step by step process and where we have been hurt we will be encouraged to forgive. We also will be encouraged to leave the past behind and never again bring it into the present.



If reconciliation and restoration are possible than we will choose to do so as that is the ultimate goal in the forgiveness process but on the other hand this process of forgiveness will enable us to let go of the hurts that continue to take their toll on our physical bodies and our souls. That is healing and that is what Christ wants for each one of and it is what he meant when he said to his disciples that “I have come to give you life. To show you a different path that you may choose that will give you life and give it to you more abundantly.”



May God direct you in these next several weeks to join a spiritual growth group where you may share in this process with others who will guide and direct you through this journey of forgiveness. This may be the most important journey of your life on the road to wholeness and healing.