Wednesday, February 27, 2013

The Lord's Prayer Part II - Talking to the Father about the Family, Part 41 of 61

TEXT: "In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors" (Matthew 6:9-12).

IDEA: Only if we are pardoned sinners ourselves can we forgive others.

PURPOSE: To help listeners understand that only those who know they are forgiven can really forgive.

Jesus tells us that forgiveness for our debts depends in some way on how we forgive others.

See Matthew 6:14-15: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

Do you find this an almost impossible action to fulfill?

Perhaps we are confused about what forgiveness is.

I. There are some things that forgiveness is not.

It is not covering up our sin with a blanket of love.

Forgiveness demands that the wrong be exposed to the light of God (Psalm 51). God is light and in him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5,7).

It is not “Forgive and Forget.”

II. Forgiveness means that my sin no longer is a chasm that separates me from my Heavenly Father.

It is what happens when a husband deceives his wife. Something “between” them is broken. When the wife forgives, she may not be able to “forget” what happened. It means that “this shall not separate us.”

It is what Jesus does because his death takes the punishment and hurt of our sin. Jesus’ cross falls like a bridge across a chasm between the Father and me. To walk across that bridge is what it means to be in a state of forgiveness.

III. If I am not a pardoned sinner living in the awareness that “I am a forgiven sinner,” then I cannot or will not forgive someone who has sinned against me.