April 27, 2008 Sermon Notes

Pastor Marty Grubbs -- April 27, 2008
“The Gift of Forgiveness”
Life Strategies series, part five

“Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” -Matthew 6:12, 14-15

This text reminds us of two great truths:

1. God offers us forgiveness.

“But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” -Romans 5:8

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” -Ephesians 2:8-9

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us

          from all unrighteousness.” -I John 1:9

 

2. God’s grace equips us to forgive others.

To be a forgiver, we must do three things:  (Colossians 3:12-14)

·         Understand -- “Bear with each other …”

·         Forget -- “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”

·         Love -- … put on love …”

 

“This certainly does not mean that our forgiveness of others earns us the right to be forgiven.  It is rather that God forgives only the penitent and that one of the chief evidences of true penitence is a forgiving spirit.  Once our eyes have been opened to see the enormity of our offense against God, the injuries which others have done to us appear by comparison extremely trifling.  If, on the other hand, we have an exaggerated view of the offenses of others, it proves that we have minimized our own.” -John R. W. Stott

 

 

A morning thought...

“Real training for service asks for a hard and often painful process of self-emptying. The main problem of service is to be the way without being ‘in the way.’  And if there are any tools, techniques and skills to be learned they are primarily to plow the field, to cut the weeds and to clip the branches, that is, to take away the obstacles for real growth and development. Training for service is not a training to become rich but to become voluntarily poor; not to fulfill ourselves but to empty ourselves; not to conquer God but to surrender to His saving power. All this is very hard to accept in our contemporary world, which tells us about the importance of power and influence. But it is important that in this world there remain a few voices crying out that if there is anything to boast of, we should boast of our weakness. Our fulfillment is in offering emptiness, our usefulness in becoming useless, our power in becoming powerless.”

- from Reaching Out by Henri J.M. Nouwen