string(7) "m-66998" Burnt Hickory Baptist Church

Sermons

← back to list

Feb 18, 2024

Freedom in Forgiveness

Freedom in Forgiveness

Passage: Matthew 6:12-15

Speaker: Matt Petty

Series: Rethink Your Life

Category: Sunday Sermons

Keywords: church, worship, prayer, faith, god, sermon, christian, bible, christ, gospel, hope, word, grace, preaching, forgiveness, kingdom of god, sermons, holy spirit, peace, spirit, spirituality, spiritual, jesus christ, lord, christianity, letting go, holy, choices, bible study, life change, wellness, forgive me, study the bible, motivational, bible teaching, let it go, christian motivation, burnt hickory worship, burnt hickory baptist church live stream, 2024, relationship with god sermon, rethinking my life

As we continue our sermon series around rethinking our lives, we look today at the idea of finding freedom in forgiveness. God has called and commanded us as forgiven people to forgive. No matter what has happened to each of us, we can never forgive anyone more than God has forgiven us. You see, forgiveness is the act of pardoning an offender, an offense, or a debt, and true forgiveness does not bring other people who have nothing to do with the sin into the situation. True forgiveness makes the offender feel at ease and helps the sinner forgive themselves as you have forgiven them. God wants us to understand and be encouraged to walk in His full power and presence through our freedom in forgiveness. What stands out to you as a significant freedom in being forgiven? How do you need to walk out a life of forgiveness moving forward? Who do you need to forgive even though they may not be seeking your forgiveness? If you’ve got questions about Jesus and living our forgiveness, then connect with us today. We’d love to take time to answer any questions you might have and spend time with you in prayer. As always, you can celebrate your next step in your faith journey by visiting burnthickory.com/next.

Well, good morning, church, and a happy fall break to a lot of you. Now, if you don't know what that means, that just means you went to school when you really went to school, right? Not when you got off every third week. Right. But hey, today is the first to fall break and we just want you to know that we're excited about the family time that comes with that. Before we jump into the message today, I want to give you just a really quick update on the building process here at Hickory. I don't know if you realized it yet, but we have managed to do construction on every single side of this building at one time. It takes a very special church to do that. Amen. That means there's mud everywhere. The doors are always weird, and you never know really how to get into the building, which is what that means. But if you noticed here out front, especially the foundation is in the steel has been had been started, and it's really moving along nicely. And as you are going to notice this coming week, from this point forward, we are about to step into a whole bunch of ugly. All right. Now, here's what I mean in that what I mean in a lot of the front side of the building is about to be affected. All right.

Coming up, I think, this week, actually, which might mean that there is going to be some new traffic patterns. Okay. So, for those of you who have a little bit of a tendency to come in on two levels. All right. Right there, right on time. Please give yourself a couple of extra minutes. We're not really sure week to week, but we're going to do our best to keep you in the know. A couple of things I would just ask you. Number one, just keep being you. Thank you for being flexible. Thank you for just being accepting of all the craziness. Secondly, keep praying for this project. I know it seems weird to pray for a building. I mean, let's just get honest with it. It’s just weird. God bless a building, right? But, man, this is God's house. This is where ministry happens. This is a hub of the community. And you guys just keep praying that the hand of the Lord is involved with this whole process. And then lastly, number three, if your family has not come behind this financially, man, we need you. We need you to be a part of this project. I had this off this week. Hey, Lord, men, tax returns are coming. And I just thought, Well, I have to pay. But anyway, maybe you don't. All right, maybe you don't. But maybe, maybe, that's a way for your family to be involved. I know a couple of years ago, we asked for pledges. A lot of you jumped into the idea of making your pledge. Man, we just know that we are stroking some checks right now, and now's the time. All right? Now's the time to fulfill those. If you have been here since we made those pledges, jump in. We need every family. All right. Hey, there's a commercial. Let's jump into the message.

If you’ve got a copy of Scripture today. I want you to turn with me to Matthew chapter six, as well as Matthew chapter 50. I mean, Genesis chapter. There's not a 50 in Matthew. Genesis Chapter 50. And then, if you want to and you have time, we're also going to spend time in Genesis chapter 45. So. Matt, that's a lot. How are we going to get it in? God willing. All right. God willing, we're going to get there as we start to just kind of continue as we continue into this journey, and then we're just calling to rethink. We've been in this whole series from the beginning year till now. Where we're rethinking some of the big, big areas of our lives because of the truths that our lives follow in our minds. Our minds shape our lives. And so goes our thinking. So goes our lives. And what we're doing is we're pulling off some of those massively big things of our relationship with God that can help us walk that out. In week one, we looked at our salvation, we look at our worship, we looked at our view of success. We looked at the how and the why of prayer. And then last week, we jumped into the role and the function of the Holy Spirit in our lives, all because if we can begin to train our minds to think as God would have us think, we're going to begin to see our lives begin to point in his direction. Well, listen, this week, I'm just going to go ahead and warn you on the front side of this week what Jesus is about to ask us to rethink this morning. It's hard. And I'm just going to. I don't know how to say it other than that it's really incredibly hard. On the other hand, if we choose to do it, it has an incredible ability to set us free and to move us into the power of God and into this incredible intimate relationship with Jesus. I want to introduce it with a personal story kind of. It's a vulnerable story. All right. I'm going to share my heart with you for a minute. All right. This is hard for me to do.

But when I was a kid, when I was in middle school, actually, when I was in middle school, my family was super involved with church. I tell you, I've told you this a few times. I had a drug problem as a kid, and all it was was I was drug to church. I mean, any time the doors are open, we were there. All the time. It's just how it was. Well, my mom was involved with this lady's group at our church and they were like super active. I mean, like, way more active than any dude ever wanted to be. But your ladies just let you do it right And they met all the time. And at Christmas time, they did this thing called the Secret Santa. You might remember that where you would draw from a hat, who your person is, that you were going to be this, like, secret gift giver, too. That's what you guys do, right? And all season long they would leave cards and leave little gifts, all leading up to kind of a huge Christmas gift at the end of the season. Well, one afternoon at Christmas time, I came home from school and all my front porch was this huge Christmas poinsettia. I mean, it was beautiful. It was incredible. I mean, I'm like, man, that is an incredible flower on my front porch. And nobody was home. And I was like, Well, that's kind of cool. I wonder who sent that. I wonder if Dad did that for Mom, right?

I walked over to it, grabbed the card, and it said two Freida. That's my mom's name from your Secret Santa. And I thought, Well, that's really nice of her. But then, as the righteous middle schooler that I was, I thought, wait a minute, this is a secret Santa. This person will never be known. And I do not have a Christmas present for my mother. Do you see where this is going? Yes, I did. So, I did what any great middle schooler would do. I ran into the house. I looked into that drawer that had all those cards in it. You know, the one you open and it falls all out, all the Christmas cards, all the stuff I found, just the one. I took my card out. I wrote to Mom from your loving son Matt. Right? I brought that flower in. I slapped that baby on the kitchen table, and I could not wait for my mother to get home. When she got home, I said, My mom. My mom. I got you a secret. I got you a secret. She's like, What is it? What is it? What is it? I got you this flower right here. And that was huge. This was before the days of me having a device and hitting up a little order, and it showed up at the house. She was like, my goodness. I still remember to this day mean she was teared up. She was crying. I am the promised child at this moment and like any good mother would do, she told everyone that she knew what her son had done for her. She just could not believe it, right? She could not believe how thoughtful I was, how incredible this guy was. Right. What I did not know about this Secret Santa deal that you guys have done right is that at the end of the season, you told the person who you're the Secret Santa for, Right? That would've been a great detail for me to know, Right? In the sovereignty of the Lord, I might add. Right. Not one, but two nights after this little espionage and the Petty household, the ladies were getting together to reveal who their secret Santa was.

One more step into the sovereignty of God. It was at my house. Oh yes. Do you see where this goes? 20, 30. Ladies, come over to the house. They're meeting together. Everybody is there. They're revealing each other. Give giving their last gift and all. Before that happened, Mom had told every one of those ladies about her promised son. And her secret Santa looked at those flowers and looked at my mother and went, hmmm. Do you see where this is going? Let me remind you: I was a child of the eighties and back in the eighties, corporal punishment was allowed. Yes. The truth came out. Yes. As the old people would say, I had some explaining to do. And yes, while I might not remember all of the consequences of that evening, what I do remember about that night is, number one, you can break your mother, all right? You can do it. You can break her. But number two, as part of my becoming a better human being, I had to go to this lady and apologize in person. I had to go to this lady and apologize. And, man, I didn't want to do it. I mean, who's going to do that, right? I didn't want to do it right. I know it's cause I knew I was guilty. There was no getting around it. Right. But I had to go to the side and apologize. And one more time, in the sovereignty of the Lord, here's how the Lord works. She was my Sunday school teacher. Yeah. Yeah. So Sunday rolled around and I had to walk into my life group. It would be today, Sunday school back then. And I had to say, Hey, Miss. So-and-so. I’m not going to say her name. You might be related to her. I said, Hey, Miss So-and-so. She goes, Matt, I know, I know. And listen to this. I'll never forget these words.

The rest of my life. I know. I want you to know that I love you. I want you to know that I forgive you, And I want you to know that I will never mention this to you again. Church, that is what we're going to talk about today. That’s forgiveness. That taught me something.

Listen, I don't remember one thing that lady taught me from a Sunday school book. All right. Sorry. I don't remember one thing, but I do remember she taught me that day what it looks like to be a person of faith who walks out the command that we're about to see. This morning, we're going to walk through the idea of rethinking what forgiveness looks like in my life. We're going to see it through Jesus's eyes and we're going to see it through an Old Testament hero’s eyes really quickly. Now, a few weeks ago, we looked at the model prayer of Jesus, the Lord's Prayer of Jesus, where Jesus, in a section of the Bible, was speaking to believers on how to flourish in their relationship with Jesus. And actually, Jesus began, even in the Lord's Prayer, to introduce this topic of forgiveness. If you remember, Jesus said as part of the Lord's Prayer, right is right after we lift him up, and we hallow his name right after we get to rule ourselves and point ourselves for his will to be done. Jesus showed us that in God's prayer, we should pray. What do we do? We begin to ask God to do some things in our lives. And he said this in Matthew chapter six, verse 12. And he says, and God, watch this, forgive us of our debts. Matthew 6:12, Forgive us of our debts or forgive us of our sins. Now, none of us really have a problem with that part of the verse. No believer runs from that. Right.

But then the second part is where the tension comes in. He says, And forgive us of our debts as we forgive our debtors, or if you memorize it like it is like I did, as we forgive those who sin against us, to which we would say, Well, Matt, I'm okay. I'm tracking with the first part of that. Now, one God to forgive me. Yes, God give me the grace that I need, that I deserve. But God. But, Matt, that second part, that's the one I'm not really sure about. Let me just encourage you for a minute and say this. Nobody's sure about it. Nobody is. Nobody likes that. Why? Because that causes some heartache. In fact, let me let you off the hook just a little bit and say this: forgiving other people is one of the hardest things that we do as human beings. But on the second side of that, our lack of forgiveness actually has the power and potential, according to Jesus, to be one of those things that drag us down and steal God's power from our lives. Really, we just get to the bottom of it. It can rob us when we withhold forgiveness, and it can rob the power, the joy, and the hope that God wants us to have.

So Jesus, incredible teacher, what does he do? He not only puts this idea that we should forgive others in this model prayer in Matthew 6:14, but he actually circles back around to it again after the prayer in kind of the footnote verses of the prayer. I'm not sure you ever noticed this before, but out of all the things that Jesus could have come back to immediately, right after the Lord's Prayer, to give emphasis to or to shine a spotlight on the only thing that Jesus circled back to was this idea of forgiveness. But why? I mean, was it just more important than the other things? No, it's just because he knew how hard it was. It's almost as if we're like those Pharisees that all the time Jesus would say, Hey, I know what you're thinking, right? Jesus leans into it again in the next verses. Watch this without a break. Matthew 6:14 says this. It says, If you forgive other people when they sinned against you, your Heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others of their sins, your Heavenly Father will not forgive your sins.

Now, that's a scary verse, right? And this is a tough two verses. And here's why. Because a lot of us read that through a noncontextual application versus being able to see it through the context of the whole New Testament and what has actually happened. Let me see if I can help you understand what's happening in this verse. So, who is Jesus speaking to in this verse? Obviously, he's speaking to the disciples, right? And he's leaning into this idea, speaking to these true followers of Jesus, into this idea of what it looks like to be a follower of his and flourish in his love. So listen, Jesus is not primarily talking about salvation forgiveness here. There is there's kind of two different kinds of forgiveness. There's judicial forgiveness that will set us free and save us. And then there's the forgiveness of the Father who is already Lord of our lives that we receive to be restored back into his power. That's what he's talking about here.

Jesus is leaning into this idea that he's primarily talking about if you want God's power in your life if you want to remain in God's power in your life, if you want the Holy Spirit ruling in your life and kind of secondary, if you have been forgiven, then you will forgive. That's what he's saying. In fact, write this principle down. Maybe it'll help you. God has commanded. He's called and commanded us as forgiven people to forgive. He's called and he has commanded to which a lot of us would go, Matt. Are you really sure about this? Right? But, Matt, what about justice? God is a just God. We'll get to that. Right? But Matt, are you sure forgiveness is always necessary? 100% Yes, it is. I going to prove it to you. The reality is we could spend the rest of this day walking through the parables, walking through the healings of Jesus, and walking through the events of Jesus's life that truly show us how big of a deal forgiveness is. We can watch him walk it out.

We could also walk through all of the Apostle Paul’s statements about forgiveness, which are kind of just one-liners. In fact, I pulled a couple of them out for us. Ephesians 4:32 says Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ. God forgave you. Colossians 3:12. Let me give you another one. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. There's a good goal for the work week, right? And what do you say? Bear with each other and forgive one another. If any of you has a grievance against someone, forgive as the Lord has forgiven you. Paul goes even further in Romans 12, verses 17 and 18. He says this, and do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone and if possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Look, I know. Listen, I realize most of us know this truth as we know it right here. You know, can we? Can we just agree with that?

I'm not teaching you anything you don't know. But the question is, do we know it right here? We know it intellectually, but really and truly, do we know it here? And here's the problem with forgiveness. Forgiveness has these two polar opposite sides to it. One author said it like this: Forgiveness is such a beautiful word when we need it, but it's such an evil, harsh word when we have to give it. So here's what I know. All right. Let me just say this. And I'm making up this number because I just needed a statistic. All right, here it is. Here's what I know. 47% of you guys, that's a major number. I don't know. There's a lot of you are right now. Here's what you're thinking in your mind because that's what I was thinking when I was writing this. Matt, I know I need to forgive, but. But, Matt, you just don't understand. That's what you're thinking right now. Matt, I know I need to forgive, but, Matt, you don't understand how I was betrayed. You don't understand how harsh it was. You don't understand how I was lied to. You don't understand how they took advantage of me. You don't understand what they said about me or what they did to me. Or better yet, Matt, you don't know what they did to my kids. Or how about this one, Matt? You don't know my family. How about that one? Or even better, Matt, You don't know my ex. You don't know my boyfriend. Matt You don't know. Here's another one. You don't know my past church leadership. Well, listen, let me just say this with as much compassion as I can because I resonate with your statement. I just want to say I'm so sorry. I really am. I am so sorry. Whatever it is is in your mind, you're saying I don't know. I listen, I'm sorry. And I don't know. I don't know how bad it was. I don't know the specifics of it. I don't know your pain. I don't know your former abuse. I don't know how bad it was. And I listen. I'm going to do my best never to pretend like I do. But here's what I do know.

God knows and God cares. God knows and he cares. But also on the flip side of that, God also even in the middle of whatever it is that's going on in here, listen, he still says to forgive. He still says to forgiveness. Let me remind you of a couple of things because that's one thing that's going in your mind. Here's here's nothing is going on in your mind, Matt. You don't know how nasty they are. And I'm afraid of them. And I get that. I resonate with that. I would say this: God is never going to ask you to personally or physically step into a potentially dangerous situation or conversation with an aggressor in your life. He's never going to ask you to put your life on the line to forgive someone who's not who God is personally. So take that off the table if that's what's kind of keeping you from forgiving someone.

Listen, forgiveness is not always in person. It's not. Because sometimes there's a situation where you just can't do that with a persistent, unrepentant, manipulating, confronting person. Forgiveness is not always in person. But yes, God is asking you to forgive that person, whatever it is, in all circumstances. Which brings to me the third one that can maybe kind of help some of this out. Listen, forgiveness is not the same thing as reconciliation. It's not. And I think this is the biggest reason that we kind of go wrong and forgive a lot of times. Let me let me see if I can explain in a way by saying this forgiveness is a one-way street. Does that make sense? It's a one-way street that all believers are called to offer, no matter the feelings of the other person. Reconciliation takes both parties. It takes both parties in mind to which, remember, you will never be held accountable for how someone else responds to your offer of forgiveness. You're not. And let me go a little bit deeper. Listen, listen. Reconciliation is not always possible. It's just not. Especially if the other person is a nonbeliever. If they lack a biblical foundation or are even being pushed by the Holy Spirit, Reconciliation is not always available. But what Jesus is telling us in these verses is that forgiveness is. Forgiveness is. Do not let the lack of reconciliation or ability to reconcile with someone blocks you from being able to forgive that person. You're not responsible for that person's feelings or for their repenting. So God has clearly called us to forgive, but it doesn't always lead to reconciliation. Let me just free you up from that. Some of you guys have withheld forgiveness because you thought that person would never reconcile with me. That is not the goal. The goal for you is forgiveness. And here's why this is so hard. Some of us don't understand.

There are two kinds of forgiveness. Let me just kind of get technical for like 2 minutes. He's going to make a point. Here's a deal. There are two kinds of forgiveness. The first kind of forgiveness is that smart people just call unilateral forgiveness. Uni means one. It means this. There is one person involved, forgiveness. Here's what that is. Universal forgiveness is when we forgive a person who has not asked for it, has not requested it has not repented for what they've done. In other words, you are the only person involved in what you are doing is you are offering them forgiveness. On your own. Without their involvement, you are granting them forgiveness. Here's what you're doing. You're just saying, Hey, I forgive you. It doesn't matter where their heart is. Now, I know the question in your mind is why in the world would I ever do that? Right? Why would I ever forgive a person that doesn't want me to forgive them? Here's why you do it. You do it so you can keep going. You do it so you can keep moving and you do it So the Spirit of God can continually guide you in your life. Man, I'm just going to tell you that if you do not offer forgiveness to other people, you are cutting God's legs out from under you and your life. That's what you're doing. You do it so the Spirit of God can move in you. And listen, unilateral forgiveness; I know this sounds really technical. It keeps you from being held hostage by something that the other person may never get right. They might never get it right. Sometimes, they've died and they can't get it right. Sometimes are so grotesque that you can never even be in their presence again. Sometimes, they're so unrepentant that there is no sign of them ever changing.
Look, if we don't give this kind of unilateral forgiveness, we are being held hostage by something that may never change. God has said to forgive. The other kind of forgiveness is not unilateral forgiveness, it’s transactional forgiveness. And that just means that both parties want this to happen. This is the one that we love. This is the one that we're looking for. This is the one that we've always thought is the sign that we should move in this forgiveness. But listen, we, as believers in Jesus, we are called to forgive both ways. This is not a wait-and-see. Wait and see if they repent gain, but for many others, that's what forgiveness looks like to us. It's as if they'll just give me the least little glimpse of any kind of change. Matt, if they'll just give me any kind of little moment,

Matt, I will swoop in and I will take care of the rest. That's not what God has called us to do. God has called us to forgive. He's called us and commanded us, as true believers, to clearly, repeatedly, and empathetically just forgive people. Why? It's easy. Because we have been forgiven. That's why we forgive. We forgive because God has forgiven us and because we are the representation of God on this planet. Listen, that is in. That's why we forgive. Man, there's this principle that's just convicting me all week long. I put in your notes. Listen to this. No matter what has happened to me, I will never forgive anyone more than God has forgiven me. Listen, that's why we forgive. You do realize the cosmic treason that sin on my behalf to God has caused will never be smaller and will never come down to the level of what someone else has done for you. You see, Matt, how is that? Here's why. Because when we sin, we sin against a holy God who's never had a blemish against him. There is no part of any conversation that is ever wrong. When other people sin against us. It is sinner, sin, and against sinner. Do you see the difference in this?

But yet God, watch what He did. Romans 5:8. God demonstrated his own love for us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So the reality is when we are tempted to withhold forgiveness, let us remind ourselves to thank God he didn't withhold it from us. That's a whole different paradigm, is it not? That's a whole different paradigm. It'll just give me a little sign of those. Give me a little something. I will step in. Why do we forgive? Because we have been forgiven. Because we're the hands and feet of Jesus. And because we show the love of God when we forgive. Now look, that should probably be the end of the message right there. Right? But it's not. But here's why. Here's why. Because your mind is like my mind. I'm like, but man, can you really do that? I mean, can you really do it? I get the etherealness. I get the fact Jesus could do it. I mean, gosh, he's God. Yeah, he can do that. But can anyone really do that? Is there a place that shows me how this works? To which I would say yes.

Turn with me over to Genesis chapter 50 because, in Genesis chapter 50, we get to see a man named Joseph, that is the absolute epitome of what forgiveness is and how forgiveness can happen. I quickly just want to walk you through a little bit of this biblical narrative that shows us an incredible example of forgiveness that you can lean into this week when you walk away from this place as you're rethinking this forgiveness area of your life and as you're struggling through a way to find not to justify your way out of forgiving. I’ll quickly show you this man named Joseph. Now listen, Joseph, as some of you know, if there's anyone in the whole Old Testament that they could have withheld forgiveness and probably been justified, it's this cat, right? When you look at this guy's life just for a minute, I mean, he is from an incredibly dysfunctional family here, a dysfunctional father. His mom died when he was young. His brothers hated him so much that they wanted to kill him. So they changed their minds and threw him in a pit. They changed their mind again. They were like super indecisive and they sold him into slavery for years. They put him into slavery in Egypt, where he was seduced and unjustly jailed. He was forgotten in jail. He was completely alone. If anyone in the Bible had a right to be mad or say his life is not fair or possibly even not forget, it was Joseph.

But God wanted us to know Joseph so much. He put his story in Genesis 37 all the way through Genesis 50 to show the power of God and what it looks like to forgive. Really, God wanted to show us. This is a problem, but you can make it through it. So let's see how Joseph forgave just for a minute and then we'll tie a bow around this at the end. We're going to catch up with the story in Genesis chapter 50. This is the back side of the story where the brothers had come into the kingdom. Joseph had saved all of Egypt. He had saved his people, his brothers, and his dad living in the kingdom that he had provided. And then the dad dies and the brothers get a little squirrely. Watch what happens in Genesis 50 or 17. They thought that Joseph was about to come after them. Verse fifteen. It says when Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him? So they sent word to Joseph saying, Your father left these instructions before he died. This is what you were to say to Joseph. This is the father speaking. They're speaking on his behalf. He said I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly. Now, please forgive the sins of the servants and of the God the servants of the God Your Father.

When their message came to him, Joseph wept. Joseph is at this moment we're going to see in just a minute that he has already forgiven his brothers. But his brothers are already there. They're still in this bondage of We knew we did wrong. We knew we did wrong. We knew where they were all. And it's not Joseph's fault that this is where his brothers were. It's just where they were. And so now Joseph, once again, is at this crossroads of forgiveness. He's having to decide, am I going to live in the bondage of unforgiveness, or am I going to live in the freedom of forgiveness? Now, I realized when I was reading this verse that I'd been talking for about 22 minutes and I hadn't even defined forgiveness for you. So let me put it on the screen real quick. Forgiveness is the act of pardoning an offender, an offense, or a debt. That's what forgiveness is. Some of us have never been taught. We've been taught the word, but we don't know what it is. Forgiveness is the reality of me letting go of a sin, letting go of an offense that someone has done to me. Does that make sense? You see when you sin against someone, it's like there is a debt that is incurred, and forgiveness is my decision to no longer relate to that person with that debt in mind. Now, that doesn't mean that I forget it. It doesn't mean that I justify it.

It doesn't mean that I excuse it or even pretend like it didn't happen or ignore it. But what it does mean is that in forgiveness, you are making the decision. Listen to me right here to pardon that sin, to pardon that sin and that sinner. Right. And this is incredible. And it shows us in this event what exactly is happening, because Joseph has already forgiven his brothers. And we see that despite how much Joseph has loved his brothers, he has forgiven them. They're still struggling with this idea. And now they all are feeling this idea of does he still forgives us. Like, yeah, I still forgive you. That’s why he wept in front of them. But I want you to see Joseph's act of forgiveness, though. Flip back to verse chapter 45 with me for a minute because Joseph shows us a true model of forgiveness right here really quickly. And I want you to see what Joseph does because he taught me some things this week that I just said. Man, Lord, I don't know how these two things go together. I'm just going to smash them together and hope for the best. Right? Genesis 45. This is when Joseph has saved his brother's life, but they don't know who he is yet. He hasn't revealed himself to him, but he's about to watch this. It says this: Then Joseph can no longer control himself before is attends all his attendance. And he cried out, Have everyone leave my presence.

So, there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. He wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and the Pharaoh's household heard about it. So what's happening here? Joseph knows that these are His brothers. He's been taking care of them and sending food home. And now he wants to tell his brothers that he forgives them, that he invites them back into the kingdom. And so, what does Joseph do to show us that he's really forgiven his brothers? Write this down. Number one. Forgiveness that is real or true forgiveness, number one, does not bring other people into the situation who have nothing to do with the sin. Did you see this in Joseph's life? What happened? The brothers came in and he sent all the Egyptians out and he said, I am only going to talk to my brothers about this situation. You see, here's the deal. You know that a person has not forgiven something in their lives when they continue to gossip about it. When they continue to talk about it, they do the opposite of Joseph. What do they do? They bring people into the situation who can't fix it, who can't resolve it. They have nothing to do with the situation and might not even know about the situation. But because they want to vent, what do they do? They involve other people. What does it mean? We want to vent to someone. It really just means that we don't want forgiveness. We want vengeance. You see if you think of forgiving someone but yet still inviting other people into the conversation, you're not for giving them. You're just wanting to vent about it. Joseph says forgiveness doesn't invite other people into the situation.

Now, it doesn't mean that in counseling situations or wisdom situations, if somebody can walk with you, that's not what it's talking about. But are you seeking vengeance, or are you seeking forgiveness? Now, what happens in Joseph's life? He reveals himself to his brothers in this situation. He shows that it's really him, and then he shows us number two, what happens in forgiveness. Number two, write it down. Forgiveness makes the offender feel at ease. Now, I know that is totally anti, or most of us want to operate when somebody steps on us. Right. But isn't that his picture of who Jesus was? Isn't that a picture of what Jesus did on the cross? Isn't that a picture of what Jesus was doing, even as he was being beaten on his way to the cross? And in so many of his stories. Now get out of your mind a safety situation. I'm not talking about going to an offender who is physically or sexually abused. Are you saying you need to make them feel at ease? That's not what I'm saying. I'm talking about a common offense here. But why would Joseph do it? Verse three says, Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. He said, Is my father still living? But his brothers were not able to answer him because they were terrified in his presence. Don't be all judgy. You would have been, too, right? I mean, this sold your brother into slavery and now you're standing in front of him and he’s second in command of all of Egypt.

You are thinking, this is the day I die, right? That's what you're thinking right here. But watch what Joseph does. He shows us forgiveness. Then Joseph said to his brothers, Come close to me. Can I? Can I just say that phrase never hit me like it hit me this week? This isn't a this isn't an angry get-over here. No, that's what we want to think, right? No, no. This is just tenderly Joseph going, Hey, come here. Come close to me. Keep reading. It says when they had done so, he said, I am your brother. The one you sold in Egypt. And you can just picture this in your mind, can't you? You can picture them pulling them in, not out of rage, but out of tenderness. But what did he say to them? What do you say? He looked at his brothers. He's like, yes, you did wrong. All right, don't get me wrong.

Forgiveness is not just kind of throwing it out. No, he's saying you did wrong, but I'm welcoming you back into my space. I'm welcoming you back into my life. You wrong me. But come here. I forgive you. I welcome you. And what Joseph is saying is, I am beginning the restoration process with you. Keep reading in verse five. Watch what he does. He says Now do not be distressed and not be angry with yourselves for showing me here. We are watching a miraculous forgiveness. He goes even further right here and he gives us the third kind of indicator of true forgiveness. Write it down. True forgiveness helps the sinners forgive themselves as you forgive them. Isn't that what Joseph is doing right here? You see, Joseph essentially says, Hey, listen, brothers. I mean, that was nasty, right? You sold me. But he looks at me and says, Hey, listen, don't keep being mad at yourself. I forgive you. I forgive you. What did Joseph say? He says, I am canceling your debt and I want to help you forgive yourself. Now, notice what Joseph didn't do. Joseph didn't just keep throwing a heap of guilt on guilt, or hurt on hurt, or shame on shame.

They were guilty. They knew they were guilty. But Joseph wants them to be able to forgive themselves. Why? Because he is the representation of God, and he knows it. But I can hear you, Matt. How in the world can you do that? Man, I get this idea. I'll throw out a yeah, I’ll forgive you and move on. But how could I do this? Once again, it goes back to your view of God. It goes back to what? Your view of what God has done for you, what He is doing for you, and what he's going to do for you one day. If you do not have an accurate picture of that, you will never be able to free someone up in forgiveness. Man, look at verse five. He keeps going. He understands who God is, what he does, what he says, He says. And now do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourself for selling me here. Watch this. Because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.

At the bottom line, Joseph loses brothers because, listen, you. You sold me here. But God sent me here. You sold me here. But God put me here. Listen closely. God always works in the life of his kids. In other words, Jesus has a plan for you, and he will use every single up in your life. And he will use every single down in your life. And God used this specific tragedy to save many. When you have a view and an understanding of God that is even in the messes and even in the tragedies, God can use your life. You will quickly become a major force of forgiveness and a major force of showing who God is to the people on this planet. That's what forgiveness is. Forgiveness is the idea that we begin to help and heal from within us, and it begins to point to God. And it really shows us that we are not in the vengeance game because the vengeance game steals the power of God from our lives. Watch Joseph in verse nine. He releases them from their guilt. He says, Now hurry back to my father and say to them, This is what your son Joseph says. Says God has made me Lord of all Egypt, come down to me and don't delay. Joseph says, Listen, brothers. Yeah, you wronged me. Yeah. You're evil. Yeah. You did this. I forgive you. Now get Dad. Tell Dad that I'm okay. Tell Dad that I'm more than okay. Tell Dad that I'm not some measly survey. Tell Dad that God, through his faithfulness, has risen me up, and now I am now in charge of all of Egypt. He says, Don't tell Dad how evil you are. Tell your dad how good God is.

You see, this makes no sense unless you know who God is. Because why? Because part of the things that we set out to get in forgiveness is that we want vengeance. But when we realize who God is, we know that God is the God of vengeance. He's the God of justice. Vengeance is His, saith the Lord. And he's released us from worrying about it. Because I'm going to tell you, believers, God will situate people one day. It's not our role. In forgiveness, here's what, here's what God does. True forgiveness, number four, as we’re closing. True forgiveness sets us up for God to encourage us, use us, and walk in His full power and presence. That's Joseph's life. Do you know what happens to you when you forgive at the bottom core level? Here's what happened to you. You move into the supernatural. You jump into the literal power of God. Why? Because forgiveness is not natural. It's not natural. Do you know why? Because we're sinners. Do you know why? Because we have a built-in vengeance need. But when you choose to forgive, you are stepping into the supernatural of God.

So, in a way, listen to this. When we forgive, we are released from the pain of the past and we're released to follow the one who is already in tomorrow. That's what it does. But unforgiveness puts a lock on God's power in our lives. Here's my final question for the morning. Is it worth more to you to hold on to the debt of sin that someone has committed against you? Or is it worth more to experience the full power, presence, and movement of God in your life? Joseph would say, I can tell you which one’s worth more. Listen, I can tell you just from some things in my life that I've had to go back and situate which one is better. But I'm going to tell you today: God has just called us to forgive. Church, we have a God that's so much bigger than any offense has been against you. He set you free from it, but today, will you step into forgiveness?

Look, some of you today, you're like, I don't know Matt. I’m just not sure. Let me tell you what I know is true for probably most of us. There's someone in your mind right now. Someone from some event in your mind right now that you need to forgive. Maybe that person is repentant. Maybe they're not repentant. I don't know. I don't know. That's not the care. The care is that God has asked you to forgive. Maybe your whole life for this last season of your life. You have done everything you can to get your spiritual life back on track. You've read your Bible, you've been to church, you've been nice to people, right? But it just still doesn't seem like the spirit of God is ruling your heart. Maybe it's because there is some repentance and there's some forgiveness that needs to happen.

Lord, today, as we walk into this invitation moment, Lord Jesus, God, here's my prayer. My prayer, Lord, is that you would help us forgive. Not because this makes us look better, but because you have forgiven us, you've called us to be your representation on this earth, and it shows the love of God in people's lives. Lord, I don't know who's on people's minds today, but God, here's what I know. During the next couple of minutes, God, I just ask you to move in this place. God, this altar is open. God, I'll be over by the next steps banner over here. I’ll have some people who would love to pray with people who need to release some people in forgiveness. But God, what I do know is that a whole lot of us today can really begin to walk in Your power if we can settle this one thing in our lives. Thank the Lord Jesus for moving in us. It’s in your name.

Amen. Amen.

Would you stand with me today? If you need to give your life to Christ, if you want somebody to talk to, if you want somebody to pray with you in these next couple of minutes or for you, or if you just need to run out of here real quick and go forgive someone, you can do that as well. Let’s sing together.

Follow Along with the Message

Freedom in Forgiveness

February 18, 2024

Matthew 6:12
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Matthew 6:14–15
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

PRINCIPLE: God has called and us as forgiven people to forgive.

Ephesians 4:32
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Colossians 3:12–13
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
Romans 12:17–18
17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

PRINCIPLE: No matter what has happened to me, I will never forgive anyone than God has forgiven me.

Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Ephesians 4:32
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Genesis 50:15–17
15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” 16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: 17 ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept.

FORGIVENESS: the act of an offender, offense, or a debt

Genesis 45:1–2
1 Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Have everyone leave my presence!” So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household heard about it.
True Forgiveness

1. Does not bring people into the situation who have nothing to do with the sin.

2. Makes the offender feel at .

Genesis 45:3–4
3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence. 4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt!
Genesis 45:5
And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here…

3. Helps the sinner forgive as you forgive them.

Genesis 45:5
And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.
Genesis 45:9
“Now hurry back to my father and say to him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; don’t delay.’”

4. Sets us up for God to encourage us, to use us, and to walk in His full and presence.

Take the Next Step »

Additional Notes

 

Email (To Send Copy of Notes)