Pastor Paul Chappell: Forgiving One Another

let's read if you have your Bible or your bulletin there Ephesians chapter 4 verse 31 it says let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be kind one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you alright let's pray together and we'll dive into that let's pray father thank you for bringing us here together this morning on this beautiful fall day here in Lancaster thank you Lord for the Bible and for the fact that it gives us a pattern for living and it teaches us about the love of Jesus Christ so help us to learn more of that love and how to make it real in our lives and Lord help us to know the full meaning of your forgiveness today is my prayer in Jesus name Amen you may be seated well in the Bible text this morning we are admonished to forgive one another to forgive of course is to pardon someone it is to show grace to them grace is undeserved favor and so when we forgive someone we are graciously pardoning them forgiveness is me giving up on my right to hurt you for hurting me forgiveness is me giving up on my right to hurt you because you hurt me and this morning I want to challenge you to really think about the importance of living a reconciled life the importance of living a life that is reconciled with God in a life that is reconciled with one another now I really personally believe that life is too short I believe that our health demands and I believe that God teaches us that forgiveness is the only way to live this life and in fact there are many benefits to living a reconciled life and I think about some of the effects of those who live with an on forgiving heart those who live with bitterness or harbor hurts many different types of effects can be seen some of them I put in your notes sometimes people who are not forgiving in their spear we'll bring anger and bitterness into every new relationship of their life sometimes they've become so wrapped up in the wrong that happened in the past that they really cannot enjoy and live in the present sometimes people become depressed or even full of anxiety because of something that's happened in their life some people feel like their life lacks meaning or purpose or even that their faith has completely failed them and some lose valuable and enriching connectedness with others because they lived their life with a paradigm of unforgiveness that sometimes develops even into bitterness and soon they see a threat everywhere and they guard themselves within every relationship because they were hurt in another relationship and they begin to find suspicion in their heart rather than trust and they begin to find that they harbor ill feelings it might be towards men in general or women it might be towards police officers it might be towards religion but all of these relationships can become affected by an unreconciled life in heart and this is why God commands us to forgive one another and I'm telling you some people carry this anger and this hurt all the way to the grave I heard of an elderly lady recently who had never married she requested that at her funeral there be no male pallbearers in a handwritten request she said they wouldn't take me out while I was living and I don't want them taking me out when I'm dead just some folks have trouble getting over certain things and they live their life to the very end harboring certain feelings within themselves well I want to speak to you today about the importance of forgiveness and the first thing we're going to talk about this morning is pretty easy for all of us it is our need to receive forgiveness now all of us can relate with this point because all of us need that sometimes to receive forgiveness how many of you how many of you men understand what I'm talking about there are seasons in your marriage we like yeah I need forgiveness just about every day for my wife for this or for that I remember years ago we moved to Lancaster and I'm one of these guys that likes to get everything neat and organized I mean I even like a neat garage I like to be able to get both cars in I'd like to see where everything's at and there were a lot of boxes out in the garage and so I decided I was gonna get out there and do a good cleaning and I got some extra trash cans and I mean I'm just throwing stuff away because my idea of cleaning is you throw stuff away lots of stuff you throw stuff away and you ask questions later that's kind of how I clean and so I'm having the time of my life out there cleaning this is awesome and and and I've been known to maybe accidentally throw some things away from time to time is so my wife Terry who's here on the front row this morning periodically would look out in the garage like is everything okay yep just cleaning this garage is going great I'm fine she'd go back in and and and sure enough I got the garage pretty clean got all the trash out by the curb and she came out and she said something to me and I hate it when she asks questions like this she says do you know where my wedding top my wedding cake top is and I thought to myself first of all what is a wedding cake top secondly why what I know word is she said it was out there in the garage and all that's and all that pile that you've been cleaning it was out that I said it was I said well then I'm sure it's still in here somewhere sweetheart don't you worry just go back in the house and I tried to act as calm as I could and as soon as she went back into the house panic struck my heart because I've been throwing boxes away all morning long man I looked all through the garage I couldn't find it now just a little history on the wedding cake table it was a crystal wedding cake top of a cross and doves and it was it was created as a a very special creation by my mother-in-law given as a gift to us for our wedding and of course I saw it when we were married but I never thought about it after that but Terry thought about it after that she had placed it there in the garage for a later time to be brought into the house and I looked I couldn't find it I went out to the curb I took all the trash out of the out of the garbage cans and finally at the bottom of the last garbage can there was a box in there and it said wedding cake top and I thought hallelujah I've been saved and I pulled it out and I looked inside and it was crumbled to smithereens I mean it was just pieces of shard of glass in the bottom of the box and I went in and I said hey sweetheart I got some good news and some bad news don't you hate it when people say that by the way I said the good news is I found it the bad news is you can't really recognize it anymore now if you've ever known Terry she's the sweetest kindest submissive wife you know all the characters of a godly proverbs 31 woman but that day I needed an asbestos suit for the look I got that day and and then and then the waterworks came she started to cry she started to remind me the history of the wedding cake top and all of the special things that were done to create it and I'm telling you I I mean I needed forgiveness so bad and but it wasn't happening right immediately that day I went to a I went to a glass shop and I showed him the remaining shards of glass and I said can you make another one of these and they did and I brought it to her and when I showed it to her she looked at it like nice try thankfully after some period of time I think it was last week I think that's been 32 years I finally got out of the doghouse on the wedding cake top now how many of you some of you guys are looking at me like man I can't believe this guy's that dumb guys how many of you have needed forgiveness along the way as well we all need forgiveness for things that we do we need it first of all personally why because we all transgress sometimes it might be something hidden in our heart the Bible says in verse 31 let all bitterness and wrath sometimes it might be something like a bitterness that we're holding it becomes a stronghold 1 counselor Christian counselor said anger may be handled wrongly in either one of two ways either blowing up or clamming up it seems like that's how people handle it they either blow up or they clam up and and so sometimes the sins are in the heart and and yet we need to receive forgiveness for those sometimes the sins are more of a hateful demonstrative type of a sin notice in verse 31 there it says let all bitterness and and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice I mean wrath speaking of a passion anger a blowing up in violent anger a Ben Franklin said anger is never without a reason but seldom with a good one and we see so much anger today in society so many people that are just quick to give a piece of their mind and and so much evil speaking which is speaking of slander people whose character is just slandered and and people say things and and so when these things happen and when we say these things sometimes in a passionate moment maybe even at home maybe at work all of us would admit today we need forgiveness when those things happen we need personal forgiveness but we also need spiritual forgiveness we need the forgiveness of God because the Bible says in Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God now there might be one person here today going well I don't really need forgiveness because you know I can basically walk on water well I want to see you right after church right I want you to sign your autograph on my hand or something but the fact of the matter is biblically we have all sinned all of us need forgiveness and we all need God's forgiveness we all need to be reconciled to God the Bible says in Romans five and 10 for if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life to be reconciled means to be called back to Union to be called back into friendship sometimes I've had the privilege of meeting with people whose marriages were just about done and I've learned and they've experienced that when we apply biblical principles reconciliation can still happen when two people humble themselves and when they seek to follow the leadership of the Lord and we can have reconciliation with God when we humble ourselves and when we say God I admit that I'm a sinner and I I accept you Lord as my Savior we are reconciled to God so all of us need to receive reconciliation every one of us would agree to that but let's look at this second thought and that is our need to give for now all of us want to receive forgiveness but I want to speak to you for just a moment about giving forgiveness you see every one of us need to hear what God is saying in this passage when he says forgiving one another I heard of a woman that was bit by a rabid dog and she went into the doctor and the doctor came in and he said this is not good I don't think you're gonna make it the diagnosis is not good at all and he said you better put your financial financial orders together your affairs together you need to make sure you have a will and he stepped out of the office to get some medicine and such and when he came back in she was just writing furiously writing things furiously and and he said wow that's a long will you're making and she kind of snorted she said will nothing I'm making a list of everybody I'm going to bite now some folks just struggle with forgiveness he wrong to me I'm gonna wronged him what can I do to get even why is it then that we should forgive I mean I want you to see some basic reasons today first of all because God calls us to forgive God calls us to forgive he says forgiving one another give grace give give a pardon to someone you see today in your marriage you're either a scorekeeper or a grace giver you're either a scorekeeper or a grace giver and and you're either always remembering what somebody did wrong or you're giving it to the Lord and the Bible says in Romans 12:19 dearly beloved avenge not yourselves but rather give place unto wrath for it is written vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord be not overcome with evil but overcome evil with good God says you don't have to always get even I can settle the score a lot better than you can you see when we forgive we set two people free and one of them is ourselves because when we're holding in those feelings and when we're struggling against someone in our spirit we really become the captive of those very emotions one time Peter came to Jesus in Matthew 18 and he said Lord how often shall I forgive a brother that sins against me and he said how about seven times and jesus said unto him I saying that until seven times not until seven times but until seventy times seven now in the Jewish economy of things it was traditional that you would forgive someone three times that was the Jewish tradition Peter probably thought I'm doing pretty good to offer seven times but Jesus said hey it's not about seven times he said I want you to learn how to forgive seventy times seven or an infinite number Peter I don't want you carrying the burden the anger the hurt the anxiety I want you to lay that down at my feet and so God has called us to forgive and not only should we get forgive because God has called us to forgive but we should forgive because forgiveness brings healing it brings healing to our life now I think of a Bible story one of my favorites the story of Joseph and Joseph was the man or the brother with the many colors remember that he had the coat of many colors and his brothers became very jealous and and in fact so jealous they threw him into a pit they they brought blood and showed the coat with blood on it to their father and they said he's gone and they sold him into slavery in Egypt they literally totally betrayed their brother but something happened God began to elevate Joseph and he became the second in power in all of Egypt and a famine came into the land in Israel and so suddenly Josef's brothers had to come down and ask for food of joseph now they did not know at first that it was Joseph and Joseph did not know at first that it was his brethren who came but the Bible says in Genesis 50 this is thirty nine hundred years ago the Bible tells us they sent a messenger unto Joseph saying thy father did command before he died saying so shall ye say unto Joseph forgive I pray thee now the trespass of thy brethren in their sin for they did evil unto thee and now we pray thee forgive the trespass of thy servants the servants of God my father and Joseph wept Joseph realized these are my brothers who betrayed me and he began to weep and the Bible says and listen to these great words Joseph says to his brothers but as for you you thought evil against me but God meant it for good to bring it to pass to this day to save much people you see here was a fractured family here were brothers who had betrayed Joseph and Joseph who was betrayed there was a great chasm between them but when Joseph chose to forgive unity came back into the family and there are many benefits of healing to a family when forgiveness comes into the life of that family I read recently on the Mayo Clinic website some of the benefits of giving forgiveness you'll have a healthier relationship with others you'll have improved mental health less anxiety less stress lower blood pressure fewer symptoms of depression a stronger immune system improved heart health improved self-esteem listen life is too difficult anyways to carry around a bundle of anger and anxiety at someone for something that happened way back for something that happened even yesterday and God says if there's a great way for healing and that is to forgive and to give it to the Lord and let him be the judge so why do we forgive because God has called us to forgive and because giving brings healing and then thirdly I want you to notice because God enables us to forgive God says I'm gonna help you with this I'm gonna help you forgive and I want you to see how he does that look if you would at verse 32 our text this morning it says forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you now I want you to get your eyes on that it might be at the front end of your outline or it might be in the Bible there but that verse 32 we're gonna say that verse starting at verse 32 with the word of forgiving alright and I want you to read that verse with me starting with the word forgiving ready begin forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you now God forgives us on the merit of the shed blood of His Son Jesus Christ God does not forgive us because we deserve it because we're so good God says I'm gonna forgive you because my son has already forgiven you it's on his count your sin is on his account and what a great blessing to know that and God says I'm gonna forgive you based upon my sons of forgiveness of you and God says when you consider how I forgave you and you didn't deserve it then I want you to forgive others who don't deserve it I want you to be like my son I want you to practice a christ-like forgiveness one author said whenever I see myself before God and realized of what my Blessed Lord has done for me at Calvary I am ready to forgive anybody anything I cannot withhold it I do not even want to withhold it I do not want to withhold it you see when you realize that you've been forgiven and you didn't deserve it then you can forgive others for Christ's sake someone says but pastor you don't know what they did or you don't know what I did but God knows and God says I have forgiven you the ground is level at the cross it doesn't matter what you've done it doesn't matter where you've been God says through Christ forgiveness is available first John 2 and 12 I write unto you little children because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake I don't know if you remember a few years back the movie unbroken and it was the story of Louis Zamperini and he was a world war two veteran and he'd been kept in a prisoner of war camp in Japan and he was sorely beaten starved ridiculed beaten within really just a few breaths of life on occasion he came back from the war and he was a very very bitter man he married a beautiful woman he thought he would get a new star but he was haunted haunted by the beatings in Japan and the only way he knew how to cope was to turn to alcohol he began to drink and drink very heavily and he thought that would help and he thought as his new wife would help he thought the alcohol would help but nothing was helping in fact one night he woke up in the middle of a dream where he was strangling his wife and he thought this isn't right he didn't know what to do and there was a man that came to Los Angeles Lee put up a huge tent and he was going to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and everyone invited their friends to come and hear him his name was Billy Graham Zamperini 's wife said well maybe that'll help something and so they went to hear Billy Graham preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and while they were there on the second night of that meeting Zamperini went forward and prayed and he accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior and he received the forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ and immediately something flooded his heart and there was a desire to forgive others there was a desire to let it go in fact in 1950 October of 1950 he went to the Sugamo prison in Tokyo and he went back to some of the very men that had held him captive some of the very men that had beaten him and he went for this purpose to tell them I have forgiven you I have become a Christian and I have received the forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ and he was able to lead two of those men to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ they thought if someone has experienced something this powerful I want to know how he's able to forgive me and they asked Jesus to forgive their sin and to be their Savior just before his 81st birthday back in 1998 Zamperini ran a leg and the Olympic torch relay of the Winter Olympics at Nagano in Japan and he once again went by that same prison camp holding that torch and he went to one of the worst of his captors during that period of time but Cyril Watanabe they called him the bird in the movie just to say to him I forgive you ladies and gentlemen there is power in the love of Jesus Christ in the forgiveness of Jesus Christ to set you free from bitterness and wrath and even to give you the ability to forgive others along the way you see all of us need to receive forgiveness but some of us today need to give it some of us need to let something go we need to give it to the Lord and start anew and afresh without carrying that pack that burden anymore well we see the need to receive forgiveness and we see the need to give forgiveness but finally this morning I want to talk with you about our way to obtain forgiveness now the Bible says forgive one another and some people say that's great I wish I could have forgiveness but sometimes I just don't feel worthy and and you feel like the the forgiveness gift is way up on the top shelf and you can't quite obtain it and we tend to live with a lot of guilt we tend to feel like we're not worthy of that forgiveness but I'm here to tell you today that forgiveness is available from God God offers forgiveness to all who will seek Him and the Bible tells us in verse 32 even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us Psalm 86 and verse five is in your notes it says for thou Lord art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all that call upon thee I like that little phrase plenteous in mercy how many of you are glad that God has a lot of mercy and not just a little mercy how many of you're glad that God doesn't say when I forgave you a couple times with that you've reached the limit buddy see you later the Bible tells us he's plenteous in mercy he's full of grace you say that you don't understand I've I've been in prison I've had an abortion I've done some terrible things I want you to understand this God loves you and there's no sin too great for the mercy of our God his mercy and his love is like the ocean his mercy and his love is never-ending His grace and His forgiveness is always available you see his mercy is not like a little fountain dropping out little drops his mercy is like the waves of the ocean washing over us and forgiving us it doesn't matter where you've been and it doesn't matter what you've done what matters is that you come to Christ and that you seek Him and that he will give you his forgiveness it is from God and may I say secondly it is through Christ did you see that in the verse it says for Christ's sake you see all of us have this common problem and that is that sin separated us from God all of us have have this understanding that that you know because of sin we can't get to God there's this cavernous way in between us called guilt it's called conviction and we fall short of the glory of God the Bible says in Isaiah 59 and 10 but your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear your iniquities have separated you and this is true we are born separated from God the Bible says in Romans 5:12 wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world that was Adam and death passed upon all men for that all have sinned look at all of us according to the Bible need forgiveness because we're all sinners there's no one here that's better than another person all of us fall short of the glory of God sin separates us but the cross of Jesus redeems us Jesus with his forgiveness with the shedding of his blood reconciles us he reconciles us to God notice how his cross provides forgiveness the Bible says in Ephesians 1 in 7 in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace you see we have the forgiveness of sins because of the cross that's why we display in and we display the cross to say our sins have been covered by the Lord Jesus who is the perfectly sinless son of God who came to this earth and lived a perfect life and the Bible says in first Peter chapter 1 that by the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish our sins have been covered do you understand that we were separated from God but Jesus came and with his arms open wide he died on the cross and He shed his blood and in that blood that was shed there was no sinful bloodline he was not conceived of Joseph a sinful man he was conceived of the Holy Spirit he was the son of God and when Jesus Christ came to that cross and the Roman soldiers put the nails through his hands and through his feet in the crown of thorns upon his head and Jesus was there on the cross dying for you and for me saying I forgive you I want you to be reconciled to the heavenly father and all who come by way of the Cross can know the father jesus said I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the Father except by me you don't have to feel the guilt anymore you don't have to feel the shame anymore you can know what forgiveness is all about that's what the cross tells us this morning sin separated us but the cross redeemed us and Jesus says he was on that cross as he was suffering even with the spear of the Roman soldier as he struggled every second just to breathe as Jesus was there on the cross he looked out at those who had nailed him to the cross and then he said to the Father these words Father forgive them for they know not what they do Father forgive them I want you to think about the words of Jesus the words that Jesus has for all of us today Father forgive them we're not worthy of the forgiveness but because of what he was doing there the father was pleased the Bible says for he god hath made him the son to be sin for us who knew no sin Jesus knew no sin but he became sin for us that we might be made righteous and you can be declared righteous you can be declared forgiven by trusting in what Jesus did on the cross of Calvary sin separates us from God the cross redeems us and brings us back to God and in that process Jesus says I forgive you and please understand something the church does not offer forgiveness today pastors cannot offer forgiveness today you don't pay money to get forgiveness no priest can give you forgiveness no confessional booth is the place for forgiveness no religion is the place for forgiveness the place for forgiveness is the cross the person who gives forgiveness is Jesus Christ and we must come to Jesus not to a religion but we must come to Jesus the one who paid the price and say Lord as a sinner I come to you and you are able to forgive and I ask you to forgive on one occasion in the Gospels Jesus said to a man by sins be forgiven thee and that Pharisees said only God can forgive and that's the point Jesus came as the Son of God and he paid the price so that whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved because the Bible says the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord God says I want to forgive you I don't want you to have a life of punishment I don't want you to have an eternal life of punishment and separation from me I want to redeem you and reconcile you to God and the Bible says for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life now there were two men one on either side of Jesus one man said if you're the Son of God then get us down from here the other man said Lord remember me this day in paradise and Jesus said I will remember you and Jesus said I will see you in heaven why because one man chose to be the typical bitter dying thief and the other chose to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ you can be one of the two today the cynic or you can be the man or the woman of faith you see if our greatest need had been information God would have sent an educator if our greatest need had been technology God would have sent a scientist if our greatest need had been money God would have sent an economist if our greatest need would have been pleasure God would have sent an entertainer but our greatest need was forgiveness and so God sent a savior and whoever will call upon his name will be saved forgiven just as if you had never sinned Psalm 32:1 and I closed blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered now let me ask you a quick question and we're done who's got you covered say well I'm pretty good at it I mean I know how to scrub my computer clean so nobody finds that stuff oh so you're self covered no no I'm covered pastor chapel like I give to the charities when they ask I'm a good guy oh you're that good now I'm covered I joined a church let me ask you again who's got you covered because there's only one covering that's gonna matter when this life is over and that's the covering of Jesus Christ who said his blood to wash away the sins of all who believe and it's my prayer that you'll receive his forgiveness and his covering even today

Channel: Lancaster Baptist Church

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Keywords: lancaster baptist church, lancaster baptist, baptist church, paul, chappell, paul chappell, pastor paul chappell, one another, relationships, forgive, forgiveness, Ephesians 4

Id: zfvpC5xS_aY

Length: 31min 34sec (1894 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 07 2018