What I believe? Forgiveness

Forgiveness is a word you hear a lot in church and in the Bible, but if I asked you to tell me about forgiveness, I wonder how confident you would feel with explaining it to me.
Get in a line.
Scared----------------some idea-----------------confident
So no matter where you are in this line, hopefully by the end of tonight you will all be standing at the confident end. Forgiveness is a major part of being in a relationship with God and because of that it is really important to be able to stand up and say, "this is what I believe about forgiveness."
Pray before starting.

Point 1  Why do we need to be forgiven?
So where do we start? Let's look at the question "Why do we need to be forgiven anyway?" What are your ideas? Here's a few things that the Bible says.

Romans 3:20-24New International Version (NIV)

20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law;rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. 21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

The bible doesn't lie when it says "All have sinned." Deny it if you want, but none of us are perfect, and perfection is God's standard or as that verse puts it "God's glory". God longs to have a relationship with us, but we have all sinned and cannot sustain a relationship with God in that state. We are separated from God by our sin. Romans 6:23 tells us that "the wages of sin is death...." and death is a big price to pay! But it then goes on to say "but the free gift of God is eternal life..." So that's good news. That is the beginning of the answer to the next question. How do we obtain the forgiveness that we so desperately need?

Point 2: How do we get forgiven?

God offers us a free gift of eternal life, but we need to respond to him and accept that gift.

Imagine someone called you and said, "Hey, a really rich distant relative of yours has just died and left you a cheque for one million dollars." You'd be pretty stoked right! You would probably be off down to your local Vodafone shop to get yourself a shiny new iPhone or maybe you'd head down to the Subaru dealer and get a shiny new WRX. You do the paper work then swipe your card through the eftpos machine then die of embarassment because it says, "Declined". -Because you forgot something. You needed to claim the cheque and bank it. You had to accept what was being offered. Just knowing that the cheque was available didn't change anything. It is the same with the gift God offers us. Knowing about it is not sufficient; you have to accept it before it is worth anything to you.

So if you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour are you then set for life, forever right with God? Do you think that we need to ask God for forgiveness?

1 John 1:9New International Version (NIV)

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 

I am not sure if we need to ask God to forgive us, but I do know we need to confess our sins to God to be forgiven. The difference between asking for forgiveness and confessing or owning up to our sin is quite important. It is heaps easier to say, "God please forgive me" than to say to God, "I'm sorry, I know I've done this and that wrong". I think, that by confessing specific sins to God, it helps us to be more aware of what our specific weaknesses are so that we can be more proactive in changing the way we live each day.

The other thing we need to do in order to receive God's forgiveness is forgive others. This is in fact essential and the Bible is quite strong when it talks about this.

Matthew 6:14-15New International Version (NIV)

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.

Read Matthew 18: 21-23

Wow! You get the idea that God isn't half-hearted in His desire for us to forgive others. And it makes sense really; Jesus said the two greatest commands are to love God and to love one another. And you can't say you love someone if you hold a grudge and refuse to forgive them. So forgiveness and love really go hand in hand, you can't truly have one without the other.

Point 3: How do we forgive others?

So how do we forgive others? Well you tell me.

Get into three groups and discuss these questions. (see below)

Point 4: What are the benefits?
Romans 5:1-2 Peace with God

John 3:16 Eternal life

Ephesians 1:13-14

Conclusion

Now if you are sitting there and you are thinking, God would never forgive me, I've screwed up too much! I challenge you to read the parable of the Lost Son or Prodigal Son. God has promised that He will forgive nothing is too big or difficult for Him.

None of us are perfect and at some stage we have all needed the forgiveness of our friends or family and likewise, we have needed to forgive them. It is a funny thing though forgiveness, it does seem to matter whether you are the one showing forgiveness or receiving it, it is always beneficial to you. There is freedom in forgiving others, perhaps even more so than being forgiven.

Cool verse:

Colossians 3:13The Message (MSG)

12-14 So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.

Group 1
Read Ephesians 4:32-5:2 and John 13:34-35
Think about the following:
Who should we imitate?
In what ways should we be like him?
Is there any link between forgiveness and love in these verse? If so, what?
What else comes to mind?
In what practical ways can we apply what we learn from this?
Question for all groups: So how do we forgive others? What steps should we take?

Group 2
Read Matthew 18:21-35
Think about the following:
How many times should we forgive others?
In your lives, has any individual sinned against you more times than you have sinned against God?
In what ways would it be unbalanced of us not to forgive another person if God is willing to forgive us?
What does it mean to "forgive ...from your heart"?
What else comes to mind from this passage?
What practical ways can we apply what we learn from this?
Question for all groups: So how do we forgive others? What steps should we take?