God wants to forgive us, but He can’t forgive someone who harbors resentment and unforgiveness. Join Pastor John Bradshaw as we discuss the topic of forgiveness and its power to mend and restore a broken heart.

<p>God wants to forgive us, but He can’t forgive someone who harbors resentment and unforgiveness. Join Pastor John Bradshaw as we discuss the topic of forgiveness and its power to mend and restore a broken heart.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

It Is Written

John Bradshaw

Forgiveness

It's great to have this opportunity to join with you today.

Let's pray together before we open the Bible.

Our Father in heaven, bless us as we come to you in your word.

Send your spirit to guide us, guide our thinking, take our will, make our will your very own.

I pray that you touch hearts and minds and lives.

And bless us that your word will do what you want it to do right now.

Between 1948 and 1994 there existed 1 of the most controversial political practices in all of the 20th century.

To those born after that time, or even to those of us looking back all these years after it came to an end, it can seem almost bizarre that the South African system of apartheid was ever practiced and accepted.

Apartheid is a word that means separateness, and the system was 1 of legal racial segregation, spanning almost half a century.

Apartheid classified South Africans and even visitors to that country into racial groups.

You were either black, white, colored, or Indian or Asian.

The 1949 law made it illegal for someone to marry someone of another race.

Everyone over the age of 18 was forced to carry an identity card specifying their racial group.

It was illegal for people of different races to use the same public amenities such as restaurants, public swimming pools and restrooms.

Blacks were relocated to live in black homelands, as they were called.

And in 1970, blacks were no longer classified as citizens of South Africa.

Instead, they were citizens of 1 of 10 self-governing territories.

Of course, the system bred massive discontent, enormous protests, international condemnation.

Many, many people died and were brutally, cruelly and unjustly treated under apartheid.

Now, you might expect that When blacks in South Africa assumed power, their prime concern would be revenge.

Many people feared mass bloodshed, vendettas, rioting.

What actually happened was something really rather incredible.

Although it was imperfect, and although some people would strongly disagree with it, something called the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set up, where victims and perpetrators of violence and injustice could alike testify.

The chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Like the country's new president, Nelson Mandela, he was committed to seeing South Africa move forward and not descend into chaos.

After serving in that capacity, he recognized that there was 1 key component that would ensure the nation would have a future.

He said, there can be no future without forgiveness.

In Matthew chapter 6, right after Jesus gave his disciples the Lord's Prayer, he said this, Matthew 6 verse 14, For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." Now That's a whale of a statement.

If you don't forgive others, God won't forgive you.

Not if you don't obey me, God won't forgive you.

Not if you don't serve others, God won't forgive you.

Not if you don't be kind to others, God won't forgive you.

But simply, if you don't forgive others, God won't forgive you." And that's a statement that many people struggle with because while you're sitting there wondering, does God really want me to forgive a certain individual for that?

The answer that comes back to us from the Bible is, yes, even that.

In Jesus' day it was evidently spiritually fashionable for people to be outwardly religious but full of garbage inwardly.

Those pitiful Jewish leaders who didn't want to desecrate the Passover while they were in the throes of murdering the Son of God.

James and John were laboring with Jesus and planning on calling fire down from heaven and incinerating some people who were uncooperative.

Leaders in the church who were careful to fast and fulfill certain religious requirements, but they're planning to kill Lazarus.

So when Peter came to Jesus 1 day with a question, he had to felt pretty righteous.

He said in Matthew 18 verse 21, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?

Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee until 7 times, but until 70 times seven." Jesus taught that it is the duty of the Christian to forgive, yea verily, the privilege of the Christian to forgive.

And he taught that forgiveness is a prerequisite for entering heaven.

If you are an unforgiving person, Or if you are holding on to grudges and slights and hurts and crimes that you're flat out refusing to forgive.

Don't waste your energy hoping to go to heaven.

Heaven is not for those who refuse to forgive.

The 1 who had the greatest reason not to forgive was Jesus.

Here he was, dying for the sins of others, not his own sins, but your sins and mine.

And as people were driving nails into his hands and into his feet, Jesus prayed to his father and he said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.

And that's interesting because they knew exactly what they were doing.

Crucifixion was calculated to inflict maximum pain and damage, the greatest amount of suffering.

What they did was intentional, yet Jesus cried out to his Father and requested that he forgive his tormentors.

Sometimes it can seem impossible to forgive.

Someone right now is saying, I know I have to forgive.

I know what the Bible says, but how do I do it?

How do you forgive someone who ruined your marriage?

How do you forgive someone who ruined you financially?

How do you forgive someone who slandered you deliberately?

Who was responsible for you losing a job?

How do you forgive someone who abused you or killed a member of your family?

How do you forgive a parent who ruined your life?

How can a German Jew forgive his or her Nazi captors?

An African American forgive a racist system?

But Jesus doesn't ask you to do the impossible.

That is, He doesn't ask you to do anything that His grace cannot enable you to do.

What do we read in Philippians 4 and verse 13?

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Through Jesus, even forgiveness of the most awful thing can become possible.

Ephesians 4 verse 31 says, "...let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.

Be ye kind 1 to another, tenderhearted, forgiving 1 another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Let's take a moment to consider what Forgiveness isn't.

Forgiveness isn't saying something is okay when it isn't okay.

Forgiveness isn't forgiving and making up.

Forgiving does not necessarily set somebody else free.

You can't really forget what someone did to you.

Someone stands on your toe or bumps you in line, okay, you're not gonna think twice about that.

No, it would probably be unhealthy to forget that.

Forgiving someone for what they did to you does not make what they did right.

If someone has wronged you, what they did was wrong.

Forgiving that person is not the same as telling that person that what they did was acceptable.

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Forgiveness

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