Dr. Rick Mandl - October 8, 2020
Following Jesus Means Forgiving
Devotional Manuscript: Following Jesus Means Forgiving Others
Message By Dr. Rick Mandl, October 8, 2020.
Recorded in Los Angeles, CA.
Hey church family. If you with us for worship this past weekend, you know that the subject we looked at was forgiveness. I want to continue with that theme today.
Our memory verse for this week is Colossians 3:13 which says, “Make allowance for each other's faults, And forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you MUST forgive others.” Emphasis on the MUST. The idea is that FORGIVEN people will be FORGIVING people.
I was challenged recently to think about it this way . . . Consider the following situations . . . A father mourns the death of his teenage boy who was killed when a drunk driver hit the car he was driving. A police officer is shot and paralyzed from the neck down by teenagers he was questioning in a park. A woman was brutally beaten and raped by an unknown attacker. All of these people have suffered trauma from a wrong done to them. The wrong done that was done was outside of their control. Still, in all three cases, the people who suffered also made a conscious decision to forgive the people who caused the trauma.
It’s always amazing when you see people who suffer such extreme wrongs, work through the pain and then make the decision to forgive. We all know that the decision to forgive can be an extremely difficult one. But, most of us, if we’re honest, don’t have to deal with forgiving such huge sins against us. For most of us forgiveness is something more like, forgiving a family member for taking the last piece of cake.
The truth is regardless of the extent of our pain, we all experience hurts from time to time. We saw last weekend that while forgetting is sometimes impossible, forgiveness is not. In fact, Jesus expects His followers to be people of forgiveness. Why? Because forgiveness is a choice. It includes the ideas of canceling a debt, wiping the slate clean, and releasing the other person from what they owe us. We DON’T FORGIVE OTHERS so that God will forgive us. RATHER, we forgive others because God has forgiven us. We prove that we understand what forgiveness is all about when we forgive others. If we regularly harbor grudges against others who have wronged us, it means that we’ve either never understood, or never experienced God’s forgiveness.
Forgiveness is more than God’s suggestion. It is a command. Even though we may feel hurt and angry with others who have wronged us– And although it’s okay to take time to process those feelings– We need to forgive them if we have experienced God’s forgiveness in our own lives. Forgiving others ought to be the defining characteristic of those who are followers of Jesus Christ. May it be something that others see clearly in you and me. Amen.
Recorded in Los Angeles, CA.
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