"Forgive Us", Part 3

Today as we prepare hearts for the Lord's table, I can't think of a more pertinent topic than the one that we're going to discuss today in the Lord's Prayer. Father, forgive us our sins. We've been talking about this petition. We've been talking about this prayer for several weeks. We will look to conclude it in a matter of just a couple of more weeks, but as we go through each petition, we are trying to examine what it is God would have us learn from each part of that prayer. And today we have been looking, over the last couple of weeks, we've been looking at this aspect of forgiveness.

And so as we do, we want to be reminded that as we pray this prayer and ask God to forgive us our sins, it is that petition that promotes in us a consciousness of sin. It prompts in us a confession of sin and it preserves and protects our communion with the saints and with our Savior. Keith, I need Keith. Microphone. Ringing. Find him. There he is. Keith, good to see you, buddy. All right, thank you so much. I can't hear myself think. I can't think, so appreciate that. Anyway, we need to be able to understand exactly what the Word of the Lord has for us in this petition.

One man said it this way about forgiveness. He said, forgiveness is not an elective in the curriculum of life. It is a required course and the exams are always difficult to pass. Whoever said it, got it right. This is not some elective. It's a requirement in the curriculum of life. And as we go through life, some of those exams are extremely difficult to pass. That's why we concluded last week with Luke chapter 17, because there we realized that Jesus said that stumbling blocks are going to come.

The word he uses is skandalon. Death traps are going to come your way. In fact, he says it is inevitable as you go through life to escape the death traps that someone will put in your way to cause you to fall and to literally be not just tripped up, but devastated. Jesus says they're going to come.

Now, because he said that, you'd think that we'd be a little bit more aware when they come, but we're not. Jesus would go on to say in Luke 17, but woe to the man cursed to be the man who causes another brother to stumble. It would be better that he would die a horrible death than to cause another brother to fall into sin. So this past week, I was thinking about that and realizing that Jesus said they're going to come. Those death traps are going to come your way. And Solomon said something really unique way back in the book of Proverbs, the 19th chapter of the 11th verse, when he said this, a man's wisdom gives him patience.

It is his glory, listen, to overlook an offense. It is his glory to overlook an offense. Now, when you speak of glory, you speak of beauty and you speak of brightness. In other words, you will show yourself the most beautiful person you can be when you overlook the offense. You not only will show your beauty, but you will also begin to demonstrate the brightness of your life when you overlook an offense. For the most part, we're pretty thin skinned people. Solomon says you got to be a thick skinned person.

You got to overlook the offense if you want your beauty to shine forth. Because if you don't overlook the offense, if you take everything in a personal way, then your beauty is diminished and your brightness is marred. So therefore, the wisdom of a man is seen in his forbearance, in his patience, and it is his beauty to overlook an offense. Jesus says, they're going to come.

You got to be ready for them. It's a problem that every one of us fears. But if you are offended, you need to rebuke your brother. You need to go to him and tell him that you've been offended. If he repents, forgive him. Because forgiveness is not an option. It's a requirement for the believer. Forgive him. And of course, you know, last week the disciples said, oh, we can't do that. Increase our faith. Give us more faith. We need faith to forgive. No, Jesus says, if you have a little bit of faith, the faith as the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted, it'll move.

It's not about faith. Not at all. It's just a simple matter of obedience. That's all it is. Forgiveness is about obedience to God. It's not about how you feel. It's not about how much faith you have. It's simply about obedience to God. Then gives the whole little parable about the slave owner and the slave who's been out in the field all day and comes in and the slave is treated like a slave. He gets no special treatment. He's treated like a slave because slaves do what slaves do. And Jesus says, you likewise, when you've done that, which is your duty to do, you're still an unworthy servant, an unprofitable slave.

You have a responsibility. That responsibility is to forgive. In fact, you are most like Christ when forgiveness is at stake, because it is the glory of a man to overlook an offense. The beauty of a man, the brightness of a man is seen when he overlooks the offense. Doesn't take it personally, moves on. Doesn't harbor resentment, develop a bitter spirit, but moves on. This whole theme of forgiveness is such a neglected virtue in the church of Jesus Christ. Let me say it to you this way.

Are you a partaker of the divine nature as a believer? Answer? Yes. If you are a partaker of the divine nature, listen, forgiveness is part of your new nature. If you're having a hard time forgiving, ask yourself, do I have a new nature? Because if you have the divine nature, which you are a partaker of, according to Peter's account, and the life of Christ lives in you, then forgiveness is part of what it is you do, not just because you want to be obedient to Christ, but because you are a partaker of his forgiving nature.

So there's a command that's given, a command to forgive. And that command has certain elements that I want to go through them with you this morning. We won't get through them all today. I thought that we could, but it's just not going to happen. So no sense in going through it quickly because this becomes such an important aspect of our lives. Let me say it to you this way.

This is so important. It is so important that you cannot worship God unless you're a forgiver. In fact, let me say it to you this way.

Be careful how I say this, but I'm going to say it anyway. For some of you, it would be better for you not to be here than to come because you hurt the worship of the church. Didn't that sound bad? That sounds just so bad, doesn't it? But you know what? What makes worship really, really good? Some will say, well, it has to do with the music. That is the most shallow statement you'll ever make. If that's your attitude, you're shallow. You're not very deep at all. Has nothing to do with the music. Some will say, well, we need a better preacher.

We had a better preacher. We could probably worship a little better. Well, in some cases, that might be true. If he doesn't give you the word, you're right. Some will say the architect of the building, how it's designed and the beauty of the building enhances worship. None of that's true. What enhances worship is the relationships we have with one another when we arrive in this place. How do we know that? Jesus says, unless your relationship is right with your brother, you can't worship me.

You can't. This is how he says it. Book of Matthew. Fifth chapter. He says this. You've heard that the ancients were told, in other words, this is what you were told by the ancient rabbis. You should not commit murder. And whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court. Now we would all agree with that, right? You shouldn't kill anybody. I mean, God forbid that we should shoot somebody, stab somebody, throw them off a cliff, murder them. I mean, come on. That's not what we're about in the church.

And Jesus says, but I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court.

And whoever shall say to his brother, Raka, shall be guilty before the supreme court. And whoever shall say, you fool, shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. Jesus says, let me tell you something.

You want to keep the letter of the law, commandment number six, you shall not murder. I'm going to tell you something, that the intent and the attitude behind the law is that if you have a murderous attitude, you're just as guilty as the one who shoots the guy and kills him. Because that's the important aspect. Jesus says, if you say a four-letter word to your brother, Raka, that's a four-letter word in, in ancient days.

Okay? We have different four-letter words today. But in those days, the four-letter word, the nasty four-letter word was Raka. We don't know what the translation of that is, but it's a, it's a four-letter word. You say that word, you're in trouble. If you are angry with your brother, you call him a fool. What's going to happen is that you put yourself in a very guilty position. Now listen to what Jesus says.

If therefore you are presenting your offering at the altar, you're going to worship. You're coming to church. In this case, you're going to, to the temple. And there, remember that your brother has something against you. You're going to worship and you know that there's a brother in the assembly that's got something against you. Leave your offering there before the altar and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, then come and present your offering.

In other words, you're going to worship the Lord God. And as you are on your way, you recognize that your brother has something against you. It's not that you have something against your brother, but that he has something against you. Make sure you do everything you can to get it right between you and your brother before you ever come into the place of assembly to worship God. Why? Well, remember as you treat others, that's how you treat Christ. Remember Christ would say, if they receive you, they receive me.

If they reject you, they reject me. Why? Because we are all part of the same family. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. Christ lives in us, right? So if Christ lives in you, how I treat you, listen carefully, is exactly how I treat Christ. Because Christ lives in you. Now that sheds a whole new light on our worship experience. It makes no difference what kind of music is sung or what kind of preacher you have or what kind of architect is there. It all depends on the relationship you have with your brother.

That's what hinders worship. And we are so superficial that we think it's the music. It's not the music. It's your relationship with your brother. It's how you interact one with another. Because if you come to worship, I mean, let's just take my wife for example. If my wife and I have a spat before church, okay, I don't get it right before church. I got a problem in church, right? I can get it right. And when my wife and I have it right and we're in love with one another and we are freely forgiving one another, we freely worship in the church.

We sit together in church. We hold hands together in church. We're in love together and we can freely get up and worship together. That's the way it should be, right? Of course it is. A number of years ago we were having a couple study and I was teaching that couple study and then we would break off into different groups and we would have some questions that we would discuss one with another. In the course of that discussion, questions came up about when you were married and so forth. In that discussion, there was a couple there that I had forgotten that I had married years earlier.

And so in the discussion as their wedding came up, I just inadvertently said, I married you guys? And he said, yeah, yeah, you did. I said, wow, man, excuse my memory. I'm sorry, just excuse my memory. Didn't think anything of it. Next Sunday came, they weren't there. Next Sunday came, they weren't here. Sunday after Sunday after Sunday came and they weren't here. So I talked to their parents. I haven't seen your kids. Where are they? Well, they didn't know where they were either. So, okay. So I called them.

No answer. Called them again. No answer. And I'm kind of a relentless kind of person, you know, and so I just keep calling, call, call. No answer, no answer, no answer. So finally I talked to a friend of theirs that was in the church.

He said, I've called, I can't get a response. I've talked to their parents. They don't tell me what the problem is. I've tried all I can. What do I do? He says, I'll have them call you. Well, that never happened. I just kept calling, calling and calling. Finally, one evening he picked up the phone and I said, hey, I haven't seen you in church.

I talked to your parents and they haven't said anything about what's wrong. And I haven't seen you in church. I've tried calling. What's happened? And he says, well, quite frankly, I'm angry with you. I said, really? I can't imagine somebody being angry with me, but I mean, he was. And I said, what did I do? He said, you forgot that you married us. I said, yeah, I did. I did. I said, that's what you're angry with? He goes, yeah. I said, oh, please forgive me. I am so sorry that I forgot. Would you forgive me for not remembering that I married you so many years ago?

And he wouldn't forgive me. He just said, well, you know, my wife and I were really offended. I said, I understand that. I am so sorry. Would you please forgive me for not remembering that I married you? I need to ask your forgiveness because I was wrong. Would you please forgive me? Well, he would go off on some other tangent. And for 45 minutes, I kept asking him, would you please forgive me? And finally, at the end of that 45-minute conversation, he said these words, okay, okay, okay, I forgive you.

I said, thank you so much. I can't wait to see you in church on Sunday. He goes, oh, I'm not coming back. I said, what do you mean you're not coming back? Oh, I'm not coming back. I said, well, I'm sorry. Did I misunderstand you? Did you not say that you forgave me? Well, yeah, I did, but that means I'm not coming back. I said, well, how can we ever reconcile the relationship or restore the relationship if we don't come back? He says, I'm never coming back to your church. I said, really? I said, I'm so sorry to hear that.

I said, because I thought that when you said, yes, I forgive you, that we'd have an opportunity to rebuild that relationship and begin to work on reconciliation. He says, I don't want to do that. So I said, so you really didn't forgive me then, did you? Because if you forgave me, listen carefully, you want to restore the relationship. If you don't forgive, or even if you say you forgive, restoration and reconciliation are not important to you. You see, that is so crucial. You know, as a pastor, you know, I don't want to offend people.

I don't want to hurt people. Inevitably, I do that because inevitably stumbling blocks come. But if I've offended somebody, I want to get it right. I want to do the right thing. I want to go to them and ask their forgiveness. And so the following week, I went back to his parents and said, I got good news. I talked to your husband or your son and, you know, I asked him to forgive me for something that had taken place. And she goes, oh yeah, I know about that. I said, well, how can you tell me that like weeks ago when I asked you?

Well, I didn't think it was my place. I said, well, how would I have known if you didn't tell me? Following week, they left and never came back either. And, you know, those things happen like all the time in the church because the church tends to be a very unforgiving community, not a forgiving community. But the true church is a forgiving community. Did you hear how I said that? The true church is a forgiving community. The false church is not because the true church is a partaker of the divine nature of Almighty God.

And they want to forgive. They seek to forgive. They want to forgive as God himself forgives. And so that leads us to our first point in the command that we are to forgive one another because that's the way God designed it.

There's a pattern that we're commanded to follow, a pattern that we are commanded to follow as Christians. And that's the pattern of Christ himself, right? It's a pattern of Christ himself. God is a forgiving God. That's what sets our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, apart from every false deity that there is. We serve a God who forgives. That's why way back in Exodus chapter 34, God said to Moses these words when Moses said, show me your glory, show me your beauty, show me how bright you really are.

I want to see all there is. I want to get a glimpse of my God, our Lord, pass by, hit him in the cleft of a rock and proclaim the Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin. That's our God. He's a forgiving God. The Bible says in Nehemiah 9, verse number 17, thou art a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love.

Daniel says forgiveness belongs only to God. Psalm 103, bless the Lord, O my soul, because he pardons all my iniquity. Later on in Psalm 103, he separates my sin as far as the east is from the west. And that glorious hymn, it is well with my soul, says my sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin, not in part, but the whole is nailed to the cross. I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. O my soul. Our God's a forgiving God. So because he's a forgiving God, we are partakers of the divine nature.

We are followers of the living God. We are children of the living God. Then we by nature are forgiving kind of people. That's why it says over in Ephesians chapter 4, these words, verse number 32, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving to each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Our forgiveness is others as Christ has forgiven us. How has Christ forgiven us? Freely, fully, forever, in a judicial positional sense. We talked about that last week. And when someone repents, there is forgiveness freely extended in a relational sense.

If I'm to forgive as God has forgiven me, when you offend me, you're automatically forgiven in a positional sense because I am a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. When you now come and repent, the relationship can be restored. The communion can be preserved and protected because you came, repented of your sin, and now the barrier has been torn down. The communion, the intimacy, the joy, the relationship can be restored. I'm to be a forgiving person as God himself is forgiving. In fact, it says in verse number 30, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.

How do you grieve God's Spirit? How do you sadden the Spirit of God? Remember, the Spirit of God lives within you, right? He lives within you. And the command is don't grieve the Spirit by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Here you go. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, and clamor, and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. The Spirit of God is grieved when you don't put off the old and put on the new. The Spirit of God is grieved when there is bitterness that envelops your life.

That's why the writer of Hebrews said in Hebrews 12, 15, that be careful that a root of bitterness does not well up within you, thus, listen carefully, defiling many. No other sin defiles the body like bitterness. No other sin defiles the family like bitterness. It just has an effect, a negative effect on all those around about you. And Paul says, now remember, Paul's in prison. He's unjustly accused. He's been mocked. He's been slandered. He's been abused. He's in prison. He says, don't grieve the Spirit of God because you have a bitter attitude.

In fact, he says, make sure you get rid of all wrath. That's the, that's the boiling of the mind. You ever had your mind boil? It's a dangerous thing. It literally deals with the mind that, that, that is boiling with, with, with emotional anger. Get rid of all anger. That is that settled internal resentment that one has. Get rid of the clamor. Those are the violent public outbursts. You ever met somebody just kind of goes out, goes after you violently, publicly? Get rid of those things. Evil speaking, deliberate words that are used to, to hurt other people, to tear them down.

Malice, all malice, general term for wickedness. All of those come about because of, of the bitterness of a soul. They're the opposite characteristics of love. But the obvious characteristics of love are simple. But he says, be tenderhearted, compassionate, compassionate, kind, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. I love that. It said, be kind to one another. Remember, remember 1 Corinthians 13, Paul describes the love of God. The love of God is patient and the love of God is kind, right?

That is, it forbears long. It's long-fused with you. And while it's long-fused with you, it just keeps bestowing kindness upon you. That's the love of God. It's patient and it's kind. All the while God is long-fused with you because of your sinful condition, He keeps bestowing kindness upon you by not destroying your life because of your sin, but allowing you to live, to receive and obtain His mercy that He fully wants to give to you. That's the kindness of God. So Paul says, you need to be kind.

What does that mean? That means that you return evil with good. That's what kindness is. And you know what? We live in a society where the villain is the hero. The person who enacts the payback is the hero. That's the guy on the big screen TV or the movie theater that everybody applauds because he gets back at the person who hurt him. He avenges his loss. He retaliates. And that's the hero that we exemplify today. And that's a lot of what we want to do as individuals. We want to be the hero in society sense, instead of following what the Word of the Lord has for us, to be forgiving.

It's a pattern that we're commanded to follow. The pattern is God Himself. He sets the pattern. You know the story of what we call the prodigal son. That's just the wrong name. When we get to Luke 15, we'll tell you it's not the parable of the prodigal son. First of all, it never calls him a prodigal.

That's number one. Number two, it's a parable of two lost sons, not just one lost son, because one represents the Pharisees and all of their hypocrisy.

The other one represents the tax collectors and the prostitutes and their sinful, despicable behavior. Okay? So it's really the parable of the two lost sons, but that's not a good name either. It's really about a parable about the loving father. The parable is about the father. The emphasis of the story is about the father who forgives. And when the son who went out to sin, because he wanted to get his inheritance early and go out and live this lavish lifestyle, finally comes home because he has nowhere else to go and truly repents.

And in fact, if you want to know what repentance really is, then look at that son and you'll note what repentance, biblical repentance, truly consists of.

When that father sees that son coming, he runs to that son and says, it's about time you got back. No, that's not what he says. When he sees the son, he wraps his arms around him and embraces him and kisses him and just keeps on kissing him. And what he does is, all this boy wants was three house and a cot. That's all he wants. A place to eat and a place to sleep. He's not even worthy to be called a slave in his father's house. But the father lavished him with forgiveness, richly bestowed upon him immeasurable amount of love and kindness.

Listen, because that's the way the father forgives. That's the way you and I are to forgive just like that. But we don't want to do that. Do we? Because in our hearts, we just want to, they got to pay. Somehow they got to pay and I'm going to make them pay. That's our, that's our response. Isn't it? But, but revenge is mine, sayeth the Lord. I will repay. You know, whenever you put yourself in God's shoes and try to play God, you're going to be frustrated, folks. You can't do that. Just can't. There's no way you can do that.

Your job is to freely do what God has required you to do as one of his children, to forgive as he himself has forgiven you. So Paul in prison, this is his response. He could be sitting there in that prison, all angry and bitter and having all kinds of outbursts of anger, his mind boiling over with how I'm going to get back at these guys who put me here. But instead, he said, be tenderhearted, kind, compassionate, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. The Bible says in the book of Colossians, the third chapter, Colossians 3, again, another prison epistle.

Paul's still in prison. That was his home, away from home. Colossians 3, 13, bearing with one another and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. I mean, can it get any clearer or any plainer or any more black and white than that? Answer, no. That's just the way it is. You see, the reason we don't forgive is not because we can't forgive, because you can. The reason you don't forgive is because you don't want to forgive. That's why.

You just don't want to. But yet, if you are a partaker of the divine nature, it is a required course in the curriculum of your life. It's not an elective. Martin Lloyd-Jones, who's written several books, great preacher, in his commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, says this about this verse in Ephesians 4, 32. He says, the vital question is this, do you know that your sins are forgiven? Let me stop right there for a second.

Okay, that's the question. Do you know your sins are forgiven? If someone was to ask you, are your sins forgiven, what would you say? Yes, they are. Amen. Martin Lloyd-Jones' question is, do you know your sins are forgiven? He's going to give you a test. Here you go. Ready? He says, how can I know, says someone, that my sins are forgiven? He says, I will give you a very short test. Are you forgiving others? Are you ready to forgive others who have harmed you and sinned against you? Or look at it another way, he says.

Does this argument of the apostle appeal to you? As I read these words, be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Are you softened in your feelings? Do you feel melted? Are you ready to forgive at this very moment? If you are, I do not hesitate to say that you are a Christian. But if bitterness is still ranking down there, and if you are saying in spite of these glorious words, but after all, I did nothing and I don't deserve such treatment, you had better go back and examine your foundation.

For I find it very difficult to see how that kind of person can be a Christian at all. That's good stuff. That's good stuff. You see, if you're born again and you are a partaker of the divine nature, then naturally and freely you will extend the hand of forgiveness to those who have offended you. Because it is the beauty of a man to overlook a transgression. You are most like Christ when forgiveness is at stake. Because we serve a forgiving God who freely and fully and forever forgives sin. So we too should be freely and fully ready to forgive those who have sinned against us.

That's why the petition is so clear. When in Luke's account it says very simply, and forgive us our sins for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. Lord, you forgive us, listen, because we have already forgiven those who have sinned against us. See that? In Matthew's account, in Matthew chapter 6, it reads this way. And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. Lord, forgive us just like we forgive those who have sinned against us. See, it can be stated that way because as believers we are naturally forgiving kind of people.

See that? Jesus said it this way, Matthew 5, 7. Blessed are the merciful for they and they only shall obtain mercy. Isn't that good? Blessed are the merciful because they are the only ones who obtain mercy. That's why James said in James 2, 13, that judgment will be merciless upon those who show no mercy. Judgment's merciless for those who show no mercy. In fact, Jesus would say it another way in Matthew 7. He says, for in the way you judge, you will be judged. And by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.

In other words, if you are unforgiving, God will not forgive you. If you are merciless, God will be merciless to you. You see, we don't want to think of ourselves in that way. We, you know, we really want to elevate our level of importance. Put it this way. If you have been offended, guess what? God has been offended more than you. Do you believe that? David said, against thee, thee only have I sinned. Even though he sinned against Uriah, even though he sinned against Bathsheba, even though he sinned against the nation of Israel, he knew that his sin was against God primarily.

So if you have been offended, God has been offended much more than you because sin is an offense to God. If God, who is supremely holy, in fact, he's not even holy, he's holy, holy, holy, okay, is willing to forgive and we are unholy, how much more should we forgive? If God is the most important person in all the world and he forgives, what would make us think that we are more important to God than God, than to withhold forgiveness from someone else who has offended us? See, we like to raise our level of importance above God, our holiness above God's holiness, but we're not more holier than God and we are not more important than God.

You say, well, someone said something to me that wasn't true and they offended me. Well, you know what? It probably wasn't true and yes, they probably did offend you, but I'm sure they could have said a whole bunch of things about you that are true, right? But we tend to think of ourselves more important than we really are and forgiveness is a pattern that we are commanded to follow. It is not an option, it is a command and that pattern is Christ himself and we are about to partake of the Lord's table, the ultimate symbol of forgiveness, sacrifice, for while we were dead in our trespasses and sins, Christ died for us.

In fact, when he was on the cross, he said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing. He even extended forgiveness to his accusers. He extended forgiveness to his abusers. He extended forgiveness to all those who in their ignorance had sinned against him. All those who would repent would receive that forgiveness. Those who didn't would not receive that forgiveness. But he freely extended it to those who had sinned against him. Therefore, as Christians, partakers of the divine nature of God, listen, this is how we demonstrate to the world Christ.

This is it. This is our opportunity. That's why Solomon says, it's the glory of a man to overlook an offense. The beauty of the man is seen when he doesn't hold a charge against someone else, but he freely forgives because he wants to be like his God. I would pray that would be you today. I'd pray that would be me today, that that would be how we would live our lives. Just think for a moment, we're going to partake of the Lord's table. Think of that one individual right now in your family, in your church, that you know that every time their name comes up, the hair on the back of your neck stands up.

Think about that person. In fact, let me say it to you this way. So many of us think that we have a forgiving spirit. So let me give you five symptoms to determine how you know you have an unforgiving spirit.

They're not original with me. Number one is this. You can't stand to be around certain people. You have an unforgiving spirit. Can't stand to be around them. Have an unforgiving spirit. You want to strike out at people when certain topics are discussed. You have an unforgiving spirit. You lose your temper over little things. You demonstrate you have an unforgiving spirit. You struggle with guilt over things that happened in the past. And lastly, you find yourself hating the ones you should love the most.

Charles Stanley, his book on forgiveness, gives those five symptoms of an unforgiving spirit. As we gather together to partake of the Lord's table, to celebrate how it is God forgave us, how could we ever withhold forgiveness from somebody else? How can we do that? With a clear conscience. That's why the relationships that we have in the church are the true barometer of our worship in church. You show me a person who gets along with others because he forgives and is freely forgiven, and I'll show you somebody who can really worship God.

You show me somebody who's bitter, angry, clamors, has malice, and I'll show you a person who complains every time they go to worship. Because there's something hindering their communion with God, and that's their communion with the saints. And when the communion with the saints is broken, your relationship with God now is broken because he lives within those people. And he says, as you receive them, you receive me. As you do it unto the least of these, my brethren, you do it as unto to me, because Christ lives in you and Christ lives in them.

Today, as we partake of the Lord's table, if you know of someone who's offended you, or you have offended, you need to go to that person and do all you can to get it right. What if they don't respond? What if I ask them to forgive me and they won't? That's next week. So you want to come back and hear how you respond to that. Let me pray with you.

Lord, thank you for today and the opportunity we have to celebrate your wonderful forgiveness. As we partake of the Lord's table, Lord, may we be reminded how forgiving you are of us when we are so wretched to you. And you wiped out all of our wickedness, all of our transgressions, you blotted them out, threw them in the depths of the sea. Remember them no more, that we might freely be accepted in the beloved. Thank you for your forgiveness, Lord. May we freely extend that forgiveness to others. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.