Forgiving Spirit

And so I have anticipated this night for many, many months Maybe you haven't anticipated it, but I have And so you can indulge me if you'd like for the next 11 weeks because I've anticipated the opportunity to be able to share with you from the Word of God the truth of God's Word Concerning the foundational elements that will, once heard and applied, begin to stabilize the family unit And so we're going to spend some time over the next 11 weeks looking at 11 foundations that will build your family

And as we do, we know that we can't cover every single thing or answer every question that you might have But we will give you the essential tools that will help you build the foundation that will give you what you need to move from point A to point B And so forth The Bible says, and you know it well, Psalm 127:1, that unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it

Well, the question comes: how does the Lord build the house? If God is to build your home, how is it He's going to do that? Well, the Bible also tells us in the book of Proverbs, the 24th chapter, verses 3 and 4, that by wisdom the house is built So, if God's going to build your house, He's going to do it through wisdom And the Bible tells us that Proverbs 2, verse number 7, that wisdom comes from the mouth of God We know Isaiah 11:2 tells us that God's given us the Spirit of wisdom So, everything that we need to know comes from the mouth of the Lord

And everything that comes from the mouth of the Lord that we need to know is written in His Word And so, within the pages of Scripture, the truth of God's Holy Word, we have all that we need to begin to understand how God wants to build your home We don't want you to labor in vain We want you to be able to understand what God wants to do through His Spirit, through His Word In your life And the important thing is that when you hear the truth, you must heed the truth You must apply it to your life

The Bible tells us in the book of Matthew these words: Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts upon them may be compared to a wise man who built his house on a rock And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house, and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act upon them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand The rain fell, floods came, the winds blew, slammed against that house, then it fell, and great was its fall Great was his fall

To hear the word of God and not heed what God says causes you to build on sinking sand So when distress comes and hardship comes and heartache comes and affliction comes and the winds blow, you can't stand But if you hear the Word of God, apply it to your life, do what it says, then you're building on solid ground So, no matter how strong the tempest is, you're able to stand because it's built on the rock, and the rock him is Christ And so, we want to help you understand exactly how that happens with you

And so each week, while they don't build one upon the other, they all fit together in a neat package that will help you understand what needs to happen in your family And you might be here tonight saying, you know, my family's intact, my family's great, and that's good. I pray that it is You can help other people Understand the truth of God's word to help build their family unit and guide them in the ways of truth That is very, very important

And so I want to begin tonight with a principle. A principle that is a foundational element that, once you hear it, you might think, oh, well, yeah, I know that In fact, all of them, you're going to say, probably to some degree, oh, yeah, I knew that already And that's our problem We know it, but we don't do anything about it And so, we're going to give you the foundation, and as we give it to you, we're going to help you understand that this is a starting block for every one of us This is what's going to move you from treading water

Ever treaded water? You just kind of stay in one place, you keep moving, and you expend a lot of energy But you don't get anywhere It's like a treadmill. I don't understand treadmills People get on them and they run, they expend a lot of energy They don't go anywhere They're in the same place than when they began You see? So you're going to, a lot of you are expending a lot of energy But you're not going anywhere You're treading water You're running a place And you're expending and extending all kinds of energy, but nothing's happening

And that's where the first foundational element comes into play And you will see why as we explain it to you Because what it does is it deals with your attitude It deals with the internal part of your being It deals with a significant element that defines you as a believer in Jesus Christ So, I'm going to give you one each week There's 11 of them And as we go, we will build on all of them and review them each week for you so you understand them Are you ready? All right, here we go

Foundation number one is this: in order for your family to flourish, in order for your family to be solidified, to be strong To be what God wants it to be, there must permeate within your home a forgiving spirit. A for spirit This is an attitude that is absolutely essential for every one of us Because some of you are here tonight and you already begin to have smoke come out of your ears There is an inner res From someone or over someone in your family Maybe there's an anger that's there, a bitterness that's come about

And all of a sudden, you are unable to move off of the starting blocks because you are so angry, you are so bitter, you are so furious on the inside because you don't have a forgiving Spirit This is absolutely essential to the family unit If you are unwilling to have that kind of attitude, your family is going to struggle significantly You know, we tend to be obsessed with vengeance, but we need to be obsessed with forgiveness As Christians, we need to be absolutely obsessed with the opportunity to for

Instead, we are always thinking of ways to get back at someone who has wronged us within the f unit And so, we want to show you how to move from there so that you can begin to build a foundation through the Spirit of God in your life so that your family Begins to stabilize It begins with a for spirit It was the Lord God who said in Micah chapter 6, verse number 8, these words: What has the Lord required of you, O men, but to do justly? To love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. I wonder how many of us truly love mercy Which allows us to walk humbly with our God So let me begin this way

Go back with me some 2,000 years to Mount Calvary at the crucifixion of our Lord, having been beaten beyond recognition, hanging on a cross There outside the city of Jerusalem, he utters his first words in Luke 23:3, which says, F, forgive them For they know not what they are doing That is a forgiving spirit So, let me ask you this question When Christ said that, was everybody on Mount Calvary forgiven? Well, the answer is no Of course they weren't There were a few The centurion would be forgiven Some of the soldiers would be forgiven One of the thieves on the cross, he was forgiven

But outside of that, Christ demonstrated the true character of his being The Bible says these words in Psalm 86, verse number 5: Lord, you are good and ready to forgive Isn't that good? You are ready to forgive. I wonder if you are ready to forgive Are you anxious to forgive? Are you willing to forgive? Are you eager to forgive? Are you wanting to hold on to something from long ago that's going to bring your family down because you now become the anchor that weighs the family down? Because you won't let go You aren't will to have a forgiving sp

The attitude that Christ portrayed that day is the attitude of the Lord God of Israel He is a forgiving God, filled with loving kind and mercy, who is compassionate upon sinners But he's ready to forgive Now it's true that the only ones who would be forgiven Would be those who repented That's true But it doesn't negate the fact that our God has a forgiving spirit And that's what you need to have Because it will be true in some of your families that there will be people who won't repent Because their arrogance or because of their pride

And therefore, rec to the fullest extent of the word can't necessarily take place, but You can still manifest a forgiving sp And that 's what needs to happen in all of our lives We are never, as Christians, ever to withhold forgiveness because we are partakers of the divine nature of the living God Peter tells us, because we are part of Christ's divine being, his nature Because Christ lives in us, and He is a forgiving God, there is no excuse for us never to have a forgiving spirit There's never an excuse for us not to be willing to forgive someone who has wronged us

And so it's imperative that we understand the nature of God in order for us to live In the family unit, so that we can glorif the name of our Lord Let me give you five phrases that will help you understand a forgiving spirit The first phrase deals with the fact that a forgiving spirit is exhorted in Scripture The exhortation in the scripture is wide Listen to the book of Ephesians, four chapter You know these verses very well It says, Be angry, and yet do not sin, and do not let the sun go down on your anger

Those who let the sun go down on their anger are not exemplifying a forgiving spirit. I'm not talking about forgiveness. I'm talking about a forgiving spirit, the attitude behind the act of forgiving Be angry, do not sin, let not the sun go down upon your wrath Because if you do, the next verse says this: and do not give the devil the opportunity to do what? You give the devil the opportunity to creep into your home And the attitude that he portrays Then begins to exemplify your life, then the attitude of Christ

And so Paul will go on and say these words in verse number 29: let no unwhol word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification According to the need of the moment, so that will be grace or give grace to those who hear Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you are sealed for the day of redemption Then he says these words Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice Be kind to one another, tender Forgiving each other just as God in Christ also has forgiven you

Wouldn it be good if within the family unit we were able to put away bitterness and malice and slander and clamor and all those things that are uncharacteristic of love? Okay Or Demonstrating the characteristics of love, such as forgiveness, kind, tender-heartedness, those kinds of things Paul would then say in the book of Colossians, these words, chapter 3, Colossians 3 Verse number 12: So as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience Bearing with one another and forgiving each other

Whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you Again The garments that God gives to us, that we are to put on, are the garments of tenderness and kindness and mercy and forgiveness, learning to be patient and forbear one with another We tend to be so impatient, so unkind, so int of each other That's not Extending a forgiving spirit So a forgiving spirit is exhorted in scripture But also, note this: a forgiving spirit is explained in Scripture So let me explain it to you

All right? Remember Matthew chapter 6? In Matthew chapter 6, Christ said these words in verse 12 in the disciples' prayer When they asked them, Lord, teach us how to pray He said, When you pray, pray this way And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors Forgive us as we have already forgiven our debtors And then there is one commentary on the different portions of the prayer There's only one commentary given It's a commentary about forgiveness And the Lord says this, for if you forgive others for their transgressions, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you

But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your trans Aggressions In other words, there's a certain attitude that, when you go to prayer, needs to be paramount In your heart, that you are will and ready to forgive as God Himself is willing and ready To forgive Over in Matthew chapter 18, verse number 35, as Christ gives a parable about Forgiveness When Peter asks the question, he says, How often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times? And Christ says, no, up to 70 times 7 That's a lot Think about that

If you have a 24-hour day and you sleep for eight hours, you're awake for 16, that means you forgive your brother every 1. 9 minutes he sins against you That's a lot of forgiveness throughout the day Christ says forgiveness is limitless Forgiveness is unlimited because it's a spirit, it's an attitude that we're to portray toward one another And even though someone might not come and ask for forgiveness, it doesn't exempt us from having a forgiving spirit

And so Christ gives the parable, and then he says, My heavenly Father will also do the same to you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart You see, forgiveness is internal It's from the heart Because ins of each of us is our heart, and inside the heart is the residence of the Christ Who is a God who willingly and is ready to forgive? Because that's who God is The Bible says in Luke 6, verse number 36, these words: Be merciful just as your F is merciful James would say in James 2:1 that judgment will be merciless upon those who show no mercy

So Christ says, be merciful just as your Father is merciful Do not judge, and you will not be judged Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned Pardon, and you will be pardoned In other words, if you have a forgiving spirit, you will be forgiven Give, and it will be given to you They will pour into your lap a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over For by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you in return In other words, there is a certain attitude, a certain spirit that is to permeate the life of a believer

Because you are most like Christ when forgiveness is at stake When forgiveness is at stake, you have the opportunity to demonstrate to anybody and everybody that Christ rules In your heart, because you have a forgiving spirit The Bible tells us that we are to forgive freely Generously, willingly, eagerly, speedily And unilaterally, in other words, across the board, we are to have a forgiving sp And some of you will say, well, wait a minute, Pastor, we've heard you say over the years that forgiveness is not uncond It's conditional It's based on someone's repentance That's true It is

And I thought about forgiveness. I'm talking about a forgiving spirit, an attitude that can't wait to forgive someone who has sinned against them That is the kind of attitude that keeps you from treading water in your marriage That keeps you from Running in place in your marriage that gets you out of the starting blocks and moves your marriage beyond normalcy to that which is Abnormal to the world, but supernatural in the eyes of God That's what needs to happen We need to be able to demonstrate that We are never to withhold a forgiving spirit from the unrepentant

Did you get that? We are never to withhold a forgiving spirit To the unrepentant Our Lord had a forgiving spirit on Mount Calvary Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing It didn't mean that everybody received Forgiveness carte bl, and everybody on Mount Calvary went to heaven No, he is willing to forgive all those who repented. but he had a forgiving spirit toward those who had beaten him, those who hung him on a tree, those who mocked him and scorned him, because his nature was one that was ready to forgive That's where you and I need to be

Now We all know that God has set forth a pattern in Scripture for the church in Matthew chapter 18 That when your brother sins, you go to him If he repents, you've won your brother And if he doesn't repent, you go to him with two or three witnesses And if he repents, you've won your brother You confront him on a sin And if he doesn't repent, then you take to the church, let the church go after him If he repents, you've won your brother If not, you treat him as a tax gatherer You treat him as a pagan because he hasn't repented of his sin

That's a process that God has designed for the church, for the purity and unity of the church That's absolutely essential for the church to operate But listen, my friend, you can't live every day confronting every sin that comes your way Well, that's all you'd ever do That's all you'd ever do Could you imagine if we as elders confronted every sin and sinner in the church? We'd have everybody in front of the church every Sunday We don't have time to do all that stuff But see, a forgiving spirit allows you, as the scriptures say, to overlook a transgression That's important Now, remember Luke 17

Luke chapter 17 It says these words Verse 1: Christ said to his disciples, It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come Okay, there's going to be stumbling blocks that come your way There's going be people that offend you There's going to be people in your family that offend you, that wrong you, that mistreat you, that even, God forbid, abuse you Okay? Woe to him through whom they come It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, he were thrown into the sea, than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble So be on your guard If your brother sins, rebuke him

If he repents, forgive him And if he sins against you seven times a day and returns to you seven times, saying, I repent, forgive him Now that's important because that's where Peter gets the The notion in Matthew 18 is saying, Lord, how much do I forgive my brother? Seven times? He gets it from this conversation And Christ says, if your brother sins against you seven times in a day, same 16-hour day, eight hours you sleep, 16 hours you're awake, that's every two hours and 15 minutes Okay? If he comes to you and repents, you forgive him

Now, that repentance could be insincere, right? It could be very insincere But you are still required to forgive him because you exemplify a forgiving spirit And even though you have a forgiving spirit and you're ready to forgive, and you forgive him because they've asked for forgiveness, if they are insincere, There still won't be reconciliation in that relationship But if you have a forgiving spirit that's willing and ready to forgive on all accounts, That then turns the table and begins to move the family unit in the right direction And that's what needs to happen

And that's why the apostles said to the Lord, Increase our faith Lord, we need more faith We can't forgive unless we have more faith Christ says, Faith? You don't need more faith He says, if you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and be planted in the sea, and it would obey you Which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him, When he has come into the field, come immediately and sit down to eat But will he not say to him, Prepare something to eat for me? And properly clothe yourself, and serve me while I eat and drink

Afterward you may eat and drink He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he? So you too When you do all the things which are commanded you, say, We are unworthy slaves We have done only that which we ought to have done Now All that to say is that Christ says, look, it not a matter of faith It's a matter of obedience That's all it is

Forgiveness and a forgiving spirit is a matter of obedience because we don't feel like having a forgiving spirit. I'm sure as Christ hung on Calvary's cross, he didn't feel forgiving, but he was forgiving because that was his nature See? He cannot deny himself He cannot deny who he is And we might not feel Forgiving We might not want to forgive, but it's not a matter of what you feel or don't feel It's a matter of obedience to God Listen, if Christ is disobeyed, he will never be dis If Christ is disobeyed, he cannot be displayed

If you disobey Christ in your family, in your home, your home will not display Christ The only way your home displays the Christ is if you obey the word of Christ And if you obey what he says, Then everybody can begin to see that the Word of God takes precedence in your life, that no matter how you feel, you will obey what God says, because at the bottom of your soul You are willing and you are ready to forgive That's what you want to do because of who you ser Very important to understand that Let me explain it to you this way Remember what Peter says in 1 Peter 4:8

He says these words: Above all, keep fervent in your love Why? For love co a multitude of sins Know that verse? Of course you do It's from the book of Proverbs, Proverbs chapter 10, verse number 12, which says, Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all trans Now, Proverbs 17, verse number 9, says this Proverbs 17, verse number 9 He who conceals a transgression seeks love But he who repeats the matter separates intimate friends That verse is a powerful verse They're all powerful, but to our topic tonight, that's extremely powerful

To understand that he who conceals a transgression is truly pursuing love and wants to demonstrate love from a pure heart But if you repeat a matter, it separates intimate friends How many women or men do you know? That are unwilling to conceal a transgression, but are willing to repeat their spouse's transgression to a friend of theirs And thus they separate intimate friends They separate husband and wife by their own devices because they have decided To speak out against the one that offended them, to someone else Listen to this

Proverbs 19, verse number 11 says, A man's discretion makes him slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook a transgression The glory of a man is to overlook a transgression The beauty of a man, the brightness of a man, man is at his best Man is at his brightest Man is at the apex of his existence when he overlooks a transgression, when he conceals a transgression, when he is unwilling To bring it up, but exemplifies a forgiving spirit

Now, you know what a Hebrew parallelism is, right? It's when In the sentence, there's two different phrases, express two different ways, but mean the same thing Psalm 32 says it this way Psalm 3, verse number 1 How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is concealed, or whose sin is covered To conceal a transgression, to cover a transgression, for love covers a multitude of transgressions, to cover a transgression is equated to forgiveness Because there is a forgiving spirit that you exemplify to someone who has wronged you, to someone who has spoken out against you

Same thing is true over in Psalm 85 In Psalm 85, same phraseology is used when the psalmist says these words: Psalm 85, verse number 2: You forgave the iniquity of your people and you covered all their sin So, to cover a sin, to cover a transgression, is equated with the forgiveness of sins And so, we As the people of God, exemplify a specific attitude toward those who have wronged us, and that is, we have a will, ready Desire to forgive those who have sinned against us, even though they might not ever come to us and seek forgiveness Some of you have been waiting for dec

For someone to ask for forgiveness And you're going to be waiting for decades more So, what are you going to do? Not forgive them because they haven't come and asked for forgiveness? No You must be willing and ready to forgive, even though they have not asked for forgiveness, because you are going to exemplify them the character and nature of Christ And even though that relationship might be broken, okay, it's not because of you, because you have exemplified a forgiving spirit

And if everybody in the family unit had that same kind of understanding, everybody then would be willing to overlook a transgression Love covers a multitude of sins, and we wouldn't have to spend every moment of every day confronting every sin that comes up in a household But we can overlook a transgression because we have a desire to forgive those who have sinned against us Let me say it to you this way The Bible tells us in the book of Mark, Mark chapter 11 Listen to this Verse 25 Whenever you stand praying, okay? You're praying wherever you are

You're standing, you're praying, you're sitting, you're praying, forgive Forgive who? Forgive If you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions Wow Did you get that? Whenever you're praying, forgive There is no transaction that takes place There's no rebuking There's no confrontation There's no one coming and asking for forgiveness It's just you alone standing in and praying When you are alone and you are praying, forgive You must be a forgiving person

You must be ready and willing to forgive at all costs because you want to exemplify the character and nature of Christ Because you don't want your prayers to be hindered because of a bitterness in your soul, because of some anger in your soul Because of some resentment that you're holding on to Because of some sin that you're harboring in your heart and unwilling to let go because you won't forgive Someone who has sinned against you My friends, this is so incredibly important for the people of God This is what it means to explain to someone a forgiving sp

This person in Mark 11, whoever they are, okay, shows that forgiveness is truly a choice It's a choice that you and I make It's not a feeling that we are to conjure up in our being It's a choice that we make This person in Mark 11 Gives immediate forgiveness to an offender with no formal meeting No confrontation, no rebuke, just as willing to forgive because that is their att There's no mention of repentance There's no mention of confrontation There's no mention of an interaction, a conversation Just when you stand praying, forgive For because that's what distinguishes you from the unbeliever

So, the choice simply is for us to be kind, benevolent, merciful, compassionate, loving, without fostering bitterness Looking to hold grudges against someone who's offended us? Can you imagine being married to someone for years and doing nothing but holding grudges against them because they did something maybe 30 years ago or 20 years ago? Ten years ago and just having a miserable life? There are a lot of people who have miserable lives by no fault of anyone else other than themselves because they do not have a forgiving spirit And they harbor bitterness in their soul

And they might look good when they come to church, but boy, they are just ruthless to those at home And my friends, that just doesn't bid well with the Lord Jesus Christ So the Bible says That love keeps no record of wrongdoings, right? 1 Corinthians 13:5 Doesn't keep a record of wrongdoings In fact, God's love is patient, and God's love is kind That's why God has a forgiving spirit Because his love is patient and love is kind He is so long-suffering with people and always bestowing acts of kindness and acts of benevolence toward them because he's such a patient God, he is willing to do that

And that's the way our lives are to be marked That's why the Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 2, these words about the Lord Jesus. 1 Peter chapter 2, verse number 21 For you have been called for this purpose You've been called for a purpose Since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in his steps Who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth, and while being reviled, he did not revile in return While suffering, he uttered no threats, but kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously

And he him bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness For by his wounds you were healed For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls. A forgiving spirit exhorted, explained, and thirdly, a forgiving spirit exemplified Remember Stephen in Acts 7? Stephen was the first Christian martyr who was preaching to the Jewish people about Christ being the Messiah, and they were so angry with him So inc at him, they seethed with anger

And they took him, they threw him out of the city, and they began to stone him Okay? Now, when you stone someone, you don't throw pebbles at them You hurl boulders at them Throw him down, you gather around him, and you begin to throw boulders down upon them Okay? And this was Stephen's response because Stephen had a forgiving spirit It says, but being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God And he said, Behold, I see the heavens opened up, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God

But they cried out with a loud voice and covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse And when they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him And the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul And they went on stoning Stephen as he called to the Lord and said, Lord Jesus, receive my Spirit Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin again me Them That's a forgiving spirit And as they laid their robes at the feet of Saul, these are the exact same words that Paul used

After his conversion, in 2 Timothy 4, about all those people who deserted him, may it not be charged against them And Alexander the coppersmith, who sought to do him much harm, Paul was willing to forgive him as well He had seen it exemplified in the life Of Stephen You see, we forget that, remember, Christ can only be dis if obeyed And so, as you obey the Christ, everybody can begin to see Christ in you And even though you have been sinned against, there is a bigger picture Than just you It's everybody else who's watching you

How about Joseph? We know about Joseph in the book of Genesis, right? How he had forgiven his brothers, even though his brothers never ever asked for forgiveness They never did There is no record of them ever coming to him and saying, You know what, Joseph, we were wrong We were so wrong By selling you into slavery, by lying to our father, we were so wrong for what we did Would you please forgive us? Never once did they say that But Joseph forgave them because he had a forgiving spirit It says When Joseph said to his brothers, Please come closer to me

And they came closer, and he said to them, I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt Now, do not be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here For God sent me before you to preserve life Verse 7: God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth And to keep you alive by a great deliverance, I will let you know that what you did to me was so wrong, but that's okay God had a bigger picture There was something greater at stake than just my little life And your little sin against my little life There is a bigger picture here

It's the nation of Israel to preserve an entire nation as it is today That's a man with a clear perspective on the sovereignty of God And at the end, after Jacob died, the brothers were afraid Because they thought that Joseph just did this to see his father But Jacob's now dead It says these words, I'm sorry, in Genesis chapter 50, these words And after he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers, and all who had gone up with him to bury his father

And when Joseph's brothers saw that their Father was dead, they said, What if Joseph bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong which we had done to him? Wow, that's what they were thinking He did what he did because he wanted to see Dad, Dad's dead Now he's going to pay us fare So, what did they do? They lied They sent a message to Joseph saying, Your father charged before he died, saying, Thus you shall say to Joseph, Please forgive, I beg you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin For they did you wrong

And now please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father And Joseph wept when they spoke to him Why did he weep? He had already forgiven them He had already demonstrated his forgiveness to them Then his brothers also came and fell down before him and said, Behold, we are your servants But Joseph said to them, Do not be afraid, for I am For am I in God's place? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result to preserve many people alive Listen, God has a bigger plan than just my little life

It's a whole nation See, the reason we don't have a forgiving spirit is because we think our life is bigger than it really is We think we're more important than we really are Joseph never thought that And he was greater than Pharaoh in all of Egypt Stephen never thought he was great, just was a preacher of the word Even King David Even King David in Second Samuel chapter 16 When David came to Bah, behold, there came out from there a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shem, the son of Gerah He came out cursing continually as he came

He threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David and all the people and all the mighty men were at his right hand and at his left And Dath Sheme said when he cursed, Get out, get out, you man of bloodshed and worthless fellow The Lord has returned upon you all the bloodshed of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned, and the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom And behold, you are taken in your own evil, for you are men of bloodshed

Then Abish, the son of Zer said to the king, Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over now and cut off his head But the king said, What have I to do with you, O sons of Zeruiah? If he curses, and if the Lord has told him, Curse David, then who shall say, Why have he done so? Then David said to Abish and said to all the servants, Behold, my son, who came out from me, seeks my life And how much more now this Benjamite? Let him alone, let him curse, for the Lord has told him Perhaps the Lord will look on my affliction and return good to me instead of his cursing this day

So David and his men went on the way, and Shem went along on the hillside parallel with him, and as he went he cursed, and cast stones, and threw dust at him And the king and all the people who were with him arrived weary, and he refreshed himself there What an attitude. I mean, I guess if he's cursing me, the Lord told him to curse me What can I say? He's throwing stones at King David, right? But the attitude of the King Dav Was an attitude of a forgiving spirit. A forgiving spirit exemplified Now, Are we saying that you never confront sin? No, I'm not saying that

If there's a broken relationship, According to Matthew chapter 5, before you go and you worship, you leave your offering at the altar, go seek reconciliation with someone that you've offended There's been a broken relationship that needs to, where there needs to be reconciliation, you do all you can to reconcile, to rectify that relationship But you go with the forgiving spirit You confront that sin If there's been a sin that is detrimental to the offender, okay, or the one doing the offending Maybe it's an habitual sin Maybe it's a moral sin Maybe it's something or an immoral act

Maybe it's some habitual sin that someone's caug Remember Galatians chapter 6? You who are spiritual are to restore those who have been caught up into a sin, right? That requires a confrontation That requires you to go to that brother and help him deal with that vice in his life It does require that And that's why Galatians 6 is there That's why Matthew 18 is there That's why Luke chapter 17 is in the scriptures That's why Matthew 5 is there So we can begin to heal broken relationships and deal with those who flagrantly sin against the body of Christ and against his church

Remember, 1 Corinthians chapter 5, perfect example. A man who was living immoral in the church, and Paul says, you've got to confront this guy in a sin It's a deterrent to the body of Christ, it's hindering The beauty and purity of the Christ in your church You got to deal with those things Those things need to be dealt with But never once are we ever excus from having a forgiving sp toward those who offend us It's essential And we must be able to do that will, gener, unilaterally

Speedily, because we want to exemplify the Christ, so incredibly important. A forgiving spirit exhorted, explained, exemplified. A forgiving spirit exper. I wonder, some of you might be sitting there saying, you know what? That's just never going to happen in my family You've got to ask yourself, have you been forgiven by the Christ? We are to forgive as Christ has forgiven us, right? Ephesians 4:3 If that's your attitude, you've got to ask if you have truly been forgiven by the Christ Because those who have been forgiven, they want to forgive

They recognize the magnitude of their sin against their God They recognize that they deserved hell, and God forgave them of their sins And the least that we can do is to forgive those who have transgressed against us And so we are willing and ready to forgive And that forgiveness must be exper in our personal lives We must have experienced firsthand the forgiveness of the living God And if you're here tonight and you had this attitude that says, you know what, this is never going to happen with me

You've got to ask yourself, have you truly experienced the forgiveness of the living God? Because if you have, you are a partaker of the divine nature You don't even want to say that because Christ lives in you And you want to be able to represent your Christ, your King, as clearly as possible to everybody around you Because once that forgiving spirit is experienced, it can then be freely extended Your fifth principle That forgiving spirit can now be extended to others because you want to You truly want to do that You can now be on your way to building a foundation

That strengthens the family unit Without this, you can't move Without a forgiving spirit, you're treading water Without a forgiving spirit, you're laboring in vain You are You must be willing to forgive Because think about it this way It's not about someone else's response to you It's always about how it is you reflect the Christ It's always about that And so you want to be able to extend to someone else what you have received from the Lord because our Lord is a forgiving God

And if you have a forgiving spirit, and in fact, you know what? It might be good for you to go home tonight and sit down with your family and say, you know what? I have not been the kind of individual I should be in the family, whether I'm a mother, a father, a brother, sister, aunt, uncle, grandmother, grandfather, whatever you may be Say, you know what? I want to begin to exemplify an attitude of forgiveness toward my family. I've been in resentment towards some of you. I am so

Bitter and angry toward things that you have said or things that you have done over the years. I can't even begin to think straight But I want to turn all that around and I want to obey the word of the Lord And I want to exemplify a tender, compassionate, forgiving kind of spirit And I want to let you know that tonight begins a whole new attitude with me. I truly want you to know that I want and am re to forgive. I want to forgive you Now, you might not get any response from your family You don't do it for a response You do it because it's the right thing to do Whether they respond or not

Because they might be thinking in the back of their mind, well, yeah, there's mom or dad or brother, sister, son, or daughter, spouting off again, you know, saying something that every's going to follow through on But you begin, you begin today, tonight, by saying, Look, I want to forgive. I want to show you a tender, compassionate, merciful, kind, loving he And so I am more than willing and ready to forgive Because Psalm 86 says that my God is good, and that goodness is seen in that he is ready to forgive And boy, I am ready To forgive

And some of you might be saying, well, but what if I say that and nothing happens? You know what? You're probably going to say that, and nothing's going to happen That's probably right But that's okay You want to begin to swim and not tread water? You want to begin to run and not just run in place, but run for distance? Start here Have a forgiving spirit toward those that have wronged you, spoken out against you, said nasty things about you And say, you know what? Like Joseph Who never heard we were wrong Like Stephen, who never heard, you're right, we're wrong

Like David, who had stones thrown at him and cursed Said, you know what? The Lord must have told him to say that Have a forgiving sp, and you will see how your family begins To get stronger and stronger because of your attitude Let me pray with you Father, we thank you for tonight a chance to be together Spend some time in your word Our prayer, Lord, is that you do a work in all of our hearts That every one of us would exemplify this kind of attitude And that, Lord, you'd go before us And that, Lord, you'd give us the grace, and the strength, and the courage that we need

To truly and accurately display you to those in our family And pray, Lord, that you'd be glorified and honored In Jesus' name, amen.