The wisdom of the gospel in forgiveness

Introduction:  The love from discipline and maturity

Hebrews 12:11-For the momentall discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but laterit yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

-Think of the different ways we use the term love?-Whether that is a love of music, romantic love, love of certain foods, places, etc, all are pleasurable…yet the things that are tough we don’t immediately think of as “love”, like discipline

–Yet if you are going to see any pleasurable results of out of a gift/skill, a relationship, physical and spiritual-there needs to be love in the form of discipline, consistently serving your spouse/significant other, studying the task/the job/the Word

-So in order to mature, the writer says that discipline is painful, b/c there is no instant gratification/pleasure, but if you embrace it, it will pay off-so growing up in maturity as an individual requires what we would call “tough love”, places that God must confront in order for healing to take place

-All of us have places of immaturity, however if this form of love (discipline) is absent from the way we approach-God, marriage, parenting, our profession,  growth as a person in those areas is never going to be cultivated that brings peace

The great thing about Church that you appreciate later when you embrace spiritual discipline-is that though it is painful, if we humbly receive the Word we find healing and growth; the more we train ourselves, the more we find peace in God b/c we’re growing...My plea for this sermon particularly is that I’ve haven’t witnessed a “greater divider” than bitterness

 

The tentacles of bitterness

Proverbs 14:9-The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares its joy.

–When you hear this passage, I want you to think about how intense you felt over being bitter, and realizing how lonely you were in how you felt-strong emotions can overtake how we approach all situations b/c our heart is not in compartments-it’s either God stabilizing our emotions (peace) or being tossed to and fro by our emotions (bitterness)

Psalms 86:11-Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth;unite my heartto fear your name.

-So our prayer is for God to unite our heart to what He thinks (truth) and His heart for peace (refuge)-this is important, b/c God rest His presence for peace and stability in the truth, not just how we see and think about it=though it maybe true, God wants us to see the truth of a situation through His eyes, where forgiveness, healing, unity/peace reside.

Ex: You could be a parent who made decisions for your child in truth and love from God-yet that not be how they perceive it, their perception will dictate for them what they believe, without a forgiving heart bitterness remains

-So from our own bitterness, we could be living with these emotions that spill over on everyone else-who have no clue as to why we are so angry, manipulative and bitter, (and it’s not everyone’s job to accommodate our dysfunction)

Ex:  Psychologist call this “displaced aggression” in that we are allowing our anger to hit “targets” that are not the root cause of our aggression-so in order to deal with this problem, before innocent bystanders get wrath they don’t deserve, I must locate what is causing this…(so I may have to revisit places I am responsible for, or responsible to face and get help

b/c the next step in not dealing with our heart in bitterness is to never find our purpose from God)

Hebrews 12:15-17-See to it that no one fails to obtain the graceof God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

-Inevitably to live completely bitter and never find grace to forgive-is to allow the root of bitterness to grow continually and eventually dominate, settling for an identity that is foreign to Jesus Christ (b/c to revisit what someone did and claim to never forgive them means that we have more dignity than Jesus-so it’s not about being conformed to His image, but making sure no one desecrated my image!)

Colossians 3:3-For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

-This hardened bitterness leads to compromising God’s standard/inheritance of salvation like Esau-and trading it in for what satisfies the flesh/temporary, Esau traded in an eternal inheritance for a bowl of soup, what could you be trading in for salvation and the grace to forgive…That you can’t let go of the offense in this temporal life=bitterness?

Grace is God’s power to do what we should do with the situation=forgive-so to resist grace, is to say I can’t get over it and you have ruined my life= 1) unbelief that God can’t work it for good2)  There is no hope beyond this life=unbelief

What you do with your trials matter

1 Peter 2:21-23-For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled,he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten,but continued entrusting himselfto him who judges justly.

–Peter reveals how Jesus lived with the effects of suffering injustice and wrongdoing-by not living with vengeance in His heart, but believing that justice and vindication would come from God-(in other words He didn’t retaliate in unbelief, Jesus fully trusted God as we should-that God has seen and cares about it and won’t stand by without using it)

Luke 23:34-And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”…

Romans 8:28-29-And we know that for those who love God all thingswork together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the imageof his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

-Bitterness comes when we don’t believe anything good can come from what we have suffered-but God qualifies what is “good”, not by how we want to live, but what is good for His purpose–(so the prayer to God while suffering from wrongdoing-is to seek how it is helping form you to be like Christ for His good purpose)

-Because this passage concludes how we will see our suffering for our good, that we our being conformed to Jesus-so you will care more about being conformed to Jesus than avenging your bitterness (otherwise the suffering you went through will leave you bitter-b/c you never come to realize the point of it and be thankful it happened, but resent it happened your whole life)

Galatians 3:3-5-Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?

-If what you went through isn’t seen through the Spirit by faith, (conforming and perfecting you to be like Jesus for a purpose)-than you will only see life through the “flesh”, which is a summation of what you’ve been through, which is to suffer in vain, because the trial is used to help conform us to Jesus=bitterness without faith to trust God by His Spirit

Psalm 140:12–I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted,and will execute justice for the needy.

Ex:  For my own life from childhood to the present, this principle has helped me seek how God used it for good

Conclusion:  Desire to know your purpose?=Remove bitterness

2 Timothy 2:3-4–Share in sufferingas a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits,since his aim is to pleasethe one who enlisted him.

-When we settle to live angry and bitter over what has happened in our lives-the first question I consider is what did I expect life to be with God (prosperity gospel mindset??), the second question I ask, what am I trying to accomplish, my purpose or God’s?

-Lastly, Am I really living this life to please God?  If so, why am I surprised by trials and persecution, Jesus had them!-so what justification do I have to go after my own pursuits in life and not God’s if I you know He saved me?

-Implied from the apostle Paul to this young pastor Timothy is to see his life through of being on a mission-where the spiritual opposition is designed to make him bitter and disqualify himself in his hearttowards God and people

2 Corinthians 2:10-11-Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. What I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ,11 so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.

-The goal of Satan is to have people bitter at each other (heart level), which is why forgiveness is the pillar of the gospel-that the same hostility from sin kept us from our path blocked from God, Jesus tore it down…this process is continual in our life with people, otherwise Satan is outwitting us and stifling our purpose

James 3:10-12-From the same mouthcome blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

-If you read Pastor Hong’s devotional, he talked about “checking your heart through your mouth, and how we talk, when we are bitter, it shows through what this passage is explaining-Through our expression our bitterness comes through, and when it shows, vs.12 tells us what we are yielding from the heart-so you have to “own it” and locate why?-am Ithis

-Our hearts being cleansed and at peace yields a mouth that blesses, encourages, lovingly corrects, etc-but the bitter heart is just storing up wrath unlike God who sent His Son to satisfy His wrath towards us!

-The vast wisdom of forgiveness is this, is that like God, He knows people live in perpetual shame and failure from sin everyday-to know you will accepted and loved in spite of failing is the greatest security a person can. Have, yet that takes knowing our own sins and finding mercy so we can give it from a pure heart in God’s secure love..(the world tries to find security through false claims of a “soul mate”, outer beauty, riches/fame, etc.-but they must live with the insecurity of such things failing to satisfy God’s displeasure)…

Love never fails however, and bitterness never secures love-but resist giving it and too hardened to receive it, leaving you to feel like loneliest person on earth–Proverbs 14:9-The heart knows its own bitterness,and no stranger shares its joy.