The Blessings of Forgiveness Part 1

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Blessings of Forgiveness Part 1. He will be reading out of 2nd Corinthians 2:4-11.

This is what the Apostle Paul does. He doesn’t take the offense personally because the Apostle Paul understands that an unforgiving Christian is a proud Christian and an unforgiving Christian is a Christian who has forgotten how much they have been forgiven.

Hello this is Pastor Mike Sanders and this is Hope Worth Having and today we’re going to be starting a new study in 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 and here we’re going to be studying verses 4 through 11, learning about the blessings of forgiveness.

You know forgiveness is tough and it’s nothing that we’re gonna feel but it is something we are commanded to do and the only way that God’s people can move forward together is in forgiveness. We just don’t live in this perfect world and perfect people.

We’re gonna have to learn to forgive one another. So let’s get into our study this morning and learn about the blessings of forgiveness. I want you to take your Bible and I want you to go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 and I want us to cover verse 4 through 11.

We’ll never get through all that but that’s okay we’ll just pick up where we left off but I want us to understand how important if we’re gonna reach other people that we must experience the blessing of forgiveness in our life.

Now have you ever gone to a concert early you’ll notice if the musicians are tuning their instruments and it always isn’t particularly pleasant listening to them tuning their instruments but it’s necessary as they are striving for harmony to come later.

It is easy for instruments to fall out of tune and it’s also easy for relationships to fall out of tune and there are many times that harmony is missing in our relationships. Relationships with God and relationship with others and the reason that our relationships are out of tune with God, and our relationship is out of tune with others, is because our heart is out of tune with God.

In his book entitled, Untwisting Twisted Relationships, William Bacchus writes these words, and I quote, Though we expect from our relationships the sweetest moments life can offer, the brutal fact is that what parents, spouses, sweethearts, friends, and neighbors say and do can cause a large share of life’s miseries.

That being true, one of our greatest challenges as believers, as people who have relationships with others, is to learn the fine art of forgiveness. When we come to our text, I’ve shared with you those that have been with us Sunday after Sunday, as we’ve been looking at 2 Corinthians, that Paul was in conflict with the church at Corinth, that he intended to make a stop at the city of Corinth to see the church fellowship, to interact and to rejoice with them.

But because of much conflict and because of a change of plans, he had to go a different direction, circumstances that were beyond his control. The apostle Paul sent a letter that was not preserved for us to the church at Corinth.

It was not saved by God. It was not a letter that was meant to be in the Bible. But Paul refers to this letter as being a painful letter, a severe letter. And he writes to the church, he had Titus, one of his teammates on his mission team, to take this letter to the church.

When Titus arrived at Corinth with that letter, he found the church in great conflict with many problems. He came back and shared it with the apostle. The apostle then felt a great need to make a journey to Corinth.

When the apostle Paul found the church in disarray with many members who were openly rebelling against him, the second visit that he made to Corinth, he refers to as a painful visit. Look at chapter two and verse one.

He says in 2 Corinthians chapter two verse one, “‘I determined this with myself, “‘that I would not come again to you in heaviness.'” And he is referring to the fact that this visit was a painful visit.

Look at verse two, “‘For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad? “‘But it’s the same which is made sorry by me.'” Paul is referring to this incredible difficult task. Again, he writes another letter.

letter to them. And then we see this reference to this letter in verse 3 and 4. And he says in verse 3, I wrote this same unto you, lest when I come I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice, having confidence in you all that my joy is the joy of you all.

For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears. Not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you. The apostle Paul had to write a tough letter after experiencing a painful visit about the disarray and the rebellion going on in the local church at Corinth.

He was so hurt by this, so devastated by this open rebellion and betrayal of the people of God towards the apostle that they had turned against him. The Bible says that when he wrote this letter that he was tearful and he had to write a very difficult letter to them because he had to address the issues.

And in addressing these issues, it was necessary for the apostle to show tough love. There are times that God wants the love that we show to be tender and there are times that God wants us to show love that is tough.

It’s not easy to show tough love, but this is what God is calling the apostle to do. And so he did this with much tears. He did this knowing that it was going to be painful, but he did it because he loved God’s people.

And so when we come to our text, he picks up in verse five and he says, if any have caused grief, he has not grieved me, but in part that I may not overcharge you all sufficient to such a man as this punishment, which was inflicted of many so that the counterwise you ought to rather forgive him and comfort him, less perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with over much sorrow.

Wherefore, I beseech you that you would confirm your love towards him, for to this end also did I write that I might know the proof of you, whether you be obedient in all thing. The apostle Paul goes on to share with the church that after they addressed the problems and the people in the church who had sinned against God, that it was important for them to forgive.

It was important for them to confirm and affirm their love and their forgiveness to this individual. or, in some cases, individuals in a plural sense. And he is teaching them how important it is to understand the blessings of forgiveness in our relationships.

The price of refusing to forgive is very high. Unforgiveness in our hearts produces hatred, bitterness, and anger. The Scriptures teach us in Hebrews 12 verse 15 that we are to be looking carefully at our hearts, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness spring up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.

There are many people because that they have not addressed the issues in their life and their relationships, that they have allowed bitterness and anger to take root in their hearts. And this bitterness comes out, this anger comes out in their life and it defiles them, but it also defiles everyone around them.

I tell parents all the time, please note that the anger you show in your home is contagious. And that this anger can be transferred to the heart of a child. This is why Paul taught us that fathers were not to provoke our children to anger.

That it’s important for us to understand that anger can become a very poisonous spirit within the heart of not only our children, but everybody else around us. Have you ever met somebody that was so negative, so critical, so hateful, so angry, so bitter that you did not even want to be around them?

That is the fulfillment of this verse in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 15. When you and I choose to refuse to forgive in our relationships, this is the results. Refusing to forgive imprisons people to their past and their emotions.

Unforgiving people love to keep their pain alive. When we come to our text this morning as we look at the life of the apostle, we see that he is a great example of experiencing the blessing of forgiveness and being a man who forgave.

For remember that the church turned against him. So the first thing, the first blessing of forgiveness is that it deflects pride in our life. It deflects pride in our life. If you want to be effective in reaching others for Christ, you cannot be an angry, bitter, hateful, negative, critical, fearful person.

You will never win people to Christ when you are filled so much. with pride anger and hurt and bitterness in your life now again we look at verse 5 in the King James it says if any have caused grief he has not grieved me but in part that I may not overcharge you all and if you’re like me when I first read that I said what are you talking about so I am a person who likes to look at different translations I know some of you don’t but that’s fine but for me I looked at other translations and I felt like what I call the NASB is the best translation of the Greek language here of this text and I want to read it to you and I think they’ll put it up on the screen for you in this translation and I think it really captures what I’m trying to say to you this morning that if any has caused sorrow he has caused sorrow not to me but in some degree in order not to say too much to all of you what I find so interesting about the Apostle when we know the history in the context of this text is that whoever and whatever the apostle is referring to in this text, whether it’s a person, a group of people, we are not fully sure.

There are many commentaries that take different sides and some that say we cannot clearly know, but here’s the bottom line. What we do know is that the church was very much in opposition to the apostle because there was a false teacher that infiltrated the church and he was mischaracterizing the apostle Paul and the people had turned against the apostle and rather than taking everything personal and rather than being offended and being mad at everybody, the apostle deflects it so that he will not be prideful.

He was grieved. He was certainly upset about the fact that sin had infiltrated the church and that the church had tolerated sin. We know in 1 Corinthians chapter five, verse one through 13, that Paul refers to a sin that was mentioned and I’ll just read the first verse of 1 Corinthians five.

It should be up there for you. It says it’s actually reported that there’s sexual immorality among you and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles that a man has his father’s wife.

So here is a man who’s involved with his stepmother and this is such gross sin that not even the world accepts this and Paul says to the church, you have to deal with this. When Paul wrote the severe letter to the church, he said you have to deal with this open rebellion.

You have to deal with this false teacher but Paul uses this opportunity to not take everything personal to deflect it so that his heart does not become filled with pride. There’s no doubt when Paul came, he was insulted.

There was no doubt he was mischaracterized and he was not treated fairly and there was no due process. given to him, but the Apostle Paul recognized that he did not want to be a bitter and angry man.

So he decides to play down the wrong to him personally, and he tries to challenge the church to deal with it corporately and not make it a personal issue. And I say this to you, church, because I believe this with all my heart, whether it’s been my own experience or it’s been seeing it in other people’s lives, that the chief cause of an unforgiving heart is pride.

It is pride. It is pride that causes us to be self -pityed. It is pride that leads us to become so angry and upset and react, and the Bible teaches us that there is no place for a wounded ego in the church.

Now let me help you understand this, the scripture says that great peace have they that love thy law and nothing shall offend them. The reason some people you can’t have a conversation with them is because they’re so filled of pride that they’re always offended.

Every time you say something to them, they have a meltdown. Every time you try to explain something to them, every time you try to show them scripture, they get upset. It’s because their heart is filled with pride.

God is calling us to not be offended at everything that is said in our relationships, to not be upset. When people join our church, I always remind them that before you join the church, please know that there are people at different walks in their life in our church family.

There are people at different spiritual maturity in our family. There are people that have just gotten saved. There are people who have been saved forever and there’s people in between. There’s people who are doing great and now they’re doing bad.

There are people who are doing bad and now they’re doing great. It’s an ebb and flow in the church. But what I want you to know is this, there will be things said and people will say things all the time to you that might hurt your feelings and you have a choice to decide, am I going to be offended?

Am I going to be so prideful? Is my ego going to be so swell that I take it personal or am I going to give this person to God? Because here’s one thing I’ve learned, church, in ministry, hurting people hurt people.

Are you with me? Hurting people hurt people and they lash out and they don’t know how to handle some things sometimes and they don’t know how to process some things sometimes. And sometimes I just happen to be in the way and they lashed out at me, but I can’t take it personal.

I have to deflect the pride and not be mad because you know what? When we go out on this journey, who knows what’s going on in people’s life? Who knows what people are experiencing? Sometimes people say things, sometimes people are yelling at you and you don’t even know what’s going on and you just wonder where did that come from?

Who knows what people are experiencing? Experiencing in life, but we have to give them to Jesus. Don’t we? This is what the Apostle Paul does He doesn’t take the offense personally. He teaches us a great example of being forgiven and to learn to deal with it on a corporate level rather than making it Personal because the Apostle Paul understands that an unforgiving Christian is a proud Christian and an unforgiving Christian is a Christian who has forgotten how much they have been forgiven People say to me.

I’m not forgiving them. Are you saying that somehow? Your sins are less than others and that you should be forgiven by God But you do not have the responsibility to forgive others Are we that prideful that we now are?

ranking our sin and we’re determined who gets forgiven and who doesn’t get forgiven have we come to the walk in the spiritual maturity of Our faith that now we get to discern who experiences the forgiveness of God And you say, no, I’m just saying, they can’t experience my forgiveness.

Now listen to me friends, any forgiving you’re doing is because God has forgiven you. And any forgiving you’re doing is because as you receive his forgiveness, you are giving that forgiveness. Because you can’t give what you don’t have.

So any forgiveness that you are giving is not something that came out of your flesh and came out of your mentality, your personality, the forgiveness that you are giving to others is because you are receiving the grace of forgiveness from Almighty God and he is filling your heart with forgiveness and now you’re not running around being hateful, rude, upset and ready to torch bridges and be done with that person and be done with this person.

But you are more than willing to forgive so you can deflect pride in your life. The second blessing of forgiveness is to show mercy. We come to verse six of second Corinthians chapter two. He says, sufficient to such a man is the punishment, which was afflicted of many.

Look at that phrase, inflicted of many. Some translations say, inflicted by the majority. What he’s teaching us is that the church did address the problem and the church did have a vote. How tough would that be?

But Paul had in this severe letter instructed them to corporately deal with this. Don’t make it a matter of him. Don’t make it a personal attack on the apostle but rather deal with it within the church, whether it was the matter of this man living in immorality because he was in a wrong relationship or whether it was a matter of the open rebellion that was taking place with the church leadership, we do not know.

But they did take a vote and the majority of the church voted that the individual or individuals were to be disciplined within the church. What was that discipline? We are not told. Paul refers that the punishment is…

sufficient. The punishment could have been that they refused to allow them to participate in the Lord’s table. The punishment could have been that they stripped them of their membership. The punishment could have been that they were not allowed to participate in church, fellowship, activities, whatever it may have been, it was sufficient and not only was it sufficient, it had done its work.

For it had led the believer or the believers to the point to recognize their sinfulness and the mistake that they had made and that the rebellion that was in their heart or the immorality that was in their life and they confessed it to God and they confessed it to the church leaders and they had made things right.

And here’s what Paul is saying to them, show mercy, forgive them, forgive them. Believers are never more like God than when they forgive. You say, I want to be like Jesus. Well, listen to this. The Bible says in Nehemiah 9 .17, you are a God ready to pardon.

Gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness, and did not forsake them, meaning that God has not forsaken Abraham and his people. God has not forsaken his people, and he has shown pardon and forgiveness and mercy and grace to his people time and time again.

When you open up the Bible, it is a love letter from God. It is the redemptive story of a savior, of a God who is reaching out to his people, drawing them to him. And despite them, he still loves them.

And despite their sins, he’s still calling them. And despite what they have done, he is still showing them grace and pardon and forgiveness. And my friends, you are never more like Jesus than when you and I forgive one another within the church, without the church, within the family, outside of the family.

God is calling you to show mercy. In Matthew chapter 18, Jesus had been talking about harmony and relationships. They began to teach his disciples about interpersonal difficulties. And while he was speaking, the apostle Peter had a question.

And he said, essentially, how often shall I forgive my brother? And Jesus said, in effect, there is no limit to your mercy. You are to go right on forgiving, even if you must do it 70 times seven, which is the idea of infinity.

It is the idea forever. To illustrate this, Jesus went on to teach a parable about the unforgiving debtor, that this debtor who was in debt to a king had been forgiven. Let’s say that he was forgiven $20 million.

But when he went to others that owed him $20, he was unwilling to forgive. That’s what I was trying to tell you earlier, is that how prideful it is for us to be forgiven. given in the scope of scale of our sin, $20 million, and yet somebody offends us on a $20 level, and we will not give them forgiveness.

It is the height of pride to do that. And what we are called to do is that if you have been shown forgiveness and mercy by God, if you have been forgiven so much, how much more should you forgive? Remember what Jesus taught us, to whom much is given, much is what?

I know you’re thinking about money, but I’m thinking about forgiveness. I’m thinking about if you’ve been given a lot of forgiveness, then you are required to give a lot of forgiveness. That if God has blessed you with mercy, then He is asking you and I to show mercy to others.

The third blessing of forgiveness is to restore joy. We come to verse seven. And he says in verse 7, so that counterwise you ought rather to forgive him and comfort him lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with over much sorrow.

He says you’re to forgive him. Paul is saying it’s time to forgive him, to grant this man’s forgiveness so that joy can be restored in his heart. And joy can be restored in the life of the church. And joy can be restored in our relationships.

Remember what the psalmist prayed? He asked the Lord, psalmist David, he prayed after his sin against God. He said, Lord, restore unto me the joy of my salvation. It wasn’t that he lost his salvation because he sinned, but he lost the joy of his salvation.

You know who the most miserable people on this earth are? They’re not people who have never trusted Christ as a savior. They’re having the time of their life enjoying the pleasures of sin. But the most miserable people in this world are people who have the Holy Spirit living in them, true believers who have sinned against God, and the joy of their salvation has escaped them, has left them, and the Spirit of God is convicting them.

These are the people who do not have joy. And so Paul is saying, do not pound on them. Do not overwhelm them. Do not continue to remind them of their sin. But he says to the church, comfort him. Forgive him.

The Bible teaches us in Ephesians 4 .32 to be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Let me say this, that some people say to me, well, I forgive them, but I haven’t forgotten, pastor.

I get that, and I understand that. If you’ve been abused, you’re not gonna ever forget. I get you. I understand in the sense that I concur, that it’s hard to erase the abuses of others off the memory of our mind.

But listen to me. I’m not asking you to forget. asking you to forgive. I’m asking you to not just bury the hatchet but leave the handle up so that every time you can remember it that you go back and pull it back out and whack them over the head again.

If somebody sends you a bill and you paid it in full and they send you a bill again, what do you say? I already paid that. Not paying it again. I already paid that. When I forgive somebody it is not something that they earned.

It’s a gift and I’m not going to send them another bill and say pay me again. It’s the whole misconception of what forgiveness is. Forgiveness is a gift. Trust is earned. And though I may not ever be able to forget, I must choose to forgive one another and the motivation is not because they deserve it, not because they earned it, not because somehow I wanna declare that they were justified in the offense that they gave to me or the hurt that they brought into my life or the abuse that they attacked me with.

But the reason that I forgive others is because Christ forgave me. If you need motivation to forgive others, get back to Jesus. Get back to the foot of the cross for you will never find a more sufficient reason to forgive others than what Christ has done for you.

And then sometimes people say to me, Mike, they didn’t ask for forgiveness. I can’t give them forgiveness because they never asked for it. And I say, can you come back to the cross with me? Because when Jesus won the cross, he said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

You and I have been hurt and offended by people in our life who didn’t know what they were doing. They were just ignorant in the way they acted, they behaved, and it’s just a sad situation. But we choose to forgive.

And let me say this about forgiveness. It is a choice. It’s not a feeling. Some of you are saying, when I feel like it, I’ll do it. Well, you’ll never feel like it, amen? We keep forgiving. It’s not a one -time incident because these people keep crossing our paths.

These scenarios keep happening and God keeps challenging us. But I can forgive because Christ forgave me. I can forgive because the Spirit of God lives in me. I can forgive because I wanna restore joy not only in my heart, but in the heart of others.

The Bible says, brethren, if a man be overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. The purpose of discipline is to bring joy back.

When you discipline your children, it’s not that they’ll be angry and mad at you forever, although sometimes it probably feels like that. But it is to bring joy back into the family. Now, here’s the key.

If you’re gonna… this blessing of forgiveness, you got to make certain that you have received God’s forgiveness yourself. When we receive Christ as Savior, we receive His forgiveness. Our sins are cast as far as the east is from the west.

The scripture says, the Psalmist 103 verse 12 says, as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. I’m glad God forgets, aren’t you? He remembers them no more.

We must realize how fully we have been freed from the guilt of our sin, shaking off our shame and leaving behind our old person. We embrace the words of our Savior who taught us to pray, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

Believers are forgivers, and the motive for giving sin is the heart of God who has forgiven us. And He forgives not because we deserve it, but out of sheer love and grace. For us, church, you want to reach others?

Be a forgiving person. You want to be that person that reaches out to others and is a positive influence on others? You have to be that person that is receiving forgiveness and giving forgiveness. One of the ways you can stay connected to us is through social media.

We’re on Facebook, go ahead and just search us and type in Hope Worth Having and you’ll see us like us and keep up with the ministry of what God is doing. And every day we’re putting out messages to keep you strengthened, focused on the Lord.

We know it’s not easy in this journey of faith, but the Lord has a plan. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.