Sermon Series: “Connecting with God: The Lord’s Prayer” Part 5
Message Aim: God’s cure for a healing from your past hurts.
Sermon Title: “The Prayer of Release”
Scripture: Matthew 6:12
“Forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us.”
Message Synopsis:
Two of the greatest barriers in your life that keep you from experiencing genuine peace of mind are guilt and resentment. One of them has to do with when you hurt other people then you feel guilty. And when other people hurt you then you feel resentful. The Lord’s Prayer deals with both of these issues in a very powerful way. The Bible says this, “Forgive us our sins just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us.” We say Lord we want you to forgive us as much as we forgive everybody else.
How often am I supposed to forgive somebody who continually keeps on hurting me? It is the people around us that we’re closest to that often hurt us the most. It’s much easier to forgive a one-time offense. But what if my brother keeps on hurting me over and over in the daily contact? Jesus is saying an unlimited number of times. You have to keep on releasing the hurt and you have to keep on forgiving the offender.
Today we’re going to talk about what that means and what that doesn’t mean to forgive. But Jesus wanted to clarify this. He said you’ve just got to keep on forgiving the people in your life. So he told the story in Matthew 18 which is called the story of the Unforgiving Servant. “The king’s heart was moved with compassion and he released him… and forgave him, canceling his entire debt.”
Why would anybody do that? More important, why must you do it? Why must you let people off the hook who’ve hurt you deeply and badly? When everything in you wants to hold on to that hurt. God’s word gives us three reasons why we have to let go of our hurt, why we have to forgive, why we have to not hold on to our resentment. There are three reasons.
- Because God forgives me.
He has forgiven me many, many times. So I am to forgive other people. In this story that Jesus tells, the king who represents God obviously, forgives the servant. Matthew 18:27 it says “The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled his debt, and let him go.” And just as the king canceled the debt of this servant in the story, God sent Jesus Christ to pay for your debt. Everything you’ve ever done wrong in your life has already been paid for so you don’t have to pay for it. Jesus took your offense and he said I will pay. The wages of sin is death and Jesus Christ died for all of your sins.
The Bible says this, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ, God forgave you.” When you really feel forgiven you’re going to be forgiving.
So there are three reasons I have to let go of the hurt in my heart and I have to forgive people when they hurt me. One, God has forgiven me a tremendous debt.
- Resentment is self-torture.
It is a self-inflicted wound. Whenever you’re resentful, whenever you’re holding a grudge, whenever you get bitter, it always hurts you more than the person you’re bitter against. In fact, they’re not even thinking about it. They hurt you in the past. They’ve forgotten about it. They’ve gone on with their life. And you’re still worrying about something that happened a year ago, ten years ago or maybe when you were a child. They’re not even thinking about it. Your past is past and it can’t hurt you any more unless you hold on to it.
In the story that Jesus told, when the king hears about this servant who he’s forgiven millions, that it’s reported to him that he’s out choking people over seventeen bucks, he is furious. The king is ticked. And he has this servant come back in before him and here’s what he says “You contemptible and wicked servant. I forgave and released you and I canceled your great debt. Shouldn’t you have shown mercy and release to your debtor just as I did with you?’ In wrath the king sent him to the jailers to be tortured in the torture chamber.”
Friends, it’s not worth it. You’ve got to let it go. You’ve got to learn how to pray the prayer of release. Forgive us our debts as we forgive everybody who is indebted to us. Everybody who’s hurt us. Everybody who’s been mean to us. I have to learn to forgive because God has forgiven me and because resentment is self-torture. There’s one other reason.
- I have to release them because I need forgiveness every day.
The Bible teaches very clearly that we cannot receive what we are unwilling to give. Do you want to be forgiven? The Bible says you need to be forgiving. That’s what the Lord’s Prayer says. Forgive us our sins as much as we forgive everybody else. Do you really want to pray that? God, I want you to forgive me as much as I forgive them. That’s what the Lord’s Prayer is. I want you to forgive me as much as I forgive everybody else.
Forgiveness is a lifestyle. It’s not just something you do one time. You need it every day of your life. You’ve got to ask for forgiveness. You’ve got to accept forgiveness from God and from others. And you’ve got to offer forgiveness. Forgiveness must be constant and it must be continual. It must be enjoyed and it must be employed. You receive it because you mess up a lot and you need it and you enjoy forgiveness. But you’ve got to employ too. You’ve got to give it to other people – constant and continual.
In fact in Jesus’ story the king treats the servant exactly the way the servant treats the other guy. In fact here’s what Jesus said. He concludes the story with this: “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”
How do I release my hurt? What do I do with my anger against this person?
- I leave it to God.
The Bible says this in Romans 12:19 “Never avenge yourselves. [Then circle this…] Leave that to God for he has said he will repay those who deserve it.”
I heal it with grace.
Hebrews 12:15 says “Be careful that none of you fails to respond to the grace, which God gives, for if he does there can very easily spring up in him a bitter spirit which is not only bad in itself but can also poison the lives of many others.”
- I need to nail it to the cross.
“We know that our old life died with Christ on the cross so that our sinful selves would have no power over us.” Notice that: our sinful selves would have no power over us. What does that mean? It means my natural inclination to do the wrong thing. Every time I think of it again was done to hurt me it still hurts. But in Jesus, He gives me healing and gives me peace.
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