The Steps and the Facts of Forgiveness - Purity 871

Good morning. Well, actually, to see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of the sun heading toward setting over Lake Ontario comes to us from SUNY Oswego's Facebook page, as my alma mater recently invited potential students to apply now to to take advantage of the waiver of application fees that is in effect from now until November 6th, promising excellent academic options and spectacular views like this one to all, to those who were, are accepted, are accepted. Anyway, I have recently seen an increase in ads from my old college and it makes me wonder about the state of the school because when I applied back in 1990, SUNY Oswego was one of the more coveted SUNY schools to attend. They didn't have to advertise. When I was accepted as a freshman, I was positively thrilled because of the perceived prestige of the school, uh, that didn't just accept anyone. And I'm sure they still don't. Um, this didn't just accept anyone, and the fact that it was a distant 3.5-hour drive from my home in Hudson, New York. The feelings of joy of a new adventure in college and being free of all things Hudson was positively positively jubilant because it felt like I was going to begin a new life free from the things of the past and the perceptions of who I was based on who I was growing up in Hudson. And I was free, and I was happy, and I celebrated often— actually way too much. And that in turn corrupted the dream of who I wanted to be when I applied to college in the first place, resulting in 4 years of partying, meager grades, A grades and no clue of what to do upon graduation, sending me back home hopeless because I didn't take advantage of those excellent academic options, which led me to make the best of my bad situation, which would be the ongoing theme for the next 16 years of my life until I learned what real acceptance was when I put my faith in Jesus. And, and have been allowing him to lead me out of the darkness of that distant past and all the years since. Um, the great news is that I absolutely have no bitterness toward my alma mater, any, anyone I knew back then, or myself regarding the decisions I made in those college years, because the Lord has helped me to resolve any of those offenses or regrets through forgiveness. Anyone— anything going back that far and anything since has been resolved through the Lord. And a lot of it was done through this, the Steps to Freedom in Christ, which is, is a set of prayers, declarations, and renunciations that were developed by Dr. Neil Anderson based on the Word of God and used by the Holy Spirit to help to set people free in Christ. The steps are a process of repentance that the Lord can use to help Christians resolve the spirit— personal and spiritual conflicts that would otherwise keep them stuck in their sins and the bitterness of unforgiveness. As I prepare to lead participants of the Freedom in Christ course through the Steps to Freedom in Christ, I answer the Lord's call to clean my own house this morning by praying through the steps myself again, and I feel wonderful because I have renounced all my sins, failures, and selfish attitudes, and forgiven everyone everything that may have caused some residual bitterness in my soul. I had last done the steps in the spring, and although I didn't have as much to unload as I did the first few times I went through the steps, um, I was surprised by the fact that there were quite a lot of people to forgive since my last session. O people, if we are in relationship with anyone, we will have to forgive. And even though I try to keep short accounts and forgive people immediately, over time our souls can be burdened of having to continually forgive the people in our lives who continue to unwittingly or purposely cause us offense. Some situations and people don't change too much over time, and if we remain in relationship with them, we will have to forgive. And even if we are diligent in doing so, um, it can be a huge relief to take their compounded offenses and lay them down for the Lord to remove from us. So I have decided to forgive from the heart and feel light and free this morning, and thought I would share the facts of forgiveness that are contained within the Steps to Freedom in Christ to teach or to remind us, all of us, what forgiveness is not and what it is. So here we go, from the Steps to Freedom in Christ. It says, freedom— or freedom— forgiveness is not merely forgetting. People who want to forget all that was done to them will find they cannot do it. Don't put off forgiving those who have hurt you, hoping the pain will one day go away. Once you choose to forgive someone, then Christ can come and begin to heal you of your hurts. But the healing cannot begin until you first forgive. Forgiveness is a choice, a decision of your will. Since God requires you to forgive, it is something you can do. Sometimes it is very hard to forgive someone because we naturally want revenge for the things we have suffered. Forgiveness seems to go against our sense of what is right and fair, so we hold on to our anger. Punishing people over and over again in our minds for the pain they've caused us. But we are told by God never to take our own revenge. See Romans 12:19. Let God deal with the person. Let him off of your hook, because as long as you refuse to forgive someone, you are still hooked to that person. You are still chained to your past, bound up in your bitterness. By forgiving, you let the other person off your hook, but he or she is not off of God's hook. You must trust that God will deal with the person justly and fairly, something you simply cannot do. And you might say, "But you don't know how much this person hurt me," you say. You're right, we don't, but Jesus does, and he tells you to forgive others for your sake. Until you let go of your anger and hatred, the person is still hurting you. You can't turn back the clock and change the past, but you can be free from it. You can stop the pain, but there is only one way to do it: forgive from your heart. Forgive others for your sake so you can be free from your past. Then it says, forgiveness is agreeing to live with the consequences of another's sin. You are going to live with those consequences whether you like it or not, so the only choice you have is whether you will do so in the bondage of bitterness or in the freedom of forgiveness. No one truly forgives without accepting and suffering the pain of another person's sin. That can seem unfair, and you may wonder, where is the justice? Uh, the cross makes forgiveness legally and morally right. Jesus died once for all our sins. Jesus took the eternal consequences of sin upon himself. God made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him, says 2 Corinthians 5:21. We, however, often suffer the temporary consequences of other people's sins. That is simply a harsh reality of life all of us has have to face. Do not wait for the other person to ask for your forgiveness. Remember, Jesus did not wait for those who were crucifying him to apologize before he forgave them. Even while they mocked and jeered at him, he prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." Forgiveness comes from your heart. Allow God to bring the painful memories to the surface and then acknowledge how you feel toward those who have hurt you. If your forgiveness doesn't touch the emotional core of your life, it will be incomplete. Too often we're afraid of the pain, so we bury our emotions deep down inside of us. Let God bring them to the surface so he can begin to heal those damaged emotions. Forgiveness is choosing not to hold someone's sins against him or her anymore. It is common for bitter people to bring up past issues with those who have hurt them. They want the other people to feel as bad as they do. But we must let go of the past and choose to reject any thought of revenge. This doesn't mean you continue to put up with the future sins of others. God does not tolerate sin, and neither should you. Don't allow yourself to be continually abused by others. Take a stand against sin while continuing to exercise grace and forgiveness toward those who hurt you. If you need help setting scriptural boundaries to protect yourself from further abuse, talk to a trusted friend, counselor, or pastor. Forgiveness cannot wait until you feel like forgiving. If you never get— you will never get there. Make the hard choice to forgive even if you don't feel like it. Once you choose to forgive, Satan will lose his power over you in that area, and God will heal your damaged emotions. Freedom is what you will gain right now, not necessarily an immediate change in feelings. Now you are ready to begin. Starting with the first person on your list, make the choice to forgive him or her for every painful memory that comes to your mind. Continue until you are sure you have dealt with the— all the remembered pain by that individual. Then work your way down the list in the same way. As you begin forgiving people, God may bring to your mind painful memories you've totally forgotten about. Let him do this, even if it hurts. God wants you to be free. Forgiving those people is the only way. Don't try to excuse the offender's behavior, even if it's someone you really are really close to. Don't say, Lord, please help me to forgive. He is already helping you and will be with you all the way through the process. Don't say, Lord, I want to forgive, because that bypasses the hard choice we have to make. So say, "Lord, I choose to forgive." So that's it. At this point, the steps would direct you to start forgiving those in your life that the Holy Spirit brings to remembrance for you to forgive, naming the person, their offense against you, and how it made you feel. The instructions read as follows: For every painful memory you have for each person on your list, pray aloud, Lord, I choose to forgive, and then you name the person, for what they, he or she, did to, did or failed to do, which made me feel, and then you share the painful feelings. After you have forgiven each person for all the offenses that come to mind, and after you've honestly expressed how you felt through all the people on your list, conclude the step with by praying aloud. Lord, I choose not to hold on to my resentment. I thank you for setting me free from the bondage of my bitterness. I relinquish my right to seek revenge and ask you to heal my damaged emotions. I now ask you to bless those who have hurt me. In Jesus' name, amen. So if you have people to forgive and want to be free of the bitterness that your unforgiving is causing you, make a list and go through the process— go through that process. All the text is on the blog, as well as other entries from which you can go through all the steps to freedom in Christ if you choose. When we let go of the bitterness of unforgiveness, we can walk and talk with God with a renewed spirit and an experiential knowledge of what freedom in Christ means. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is John 6:37, and it says, "However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them." Today's Bible verse are the words of Jesus that assure us that if we come to him and put our faith in him as Lord and Savior, he will never reject us. That's straight from the Messiah's mouth. So if you know someone who thinks that the, the Lord won't accept them if they turn to him in repentance and faith, show them this verse and assure them that in Christ all can be forgiven and all will be accepted in him. This is the promise that gives us all hope. In Christ we are not rejected, we are accepted. So go to Christ and keep going to him to know the new life he has for for you and the joy that comes from knowing you are accepted forevermore. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Discipleship, also known as The Cost of Discipleship, and we continue, uh, with his exposition of, uh, Matthew 5 with the section that's entitled Woman. So if you want to know what that's all about, uh, go to mtforchrist.org and you'll see that resource at the end of today's blog post. And at the end of the blog post, we also include links to our YouTube channel and our podcast and an invitation to take one of our discipleship classes that we taught You can do it remotely through the podcast and through email if you want. We can send you the materials to the classes for Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. We also invite you to check out our latest series on Bonhoeffer's discipleship, Bonhoeffer's Discipleship. We have 7 lessons out and we'll be doing lesson 8 this week. On YouTube and the audio podcast. So if you want to check that out, that'll be available. As always, we invite people to, uh, to read the Bible for yourselves, to start a Bible study. And to encourage that, we share a Bible study that we do each week with Arthur and Susanna Zinkadi that we call Bible Study with the Zinkadis. So if you don't know what a Bible study is like or want one of your own to follow along with, you can jump in and check out our topical discussions that we do each week. All, all our Bible studies that we've done for the podcast are available on both the audio podcast and our YouTube channel. Um, so we do check— but we, we do that to invite people to check it out. And as we mentioned today, there's, there's the Steps to Freedom in Christ. Um, there's copies of that available through our our blog, uh, you would search, uh, Steps to Freedom in Christ, and there'd be a bunch of different blog posts, many with links to a PDF of the Steps to Freedom in Christ. And I believe I've even, you know, posted it in its entirety on one of the things, so you could actually read the Steps to Freedom in Christ on the blog if you chose to. Uh, and why would you do that? Well, The Steps to Freedom in Christ is a, a repentance process that helps you unburden yourself from the personal spiritual conflicts that keep us from feeling free in Christ. And it's worked for me, and that's why I teach the Freedom in Christ course for Freedom in Christ Ministries, and that's why I advocate for it and encourage people to go through the process. You may not know what freedom in Christ even means, but after you experience it, you'll say, "Wow, this is the new life that Christ has for us. Why don't more people know this?" And it's our prayer that you'll experience your freedom in Christ. So we might be free in Christ, but we still have to work. Today is Tuesday. I wish everyone a good day. And so let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Thank you for all that you do for us, Lord. Thank you for the freedom you've given us and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus. Lord, we just pray for the people listening today, that they'd be blessed, that they would know what their freedom— who they are in Christ and know what their freedom means, Lord. And if they don't, we invite you to convict them with the Holy Spirit, to guide them in the process. And when we do also come alongside them in their prayer requests, Lord, we don't know their requests, but you do. And we trust that you will do what's good, and we pray for you to help them in anything they're going through currently. Um, Lord, as always, we pray for you to go before us, to open our eyes to the things we need to see and lead our steps in the things you would have us do, because all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom and share your love with all that we— with all the people we encounter, even the people we need to forgive. So, Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.