Passing the Pardon Test

Sion Alford

Dream to Destiny • Sermon • Submitted a year ago

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Dream to Destiny Week 9 Passing the Pardon Test Robert Morris This is one of the greatest tests that we will ever take. • Can we actually forgive someone who has done us great harm and great wrong? (Sold into slavery!) What does it mean to really forgive someone? • How can we forgive people fully andfreely? • Completely and with no stringsattached! This is what Joseph did for his brothers. • This is what God did for us! • Are we forgiving others the same way God forgives us? Genesis 50:15 When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “Perhaps Joseph will hate us, and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him.” Genesis 50:16 So they sent messengers to Joseph, saying, “Before your father died he commanded, saying, Genesis 50:17 ‘Thus you shall say to Joseph: “I beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin; for they did evil to you.”’ Now, please, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father.” And Joseph wept when they spoke to him. Genesis 50:18 Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, “Behold, we are your servants.” Genesis 50:19 Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? Genesis 50:20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.

Genesis 50:21 Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. This is the first time the word forgive is in the Bible! • In the Hebrew, it means: To absolve fully or to release, • To lift off or to bear. This is exactly what God did for us. • He absolved and released us fully and • He lifted off and bore our sinsHimself! But that’s tough to do especially when the sin against us was traumatic • I think that our forgiveness of others is directly related to our understanding of God’s forgiveness of us! • The Lord has shown me some keys to forgiveness. 3 key words! 1. Release Pardon or forgive means to release someone fully! • This was a very difficult test for Joseph. • Was he going to live in bitterness the rest of his life and always try to justify himself? I believe what the brothers said was a lie! Jacob didn’t say this! • “For they did evil…” Where was the “we”? • They had plenty of opportunities to repent! Over 20 years! How are you going to respond when you’ve been wronged and the people • Continue to lie and manipulate and not admitit? • Not forgiving people puts us in the place of God! Genesis 50:19 Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God?” If you don’t forgive and totally release the person who has wronged you, you will always be seeking vindication • You will never feel vindicated because God is not released to work in the situation! • You will also be driven to justify yourself rather than do God’s will and please Him! • “I have nothing to prove! I have someone to please!” JamesRobison Leviticus 19:18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

Romans 12:19 (NLT) Dear friends, never avenge yourselves. Leave that to God. For it is written, “I will take vengeance; I will repay those who deserve it,” says the Lord. Vengeance belongs to the Lord! Why? • Because vengeance is bringing justice to an unjust situation • God is the only one qualified to do that! When you release a person, • You release yourself to serve God and not the enemy. • You also release God to work in the other person’s life and the situation! Unforgiveness is drinking poison hoping that the other person will get sick! I kept trying and trying to forgive this one person • The Lord spoke to me and said, “Forgive him!” • And I said, “But God, he was wrong!” And the Lord said, “That’s right! • You don’t forgive people who are right! • You don’t forgive people who make you a cake! 2. Receive Matthew 6:12 “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Matthew 6:13 And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Matthew 6:14 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. Matthew 6:15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Have you ever prayed the Lord’s Prayer? • Aren’t you asking God to forgive you in the same way that you forgive others. How did God forgive you? Fully and Freely!

• Did He release you completely, isn’t holding anything against you, and has chosen never to bring it up again? That’s the way we must learn to forgive. • The reason that many people have a problem forgiving others fully is • Because they haven’t fully received the forgiveness ofGod! Our ability to give forgiveness is directly dependent upon our ability to receive forgiveness. Freely you have received, freely give. • If you haven’t freely received forgiveness, you can’t freely give it! • If you don’t believe that you have received freely, then you won’t give freely. If you feel like you’re paying for it or earning it, then you’ll make others pay for it and try to earn it! I stepped on Debbie’s toe one time and then I said, • ”I want you to hit me! I’ll feel better if you will hit me!” If we have a flat tire, we say, “Thank you Lord! I knew you would get me for not having my quiet time. And now it’s raining! Nice touch!” God is not going to hit you because He already hit Jesus! • He has forgiven you fully and freely! Receive it! • This verse was hard for me to understand foryears! Isaiah 53:10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him If you can’t release it, it’s probably because you haven’t received it! • If you’re having a struggle receiving it, • It’s probably because you’re having a hard time believing it! 3. Believe Psalm 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. Habakkuk 1:13 You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness.

Job 36:7

“He does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous”

1 Peter 3:12

“For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers”

What can He not look upon? Wickedness!

• Yet His eyes are on the righteous everyday and

• I wish I were righteous!

2 Corinthians 5:21

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

God is so holy and so pure that He cannot even look on sin.

• So something had to be done about our sin for God to even be able to look at us much less have a relationship with us.

Jesus had to bear all of our sin and completely and remove it from us as far as the East is from the West so we could have a relationship with Him.

• All of your sin has been completely washed away and removed from you.

• You have been completely forgiven and pardoned!

Stop waiting for the hammer to fall! It already fell on Jesus!

• The only way that we will ever be able to forgive others is to receive God’s forgiveness fully and freely!

Rabbi Marty Waldman (Founding Rabbi Baruch HaShem)

• Went to Auschwitz with the grandson of a Nazi Prison Guard

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