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Secrets of Abundant Living

THE SECRET OF FORGIVENESS

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Ephesians 4:25—5:2

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We cannot be healed until we forgive.=

A sermon preached by

Rev. William O. (Bud) = Reeves

First United Methodist Church

Hot= Springs, Arkansas

October 14, 2007<= /o:p>

For 43 years, Zinaida Bragantsova had been tel= ling people there was a bomb under her bed.&nbs= p; The story began in 1941, during the Second World War. Zinaida was a young woman in the Ukrainian city of Berdyansk. The Germans were shelling the city= as they advanced across the Soviet Union. Zinaida was sitting at her sewing machine one night when she heard a screaming, whistling sound. She got up from her sewing machine= and was knocked over by a blast of air. When she came to, there was a hole in her roof and her sewing machine had disappeared into a hole in the floor!

Zinaida couldn’t= get any officials to come and check out the hole in her floor, so she just moved her bed over the hole and lived with it—for more than 40 years! Finally, in 1984, a phone company = was laying cable in the area, and they sent demolition experts into the town to probe = for buried explosives. The young = man sent to check out Zinaida’s story said, “Where’s your bom= b, babuschka? Under your bed?”<= /span>

“That’s right,” she said without a smile, “Under my bed.”

What the demolition ex= perts discovered was an unexploded 500-pound World War II bomb. After evacuating the neighborhood,= the bomb squad detonated the bomb. According to the report, “The grandmother, freed of her bomb, = will soon receive a new apartment.”[1]

Do you have any bombs = under your bed? I hope you don̵= 7;t literally, but I think that most of us have some explosives hidden in the d= ark recesses of our minds and hearts. We live with the bombs of bitterness, anger, hurt feelings, and resentments, and it’s only a matter of time until they go off and des= troy a significant part of our life. Do you want to be freed of your bomb? Your only hope is to be healed.

We’ve been talki= ng about the secrets of abundant living for the last few weeks. We’ve been looking at ways t= o live our lives the way God wants us to—fully, productively, effectively, joyfully. No secret is more important for our abundant life than the one I want to share with you today. If you don’t kno= w this secret, you’ll never fully experience abundant life. It’s the secret of forgiveness. Today I want to = focus on our forgiveness of others. To defuse the bomb of bitterness, to enjoy the kind of life God wants us to ha= ve, we have to forgive those who have hurt us. Unless and until we forgive, we cannot be healed of our own hurts. I want to tell you how to do that today.

First, ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR FEELINGS. <= /span>Get in touch with what is going on inside of you. Is there anger, bitterness, hurt, hostility? These are normal h= uman emotions. Emotions are value-neutral; they are neither good nor bad. Feelings are something we just have. Don’t worry if you experience some negative emotions from time to time—or all the time.<= o:p>

Anger seems to be the emotion of choice in the world today. Numerous articles and books have been written recently on all the manifestations of anger in our culture.&nb= sp; There’s road rage, airline rage, grocery store rage, and fast = food rage. There have been assault= s and even killings at children’s sporting events. In a book entitled Why Is Everyone So Cranky?, C. Leslie Charles writes, “I’m describing a fuming, unrelenting sense of anger, hostility, and alienation that simmers for months, even years, without relief. Eventually, all it takes is a trig= gering incident, usually minor, for the hostile person to go ballistic.”= = [2]

What do we do with the= se emotions like anger and hostility? How do we prevent them from festering into bitterness and hatred? What is the Christian response to = people and events that hurt us? What= is the secret to living through all this?

One of the keys is in the fourth ch= apter of Ephesians: “Be angry, but = do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil.”[3] The secret is to acknowle= dge your negative feelings, but not to act on them. Eugene Peterson paraphrases the Scripture this way: “Complain if you must, but don’t lash out.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Keep your mouth shut, and let your= heart do the talking. Let angry peo= ple endure the backlash of their own anger.”[4]

Everyone has negative emotions; that’s no sin. But to act in anger and revenge and hatred toward another child of God, even an enemy, is not the way of Jesus. It only gives an opportunity to the devil to pull you away from God. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus = said, “You have heard it said to those= of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’ and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will= be liable to the council; and if you say ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire. S= o when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother = of sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer = your gift.” He even says, “Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.”[5] If we take Jesus seriously, those are not easy words to hear in an angry time like ours.

So how do we follow Je= sus when people or events just make us furious? How do we avoid the hatred and bitterness that could cut us off from God?= First you acknowledge that you have these feelings. Then you MASTER YOUR FEELINGS. Again, emotions are value-neutral, but actions, thoughts and decisions are not. We can decide how to act= on our feelings. Paul writes, &#= 8220;Let no evil talk come out of your mout= hs, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your wor= ds may give grace to those who hear…. Put away from you all bitterness a= nd wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ= has forgiven you.”[6] If we do that, we are a l= ong way toward the abundant life. We = can decide to do that. It will take some practice—a= lot of practice! But we can do it. Forgiveness is not an emotion; it = is an act of the will. With GodR= 17;s help you can master your negative emotions.

Robert Russell is a pr= eacher who visited the Eddyville State Penitentiary one time, and he met there a volunteer named Paul Stevens. A number of years ago, Paul’s daughter was stabbed to death by a neighb= or. Paul spent nearly a decade torture= d by the memory of his daughter’s killer.= His emotions were so intense that he moved his family from Indiana to Kentucky, but his hatred went with him. Especially when his daughter’s killer was released after seven years in prison, Paul wanted nothing so much as to see the man dead.

Finally, at a religious retreat in 1978, nine years after the murder, Paul Stevens realized that his hate could not restore his daughter. To master his feelings, Paul decided to devote his time to working w= ith violent criminals. Until his = death in 2003, he worked two days a week as a counselor and lay minister in a max= imum security prison, and he led a number of prisoners, even death row inmates, = to know the Lord. Paul Stevens testified that seeing violent criminals as human beings helped him lose his hatred and made him a happier person.[7]

First, acknowledge your feelings. Then master your feelings. You do that by, third, A= CKNOWLEDGING YOUR MASTER. This kind of profound personal change doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’= ;t happen by human power at all. Our healing comes from God. Our a= bility to forgive those who have hurt us is based on what God did for us in Jesus Christ. Remember Paul’s teaching: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as Go= d in Christ has forgiven you. Ther= efore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved= us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”= ;= = [8] God forgave us first. Jesus died so that we could experi= ence that forgiveness. Is there an= ything so bad that his blood cannot heal?

The secret to finding = the healing of forgiveness is very simple.&nbs= p; Imitate God. God loves= every sinner on earth. You try to l= ove those who have hurt you. Jesus sacrificed his life on the cross. You try to sacrifice your pride and forgive your enemy. Like a child imitating a parent, f= ollow the example we have in Christ. This is not always easy. But witho= ut his example and his power, it won’t happen at all. And if forgiveness doesn’t h= appen, you will never be healed. You= will never be whole. So acknowledg= e your Master today.

Corrie Ten Boom was a = Dutch Christian girl during World War II who, along with her family, helped Jews = hide out from the Nazis. When the = Nazis discovered them, the family was sent to concentration camps with the Jews.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Corrie and her sister Betsie were = sent to the camp at Ravensbruck, where Betsie died.

After the war, Corrie = wrote the book, The Hiding Place, and= went back to Germany sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. One of her favorite images, having grown up near the ocean, was that forgiveness was like God casting our sins out into the deepest part of the ocean, and then putting up a sign that said, “No Fishing Allowed.R= 21;

One night in 1947, aft= er speaking to a crowd, she saw coming through the dispersing people a man who= had been a guard at the concentration camp.&nb= sp; Corrie remembered him; he had been one of the cruelest guards there. Suddenly the memories = and the shame of that place flooded back into her mind. He walked right up to her and stuc= k out his hand and thanked her for the fine message and the image of forgiveness = that she had shared with them. Cor= rie just stood there, her blood frozen in her veins, face to face with one of h= er captors. The man said, “= ;You mentioned Ravensbruck in your talk. I was a guard there.” He obviously did not remember Corrie. “But since that time,”= he continued, “I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me fo= r the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as wel= l. Fraulein”—he stuck his hand out again—“will you forgive me?”

Let me share with you = in Corrie’s own words what happened next: “I stood there—I whose= sins had been [forgiven again and again]—and could not forgive. Betsie had died in that place. Could he erase her slow terrible d= eath simply by asking? It could ha= ve been many seconds that he stood there—hand held out—but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I ever had to do.<= o:p>

“For I had to do it—I knew that. The mes= sage that God forgives has a prior condition: that we must forgive those who have injured us. ‘If you do = not forgive men their trespasses,’ Jesus says, ‘neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.’ And still I stood there with coldn= ess clutching my heart.

“But forgiveness= is not an emotion—I knew that, too.&nbs= p; Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardl= ess of the temperature of the heart. ‘Jesus help me!’ I prayed silently. ‘I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.’ And so woodenly, mechanically, I t= hrust out my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing = took place. The current started in= my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth began= to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.

“’I forgiv= e you, brother!’ I cried. ‘With all my heart!’&nb= sp; For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former gu= ard and the former prisoner. I ha= d never known God’s love so intensely, as I did then. But even then, I realized it was n= ot my love. I had tried, and did no= t have the power. It was the power o= f the Holy Spirit.”[9]

I want to invite you t= oday to experience the awesome healing power of the Holy Spirit for yourself. You may come for physical, emotion= al, or spiritual healing. You may co= me needing an opportunity for forgiveness for yourself or the power to forgive someone else. You may want to= come today and pray for the healing of someone you love. We just ask that you te= ll that person that received the anointing and prayed for him or her.

Whatever you’re feeling today, acknowledge those feelings.= Then, master your feelings by acknowledging your Master. Having been forgiven, you have the= power to forgive. Do this, and you = will be healed. Do this, and you w= ill live—abundantly! Amen!<= o:p>