The Healing Word

Guest (Male): Jesus had what it takes to take away my sin. And when I asked Him to do it, He did it. Can you say praise the Lord? Remember when it happened?

Welcome to The Healing Word, a radio ministry of the Largo Community Church. Here's Pastor Jack Morris with today's message that will grow your faith in God and lead you to a closer walk with Jesus.

Pastor Jack Morris: I have a very special message to bring to you today from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6, where Jesus is teaching the disciples. And you're a disciple; you're a follower of Jesus. He's teaching the disciples how to pray, a prayer that will lift us to a new level of prayer, faith that will move mountains when we go to God the way Jesus taught us how to go to God.

Friend, it's a message you need to hear. It's entitled "Forgiveness Made Easy." It's made easy because Jesus has forgiven us, and in the power of Jesus, we can forgive those who are indebted to us. The scripture says, "Forgive us our debts or our sins or our trespasses as we also have forgiven our debtors." Be blessed, and may every obstacle be removed aside now so that your prayer will go right to the throne of grace and the victory and healing will come.

Guest (Male): Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

Pastor Jack Morris: We have the word of God. We're going to follow along today and address that particular phrase, "Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors." The title of the message is "Forgiveness Made Easy." Some might debate that. I have often thought that forgiveness is the most difficult thing in all the world to do. I mean, to move away from a difficult situation, to release somebody from a difficult place that has come about, a conflict in our lives.

I believe everybody here has been offended somewhere, some way in your lifetime. And I believe everyone here has offended somebody because none of us are perfect. There was only one, right? Not that we want to offend people; that isn't it. Sometimes words just come out and things happen, and nobody is being ugly at anybody, but it does cut and it does hurt. So, we're going to look at a portion of scripture that goes with us throughout life if we will take it with us and allow the Holy Spirit to apply it.

Let me begin by talking about sin and forgiveness. Now, I'm going to talk a lot about myself, and as I talk about myself, I believe you'll be able to identify. One thing I know: I have sinned. I know that. I know it for two reasons. The Bible tells me I have sinned. The Bible tells me all have sinned, and I'm included in all. That means you too have sinned. We have all sinned.

Secondly, I know I have been forgiven. I know you have also because we're coming to this holy table to observe the one who took our sins in His own body on the cross and bore our sins for us. I know I have sinned, but I also know I have been forgiven. The scripture says in Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." We have all tried, but we just missed the mark. We just didn't measure up. Somewhere we slipped, and I no doubt slipped a lot of times.

The Bible tells us we have sinned, and our conscience tells us we have sinned. So now I have two witnesses to tell me that I have sinned. In my heart, there are feelings of past guilt. I want to be very clear about this, as clear as I possibly can. I pray that the Holy Spirit would open our understanding. But without the Bible, we have a conscience.

I've been in other countries where people without the Bible have felt guilty. I have been there after I've gone by and I've seen the ashes where they have sacrificed a pig. The bones were there, and they were gathering up the bones, believing that somehow their sin would come on that pig and they would be liberated. They didn't have a Bible, but they had a conscience. Who told them that they were sinners? We all know in our secret moments of honesty that we have all sinned. The Bible tells us so, and our conscience tells us so.

Secondly, as I said, I know I have been forgiven, and you do too. We're rejoicing in that, and we're going to come to the table and celebrate our forgiveness in just a moment. The scripture says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Unrighteousness means every unright thing we've ever done. Think about it. Every unright thing, every wrong thing I've said, done, thought, He has forgiven. In Christ, it is all done.

I know I have sinned. The Bible tells me. My conscience tells me. I know I have been forgiven. The Bible tells me. My conscience tells me. When I have been forgiven, there comes a peace and a liberation. I talked to a man that did some work around our house a week ago, and he was telling me how for two hours he confessed his sins. I just drew him out into a conversation and asked him if he goes to church somewhere. He was out working outside and inside. I followed him around; he was a nice guy. We talked a little while. I like nice guys.

I asked him if he goes to church and asked him about heaven. I asked him about confession, his relationship with the Lord. Then he began to tell me a story that I'd never heard done this way before, but he said, "I had a lie detector machine." He said for two hours he confessed his sins into that lie detector. Over and over throughout that morning he worked at our house, he kept telling me, "The burden that was lifted, the joy that came." He went on and on telling me what happened. Do you remember when you gave your heart to the Lord?

I hope you have another experience like that when you come up here to the altar table, that the joy of the Lord will come upon you because you'll know that you have been redeemed. God bought you with the blood of Jesus. You belong to Him, and that first salvation joy will come back and you'll experience it this morning. I think of that beautiful hymn that is a favorite of church people everywhere, "Amazing Grace." We have favorites, but I think that one has to be right almost at the top.

John Newton wrote that hymn so long ago. John Newton died an episcopal priest, an Anglican priest, but he was a slave trader years ago. He was a captain of a slave ship that would go to Africa and pick up slaves and bring them. When he wrote that hymn, "Amazing Grace that saved a wretch," he didn't say, "that saved a good man." I was raised in a good home; his mother was a Christian, by the way. He said, "I was a wretch. I was a wretch, and God saved this wretch."

He said it's amazing grace. He made a brave attempt to tell about the grace of God that came into his life, but it wasn't complete. How can you actually tell somebody else what you have experienced on the inside? It's like tasting something that somebody else didn't taste and saying, "This tastes so good. I wish you could have a taste of it." Bible says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." I can't taste something for you. I can't experience something for you. But I can experience for me and taste for me, and you do it also for yourself.

John Newton had this great experience, and it was his desire now to tell everybody that he possibly could, regardless of their culture or their race, that God is an amazing God. He is a God of amazing grace, of kindness and of love to all who will believe on Him. He won many people to the Lord. Now he's an old man, and he makes this last testimony. I've been so stirred by this John Newton that I got on the computer and I Googled his name. It took me to the cemetery and showed me his gravestone.

As an old man, one of the last statements he said—and he no doubt had Alzheimer's, but they didn't call it that back then—but this is one of his very last statements. He said, "My memory is almost gone." He said, "But there's two things that I remember: I'm a great sinner; Christ is a great savior." Friend, again, Jesus said, "In remembrance of me." Can I forget that experience? John Newton said he'd just about forgot everything else, but he couldn't forget that experience.

Sometimes our experience with Christ grows dim, grows dull. We become casual about spiritual things, a little bit indifferent. We can miss doing things that we used to do and not feel guilty about it. It sort of wanes away, but not with John Newton. He said those two things he remembered, and it was just as much alive in him in that old age as it was when he asked God to come into his heart and save this old sea captain. Do you remember when it happened to you? When you gave your heart to the Lord? If you can't remember, then remember the time you were saved or you were baptized and you gave your testimony of being saved. Remember that and give thanks over and over until you become so very, very old and you forget everything else, but you'll never forget that moment. It's a real and wonderful moment.

Jesus paid it all. He paid it all. When we forgive somebody, we release them. Now listen to me. We release them. We hold them guilty, guilty, guilty. We just can't wait until somebody does it to them what they did to us. But God didn't take pleasure in our sin, in our wrongdoing, not at all. Notice what the scripture says: "Forgive us our debts." How? "As we also have forgiven others." If God held me like I hold others, if God didn't release me like I don't release others, I would still be lost in sin without joy, without salvation, without the hope of eternal life.

God heard my prayer. I talked it all over with Him. We had a wonderful understanding, and He saved me from all my fears and came in my life. One way I can know that I'm forgiven is that I can easily forgive somebody who offends me. And if I can't easily forgive somebody who has offended me, then I need to question, "Have I been forgiven of my sins? Is my name in the Book of Life? Has the blood of Jesus Christ cleansed me?" God forgives easily. We hold it for years. We pack it away and we nurse it and we keep thinking about it, ruminating it, can't get it out of our minds.

Forgiveness is hard when you try to do it in yourself and you can't remember your own forgiving from the Lord. It is so very, very difficult. So one way I can know that I have been forgiven is that I can forgive. Now, I know I'm doing it not in my strength but in His strength and by His might. One time Peter asked Jesus, "How many times shall I forgive a person?" You know, I've heard people say, "Boy, if they do that to me one more time, I'm just so sick and tired of them saying that to me or doing that to me or ignoring me. If they do it one more time!"

Peter said, "Shall I forgive them seven times?" Seven is the Bible number for completion, and Peter thought he was really being generous. He really thought he was. Jesus said, "Seventy times seven," meaning as often as they sin, you forgive. That's how God does it. As often as I sin, I can go back to Him, confess it, and He forgives. What a savior you have and I have. What a Jesus is ours. He loves us so much.

In Ephesians 4:32, "Forgiving one another, even as..." There it is. "Even as." How shall I forgive? Even as God has forgiven me, I can forgive you. You can forgive me. "Forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." But I ask now, and I have to conclude, but here's the kernel of this message. Ephesians 4:32, "Forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you." I ask how? How can I do it like you do it? I'm a man, I'm a person, I'm a human. How can I do it? Well, this is how I believe it can be done, and it can be done very easily, not difficult. If it's difficult, I'm doing it in myself, I'm doing it by my own effort, by my own energy, and it can be so difficult and it can never, never be done. It'll come back tomorrow or the next week. It'll be right back again and I'll pack it around with me forever. And it will continue to release poison into my system. Unforgiveness releases poison into your system.

I've been reading about the scientists and the professors in the medical field, in the psychological field, talking about forgiveness, trying to help people relieve their stress, to get better, to get healed, to get over it, to move beyond it. They have a whole list: step one, step two, step three. How you can do it, you step it out. I thought, "Sir, you may be brilliant. Lady, you're a brilliant lady, but you can't learn how to forgive. If you can learn how to forgive, then forgive yourself and forgive everybody and just leave God out of it and forget this table." It can't be learned. That's one of the things that cannot be learned.

This is how it's done. When Jesus was on the cross and they were crucifying Him, He prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing." That person out there that's hurt you, just think, that person doesn't know what they're doing. They really don't know what they're doing. They're not hurting me; they're hurting God, but they're hurting themselves. So just forgive them.

But how? This is what happened. When they stretched Jesus out on the cross, can you imagine God the Father looking down from heaven on His son, that was His son forever, that had lived in heaven forever? Pure and holy, "Holy, holy, holy," we sang it just a moment ago. They started driving those nails through the palms of His hands, and those spikes they drove through His ankles. God was looking at Jesus, beloved son. No one is loved by God more than Jesus.

Friend, when you can't forgive somebody, you kneel at an altar, whether that altar be your bed, your kitchen chair in the living room, you begin to thank God for saving you. You remember when it happened. You rejoice over it. As you pray and rejoice over it in the spirit of Him who forgave me, I can forgive. It's the easiest thing in the world when Jesus does it through you. It's the most difficult thing in the world when you try to do it by your own effort.

See Jesus. Do I see Jesus here this morning? When you come to this altar, see Jesus suffering, dying, spikes in His hands. Get a vision, a mental—see what God saw when God looked from heaven on Calvary, on Golgotha. Look at what God was looking at. Friend, if you can look at what God is looking at, you won't be able to help yourself but love even as He loved, forgive even as He forgave. It's the easiest thing in the world when you see what He did for you. If you can see it and rejoice over it and praise God for it, then it's easy. It's not hard because you're doing it in the name and by the power of Him who took those spikes, took that lashing. I want to see what God saw. I want to feel the anguish that my heavenly Father felt when He saw His son dying. I want to see that. I want to feel that. I want to experience that. And when I do, then I will be able to forgive without any problems whatsoever.

Notice what Jesus gave in Matthew chapter 6, verse 12: "Forgive us our debts." Friends, we're indebted to God, and we don't have the money to pay the bill. So we have to ask for forgiveness, and Jesus pays the bill for us. You and I walk free. Now your credit is good. You have right standing with God, all because of Jesus. Now, if you can do that, you'll be able to forgive others because you won't be able to nurse that grudge anymore. Friend, let this be the day. Let this be the day. Shall we bow before the Lord?

Thank you, Father God, for giving us Jesus. How it must have grieved your heart. Anguish, I can't imagine what that word must mean as you looked on Jesus. God, help us to see what Jesus did. Take us to Calvary today. Let us see the Son of God stretched out on a cross, bleeding and dying, praying for forgiveness. Lord, forgive all of us for our sins. Forgive us all for holding people hostage, not releasing them. God, we're hurting ourselves, poisoning our own physical system, destroying our own happiness, doing damage to ourselves spiritually, physically, and mentally. This is the day of forgiveness. Lord, even after we have been saved, given our hearts to you, we have done things that are wrong that have grieved you, and we're going to come to this altar and confess those. Lord, help us I pray. Bless us I pray.

Friend, talk to the Lord just like I've been talking to Him. You talk to Him for just a few moments before you come to this altar. Do it right now. Get yourself ready. This is going to be a holy, holy, holy experience for you.

Guest (Male): We hope that today's message has been a blessing and has strengthened your faith in God. But before we go, here is Pastor Jack Morris with a special invitation.

Pastor Jack Morris: I want to thank you for your past support to The Healing Word ministries. Your prayers and financial gifts have kept this ministry on the air. You have been a great blessing because you have a passion for souls. Friend, your prayers and generosity will take The Healing Word into the future where eternal souls wait—souls who need Christ, souls who need healing, need forgiveness, need His love.

I'll be frank; I can't do it without you. I need you. I love you, and I thank God for giving you to me to pray and support this ministry. Together, we're soul winners for the Lord. Go to thehealingword.com and click the donate button to pledge your support. And remember, the faith-building message you heard today is our gift to you. Your donation is your gift to God. Join us tomorrow for a new Healing Word message. Until then, blessings on you.