Don’t Worry About It

Don’t Worry About It 

Matthew 6:25-34; Phil. 4:6-7

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Delivered November 14. 2010

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In my last church in Pennsylvania, the church was only about a twenty-minute drive to the Pittsburgh International airport. So we had several church members who worked there. We had two air traffic controllers, three flight attendants, a baggage handler, a TSA agent and a pilot for US Airways. Therefore there were always airline jokes being told. Here is one such joke.

While cruising at 40,000 feet, the airplane shuddered. A passenger looked out the window. "Good heavens!" she screamed, "One of the engines just blew up!" Other passengers left their seats and came running over; suddenly the aircraft was rocked by a second blast as yet another engine exploded on the other side. The passengers were in a panic now, and even the flight attendants couldn't maintain order. Just then, standing tall and smiling confidently, the pilot strode from the cockpit and assured everyone that there was nothing to worry about. His words and his demeanor made the passengers feel better, and they sat down as the pilot calmly walked to the door of the aircraft. There, he grabbed several packages from under the seats and began handing them to the flight attendants. Each crew member attached the package to their backs.

"Hey," spoke up an alert passenger, "aren't those parachutes?" “Yes,” the pilot replied. The passenger went on, "But I thought you said there was nothing to worry about?" "There isn't," replied the pilot as a third engine exploded. "We're going to get help."

Today I am going to try to provide some help about worry, something we all do, including me, but which we know it would be better if we did less of it.

The title of my sermon comes from the song by Bobby McFerrin, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” It was by the Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards back in 1989. It starts off: “Here is a little song I wrote. You might want to sing it note for note. Don't worry be happy. In every life we have some trouble. When you worry you make it double. Don't worry, be happy.” 

Although McFerrin’s song may be too simplistic in its philosophy of life, Jesus says something similar – although tempered with deep spirituality and realism - in the Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere.  I went through the NT looking for every teaching on the subject of “worry.” Different translations use different words. Some use the word “worry” and some use the word “anxious.” I found that the Bible teaches us not to worry concerning six different areas of life. 

1. First, don’t worry about Money. This is actually Jesus’ main point when it comes to worry. So it fits in very well with the tough economic times we find ourselves in today. Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” He goes on to point to the lilies of the field, and the grasses of the field which are clothed by God, saying, “will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” Concluding in verse 31 “Therefore do not worry….”  

Jesus may not use the word “money” here, but that is how his words apply in our society. We no longer live in an agrarian pastoral society where people raised or hunted all their own food, built their own housing, and made their own clothing. We buy them, and we need money for these basics like food, clothing and shelter. Jesus tells us not to worry about these things; God will provide. That does not mean we sit back and do nothing. The NT also says, “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.”  It doesn’t mean you don’t plan and budget. It doesn’t mean that you don’t do everything we possibly can to provide for the needs of your household.  Paul says in I Tim. 5:8 “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” We do everything we possibly can, but we don’t worry.

I have heard worry defined as practical atheism. Many people say they believe in God, but they act as if God doesn’t exist. They say they trust God for their eternal salvation but do not trust him in the ordinary things of life. When the going gets tough they are not sure God will really be there for them. What we are actually saying when we worry is that God may not be real after all, so we better have a backup plan. Worry says that God may exist but we can’t count on him in any practical way when it comes to providing for the basics of life. But in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says (in effect), “God cares for animals and plants. Will he not care for you, O you of little faith?” Verse 32-33 “For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” He says, Put God and his kingdom first and God will take care of the other things. Don’t worry; Seek God.

2. Second, don’t worry about Health. Jesus says in Matthew 6:27 in the NIV “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” The NKJV talks in this verse about adding a cubit to his stature, but I think the NIV is better here. Jesus is referring to the length of your life, not the height of your body. If there is one thing other than finances that people worry most about it is health. Some people make it the dominant concern of their lives. The fact that our country spends more on healthcare than any other is no accident. The fact that national healthcare was a major issue in the last election and in this midterm election – second only to the economy – even before war – tells us something about our preoccupation with our health. But Jesus says that all the worry in the world will not add one hour to our live. 

Some people don’t believe that. Some believe the more you worry, the more likely you are to identify a medical problem early and add, not just hours but, years to your life. Jesus is not saying not to take care of our bodies and have health screenings. In fact the Bible calls our bodies the temples of the Holy Spirit, and that we need to take care of that temple. Paul says in I Cor. 3:17 “If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.” We are supposed to take care of our health, but not worry about it. God will take care of you.

The apostle Paul had a serious health problem. We don’t know exactly what it was, but most biblical scholars think it was some type of eye disease. He called it his “thorn in the flesh” and a “messenger of Satan.” Paul prayed three times for God to heal him of this illness. God said no. Listen to 2 Cor. 12:8-10 “Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Paul was told not to worry about his health, but to trust in the power of God, even when – especially when – God does not heal! Don’t worry, trust God. 

3. Third, Don’t Worry about the Future. Jesus says in our passage in verse 34 “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” This is a wonderful teaching of scripture. Jesus tells us to live in today instead of tomorrow. Again, this does not mean that we do not plan for tomorrow. Jesus told the parable of the man who was building a house and did not plan for tomorrow. He told the parable about a king who went to war and did not plan for tomorrow. We are supposed to plan for tomorrow. Build up our retirement accounts. Get a good education so we can have a good career. Jesus does not tell us not to plan for tomorrow; he tells us not to worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow is in God’s hands. We don’t know what tomorrow holds. 

Jesus’ brother James wrote in his letter, “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” (James 4:13-15) Jesus says, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” In other words, Jesus is saying, “Don’t worry. Take one day at a time.”

4. Don’t Worry about People. Jesus says not to worry about people who are against us. He repeats this over and over in the Gospels because there were so many people against him! He says in Peterson’s translation of Matthew 10:17 says, “17-20"Don't be naive. Some people will impugn your motives, others will smear your reputation—just because you believe in me. Don't be upset when they haul you before the civil authorities. Without knowing it, they've done you—and me—a favor, given you a platform for preaching the kingdom news! And don't worry about what you'll say or how you'll say it. The right words will be there; the Spirit of your Father will supply the words.” Don’t worry about people who do not like you and are against you and mistreat you or even persecute you. Don’t worry about defending yourself. God will defend you.

Don’t worry about pleasing people. Paul say sin I Corinthians 10:29-30 (Peterson’s translation) “I'm not going to walk around on eggshells worrying about what small-minded people might say; I'm going to stride free and easy, knowing what our large-minded Master has already said….. how can I worry about what someone will say?” Don’t worry about pleasing people. Please God. 

5. Don’t Worry about Death. In Luke 23 we have Luke’s account of the crucifixion of Jesus. It records the conversation between Jesus and the two thieves crucified on either side of him. All three had death on their mind because they would be dead in a matter of hours. One was angry with Jesus, cursing him and telling him if he was the Messiah to get them off these crosses. The other was defending Jesus to his companion, saying they deserved death but Jesus had done nothing wrong. He said to Jesus, “Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And Jesus responded (in Peterson’s translation) “Don’t worry, I will. Today you will join me in paradise.” 

As Christians, death is one thing we need not worry about. Yet the truth is that as a pastor I see Christians not only worrying about dying – which is more understandable, especially about pain – but also worrying about what comes after death. We cannot judge anyone in this situation, for we do not know how we will react when we are in the same situation. But I know that we need not fear death.

If we are in Christ we have already passed from death to life. Because he lives we will live also. Christ has conquered death. Romans 8:38-39 “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” God’s love is stronger than death. As Paul says in 1 Cor. 15: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”   “ O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

Christ has died for us on the cross. He has vanquished death and hell. He took all the punishment for all our sins so we no longer have to fear either death nor punishment after death. For there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. As the apostle John says (again Peterson’s translation that uses the word worry here) “we're free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ's. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.” Don’t worry about death. We have life in Christ. 

6. Lastly, to sum it all up - Don’t Worry about Anything. Paul says in Philippians 4:6-7 Peterson’s translation: “Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.”

Do not worry. Instead, pray. Give everything to God in prayer. Lay it before God and leave it there. If you are like me, you may give it to God in prayer and then ten minutes after you get off your knees you have already taken it back from him. Give it to him and let him keep it. And in return he will give you his peace, the peace of God which surpasses understanding. 

There is an interesting phrase in Peterson’s translation of James 1:5 about prayer and worry. It says there, “Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who "worry their prayers" are like wind-whipped waves. Don't think you're going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.” The phrase “worry their prayers” is insightful. Many people prayer is just another form of worry. They “worry their prayers.”  Prayer becomes a way or keeping their worries alive instead of trusting their worries to God. Give your worries to God in prayer and leave them there. Don’t worry about anything. Pray. 

I want to end with some figures. I read that the average person's worry normally divided into five areas:

40% of worry is about things that will never happen. So don’t worry. Mark Twain is reputed to have said, “I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened”                                    

30% -- things about the past that can't be changed.  So don’t worry.

12% -- things about criticism by others, mostly untrue, and you can’t do anything about it anyway.  You can’t change people’s minds, only how you will react to them. So don’t worry.                                               

10% -- about health, which gets worse with stress.  Don’t worry.      

8% -- about real problems that will be faced

That means that 92 % of our worry is completely unnecessary. Even the remaining 8% is not helped by worry. Worry just gets in the way of facing your problems. Let me suggest that you give that 8% to God, and let him work it out. For we have the promise of God that all things work out for good to those who love God who are called according to his purpose. Don’t worry.

Smells Like Home

Delivered September 26, 2010

Matthew 5:43-48; I John 4:7-16

When Jesus was asked what was the most important commandment in the Bible, the one that summed up everything the Bible commanded, he said it was love – Love of God and love of neighbor. Love is the essence of the gospel. It is the heart of our faith, and the fountain from which all other virtues flow. The apostle Paul says “Faith, hope love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love.” Yet love is much misunderstood in our culture and in the Christian church. Jesus’ concept of love was so revolutionary – so different from the normal understanding of love - that the early Christians had to adopt a new word to describe it – the Greek word agape. Today I am going to preach about this spiritual divine love taught by Jesus.

 1. First, the Meaning of Unconditional Love. Jesus communicates the meaning of this type of love in the Sermon on the Mount. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. ⁴⁶ For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? ⁴⁷ And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? ⁴⁸ Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43-48) Here Jesus uses the word “perfect” to describe this love. It can be translated absolute love, or complete love or mature love. I will use the word unconditional love. 

 Unconditional love is the love that God demonstrates. His love is not conditional on the one being loved. It is not deserved, but freely given. Jesus says it is demonstrated by how God sends the sun and the rain on the good and the evil, the just and the unjust. It doesn’t matter if a person is good or bad, the sun still rise on that person and the rain still falls on that person. The weather does not discriminate, and neither does God’s unconditional love. Jesus contrasts this with the normal human type of love. He says in verses 46-47 “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?” 

Everyone loves those who love them. Everybody exercises conditional love. That is worldly love. Jesus is urging us to have an otherworldly type of love – a love toward those who do not love us – indeed even those who curse us, hate us, spitefully use and persecute us. That is unconditional love. That is the love of God, and if we have that type of love we are sons – and daughters – of our Father in Heaven. If we don’t we are no different than the world – illustrated by the tax collectors in this passage. 

2. Second is the Source of Unconditional Love. The source is God.  Christians have a unique understanding of God. We believe that God is one God in three persons. Lots of religions have three or even more gods – polytheism. Several religions have one God – like Judaism, Islam, Sikhism. Only Christianity believes in the Trinity – one God in three persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There are reasons for this concept of God.  One is that God in his own nature is a Community of Love. The three Persons of the Trinity love each other. At Jesus’ baptism the Spirit rested upon him and the Father spoke from heaven and said, “This is my Beloved Son.” Repeatedly in the Gospel of John Jesus says that the Son loves the Father and the Father loves the Son. God’s very nature from all eternity is love.

 It isn’t as if God, before he created the world, was all alone and lonely and indifferent drifting in nothingness. Before the universe was created, God loved. He loved within his nature as Trinity – the three persons of the Trinity loving each other. God is love; this is where love comes from. We can’t know God without knowing that love. John says in our epistle lesson, “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” Knowing God is not just holding theological doctrines about God. Anything we might understand with our tiny human brains about God does not come close to comprehending the true nature of God. His thoughts are high above our thoughts. The only way we really know God is by unconditional love. 

The only love that God can have is unconditional love because God by nature is unconditioned. We could call it unconditioned love. When I looked up in the dictionary the meaning of the word ‘unconditional,” the most common synonyms listed were “absolute” and “unqualified.” God is absolute; he cannot have anything less than absolute love, unqualified love. Unconditional love is in the very nature of God, and if we do not know love, we do not know God, regardless of what we may believe about Jesus. God, the Holy Trinity, is the Source of unconditional love. 

3. Third is the Gift of Unconditional Love. This love that is the nature of God and which God experiences in himself as Trinity has been directed toward us. Because God is love, he created the world in love, and he loves the world. He loves the people of the world, and not in a general sense, but individually. You have probably heard the quotation by Charles Shultz: “I love mankind; its people I can’t stand.” God loves people as well as mankind. He loves individuals. 

This is the Christian doctrine theologians call election. When we hear that word “election,” we normally think of democratic political process. But the word existed in theology long before the American experiment in democracy. It means to choose. God chose us. This idea is at the heart of the Bible. The Jews are called God’s chosen people. The NT says we are chosen by God. Peter says, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (I Peter 2:9)

Ephesians 1:4-6 says, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, ⁵ having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, ⁶ to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.” God chose us before the foundation of the world. Long before we were born. Before any human was born. Before there was galaxies or stars or an earth, God loved us and chose us. Before we did anything good or bad God chose us. That is why it is unconditional. It is not based on anything we did or didn’t do because it was before we existed. 

God’s love is not dependent on preexisting conditions. A few years ago the Pittsburgh Baptist Association was ending its group health insurance plan, and I had to go shopping for individual health insurance. I applied directly and through a insurance broker but they would not accept both me and my wife because of “preexisting conditions.” God does not accept us or reject us based on preexisting conditions. There are no conditions in God’s love; his love is unconditional. That is why it is called grace. Grace by definition means it is undeserved. God’s love and acceptance and choice to save us are not based on anything in us. That is why we cannot lose our salvation. We did nothing to gain it; therefore we can do nothing to lose it. 

4. Fourth is the Expression of Unconditional Love. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The unconditional love of God has been expressed to the world in Jesus Christ – his birth, his life, his teachings, his ministry - but supremely in his death and resurrection. I John 4:9-10 “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” The supreme expression of God’s unconditional love is the Cross. God sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 

God loves us in spite of our sins. God loves us enough to deal with our sins in a complete manner so that we could live in eternal fellowship with Him. Love does not overlook sins or tolerate sin. Love does not ignore sins. Love does not explain sin away or downplay sins. To treat sin lightly is not love; it is sentimentality. But the Bible does not say that God so tolerated us that he sent his only begotten Son, but God so loved us. Love takes obstacles to fellowship seriously. Sin is an obstacle to fellowship with a holy God. Habakkuk 1:13  “You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, And cannot look on wickedness.” A holy God can only have communion with those who are holy. Therefore we had to be made holy. That is the purpose of the cross. The cross provided atonement for our sins. The cross dealt decisively once and for all with sin, by paying the price, bearing the punishment, extinguishing our sins and making it possible to come into the presence of a holy and just God. That is love. If you want to see unconditional love, look at the cross. 

5. Fifth is the Receiving of Unconditional Love. We receive unconditional love is by faith. Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not of works, lest anyone should boast.” We are saved by grace through faith. What is faith? This is another word that has both human and divine dimensions. 

Human faith is conditional. When we go to the doctor we are placing faith in his/her healing skills, but we are also open to getting a second opinion just in case. We deposit our hard earned money in the bank having faith that we can get it out again – but we will not put all our eggs in one basket, as they say, because banks fail. Many people had faith in financial investor Bernie Madoff, but he took all their money in a Ponzi scheme. Human faith is conditional, and rightly so, because human beings are imperfect, sinful creatures. But God is not man. God is unconditioned and loves us conditionally. Therefore our faith in him is to be unconditional. In war we speak of unconditional surrender. That is when one side has so thoroughly won the victory that there is no room for negotiation. God has won the victory in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is no room for negotiation. Our faith in Jesus Christ is unconditional surrender to his unconditional love. 

Is your faith in Christ unconditional? Or do you have conditions attached? When we unconditionally surrender our lives to Jesus Christ, there is no further room for negotiations. We do not pick and choose which commandments we will keep and which ones we are unwilling to do because they might cramp our lifestyle. John 14: ²¹ “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” When you surrender your life unconditionally, there is no turning back. There are no qualifications. There are no ifs, ands, or buts. There are no “What ifs.” Unconditional love requires unconditional faith.

 6. Sixth is the Transmission of Unconditional Love. If we are so loved by God, we will communicate that love to others. I John 4:¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” I John 4:7 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” I John 4:20-21 “If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? ²¹ And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.” You cannot receive the love of God without giving the love of God to others. I John 3:17 “But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?” I John 4:19 says it simply, “We love Him because He first loved us.”

When I left Sandwich in 1994 I went to pastor a church in Lowell, Massachusetts we had many Cambodian members, both first and second generation. The first generation came out of the killing fields, the Cambodian holocaust during which two million Cambodians were killed by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. They had stories to tell. 

One story I heard about indirectly was about a man who as a young orphaned boy was in a prison camp in Cambodia. Four times a day people were brought to the outskirts of that camp to be executed. The children were all lined up and forced to watch. If they cried, they would be killed. This boy was terrified that each time, that among them would be a friend, a neighbor or a relative and he would cry, and then he would be killed. This went on for years and the only way for him to survive was to completely cut off all emotion and feeling inside himself. Later he was freed and adopted by an American couple and brought to this country. He had the scars of war and did not know how to feel or express emotion. He especially had a difficult time relating to men because all the killers were men. He said he eventually learned how to feel again by looking into the eyes of his foster father and seeing the love there. He eventually was able to accept that love as genuine and return that love. 

God is love – unconditional love. The only possible way we can know and live such love is if we have looked into the eyes of our Heavenly Father and seen that love and experienced that love firsthand. Only then can we pass it on. We cannot manufacture this love within by ourselves because its source is not the human heart. Our hearts will find a thousand reasons why we cannot and should not exercise unconditional love toward people who do not deserve it, until we realize deep down that we do not deserve it either, and no one deserves it. That is why it is called unconditional love.  

I know this church would like to attract new members. You have bought some new equipment and have plans to hire a director of Children’s ministry. And this is wonderful. But nothing attracts people like unconditional love. It attracts people like flowers attract bees. Flowers do not have to work to attract bees; it happens naturally by how they smell. I read that a technique used in selling homes is to have an open house and bake some bread or cookies right before it starts. The aroma flows through the house and makes like the property more attractive. It connects to some deep part of us. It smells like home.

Unconditional love is like that. It smells like home baked bread or chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven. It is irresistible. When a church loves unconditionally, it smells like home. And everyone wants to feel at home. It attracts people of all ages and all religious or nonreligious backgrounds. People will flock here like they are coming home. On the other hand, unforgiveness, judgmental attitude, or a critical spirit will turn people away, and it won’t matter how much bread you bake. But if this church loves, people will be attracted to this congregation like people drawn by a sweet aroma to enter a bakery. Love is the bread of life. It smells like home.

Top Ten Reasons to Forgive

Delivered September 19, 2010

Matthew 18:21-35; Ephesians 4:25-32

The Late Show with David Letterman has a regular feature called the Top Ten List. One of them was “The Top Ten Signs Your Kid Had A Bad First Day At School.” They included things like:

10. Already voted "Least Likely to Succeed."
9. His class schedule includes daily beatings from bullies, teachers, and the custodial staff.
8. Lunch was whatever he could scrape off the bottom of his desk.
7. His school bus driver made him ride on the outside of the bus.
6. Got tackled twice in gym class--three times in algebra.
5. He comes home pledging loyalty to fearless leader Kim Jong-Il
4. When you ask how his day went he tells you to direct all further questions to his attorney.
3. Homework on the first day: try not to be such a loser.
2. You know the kid everyone picks on? He got picked on by that kid.

Today I am going to give the top ten reasons to forgive people. We can come up with a hundred reasons not to forgive people. We are really good at thinking up reasons to hold onto a grudge, anger, and resentment. “They don’t deserve it, it’s not fair, it is not right for them to get off the hook, they will just do it again, it will encourage bad behavior…” You know all the reasons. Well today I want to give you some reasons to forgive. 

But before I begin the countdown I need to preface it with the basis of all forgiveness, which is God’s forgiveness of us. We can’t give what we don’t have. We can’t pass on to others what you haven’t received ourselves. That is why the forgiveness of sins that we have in Jesus Christ is the foundation of all I have to say today. I will come back to this again at the end of the message, but I wanted to also put it out there right up front, so you know the theological basis of all I will say today. Now to the list of top ten reasons to forgive. 

# 10. The number ten reason to forgive is because Christ commands us to forgive. Jesus said, “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him….” (Mk 11:25) To forgive is a command of Jesus Christ. “Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” (Mt 18:21-22) Jesus told us to forgive over and over and over again. This should be reason enough to forgive. If Jesus told us to do it, we ought to do it. As Christians we are to be obedient to the one we call Lord. If we aren’t doing what he says, is he really our Lord? 

# 9 The ninth reason to forgive is so we will be forgiven. This is one of the difficult teachings of Jesus. In the Lord’s prayer, Jesus taught us to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses (debts, sins) as we forgive those who trespass againt us.” Then immediately after the Lord’s Prayer Jesus adds a word of explanation. He says, “¹⁴ “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Wow! Mark 11:25-26 “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. ²⁶ But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

 For our Gospel Lesson today we heard a story of Jesus about a servant who was forgiven by a king. But the man then turned around and refused to forgive a fellow servant. “³² Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. ³³ Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ ³⁴ And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. ³⁵ “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.” This is a hard teaching. It is one of those teachings that people try to water down and explain away so they won’t have to forgive. But the teaching is clear. Forgiven people forgive. 

The nature of forgiveness is such that if we have it, we will give it. We let it flow from God through us to others. Do not misunderstand Jesus teaching. We do not earn the forgiveness of God by forgiving others. Forgiveness is always a free gift. He is teaching that if we receive it, it will flow through us. Near my last church in Western Pennsylvania was a clogged culvert that went under a major road Route 65, which follows the Ohio river north out of Pittsburgh. The culvert was clogged, so the drainage water couldn’t flow under the road. So it backed up and caused a sinkhole that ate one restaurant and slowly expanded over the months and destroyed the whole area, threatening Pizza Hut and GetGo and the highway. All because no one wanted to pay the price of unclogging it. The property owners wouldn’t do it and the town wouldn’t do it and the county wouldn’t do it and the state wouldn’t do it. The sinkhole got bigger and bigger until it started to eat the highway. Then finally the state fixed it. Unforgiveness in our lives becomes a sinkhole that will swallow up our lives if we do not deal with it and pay the price to unclog it and allow the forgiveness of God to flow though our lives to others. 

# 8 We should forgive for our own emotional health. Don’t do it for the person who sinned against you. Do it for yourself. Do it for selfish reasons. To be quite honest this is the reason that really made a difference in my life. I am basically a selfish person, and I bet I am not the only one in this room. One day I realized that the person I was hurting the most by my unforgiveness was me. It wasn’t hurting those who hurt me; my anger and resentment and bitterness was destroying my peace of mind. So I decided to stop hurting myself and forgave. 

This is probably a good place to remind you what forgiveness is and what it is not. Forgiveness is not saying no harm was done. It is saying that great harm was done, but you are going to let it go. Forgiveness is not letting someone off the hook. It is giving over the responsibility to punish sin to God. Forgiveness is not reconciliation. Reconciliation may follow forgiveness if there is there is confession and repentance on the part of the one who sinned. But even then, the relationship will likely not be restored to its former state, because the trust is gone. Forgiveness is something you do inside yourself. You can forgive without the person you forgive even knowing. It is a transaction between just you and God. The word forgiveness means literally to let go. It means to stop holding on to something. Stop clinging, stop thinking about it. Just drop it. Do it for your own emotional health.

#7 Do it for your physical health. There is a lot of medical evidence now that stress is bad for your health. Unforgiveness, resentment, unresolved anger, bitterness is stress. It will literally make you sick – emotionally, physically, mentally. Stress is linked to everything from hypertension to depression to heart disease and cancer. Unforgiveness will literally shorten your life. Ask yourself: Is it worth it? 

#6 Do it for your family’s sake. We all know the phenomena of the person who has a bad day at work and takes it out on the family when he or she comes home. You can’t take it out on your boss or your co-worker or your costumer that you are mad at. You need the job! So you bottle it up and bring it home with you and release it there. The worker who comes home after a bad day at the office and kicks the dog, or the furniture or yells at his (or her) spouse or kids. Parents take it out on their children. Kids take it out on their parents. Husbands and wives take it out on each other. Then the home suffers and the marriage suffers. How many marriages have been destroyed by unforgiveness? 

Again let me explain what forgiveness is not. It is not allowing yourself to be hurt again and again. That is masochism. That is unhealthy and dangerous. Forgiveness does not allow an abuser to keep abusing. Forgiveness protects yourself and others emotionally, spiritually and physically. Forgiveness does not let yourself or anyone else get hurt. Forgiveness is letting go of thoughts of revenge or retaliation so you can think clearly and act wisely. Forgiveness will help you and your family and loved ones.

 #5 Forgive for the sake of your own spiritual growth. I have never known a mature growing Christian who holds resentments and anger. I have known people who have spiritually grown to a certain point and then had some traumatic event happened which they could not let go of. At that point they stopped growing spiritually. I don’t know what hurtful things have happened to you. But I know that every one of us here have been hurt – some of us very badly. Someone has hurt someone that you love and you will not forgive. Someone has done something that you will not forget. You will not let that person off the hook. I am telling you this morning that you are the one on the hook. Your relationship with God is on the hook. It will go no further than your ability to forgive. 

It could be something terrible that happened to you like physical violence and abuse. It could be emotional abuse from years of a bad marriage that ended in divorce or a bad relationship with a parent or child that ended in estrangement. The person who sinned against you may be even dead and gone, but your bitterness is still alive and is slowly killing you. You may have not seen or spoken to that person in years, but you still think about that person and what they did. You replay the hurt and the pain like a videotape that is stuck in an endless loop. Let it go. Release it. When it comes back to your mind again release it again and again 70 times 7 times. Forgiveness is not a one time event usually; it is a process. You usually can’t do it once and it’s over. Sometimes by the grace of God we can. But more often it takes many times. Unforgiveness is a habit that needs to be broken. But every time you let it go it’s grip on your soul will be less, until one day you realize that it no longer has power over you.

# 4 Forgive for the offender’s sake. This is tough. That is why it is high on the list. That person who sinned against you may not confess and repent, and may not even think they did anything wrong. They may have even thought they were doing good when they hurt you. Jesus talks about a time in the last days when those who persecute Christians will believe they are doing a service to God. We should not be surprised when people are clueless that they have sinned against God by what they did to us. If you told them that you forgive them, they would be offended that you even thought they did something wrong. That is why Jesus prayed from the cross for his crucifiers, saying, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

# 3 Forgive for other people’s sakes – as a witness to others of the power of God. The ability to forgive is the most powerful testimony that any Christian has. Christ forgave over and over again, and it was a powerful witness to the power of God in his ministry. Those who heard and saw him forgive - often his enemies – exclaimed “Who has the power to forgive but God alone?” People know that to forgive is divine. Forgiveness attracts people to the gospel. It attracts people to Jesus. On the other hand Christians who are petty, bitter, angry, resentful and hold grudges are a terrible testimony. How many people have been turned away from Christ because of the bad behavior of those who call themselves Christians? How many people will have nothing to do with the church or Christianity because Christians would not forgive those who sinned against them? Jesus told us that we are to be his witnesses. To forgive is the most powerful testimony you can give.

# 2. Forgive because you can. You have the ability and power to forgive. You might be listening to this sermon and thinking, “I know I should forgive. I want to forgive. I know it would be best for me and end a lot of this inner suffering if I forgive. But I just can’t. I have tried but I can’t forgive.” The Bible says you can - that God gave you the power to forgive. On Easter Sunday evening Jesus appeared to his disciples gathered in the upper room. John 20 says, “²¹ So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” ²² And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Jesus gave us the power of the Holy Spirit to forgive the sins of any! God the Holy Spirit dwells within you – if you have given your life to him. He can forgive through you. All you have to do is get out of the way, and let God forgive in and through your life. 

God said through the prophet Ezekiel “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” We are new creatures in Christ and it is the nature of that new creature to forgive. As it is the nature of birds to sing, and rivers to flow and flowers to bloom, so it is the nature of those born of the Spirit to forgive by the power of the Spirit. 

#1 the number one reason to forgive those who do not deserve it is because God has forgiven us when we did not deserve it. Eph 4: ³¹ Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. ³² And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” Colossians 3:12 “¹² Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; ¹³ bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.” 

Christ forgave us. How can we not forgive? God so loved us. Can we not love as he loved? In Luke 7 there is a story about a woman who fell at Jesus feet weeping in gratitude and love for the forgiveness he had given her. Jesus said to those gathered and were offended at her display of gratitude and love, “Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.” You have been loved much and forgiven much by Jesus. Therefore forgive much.