1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:13,760 Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them the trespass against us. 2 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:25,200 Today we are having another one of those heart to heart talks regarding this portion of the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray. 3 00:00:25,200 --> 00:00:38,080 Do you remember when I left your home the last time that we had our heart to heart talk regarding this thing of forgiveness? 4 00:00:38,080 --> 00:00:57,200 I reminded you that Jesus actually makes our claim to our own forgiveness to depend upon our forgiveness of others. 5 00:00:57,200 --> 00:01:08,800 We're obliged either to forgive our enemies in sincerity and in truth or never again to repeat this prayer. 6 00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:24,800 Remember, when we forgive it must be in sincerity and in truth. 7 00:01:24,800 --> 00:01:44,720 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, Jesus said, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses. 8 00:01:44,720 --> 00:02:08,080 Now I want you to see something. It's easy to talk about many women who hold malice, prejudice, jealousy, a grudge, an unforgiving spirit in their hearts. 9 00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:23,440 It's the simplest thing in the world to point an accusing finger at someone. It's very simple to lay your finger on the sin in someone's life. 10 00:02:23,440 --> 00:02:38,800 But not only lay a finger on that sin but tell that one how to overcome that sin, what to do. 11 00:02:38,800 --> 00:02:58,320 And notice here, Jesus does not say forgive me my trespasses and I will try to forgive others. Neither does he say I will see if it can be done. 12 00:02:58,320 --> 00:03:15,840 Nor does he say I will forgive generally with certain exceptions. No man. He obliges us to declare that we have actually forgiven and forgiven all. 13 00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:28,720 And he makes our claim to our own forgiveness to depend upon that sincere forgiveness of our own hearts towards someone else. 14 00:03:28,720 --> 00:03:39,840 Who is there who has grace enough to say his prayers at all? Who does not long for the forgiveness of the cancellation of his own mistakes, his own faults? 15 00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:53,120 My goodness alive, I want everybody to forgive me. You know, I'm so imperfect and I make so many mistakes. 16 00:03:53,120 --> 00:04:04,800 I no sooner make a mistake and have to go and ask someone's forgiveness until I turn around and bless me. 17 00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:12,240 I guess it's because I'm so human. Sometimes I think I'm more human than someone else. 18 00:04:12,240 --> 00:04:23,920 And don't tell me that you don't make mistakes because you wouldn't be human if you didn't make mistakes. 19 00:04:23,920 --> 00:04:36,800 It's like that. We all make mistakes, but I make so many mistakes and I feel so good when somebody forgives me. 20 00:04:36,800 --> 00:04:48,560 It's the greatest feeling in the world. And I'd like to know at the close of the day when I am closing my eyes and sleep, 21 00:04:48,560 --> 00:05:07,840 that everywhere, the one to whom I have done wrong, or I might have said an unkind word, or I forgot to do that kindness, 22 00:05:07,840 --> 00:05:20,080 that everywhere, those who have been hurt by my negligence, not intentionally, but I did those things, 23 00:05:20,080 --> 00:05:31,360 I want them to forgive more than anything in the world. Who does not long for the forgiveness or the cancellation of his own mistakes, his own faults? 24 00:05:31,360 --> 00:05:42,960 Who would be so insane as to endeavor to seek the kingdom of God without desiring to be relieved of his own sense of guilt? 25 00:05:42,960 --> 00:05:50,000 No one. I believe with all my heart that the answer is no one. 26 00:05:50,000 --> 00:06:09,200 And so we see that we are trapped in the inescapable position that we cannot demand our own release before we have released our brother. 27 00:06:09,200 --> 00:06:19,760 You must forgive everyone who has hurt you if you want to be forgiven yourself. 28 00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:28,480 That's the long and the short of it. Jesus lays it right there on the line. 29 00:06:28,480 --> 00:06:37,680 You have got to get rid of all resentment, of all condemnation of others. 30 00:06:37,680 --> 00:06:46,960 And I go a bit further, and not least of self-condemnation and remorse. 31 00:06:46,960 --> 00:06:59,920 You have to forgive others. And having discontinued your own mistakes, you have to accept the forgiveness of God for them too. 32 00:06:59,920 --> 00:07:07,280 Or else you can make no progress. There will be no progress whatsoever. 33 00:07:07,280 --> 00:07:17,360 You have to forgive yourself. But you cannot forgive yourself sincerely until you have forgiven others first. 34 00:07:17,360 --> 00:07:23,760 Having forgiven others, you must be prepared to forgive yourself too. 35 00:07:23,760 --> 00:07:31,280 For to refuse to forgive oneself is only spiritual pride. 36 00:07:31,280 --> 00:07:48,400 Oh, there's so much involved when Jesus said, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us. 37 00:07:48,400 --> 00:07:56,000 Having forgiven others, you must be prepared to forgive yourself too. 38 00:07:56,000 --> 00:08:06,400 For again I repeat, to refuse to forgive oneself is only spiritual pride. 39 00:08:06,400 --> 00:08:14,880 And by that sin, they'll be angels. We cannot make this point too clear to ourselves. 40 00:08:14,880 --> 00:08:25,680 We've got to forgive. There are few people in the world who have not at some time or another been hurt. 41 00:08:25,680 --> 00:08:41,520 Really hurt. Hurt by someone else. You've been disappointed. You've been injured. You've been misled. You've been deceived. 42 00:08:41,520 --> 00:08:52,320 And such things sink into the memory where they usually cause inflamed and festering wounds. 43 00:08:52,320 --> 00:09:04,960 And the thing grows and grows and festers and festers. Something that was only a word or two at the beginning. 44 00:09:04,960 --> 00:09:13,680 It was only a little sore. A little tiny speck. 45 00:09:13,680 --> 00:09:33,920 Maybe the word spoken with just an insinuation. But it isn't long before the little festering sore grew so large. 46 00:09:33,920 --> 00:09:43,680 Until it took complete charge of your mind. It isn't long before it took complete charge of your body. Of you. 47 00:09:43,680 --> 00:09:53,680 And it's like that. And there's only one remedy. Just one. It has got to be plucked out and thrown away. 48 00:09:53,680 --> 00:10:02,640 And the only one and the only way to do is by forgiveness. 49 00:10:02,640 --> 00:10:10,880 Now of course, nothing in all the world is easier than to forgive people who have not hurt us very much. 50 00:10:10,880 --> 00:10:17,200 Nothing is easier than to rise above the thought of a trifling loss. 51 00:10:17,200 --> 00:10:28,640 Oh, anybody would be willing to do this. But what the law of being requires of us is that we forgive not only these trifles, 52 00:10:28,640 --> 00:10:37,200 but the very thing that is so hard to forgive that at first it seems impossible to do at all. 53 00:10:37,200 --> 00:10:50,640 Oh, the old heart cries it's too much to ask. That's impossible. I can't do it. I can't do it. I'll never forgive. Never. 54 00:10:50,640 --> 00:10:55,840 And it isn't long before the mind says you were not at fault in the first place. 55 00:10:55,840 --> 00:11:07,280 That's the first thing the mind will say. That's righteous indignation. You were never to blame. 56 00:11:07,280 --> 00:11:12,960 You were always right in this thing. The mind will tell you that. 57 00:11:12,960 --> 00:11:20,960 And the more the mind impresses you of the fact of your own righteousness in the deal, 58 00:11:20,960 --> 00:11:32,080 the bigger the injustice becomes to you. Until finally you cry out, I can't. I'll never forgive. 59 00:11:32,080 --> 00:11:44,000 But watch something. Jesus himself makes our own forgiveness from God, 60 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:52,720 which means our escape from guilt, dependent upon just this very thing. 61 00:11:52,720 --> 00:11:59,200 There's no escape from it. And so forgiveness must be there. 62 00:11:59,200 --> 00:12:06,320 No matter how deeply you've been hurt, no matter how deeply you've been injured, 63 00:12:06,320 --> 00:12:19,680 you may be 100% in the right. No matter how terribly we've suffered, we have got to forgive. 64 00:12:19,680 --> 00:12:28,320 And it's just like that. Now then, how in the world am I going to do it, Miss Cooney? 65 00:12:28,320 --> 00:12:39,920 I believe everything that you say because it's in the Word. Jesus said it. And everything hinges 66 00:12:39,920 --> 00:12:50,800 on my relationship with my fellow man. Everything hinges on my forgiveness of my enemies. 67 00:12:50,800 --> 00:13:00,080 I see the Bible teacher said, I must forgive before I can be forgiven. But how in the world 68 00:13:00,080 --> 00:13:05,200 am I going to do it? Watch something. The technique of forgiveness is simple. 69 00:13:06,480 --> 00:13:09,680 It's very difficult to manage when you understand how. 70 00:13:11,440 --> 00:13:16,640 The only thing that is essential is the willingness to forgive. 71 00:13:16,640 --> 00:13:24,560 That's the foundation for the whole thing. The willingness to forgive. 72 00:13:25,600 --> 00:13:32,960 The very second that you are willing to forgive, then the forgiveness is easy. 73 00:13:34,960 --> 00:13:42,480 It's like you've heard me say so many times that the only person that Jesus cannot help, 74 00:13:42,480 --> 00:13:51,040 the only person who seems cannot be forgiven is the person who won't confess that he's a sinner. 75 00:13:51,840 --> 00:13:59,840 When you're willing to confess, Jesus stands right there. He's more willing to forgive you 76 00:13:59,840 --> 00:14:07,280 than you are to forgive. So when it comes to your forgiveness of another, 77 00:14:07,280 --> 00:14:16,800 the big step is your willingness to forgive. And provided you desire to forgive the offender, 78 00:14:18,880 --> 00:14:25,440 the greater part of the work is already done. People have always made such a big 79 00:14:25,440 --> 00:14:32,240 thing out of forgiveness because they have been laboring under the impression that to forgive 80 00:14:32,240 --> 00:14:44,560 a person means that you are compelled to just love him and go all overboard and be gushy over 81 00:14:44,560 --> 00:14:53,360 the whole thing. I don't know how any better to describe it. Now you know something? Jesus never 82 00:14:53,360 --> 00:15:02,720 said anything about that. Happily this is by no means the case. We are not called upon to like 83 00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:13,360 everyone whom we do not find ourselves liking spontaneously. And indeed, it's quite impossible 84 00:15:13,360 --> 00:15:27,360 to force ourselves to like people. You can no more force yourself to love somebody than you can 85 00:15:27,360 --> 00:15:39,760 hold the winds in your fist. And when you on the surface have to force yourself to love someone, 86 00:15:39,760 --> 00:15:48,720 have to force yourself to love somebody, when you are acting this love towards somebody, 87 00:15:48,720 --> 00:15:56,320 you're being deceitful. That's just plain deceit. That's all. Jesus isn't talking about that at all. 88 00:15:56,320 --> 00:16:04,880 No ma'am. Not that all. People used to think that when someone had hurt them very much, 89 00:16:04,880 --> 00:16:13,760 it was their duty as good Christians to pump it up as it were, a feeling of liking him, of loving him, 90 00:16:14,720 --> 00:16:22,480 gushing over him. But since it's a thing that is utterly impossible, they suffered a great deal of 91 00:16:22,480 --> 00:16:32,320 distress and ended the whole thing with failure. And the result was nothing more or less than deceit. 92 00:16:32,320 --> 00:16:43,520 Deceit. We're not obliged to like everyone, but we are under a binding obligation 93 00:16:44,800 --> 00:16:56,480 to love everyone a love that the Bible calls parity, meaning a vivid sense of 94 00:16:56,480 --> 00:17:05,040 impersonal goodwill. I think that's the best way that I can describe it. Sure. 95 00:17:06,640 --> 00:17:16,320 It's just an impersonal goodwill. This has nothing directly to do with the feelings, 96 00:17:16,320 --> 00:17:27,280 though it is always followed sooner or later by a wonderful feeling of peace and happiness. 97 00:17:30,560 --> 00:17:41,440 Sure, that's somebody that gets on your nerves. You see, you don't have to have the same feeling 98 00:17:41,440 --> 00:17:49,840 towards them if there's a conflict in personality that you have with somebody that you're in perfect 99 00:17:49,840 --> 00:17:58,960 harmony with when it comes to personality. There's some folk that you just naturally love. Now, 100 00:17:58,960 --> 00:18:04,880 you're not going to get any credit and glory for loving that person. No, if you think you're going 101 00:18:04,880 --> 00:18:12,000 to get any reward by loving that somebody who's so easy to love, and you personally have checked 102 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:20,560 that up on your account and say, now look, I love her now, surely my love for her offsets 103 00:18:20,560 --> 00:18:26,960 my dislike for the other doesn't work that way. You're going to get no credit for loving 104 00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:34,480 the folks who are easy to love. But here's that somebody who's a thorn in your flesh. 105 00:18:35,440 --> 00:18:45,200 That's what Jesus is talking about. There is a place in him where instead of looking for the 106 00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:55,600 bad points in them, look for the good. Just look for the good. And if you really knew that person, 107 00:18:55,600 --> 00:19:04,240 and you really knew some of the deep waters they were going through, and you really understood 108 00:19:04,240 --> 00:19:12,800 some of their suffering, if you really truly learned to know that one, you'd find yourself 109 00:19:13,360 --> 00:19:22,720 helping that one instead of condemning. I have been so ashamed of myself. I have felt so ashamed 110 00:19:22,720 --> 00:19:32,400 of myself. I remember once there was a custodian in oil city, Pennsylvania. 111 00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:41,520 He was the custodian of an auditorium where I was renting. That man was the meanest man. 112 00:19:42,320 --> 00:19:51,040 I found myself just staying just as far away from as I possibly could. He was short. Everybody, 113 00:19:51,040 --> 00:19:57,600 I wasn't the only one who thought he was impossible. Me. Till one day, 114 00:19:59,840 --> 00:20:09,440 I bumped right into him. He bared his soul to me, and he told me that his wife was dying of cancer. 115 00:20:10,480 --> 00:20:18,000 They couldn't afford a nurse. She was at home. And that he would work all day 116 00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:26,560 and then would stay up and take care of his sick wife all night. He was working, holding down that 117 00:20:26,560 --> 00:20:34,960 job. He had to hold down the job because the bills had to be paid. The doctor had to be taken care 118 00:20:34,960 --> 00:20:45,200 of. He was working nine, 10 hours as a custodian, meeting the public, or not more than an hour and 119 00:20:45,200 --> 00:20:52,720 a half and two hours of sleep. That's the reason he was grumpy and grouchy and had the kind of 120 00:20:52,720 --> 00:21:00,800 disposition. You know something? I got to liking that man more than I could begin to tell you, 121 00:21:00,800 --> 00:21:11,120 because I had learned to know him. And then inside of me, there was such a nice piece whenever I 122 00:21:11,120 --> 00:21:22,000 talked with him and I didn't shun him anymore, to really understand, to really know, is to love 123 00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:30,160 and to forgive. The method of forgiving is just this. Get by yourself, become quiet, 124 00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:39,920 and say, now, I loose my enemy. I let him go. I completely forgive this whole business in question. 125 00:21:40,880 --> 00:21:47,680 As far as I'm concerned, it's finished. It's over forever. I cast the burden of resentment 126 00:21:48,480 --> 00:21:55,760 upon the Christ within me. I wish him well in every phase of his life. 127 00:21:55,760 --> 00:22:04,160 The incident is finished. It's finished. Then get up from your knees and go about your business. 128 00:22:06,240 --> 00:22:15,440 On no account repeat this act of forgiveness, because you have done it once and for all. 129 00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:25,040 It's done. It's closed. It's buried. It's forgotten. It's forgiven. Forgive us our trespasses 130 00:22:25,040 --> 00:22:48,400 as we forgive them that trespass against us. Amen.