Title: Happy Life (Forgiveness)
Contents
Expository Preaching note
Subject: Happy Life (Forgiveness)
Text: Colossians 3:13-14
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13 If anyone is accusing anyone, bear with one another and forgive one another, as the Lord has forgiven you. 14 Above all these add love, which is the perfect bond.
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It happened when the grandson of Gary Smalley, author of Change Your Mind, Change Your Life, was in fifth grade. Tall, strong, athletic boys flocked to them, harassing the weak. A large child was tormented like a bite. “You idiot, I want you to taste my hand.” They swear words and spread lies. My grandson never did anything bad, but he was kicked out of class. His grandson was young, but his faith was imprinted on him. It is painful to be teased and to be bullied, but I decided to live according to the words of the Bible. “God, forgive him. May he be blessed.”
As soon as I made this decision, the big guy asked me to call him. The grandson was terribly surprised.
“Why is he calling me?” The grandson didn't want to call, but his mother told him to do so, so he finally called. My big friend came over to his house on Saturday and asked me to play with him. “Why are you inviting me? Aren't you just trying to harass me? The grandson prayed with his maternal grandfather and mother. “God, I believe you will help me again this time. Give me courage.” The grandson acted according to the usual recitation of Proverbs 16:7. “If a man’s ways please the LORD, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.”
The grandson was excited when he went to the big student's house on a Saturday morning. “Grandpa, do you know what happened? I made a new friend.” The grandson said he had fun for hours at his big friend's house. After that, they slept together and went to church together at night.
We are people who have been loved by God's choice. As verse 12 says, we must practice compassion, mercy, mercy, humility, gentleness, and patience. According to verse 13, we must forgive and forgive.
According to verse 14, love is at the top of all these actions. Love is the “band of perfection” that unites people and makes the body of Christ whole.
In verse 13, the expression “whoever has a dissatisfaction with whom” is found. Here, 'complaint' and 'mompe' means dissatisfaction or complaint. There are things that happen when you stay together. There are things I don't like. There is something like, 'Why is that?' You may be thinking, ‘Is that okay?’ There is something like, ‘How could that be?’
It is completely impossible for us to meet such a church where we have no complaints when we live our faith. There is no such church in the world. As everyone goes through life and when they have fellowship, if they don't share it, they will see it. If they just come and go like guests, they never experience such a thing. However, if you look at fellowship within the church, there is definitely something to say, 'It's your fault' because this Jisan Church is an imperfect church. We often ask, ‘Can the church do that?’ It can be. The church on earth is an imperfect church. There is no perfect church on earth. Sometimes we don't like each other. So what should we do?
Everyone says that they put bean pods on their eyes during the honeymoon period. It means that the eyes are covered with something like a pod, a thin shell that wraps the beans. During the honeymoon period, the disadvantages are also seen as advantages, and everything looks good.
But there will come a time when you will face reality. Let me ask you where. After 30 years of marriage, do you still have a husband or wife with pods on their eyes? If so, it would be worth going out for a match. Is the wife who burned rice after 30 years of marriage still cute?
After the honeymoon period, the pods are peeled off and reality is visible. Dissatisfaction arises. If you do it wrong then you will have a period of disillusionment. I don't want to see it either. A relationship that seemed impossible to survive without it turns into a growling relationship when we are together. When the honeymoon period is over and the real period arrives, what's the secret to not falling into the disillusionment period?
Tolerance.
The first is tolerance. In verse 13, the word ‘acceptance’ appears. To tolerate means to endure, to endure, to embrace, to accept. The most basic meaning is 'to endure for a long time'. I want to burst, but I am holding back is to endure. While we are begging together, we sometimes suffer in the midst of it, but we endure it as it is. It is to stay as it is. This is tolerance. The Bible says, “With longsuffering, forbearing one another in love.” Tolerance means being patient and accepting without complaining. I want to fight and end it, but I have to endure it again and again. It means not hating and not being ostracized. We do not bully you with our facial expressions, words or actions. Even if you feel uncomfortable, you have to be patient. It means don't blow it. is to stay together.
But if you change your mind a little, you can do it. I said last time that happiness is a choice. Tolerance is also a choice. Even if it is difficult to obey when this word of acceptance comes, you just need to set your mind to obey. This is how you change your mind. Especially in our church. Only when we tolerate it can we become a happy church. You have to be brave and choose this every day.
We need to embrace people who are different from us with love. Even if there is a side that is a little strange, and there is a side that you don't like, you have to be patient and stay together without causing friction.
Forgiveness.
And after that, verse 13 goes on to say, “Forgive me.” But everyone! Remember this. You have to forgive in order to forgive. If you can't forgive, you can't forgive. Therefore, tolerance must happen first. The word ‘forgive’ means ‘forgive, give free, give with grace’. Forgiveness is giving grace to those who have wronged you.
It is to forgive even if you do not deserve forgiveness. Forgive even if there is no reason to forgive. Forgive with grace. There is grace. It's 'Karisomai'. If the core of forbearance is ‘long-suffering’, the core of forgiveness is ‘grace’. Even if you cannot forgive, you forgive with grace. ‘Karisomai’ is grace. Forgiveness contains the word ‘grace’.
The Bible tells us to forgive when we apologize. “Watch yourselves, if your brother sins, warn him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day and he comes back to you seven times, saying, I repent, forgive him.”
When someone apologizes to me, I say, ‘Is it all if I say I’m sorry? What time is it now? If you say you're sorry even if you kill someone, that's it. It’s all, it’s all, it’s all?’
What is this? It means you can't forgive. Of course, an apology is not “everything”. God exists. God does not leave us to take revenge. Then big things will happen to us, so we do not hand it over to us personally to pay for the wrongdoing of the other person. God's justice is there. Even if we forgive, God punishes us justly. That's why He said, "Leave it to me to take revenge." And it says, “Forgive ye.” “Vengeance is mine, and I will repay.”
Of course, it doesn't pay off as soon as we'd expect. God takes revenge, but not immediately. You are patient. In some cases, they endure decades. And when the other person repents, He forgives again.
See the city of Nineveh. When the people of Nineveh repented, didn't God forgive them? Because God is big, He doesn't work in such a hurry. You are patient. God is rich in mercy. Love is infinite and infinite. Long-suffering and long-suffering. We want God's mercy to be revealed only to us and not to our enemies. But that's the wrong attitude.
We must leave it to God to take revenge and forgive. If you apologize, you will immediately forgive, and even if you do not apologize, you must have a forgiving heart. If we do not forgive, God will not forgive us. “If you forgive men, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive men, your Father will not forgive you.” This is not to say that God is canceling our children. Children of God do not change. But he hides his face from us. You make a tough face. It's like a father turning his face when his child is wrong