Spiritual Health: Forgiveness

It's people. People of all different sorts, different places, different races, different educational backgrounds. It's wonderful. But you know one of the greatest difficulties with church is people.

and we laugh because we know it's true and it's not so much people as it is how how we relate to one another how do we in the family how do we make sure that we're being all God wants us to be and particularly when we have a conflict particularly when we get a little bit is it that we make sure we're being all God wants us to be? That's the subject we're going to look at today. As you know, we've been taking a look at assessing our spiritual health, seven essential questions, if we really want to know. If you're not all that interested in knowing about your spiritual health, sometimes we don't want to know about our physical health. We'd just assume being in the dark. But if you don't want to know about your spiritual health, you can just tune out now.

But if you're interested, I hope you'll listen. And I'm particularly pressing, we're not here just to find out about our spiritual health individually. I want to know, how is our spiritual health as a church? We think so individualistically in this country, God wants us to think more as a community of faith. The Puritans called pastors physicians of the soul.

I'm just a teacher, so I'm just a physician's assistant. But my purpose is to help us do some diagnosis of where we stand. As we begin this morning, let's read a passage. We'll pray and we'll dive into it. If you have your Bibles, let's turn to Colossians chapter 3.

Colossians chapter 3. Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, then Colossians.

Colossians 3. And we're going to start at verse 11. I'm just going to read three verses. Colossians 3, verses 11 through 13.

Everybody got it? Okay, here we go. Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, is all and is in all. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. And I'm going to translate it in the English a little more like it is in the Greek right here.

Bearing, that I-N-G, bearing with each other and forgiving whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Let's pray.

Lord, I praise you that we have this community called Greer First Baptist Church. I thank you that we have people from different backgrounds, different areas of the country different educational backgrounds but I thank you that you have brought us all together here for a purpose I pray that you will help us to be all that you want us to be but I pray first that you will prick our hearts to see where we need to understand our shortcomings but by your spirit empower us to overcome to rise above where we have been go higher than we've ever gone before and to not be satisfied until that day when we meet you in glory. May we be ever on the path moving forward, following your spirit, walking by your spirit, seeking to have all of those qualities in our life that you would have us to have. Guide us as we think. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Assessing our spiritual health. Our first question in our diagnostic assessment was, are we broken and mournful over our sin? It is an essential element to spiritual health that we have a real concern about sin in our lives. The second question in assessing our spiritual health that we have dealt with is, are we increasingly governed by God's word? Are we increasingly governed by God's Word. And you hear in that question a growth process. And sometimes I think maybe we expect, we lay the idea on people that once you're converted and come to faith in Christ, man, you've got new birth, it's such a celebrated moment, and it's sort of like you have the impression you have arrived, and there's a sense in which you have. You've gone from the old life to the new life. You've gone from darkness to light. You've gone from potential damnation to salvation.

So yes, you've arrived in a sense, but you're a baby. You were just born. And you know how new babies are? They toddle and they fall and they get up and they before long can stand on their feet and walk. They learn a few words.

They learn some more words. They do the wrong thing. They touch the hot burner on the stove and learn you don't touch the hot burner on the stove experience but slowly but surely you begin to see a maturing process but it is years and years and years and folks the spiritual life is no different we want instant grits instant potatoes instant everything that is not how we get mature in christ so if you feel like you're not where you should be that's okay so long as you begin to move in the right direction but understand that moving to full spiritual maturity is a lifelong process. But we want to be sure we're headed in the right direction. So when I say increasingly governed I mean we're growing in this maturing process.

Now my third question for spiritual health and the question we look at today is are we quick to forgive?

I think this is an essential question in assessing our spiritual health. Are we people who are quick to forgive? The opposite question would be, are we people who are unforgiving, who hold grudges and so forth? We need to know where we stand in this idea of forgiveness. That's my question.

Now here we go with the text that we're going to look at. The background for our text is looking at old differences and then a new identity. There are differences that exist in the body of Christ that tend to divide us. There were differences that existed in the church in Paul's day, as he wrote to the church at Colossae, that tended to divide the church. And here are those things that tend to divide us that Paul mentioned.

Paul said our national identities tend to divide us.

used to be one of the important questions people had. In our day, we would say, are you American or are you something else? And maybe that sort of sense of division is even greater in this world today where there seems to be so much tension in the world. But national identities tend to divide us. People of different nations sometimes have different skin color.

Those things tend to divide. The second thing that tends to divide us are our racial differences. That shouldn't say racial differences. That's the wrong word. That should say religious differences.

I typed that about 4.30 this morning, so forgive me. That should say religious differences. Religious differences. Racial differences sort of comes through the national identities. Religious differences.

Some in Paul's day were circumcised or uncircumcised. circumcised. The Jews were circumcised, the Gentiles were uncircumcised, but this was, Paul said, this is a religious difference you're letting divide you, but it's a religious difference that makes no difference. It's a religious distinction that has no ultimate effect, but you're letting it divide you. So sometimes we let non-essential religious differences divide us. The third thing we let divide us are cultural differences. And Paul's text, he refers to barbarians and Scythians.

The barbarians were people who would have been non-Greeks who spoke a different language from the Greeks or the Romans of the day. They were viewed as people who weren't too sophisticated. And the Scythians were a particular example of unsophisticated people. The Scythians were a nomadic tribe out of southern Russia. The Scythians had no written language, which made them seem sort of barbarous and unsophisticated.

They also, interestingly enough, they never washed in water. This was viewed as particularly barbarous. They weren't a very clean people. Their practice was not to bathe on any kind of regular basis. They were viewed as uncouth.

And you know, sometimes these sort of cultural differences, the way our language differences, the practices of our own culture tend to divide us, don't they? We will look at people from different countries and we will say, man, that's weird. You know, why are they like that? And we sort of think our practices or way of doing things are better. Those cultural differences tend to divide us.

The last thing that Paul mentions are socioeconomic differences. slave or free. This was a real issue in the early church. All of a sudden you have people thrown together, some who are slaves, some who are free, some who are poor, some who are rich, some who come to church in rags, some who come dressed to the nines, some who don't have a chariot and come on foot, and some who come with gold-plated chariots.

Some have little bitty, tiny, beat-up cars. Some have real nice cars. and this socioeconomic difference may be one of the biggest challenges for our church as we see people divided not just along racial or nationalistic lines, but by economic lines, you know?

And we sort of erect those barriers by the impressions we give to people, by really not reaching out to people who come from poor circumstances, not trying to meet their needs because we're a little, you know, more upscale church. Let's don't soil our hands with the poverty and the difficulties that people experience in poverty. Do you agree? These are the types of things that we still experience as division in the church today. National identity, religious differences, cultural differences, and socioeconomic differences.

But Paul says all those old differences get submerged by Christ. text he says we have a new identity that unites us and in the text of our passage for today it we go from talking about these things that divide to and paul says but christ but christ but christ and it's an emphatic but christ all those things that divide now let's turn and talk about what it's like to be in Christ and he says that Christ is all and in all Christ is all and in all Christ is in each of us who are believers in the Lord Christ we have his spirit within us we all have him in common Christ is everything to us so he's not only in all of us he is to be everything for us the distinctions that once divided us now make no difference in light of our common identity in Christ what is most important to us what is most important in our lives is that we are in Christ and we identify with him. He is our everything. And we can say with Paul in Galatians, there's neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. In fact, Paul is telling us that we have a new race of humanity in the world. A new humanity. A new humanity that has sworn allegiance to Jesus Christ. He is our king and we are members of his family.

And as members of this family, we think first of ourselves as Christians. Not as Americans, not as Ethiopians, not as black or white, not as people who speak Spanish or English, not as people who are rich or poor. We think first of ourselves as being Christians. So what is our nationality, church? Our nationality is Christian.

What is our race? We are Christian. What is our gender? we are Christian first. To what ethnic group do we belong?

We're Christians. Who are our ancestors? They're Abraham and Isaac, Peter and Paul. What is our occupation? Living for Jesus Christ.

Who is our immediate supervisor at work? Jesus Christ. It's a whole new identity that turns us upside down in our thinking and instead of identifying ourselves in all these old ways first, we now in this new race of humanity that has been formed, all of these dividing factors have been subsumed and we're now one. One nation in Christ. One humanity in Christ.

That is what the Lord's plan was from the beginning. That the whole world would be united

under one Lord. One faith with one baptism. It is a radical message to the world. A radical transforming message. We don't care if you're poor or rich.

We don't care how far you went in school. We don't care what your clothes look like. We don't care what kind of car you drive. We don't care if you speak good English or bad English or southern English. It doesn't matter to us.

Come on. We're all one in Christ.

this is one reason that I'm always troubled when I drive by churches particularly when I see two flags flying in front of the church that American flag and that Christian flag and I'm particularly troubled when the wrong one's on top that American flag over the Christian flag it's not that there's anything wrong with the American flag but what's the emphasis when you see that that old allegiance that thing that tends to divide that national identification there's nothing wrong with being American but being American is down here being Christian is so far up here why do we emphasize within the church that national identity why do people, preachers appear on TV and have their American flag behind them what message is that sending what Paul is trying to say is we're a new humanity a new allegiance in Christ.

That's why to my children's embarrassment I stopped one day in Charleston in front of a Christian organization that had two flags flying the American over the Christian. I stopped, I got out, I went over took the flag down, changed them and raised it back up.

You know what? The next year I went back I was a little more disturbed. There was just one flag flying in front of that organization and it was the American flag. Now, I know, maybe I'm being, Louise says, now David, you know, people, they just aren't thinking and so forth. I say, I want people to think.

What is the radical message about the Christian faith? It's a new humanity with a new allegiance. And this new humanity is to engage in a new way of life.

A new way of life. Paul begins verse 12 with the word therefore. Therefore. And any time you see the word therefore, you want to make sure what the therefore is. Therefore.

And what Paul is saying in light of the fact that we are a new humanity, there's a new way of living that we are to follow. And Paul identifies us as God's chosen people who are holy and beloved. So he's saying, all right church, you're a new humanity. This was God's plan from the beginning. Before you ever got here on earth, God's plan was that you would be his chosen people.

A people who he loved both before you were born, before you existed, who he loved through Jesus Christ, who gave you the way to have salvation. He has put you here to be holy, that is to be separated from sin and the world and to be consecrated to live for Jesus Christ. And he says now that you're that kind of people, this new humanity, here's how you're supposed to live. And he gives us virtues that we're supposed to have in our lives. He gives us five virtues and then two actions we are to take.

Here are the virtues. Very quickly. These are virtues with which we are to clothe ourselves. The text says clothe yourselves. Now let me make a point about clothe yourselves.

It is a command, number one. This is not optional. These are virtues we are all required to have if we're to be in this new humanity. We're to strive after these. It is a plural command.

It is a command not just for one individual to have this. These are to be characteristics that embody the body. that the entire community of faith is to reflect. Do you follow me? So I'm not urging, I want each of you individually to have these qualities, but my question is, does Greer First Baptist display these virtues as a community of faith?

We're supposed to as a community of faith. I'm told that some people spend a lot of time thinking about what they will wear clothing-wise in the morning. make sure that they match and you know does this go with that did i wear this yesterday or not i've always found it simpler black and khaki and can't go wrong

louise keeps trying to throw in these colored shirts for me and so forth it just throws me off i can't figure out what goes with what you know what paul is pressing us is this when you get up in the morning worry less about the outward clothing you wear he says put on the That shows you're a different kind of people. The clothing of these virtues. And here they are. Compassion is the first virtue that we are to have. Compassion, it's literally in the text, it's bowels of compassion.

I always love that, bowels of compassion. The bowels are where the intestines are. And in the Greek thinking, that's where your emotions were. So he's saying down deep on the inside of yourself. The way you really are down deep inside.

Not just the way you act. Down deep inside, you are to be compassionate people. That means you are to have an inner attitude of mercy and concern for others who are in need. In other words, if we clothe ourselves with compassion, we will be a caring community. When people are hurting in this community, we hurt and we do something about it because we're people of compassion.

If somebody loses a job, they don't need to worry. They're going to get fed. They're going to have whatever they need until they get back on their feet. That's the kind of people we're to be. We're to be, secondly, people who are kind.

Kindness is the second virtue. Kindness is having a gracious attitude toward others that is demonstrated in our actions toward them. So we have the inner compassion. then the kindness is actually the expression of action to show the inner attitude. The third quality is humility.

This is so important as a virtue. When we say we are to clothe ourselves with humility, it means we are to have a spirit of modesty. We are to be unconcerned about status, individually and as a church. We don't care if First Baptist Church is viewed as some status kind of church. We really don't care about being First Baptist Church.

It too does fine if we were named Last Baptist Church. It wouldn't bother us a bit. In fact, it might be a good test. Why don't we recommend we change the name and let's see what it does. Would that name be so important to us?

Would our status be offended that we would be afraid to be something other than the First Baptist Church? I won't make the motion, but it's a thought. If we're humble, we're unselfish. We don't think of ourselves first. We think of others first.

We're not prideful or self-centered. This is a toughie, folks, but if there's going to be unity in the church, this is so critical. Fourth, gentleness. Gentleness is meekness. it's a quality of kindness the quality of being considerate when we're dealing with other people you know we just treat them well we're not harsh toward them we're not mean spirited we don't go out of our way to hurt anybody's feelings and in fact we want to do everything we can to make people feel comfortable make people feel welcome we want to have that graciousness about us That's one thing I understand about Billy Graham.

I've never met him personally, but he was chair of the board of trustees for many years of Gordon Conwell Seminary where I went.

And he apparently just has this great quality. Even given his stature, he's just so gentle around people and just so gracious. And you just feel comfortable with him. It's a great quality. Lastly, patience.

Patience is persevering calmness even when we are wronged. Persevering calmness even when we are wronged. If we have these virtues, it will show up in two actions. Two actions that prove these virtues. The first is that we will bear with one another.

Bearing with one another. Now the assumption in this action is that sometimes we aren't easy to get along with. You know, living in this family isn't always easy. The assumption is people are sometimes just going to rub us the wrong way. You ever sat in church and watched the person in front of you singing and there's something just about the way they sing or it just bothers you, you know?

or somebody, you hear somebody saying something and they have this sort of negative tone. And boy, what you'd really like to do, truth be told, you'd really just like to take them and just slam them up against that wall, you know?

Well, Paul recognizes that. As brothers and sisters in Christ, we sometimes will do things to one another that are irritating, that are petty, that are mean-spirited, that are unkind. We don't always treat one another as we should. We don't always talk to or about one another as we should. But Paul says we are to bear with one another.

And that means, bearing with one another means these things at least, I think. We are to be slow to get angry with one another.

We are to exercise self-restraint. That means sometimes you don't say what you're thinking. mouth shut. We don't return tit for tat. Somebody treats us wrong, says something bad about us, we don't go talk about them. We turn the other cheek. Bearing with one another means we'll take the slap in the face. We won't strike back. And in fact, if necessary, we'll take another slap in the face for the sake of the body. We'll be willing to go the second Mylon, you know what? We won't keep any record of wrongs.

That little list we keep in our minds, you know, of everything everybody says, we're just not going to do that. We're just going to let it go. And if we get insulted or treated wrong, we're going to return the insult with kindness. That's bearing with one another. The second action is forgiving one another.

To forgive another is to pardon that person for a wrong done to us. If the wrong were considered like a debt, like you owed money to that person, To forgive is to cancel the debt. To say, you owe me nothing. We mark the debt paid in full. We're not to be stingy with forgiveness.

We are to forgive whatever grievances may have been done to us and we're to always be ready to give. Always be ready to forgive. And immediately, as soon as the wrongdoer repents, the forgiveness is there. It's supposed to be that quick. Churches are to be havens of forgiveness.

I know that there's one church I know of. It's a community of forgiveness. It's a place that no matter what you've done wrong or no matter what you may do wrong, it's a church that's always prepared to give, always ready to give. And the foundation for this action is that Jesus forgave us. Whenever you get ready not to be forgiving, just ask, what did the Lord forgive me?

Now here are seven lessons for life. to close with a song today. Lesson for life number one, forgive for a healthy and happy life. I have talked to people who are just so tied up in knots because they can't let a grudge go. Dr. Fred Luskin who works with Stanford University's Forgiveness Project said this, carrying around a load of bitterness and anger at how unfairly you were treated is very toxic. In fact, they've done studies and show that letting go of a grudge can slash one's stress level by 50%. People have even had relief of back pain when they forgave.

Forgiveness brings improvements in energy, in mood, in sleep quality, in physical vitality according to studies they've done. Life's just easier, folks, if you just don't carry that stuff around. Let it go. Let it go. sometimes we're afraid somebody will take advantage of us or get one up on us we need to look at events the way God does if we take a blow and don't strike back if we just let it go the Lord says atta boy, atta girl let's see how God looks at our reactions and it'll change how we act and it'll give us a healthier, happy life secondly, don't sweat the small stuff boy, some of the things we get chewed up over Make no difference.

Let it go. Thirdly, don't dwell on past hurts. Give them to God. And this is so important. Husbands and wives, forgive one another.

Forgive one another. Don't hang on to that. Children, forgive your parents. They may not have done what they should have. They might even have done something very bad.

But you've got to let it go. You've got to forgive them. Church members, you've got to forgive. We won't be healthy. There's no revival without forgiveness.

Fourthly, count your sins first, not the sins of others. Before you start to criticize somebody else, just stop and count the first ten sins you've committed you can think of, and you'll probably hold your tongue. Fifthly, be willing to reconcile and to take the first step. You know, sometimes we have that attitude, yeah, if that person will come to me, I'll be willing to forgive. If that person will come to me, yeah, when they finally get out on their face in front of me and grovel like they should,

then we've got to be willing to take the first step.

Sixthly, we are family. We are family. Sister Sledge, 1979.

Listen. We ought to be singing that in church. We are family. Let's not fight. Let's forgive.

You remember that World Series when they were singing that song? Was it the Pittsburgh Pirates? The Pirates? This whole stadium of pagans. Well, not all of them.

There were probably a few Christians in there.

But, you know, they were black. They were white. They were Latino. They were English. And they were in there just all excited and really felt like one big family as they cheered for their team.

Guess who we get to cheer for? We get to cheer for Jesus. Come on. Tell me something better. We're family.

And remember the cross. Remember the cross. You remember the cross, we'll be all right. Greer first, if we really remember the cross and its significance, we'll be alright.