Forgiveness

So in the last couple weeks after talking with a bunch of our students at our youth group, I have realized something. We all have way to much pride and not enough humility and forgiveness. When given conflict with another person some of you get mad and think its time to attack that person that has wronged you in some way, and you are even able to justify why you are acting in such a "un-christian way". Some of you are angry about someone that has wronged you but you think your taking the high road by just ignoring the person even though your still angry about what they did, and you justify ignoring them to resulting in resolving the conflict because if you ignore them there is no conflict but yet they know and you know that there is anger on both parts. And some of you just let yourselves be walked on and you really don't talk about the conflict with the person and you just let it go, to where there is so much uncertainty in the air as to what is going on.

When did we as Christians forget why we are Christians? Why are we able to come to youth group? Why do we have so much joy when it comes to God?  BECAUSE HE FORGAVE US!

We all were the person that was doing something wrong to God, we were ALL the person that we might be having conflict with but our actions and our sins were towards God not someone else. God loves us and gave His Son for us so that we can be with him. And we sit here as christians and think we have a right to hold a grudge against another person?!?!?!?

Matthew 6:14-15
¹⁴For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

I want us all to think about this verse........................ Why do we think we should have pride and hold a grudge to someone and not fix the problem. I wonder what the bible would have been like if Christ held a grudge against people or he just ignored the conflict and didn't deal with it. I couldn't sleep this morning because of this and I have some versus for each person and there is two types of people I want to address....

1st person: These are the people who hold a grudge against people and either are mean or ignore the person they are having conflict with.

Matthew 18:23-33
 ²³"Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. ²⁴As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents^[a] was brought to him. ²⁵Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
 ²⁶"The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' ²⁷The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
 ²⁸"But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii.^[b] He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded.
 ²⁹"His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'
 ³⁰"But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. ³¹When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.
 ³²"Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. ³³Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?'

What this verse is about is God forgiving us (the king represents him, the first servant is us and the debt is sin) and us not forgiving others for the wrongs that they have done.  When we look at this Christ is telling us that if God forgives us of the wrong we have done, we have no right to not forgive others.

2nd person: This is the person who is frustrated with someone and just ignores the problem to avoid conflict or just doesn't want to deal with it.

Matthew 18:15-17
¹⁵"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. ¹⁶But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.'^{[b] 17}If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

What this verse is talking about, is we need to address conflict and we need to be willing to talk to people that were mad at.

We are called to be people that honor the Lord and that when the world tells us to handle conflict a certain way, we should handle it like Christ would. And that in itself is what will change the world and the people around us for God.

In Him,

Brett