THE WORSE REQUEST ANYONE CAN ASK OF GOD

Mike Cunningham

August 12, 2007

Have you ever tried to explain your view to someone, and knew you lost them before you finished what you were saying? The person just tuned you out. If he or she didn’t jump all over you at the time, you were left with the unmistakable impression that the person went away from you angry over what you had said? I’m sure you have. I’ve had it happen to me lots of times, sometimes during my sermons. No one has ever lashed out at me in Church yet, and I hope no one ever does, but I know some folks have turned me off without allowing me the courtesy of listening to everything I was trying to communicate to them. They just sit there stoically with one of those grumpy expressions on their face, never hearing anything else I have to say until I give the benediction, and then they’re either out of here or bad-mouthing me in church to someone they managed to pigeon-hole.

I don’t assume everyone who leaves during the sermon doesn’t want to hear any more of my message. I give everyone the benefit of the doubt. They may not be feeling well, or perhaps are going to the rest room, or checking on a child back in the nursery. Some folks certainly should leave, but there are others who just can’t stand something they either heard me say or thought I said. I still remember one guy who got up and walked out back in the middle of my sermon and didn’t return. I was so concerned about his well being that I left the pulpit during the closing hymn to see if he was all right. The man was so angry with me that he was actually trembling. He could hardly speak to me. He believed I said God made the terrorists hijack and crash those plains into buildings on September 11^th. Neither I nor anyone else present could convince him to believe I didn’t say or imply any such thing.

Although I always mean what I say whenever I’m preaching or teaching, I may not always mean what I seem to be saying. That’s why I welcome questions during my sermons and why I invite feedback from the folks who read them on my web site. I want everyone to really understand what I believe God wants me to communicate to them. In sharing these thoughts with you I have set the stage for a couple of comments I want to make, and I hope everyone will stay with me until I finish. Unless of course you really have to leave!

First: A person can come to a firm conviction that because of Adam and Eve’s sin in “The Garden of Eden”, they were born with a sinful nature and therefore deserving of eternal punishment, and that it is only through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus on His cross that they can obtain forgiveness. Furthermore, the person can become so filled with guilt and remorse over his or her sins that they will sincerely plead, even beg Him to forgive them; nevertheless, that person may become eternally lost.

Second: Sinners such as you and me often pray the Lord’s Prayer. At our church we usually say it together earlier in our worship service. I hope we truly understand what we are praying, because if we don’t, we may be asking God to condemn us to everlasting torment. And guess what. He will!!!Now since you are all still here, I’m going to assume no one has tuned me out and I will attempt to explain. However, at this point some of you might be thinking about my first comment about salvation. You might say, not so fast Mike. How about these passages?

Ephesians 2:1-10 (AMP) ¹ AND YOU [He made alive], when you were dead (slain) by [your] trespasses and sins ² In which at one time you walked [habitually]. You were following the course and fashion of this world [were under the sway of the tendency of this present age], following the prince of the power of the air. [You were obedient to and under the control of] the [demon] spirit that still constantly works in the sons of disobedience [the careless, the rebellious, and the unbelieving, who go against the purposes of God]. ³ Among these we as well as you once lived and conducted ourselves in the passions of our flesh [our behavior governed by our corrupt and sensual nature], obeying the impulses of the flesh and the thoughts of the mind [our cravings dictated by our senses and our dark imaginings]. We were then by nature children of [God’s] wrath and heirs of [His] indignation, like the rest of mankind.

⁴ But God—so rich is He in His mercy! Because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us, ⁵ Even when we were dead (slain) by [our own] shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ; [He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him, for it is by grace (His favor and mercy which you did not deserve) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation).

⁶ And He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together [giving us joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue of our being] in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One). ⁷ He did this that He might clearly demonstrate through the ages to come the immeasurable (limitless, surpassing) riches of His free grace (His unmerited favor) in [His] kindness and goodness of heart toward us in Christ Jesus.

⁸ For it is by free grace (God’s unmerited favor) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation) through [your] faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [of your own doing, it came not through your own striving], but it is the gift of God; ⁹ Not because of works [not the fulfillment of the Law’s demands], lest any man should boast. [It is not the result of what anyone can possibly do, so no one can pride himself in it or take glory to himself.] ¹⁰ For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].

In the Epistles, the Apostle John added:

1 John 1:9 (AMP) ⁹ If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just (true to His own nature and promises) and will forgive our sins [dismiss our lawlessness] and [continuously] cleanse us from all unrighteousness [everything not in conformity to His will in purpose, thought, and action].

Case closed! I made a mistake, right. Wrong! Although the Scriptures always mean what they say, they may not mean what they seem to be saying. And, as I said a moment ago, whenever I’m preaching or teaching, I always mean what I’m saying, but I may not mean what I appear to be saying. Allow me to explain. Earlier in the service I purposely didn’t give you folks an opportunity to pray The Lord’s Prayer as we customarily do. Let’s bow our heads and say it now.

Matthew 6:9-13 ^9… Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. ¹⁰ Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. ¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread. ¹² And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. ¹³ And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Now I don’t want anyone to become sidetracked by the final verse and miss something I want to empathize. I don’t want anyone to get the impression that the Catholics are wrong in not saying verse thirteen immediately after verse twelve. The earliest known manuscripts of the Gospel of Matthew end the Lord’s Prayer at verse twelve. Jesus probably never said verse thirteen. It seems to have been added later in the first or second century. Nevertheless, saying: for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever, amen, is a beautiful way to end this prayer.

Coming back to verse twelve we read: “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Now ask yourself this question. How is it possible to sincerely pray this petition asking God to forgive me when I sin against Him, and also ask Him to do it in the same way in which I have with another sinner who has wronged me greatly, while I harbor a deep seated resentment and remain bitter towards that person?

Commenting on this passage, R. Kent Hughes in his excellent commentary writes:”It is an explicit prayer for forgiveness (“Forgive us our debts [trespasses], and it is also an implicit prayer for a forgiving spirit (“as we also have forgiven our debtors [who trespass against us].” “St. Augustine called this request “the terrible petition” because he realized that if we pray “Forgive us our debts, as we have also forgiven our debtors” with an unforgiving heart, we are actually asking God not to forgive us.”[i] Hughes went on to quote several verses to drive home this point. The first one is what Jesus told His disciples immediately after He taught them His famous prayer.

Matthew 6:14-15 (AMP) ¹⁴ For if you forgive people their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive others their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses.

Matthew 5:7 (AMP) ⁷ Blessed (happy, to be envied, and spiritually prosperous—with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy!

If we are merciless judgmental nit-pickers, constantly harping on other people’s faults while brushing aside or minimizing all the other persons good qualities; we can be absolutely certain God will not forgive us no matter how often or fervently we beg Him to.

Matthew 18:32-35 (AMP) ³² Then his master called him and said to him, You contemptible and wicked attendant! I forgave and cancelled all that [great] debt of yours because you begged me to. ³³ And should you not have had pity and mercy on your fellow attendant, as I had pity and mercy on you? ³⁴ And in wrath his master turned him over to the torturers (the jailers), till he should pay all that he owed. ³⁵ So also My heavenly Father will deal with every one of you if you do not freely forgive your brother from your heart his offenses.

That brings us back to the comments I made earlier.” A person can come to a firm belief that because of Adam and Eve’s sin in “The Garden of Eden”, they were born with a sinful nature and therefore deserving of eternal punishment, and that it is only through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus on His cross that they can obtain forgiveness. Furthermore, the person can become so filled with guilt and remorse over their sins that they sincerely plead, even beg Him to forgive them; nevertheless, that person may become eternally lost.”

“Sinners such as you and me often pray The Lord’s Prayer. As I said a moment ago; in our church we usually pray it in unison earlier in our worship service. I hope we truly understand what we are praying, because if we don’t, we are, as Augustine and others have so correctly observed, actually asking God to condemn us to everlasting torment.”

In this message I did not say or imply that in order to have our sins forgiven we must first forgive everyone who has sinned against us, because nothing could be further from the truth. On the contrary however, we will want to forgive everyone because we have been forgiven. If God has truly removed our heart of stone and replaced it with one of flesh, and if He has sent His Holy Spirit to live right inside of us, we will be looking forward to forgiving everyone, including those who has wronged us greatly.

I’m not suggesting this is easy to do because it’s often very, very difficult, especially while we are numb and still reeling in shock. For instance, let’s say that by the grace of God we have forgiven someone who treated us dispicably. But sometime down the line remembrances of the pain and sorrow and agony of those offenses resurface, and we become angry all over again, and we start to become bitter and resentful. At this point Satan will jump in and scream in your ear: “See, you never really forgave that person. Stop fooling yourself. And don’t think God has forgiven you because you and I know the Scriptures say He hasn’t.”

Don’t let Satan con you into laying a guilt trip on yourself. Take up your shield of faith and extinguish every one of these kinds of invisible flaming arrows and fiery darts the Apostle Paul reminded the Ephesians’ to do in the 6^th chapter. And remember, if you truly have been born-again you will plead with Him and even beg Him to incline you to want to forgive, and to give you the strength to keep on forgiving the person. And guess what? He will! Every single time!

A Christian will forgive, not because he or she has to in order to have their sins forgiven, but because they sincerely want to. True followers of the Risen Savior will want to become increasingly desirous of pleasing Him. In the course of time and little by little, they will want to delight themselves in Him, and seek first His Kingdom and His Righteousness. They will have a sincere desire to love all people, regardless of how despicably they may have been, or may even continue to be treated. They will want to forgive just as they have been forgiven in Christ Jesus. And when they do this each of them will experience the joy of having a wonderful assurance of their salvation, knowing that having a forgiving spirit is a manifestation and evidence of the Love of Christ working in and through them. True love is very easy for all people to recognize. It really stands out. Some may think you are a fool and that this kind of love is stupid; nevertheless it will be quite obvious to everyone.

John 13:34-35 (ESV) ³⁴ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. ³⁵ By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

1 John 3:14 (ESV) ¹⁴ We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.

1 John 5:1 (ESV) ¹ Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.

“Not only will we know but all people will know our faith is real, because of the love we have for fellow Christians, warts and all. We will find ourselves wanting to associate with people we ordinarily wouldn’t have anything to do with. We want to be near them so that we can learn how we might be used by God to become a blessing to them as they also struggle through this dark sin infested alien world on their way to their real home. By our words and deeds we demonstrate that we truly care about them. We won’t obsess over the sometimes irritating characteristics of other Christians and pointing each and every one of them out as the devil is so fond of doing. We’re hoping our non-judgmental acceptance of them, will enable them to see a little bit of Christ’ love shining down on them through us. If we believe in Jesus we have been saved. And other folks  will know we have been saved by the love we have for other Christians.[ii]

Christians don’t struggle to become holy because they know that it’s impossible to enter into God’s Heaven unless they are holy. And as I said earlier, Christians also don’t forgive in order to earn God’s forgiveness, but all Christians will want to forgive because they have been forgiven. Followers of Christ struggle to become holy and forgiving because they sincerely want to become holy and forgiving just as Jesus is holy and forgiving. These beautiful Christ-like virtues are evidence of the fact that they are being slowly being transformed into His image (Romans 8:29).And gradually, over the course of time, the pain of the awful wrongs done to them will diminish, until every one of them vanishes forever, and nothing will ever hinder them from enjoying the unimaginable happiness of being eternally in the presence of their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

[ii] My sermon, http://s128601634.onlinehome.us/sermons/is_she.htm