Living Hope Fellowship Church

FORGIVE

Training Material

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

FORGIVE

Preface

 (forgive, let it go or be defiled)

          Mark 11:24 says, “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”  The next verse states a condition to receiving those things you desire from God.  God REQUIRES us to forgive!  

          Verse 25 says, “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” 

          Forgiving someone doesn’t mean that you condone their wrong doing, but you have given them an opportunity to do right again!

          If you have bitterness or grudges in your heart you are like your father the devil.  Let it go, and pray for them! 

                                                             FORGIVE

 (forgive, let it go or be defiled)

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

            Mark 11:24 says, “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”  The next verse states a condition to receiving those things you desire from God.  Mark 11:25 says, “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” 

          Can’t you sense the presence of God through asking forgiveness, getting it, and giving it?  As children of God we haven’t yet arrived at full perfection, but if we will be in a merciful position with others, God will be merciful to us.

          When you are in a forgiving mode you aren’t easily offended.  You need to read about charity in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 13.  You have to be charitable to forgive, because sometimes there is nothing people can do to restore or make up for what they have done to you.  There is nothing that we can do to make up to God what we have done to Him.

          Deliberately or in ignorance we hurt people and they hurt us.  We go to the Word of God to discover what is wrong and what is hindering our prayers.  There is power in forgiveness, and it opens a door to heaven through the blood of Jesus and faith in His name. 

          You call upon the name of the Lord, and He forgives you.  Whosoever shall call upon that name shall be delivered and shall be saved, but you have to trust in that forgiveness.  That avenue makes all the blessings of heaven open to you.  God will overlook a lot of your faults if you are willing to forgive others of theirs.  Some people just don’t know of anything that they are doing wrong, but somebody is around to bust that bubble!

          Mark 11:26 says, “But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.”  If you aren’t compassionate and understanding, God isn’t going to be in a forgiving mode toward you!  God knows. 

          Just because you forgive someone doesn’t mean that you condone what they have done wrong!  It means that you have given them an opportunity to do right again, and you have helped them wipe their slate clean!  Forgiving is one of the closest ways that we can be like our forgiving, loving Jesus.  He is our advocate with the Father.

          God forgives sinners if they ask and mean it in their heart.  Won’t He forgive His own children if they ask and mean it in their heart?  After God has forgiven you, you need to forgive yourself!  Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” 

          It may be hard to forgive yourself when you think, How could I have been so stupid!  How could I have been so blind!  How could I have been so ignorant!  When you get done the devil takes over, and then you get beat down and depressed.  By that time you are so troubled that when somebody tries to love you back in, you get mad at them!  You are unthankful and hateful, because you are still banging yourself over the head!  You have to go on, but walk softly; remember where you came from.  God has forgiven you.

          How can you believe God when you pray if your heart isn’t right with Him, because with the heart man believes.  If you have bitterness or aught against somebody, then you have unbelief in your heart, and it will keep you from believing for great things from God. 

          You may say, Well, I don’t hate anybody, I just reeeally don’t like them, but the thing will grow if it is left unchecked; left un-prayed for; left un-cursed that it would die and leave. 

          Sickness is the early stage of death, but as we press on with God we can prosper and be in health.  3 John 1:2 says, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”

          Some people are over sensitive, and others are calloused due to our carnal nature.  You may think people sin against you a whole lot more than you sin against other people.  However, Romans 3:23 says, “. . . all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”

          Luke 6:38 says, “. . . For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”  If you are a forgiving person, you are going to be forgiven.            Folks, we can get free from sin and condemnation.  One of the first steps that you take in that direction is where you forgive others.  Don’t let their shortcomings and their failures pull you down.  Forgive them, and let it go!  Let God have them!  Hand them over to Jesus and say, Lord, I forgive.

          Now, there are some people that you are going to ask to forgive you, and they won’t have it, but you have done right.  Then you pray, Lord, forgive them for not even forgiving me. 

          Jesus was the most forgiving person that I know.  I read in the Word of God where He delivered and healed sinners.  I know a hypocrite that He prayed for.  I know a devil possessed hypocrite that He prayed for who later became one of the greatest apostles in the Bible.  His name was Peter. 

          God is loving and compassionate, but there is a time that God cuts people off.  However, I don’t want to be around when He does.  I am going to entreat the Lord for souls to be saved.  My job is not to see people go to hell, but to help them come away from the things that will take them to hell.  I want to help them get their feet on the Rock where they can make heaven their home!  That is the job of the Church.

          You may see somebody who has hurt you get in the altar and genuinely get forgiveness from God.  Even if they don’t do that you still have to forgive them.  That is a hard commandment when you are the one that they did the most damage to.  They didn’t come to you, because they were too ashamed.  Thank God that they were able to go to Him and get forgiveness!

          The best way to get rid of an enemy is to make them a friend.  Pray, and fast, and seek the Lord.  They have to go through Jesus, but our part is to love them enough to pray for them.  Some people are hard to love or even care for, and we just barely pray them. 

          If you live in unforgiveness, holding bitterness in your heart, you are going to be like Jonah in the belly of the whale!  When God got done with Jonah he was a puke, and so will you be if you will not forgive!

          Jesus said in Revelation 3:16, “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” 

          Psalm 66:18 says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:”  Unforgiveness qualifies as iniquity.  The things you thought up to get even with them because of your un-forgiveness is also iniquity.  Have you gone so far as to murder someone in you mind after you got mad at them?  Maybe you made up your own little show in your mind such as, I hope their brakes fail!  By the fifth or sixth sequel of your movie, you’ve killed them all different ways!  The carnal mind is a wicked thing!  Thank God that He brings you back to your senses, and you repent! 

          Surely people are vile, but we have been vile and defiled too.  Some of it has been from our own making, yet some things we have had no control over.  Some of these vile people are even dead, so what are you going to do?  You have to forgive, and you have to let it go, so it will get out of your system!  It is like spitting it up and out; you get rid of it.  It leaves you, and it is no longer a part of you.  That unbelief, that iniquity, that hatred, and malice, and bitterness is gone! 

          I am convinced that the majority of strokes and heart attacks are partly because of bitterness and un-forgiveness in the hearts of the people, including Christians. 

          We need to always be ready to forgive.  To be instant in prayer you have to be instant in forgiveness!   I’m not saying that you are to trust every body.  You have to keep some people at arm’s length, because they aren’t trustworthy, but that doesn’t mean that you hate them.  It means you pray for them even though they might be despicable.

          Jesus says in Matthew 5:11, “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.”  If they tell lies on you, pray for them. 

          Matthew 5:12 says, “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”

          Your reward in heaven is great when you act like your heavenly Father.  If you have unbelief, bitterness, or grudges in your heart, then you are like your father the devil.  That is the way he is, and we don’t want to be like that anymore. 

          We need to praise the Lord for His forgiving power.  We can be partakers of that power by releasing all unforgiveness, bitterness, and resentment.  Jesus said we can have whatsoever we ask when we pray and believe, but then He said to remember that while you are believing you need to forgive, because that helps you to believe!

          2 Corinthians 2:6 says, “Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many.”  This is after he has been forgiven.  He has already had enough punishment.  Verse 7 says, “So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.”

          God is talking about sincerely forgiving and sincerely meaning it!  You can usually tell when people are playing games.  At other times you can’t, but you aren’t responsible for that.  Don’t be so suspicious.  I would rather be played for a sucker like that, than to be too hard and keep somebody or myself out of heaven.

          God says that you are even to comfort him.  Mamas whip their babies for doing wrong, but when the child crawls up in their lap they hold them and comfort them.  Yet, if they do it again they will thump them again!

          Sometimes people get thumped by the Lord.  Shouldn’t we comfort them if they have genuinely prayed through?  We should not condone sin or agree with wrong doing, but we should give them a place to go where they can go on and serve the Lord.  Some will say that these have done wrong, and they can’t be good enough any more!  They can never raise their head up around you anymore!  Folks, that is not forgiveness! 

          You have to forgive, and in due season you have to forget.  I go back to God for comfort even after He lashes me a little bit.  He corrects and chastises anyone that He receives, but when we repent we can still go back to Him for comfort.  He is the only source of my comfort, because He is the source of my forgiveness.  The same Spirit that drew me to Jesus to get forgiveness is also called the Holy Ghost Comforter.  They are intertwined to keep us from being burdened down with much sorrow. 

          I don’t stand before you with great boldness in the Lord because I have never done anything wrong, but I know that God has forgiven me and washed me clean!  I can now walk in the boldness of the Lord, but until we get that comfort, and joy, and peace in our hearts from God we can never do anything else for Him.  We will just walk around with our heads down.  We will never be able to take authority over the devil for someone else.  That is why God comforts us after He runs us through a chastisement period, and then we ask for forgiveness.

          God comforts us so that we can go on, dust ourselves off, and do something for somebody else that has been in the same shape or worse.  We can’t beat somebody over the head forever.  They will never come to God if you do.  People can get suicidal if they think they can’t be forgiven.  I’m talking about people whom nobody wants to forgive, and nobody is willing to receive back.  I don’t want to be in the shoes of anybody who keeps somebody away from God. 

          2 Corinthians 2:8 says, “Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him.” 

          John 13:35 says, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

          2 Corinthians 2:11 says, “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.”  Folks, Ephesians 4:27 says, “Neither give place to the devil.”  When you don’t forgive, the devil has an advantage over you and the one who needs forgiveness.  He can bind a church quickly if we aren’t forgiving people.            If we want something from God we have to forgive people.  Praise God for an avenue of forgiveness and Jesus’ blood that washes away sin.  We can’t be hard hearted; we have to be compassionate.

          Galatians 6:1 says, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.”

          I pray that whoever reads this message will be reconciled to God.  I bind the devil that would keep unforgiveness in their heart, in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

PASTOR KEVIN BADGLEY

LIVING HOPE FELLOWSHIP, P. O. BOX 111, GRAND CHAIN, IL  62941

CHURCH / FAX (618) 634-2541

  E-mail 

livinghopefellowship@lazernetwireless.net

These condensed Bible studies have been published to help new Christians in their new walk with the Lord.  Kevin Badgley, the author, is the pastor of Living Hope Fellowship Church.

This is a Living Hope Fellowship publication.