Daily Devotional For Sunday, October 20, 2024

Good morning and it is “the Lord’s Day” as we say. Hope you will attend a worship service and praise the Lord, learn from the Lord and then share the Lord with others. We are looking at the most famous sermon ever – Jesus’ Sermon On The Mount. You can read this in Matthew chapters 5, 6, & 7. We have completed Matthew 5 and we are now in Matthew 6, making our way through what is traditionally called “The Lord’s Prayer.” Many Bible scholars call this instead “The Disciples’ Prayer,” since Jesus gave this prayer to His disciples as a model to follow. We are now in the second half of looking at this prayer.

Look at Matthew 6:12, “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (NASB). Did you notice this line has a prerequisite in it? This is both a warning and a reward: if we have forgiven those who have hurt us, we will be forgiven. If we have not forgiven those who have hurt us, we will not be forgiven. Forgiving others is a reflection of our character. We are most like Jesus Christ and His character when we forgive others. Consider this:

• Matthew 5:7, ““Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” (NASB). We get blessed because we have received mercy from God and we get blessed again because we give mercy to others.
• Matthew 5:44-45, 48, “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (45) so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous . . . (48) Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (NASB). We love our enemies because God our Father loves them also.
• Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (NASB). We forgive others because Jesus Christ has forgiven us. 
• 1 John 2:6, “The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked” (NASB). Jesus forgave others consistently. He even pronounced forgiveness from the cross in Luke 23:34).
• Proverbs 19:11, “A man’s discretion makes him slow to anger, And it is his glory to overlook a transgression” (NASB). To forgive another when everything in us tells us not to forgive is a virtue that only the Holy Spirit can give. If you refuse to forgive, if you harbor and nurse a grudge, you are mirroring the devil and his demons rather than the Lord Jesus Christ you claim you love.

When we forgive others, it frees us. Unforgiveness, holding a grudge, resentment, and bitterness become barriers to peace of mind, happiness, satisfaction, contentment, and fulfilling one’s purpose. Unforgiveness kills the Holy Spirit’s ability to produce the Fruit of the Spirit in you (see Galatians 5:22-23). Not only does unforgiveness do this, the Lord will not answer your prayers. Look at Psalm 66:18, “If I regard wickedness in my heart, The Lord will not hear” (NASB). The Holy Spirit cannot work freely among those who carry grudges and harbor resentment. Look at the following verses:

• Matthew 5:23-24, “ Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, (24) leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering” (NASB).
• Matthew 6:14-15, “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. (15) But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions” (NASB),
• Colossians 3:13, “Bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you” (NASB).
• Romans 12:19, “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord” (NASB).

Did you know that forgiving others delivers us from God’s discipline? Where there is an unforgiving attitude, there is sin; and where there is sin, there will be God’s discipline. Look at Hebrews 12:5-13:

“And you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him; (6) For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.” (7) It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? (8) But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. (9) Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? (10) For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. (11) All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. (12) Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, (13) and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed” (NASB).

Do you know that any sin can bring about physical punishment by God that includes a weakness, an illness or even your premature death by God. We see this in the Apostle Paul’s warning about taking Communion or The Lord’s Supper with unconfessed sin and no repentance in your life. Look at 1 Corinthians 11:27-30, 

“Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. (28) But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. (29) For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. (30) For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep (have died)” (NASB).

But the number one reason we forgive others first is that it brings God’s forgiveness to us second. Notice what Jesus said and the order He said in verse 12, “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (NASB). Our forgiveness from God in the present is contingent upon us forgiving others in the past. The Puritan Thomas Watson said, “A man can as well go to hell for not forgiving as for not believing” (Source: Quoted by Douglas Sean O’Donnell, Preaching The Word, “Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth,” p. 171). If you think he is wrong, then read Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:21-35 in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. Jesus’ point in Matthew 6:12 is that the forgiven must be forgiving.

Questions To Consider

1. How is forgiving others a reflection of our character? Of your character?
2. Jesus says that for God to forgive us in the present for our sin, we must have already forgiven people in the past for their sins against us. How does this impact you and why?
3. Who is it you need to forgive and leave the getting even to God? When will you do this?
4. Who have you hurt that you need to go ask for their forgiveness as well? When will you do this?
5. God disciplines us for sin, sometimes in ways we would not like  – with weakness, an illness and even a premature death. We may not take seriously what He did for us on the cross in giving us forgiveness for our sins against Him, but He takes it seriously. The forgiven are to be forgiving. How does this warning impact your life and why?

Scripture To Meditate On: Matthew 6:14-15, “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. (15) But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions” (NASB),

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, first, help me to swallow my pride and go ask forgiveness from those I have sinned against. Second, please help me to forgive those who have hurt me. Please help my character to be more like Your character in this area. I understand that my refusal to do this may mean you discipline me with weakness, an illness and even my premature death. You are more interested in my character than my comfort. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside–Pastor Kelly