The Power of Forgiveness - I

The following message from Pastor Greg Laurie is made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Hey, I want to hear from you. Would you consider emailing me? You can reach me at gregatharvest.org.

Again, that's gregatharvest.org. And you can also make me one of your friends on Facebook and drop me a comment. What does it mean to forgive? Listen, to forgive means I'm surrendering my right to get even.

It means I will not pay that person back what they may indeed deserve. Instead, I'm going to put it in the hands of God. It may seem like retribution would be so satisfying, but Pastor Greg Laurie says trusting God brings the best satisfaction. So we need to look to that great theologian, Taylor Swift, that she gave us this advice. Shake it off.

Forgive. This is the day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. Oh, can you hear all the angels are singing?

This is the day, the day when life begins. When we withhold forgiveness, that offense occupies space in our mind. It's as though we've rented brain space to the offender and the rent keeps piling up. But sometimes we have to forgive someone who isn't sorry and accept an apology that never came. Today on a new beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie highlights the life of Joseph. It seemed every time he turned around, someone new was stabbing him in the back. But he forgave and forgave again and has spared the lives of himself and his family.

This is the day, the day when life begins. I read about a study that was done on the topic of forgiveness and it revealed that 75 percent of those who were surveyed believed that God had forgiven them for past sins. But of those who were polled, only 52 percent had forgiven others.

Hey, Houston, we have a problem. If we're going to ask God to forgive us, the Scripture says we should forgive others. Why? Because life is filled with hurt and disappointments, isn't it? We get hurt in life. We have people who hurt us.

And guess what? There are people that you have hurt as well. So we need to learn how to apologize and we need to learn how to forgive. Now some of you are thinking, now wait a second, Greg, you don't know what people have done to me. You don't know what I've had to face in life.

And you know, I don't. But I'm just telling you, this is what the Bible says. And I'm going to tell you why you should forgive. I'll give you a few reasons, but here's number one and the most important reason. You should forgive people who have hurt you because God commands you to. I don't think we need any other reasons, but there are a few others.

Why do I say that? Because Ephesians 4-32 says, Be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you. Then Colossians 3-13 says, Bear with one another and forgive one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so also you must do.

Listen to this. To fail to forgive can bring your prayer life to a halt. Let me say that again. To fail to forgive can bring your prayer life to a screeching halt. Jesus says in Mark 11-25, When you're praying, first forgive anyone you're holding a grudge against, so your Father in heaven will forgive your sins too.

Bottom line, as I said, forgiven people should be forgiving people. So we've been hurt in life and we have a choice. We can rehearse what happened or we can release it.

Let me say that again. We can rehearse what happened or we can release it. We can go over it again and again and again, justifying our anger and our bitterness or we can just release it.

So we need to look to theology now and look to that great theologian, Taylor Swift. When she gave us this advice, shake it off. Forgive. Let it go.

Didn't Queen Elsa tell us that? Let it go. But what does it mean to forgive?

Listen to this. What does it mean to forgive? It's not condoning or dismissing someone's bad behavior. I think sometimes we feel, well, if I forgive them, it's like I condone what they did.

No. Forgiving is not condoning someone's bad behavior. It's not dismissing it. It's not even necessarily reconciliation because that's not always possible. There might be someone that's done something mean to you. You forgive them, but they still don't want to be reconciled to you.

So I'm not even talking about that. So what do I mean when I say to forgive? Listen. To forgive means I'm surrendering my right to get even. I'm surrendering my right to get even.

It means I will not pay that person back what they may indeed deserve. Instead I'm going to put it in the hands of God. Because over in Romans 12 19 it says, Never take vengeance into your own hands, dear friends. Stand back and let God punish, if He will, for it is written, Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. There are different words used in the Bible to describe forgiveness.

Seventy-five in total. The main word that we find in the New Testament that is translated into the words forgive and forgiveness is one that means to release. To release. To let go of something. To free yourself from something. Another word that is used to describe forgiveness in the Bible is canceling. As in canceling a debt. I mean you have to just keep a short account. And this is really true of marriage.

Ok. I mean if you want a marriage that is happy. If you want a marriage that lasts you better learn how to forgive.

Because you are going to hurt and be hurt in marriage. I love the advice of Ruth Graham, the wife of Billy Graham, who said, A good marriage or a successful marriage is made up of two good forgivers. So we should be willing to forgive other people. Because it comes down to this. When I forgive someone I set a prisoner free.

Myself. Because I can be the prisoner when I fail to forgive. I can be the one who is getting hurt more. To withhold forgiveness is detrimental. Not only to the person I am withholding it from but harmful to me as well spiritually as well as physically. One study was done among resentful people. And it was revealed that they took, resentful people, 25% more medication than people who practice forgiveness.

So if you want to save money at the drugstore forgive. If you want to be a happier person forgive. If you want to be a healthier person forgive. And most importantly if you want to be an obedient Christian then you must forgive. It isn't giving in to another person. It is getting free of that person.

My friend Craig Rochelle put it this way. The first to apologize is the bravest. The first to forgive is the strongest. The first to forget is the happiest. And I like that.

So just put it in your rear view mirror. You say well why are you talking about forgiveness? Well because we are in part three of the life of Joseph. And before us now in the book of Genesis is one of the most amazing examples of forgiveness in all of the Bible. The only story that really eclipses it in my estimation is Christ hanging on the cross saying Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Here is Joseph a man who has been so wronged in life extending forgiveness to his brothers. The very brothers who abandoned betrayed and for all intents murdered him. This would have been a great moment in the narrative for him to deal in a little bit of payback with one word. He could have had them all executed because he comes into a position of great prominence as we will see. But he didn't do that.

Instead he forgave. Now let's consider the fact that Joseph's life can be divided into three sections. Remember what they are. They are start, struggle, and success.

Number one there is start. That would be birth to 17 years. When we are first introduced to the young Joseph we find a young boy 17 years old with a super cool coat his dad made for him. And his father favored him above the other brothers as stirred resentment. Joseph made matters worse by tattling or ratting out his brothers when they were misbehaving. Also Joseph had these amazing dreams of other people bowing before him that were in reality from God.

But as I said earlier sometimes it is best to keep your dreams to yourself. Because the brothers just thought he was kind of a braggart and a bit spoiled. Maybe he was. But he certainly didn't deserve the treatment that they gave him because section number two of his life is struggle. They sell their 17 year old brother to a group of slave traders for 20 pieces of silver.

Probably never thinking they would see him again. Well he is purchased by a guy named Potiphar who is the chief executioner under Pharaoh. That meant that he was in charge of all executions and he was in charge of the secret service of Pharaoh if you will. Very powerful man. He put Joseph in an entry level job but Joseph was such a hard worker. So full of integrity. And as the Bible reminds us because the Lord was with him he elevated Joseph so soon Joseph was running Potiphar's entire estate.

All Potiphar had to think about was what he was going to eat for lunch. Well Potiphar had a wife who put her lustful eyes on young Joseph. Who the Bible tells us was very attractive. Handsome.

Well built. And she started hitting on him day and night and he resisted her advances. And finally one day she just got tired of being subtle and grabbed him and yanked him down on the bed. And basically just said, have sex with me. And he ran out of there as quickly as he could.

Then she falsely accuses him of rape. And now we find Joseph sent to prison bringing us to section 3 of his life's success. As he sits in prison and the events that he goes through to prepare him for what was ahead. A very important detail is given to us in Genesis 39 21 about Joseph in prison. It says the Lord was with Joseph. So now he is in a dungeon.

Worst situation imaginable. But in typical Joseph fashion because of his hard work and because the Lord was with him. He's running the place. In just a moment Pastor Greg points out how a couple of fellow prisoners joined Joseph in the dungeon.

They were employees of Pharaoh. There seems to be a ray of hope in Joseph's dark imprisonment. More in a moment. Well Pastor Greg we have something exciting to mention. We just tallied up the numbers and this year just since January. We've now seen a hundred thousand professions of faith through Harvest Ministries. Which is absolutely incredible. Yes David it is incredible. And the way it came about is even more incredible.

Because at the beginning of 2020. We went before everybody in our church and our ministry and said we have a goal this year. Some of you may remember this.

I've seen a hundred thousand people make a profession of faith. I'll be honest with you. I had some doubts like are we going to really hit this number.

But I thought well why not shoot for it. We'll see what the Lord does. Well COVID-19 hit. So we went exclusively online with our weekend program that we call Harvest at Home. It's basically a church service that you watch in your home. But each week I've been inviting people to come to Christ. And on one particular Sunday we had 7,000 people make a profession of faith. So now as we tally the numbers. We've reached the hundred thousand mark. We've reached it in an unexpected way.

So what that says to me is. Well we had the right idea but the Lord had a different way of bringing it about. So we just say hey to God be the glory. Let's just keep going. Because we're passing that number now.

And listen to this. The Bible says there is joy in heaven over one sinner that comes to repentance. And we have seen one hundred thousand people in just months make this profession of faith to follow Christ. So we join the angels in rejoicing. Well Pastor Greg is presenting a series called World Changers.

And we're gaining some important insights today on forgiveness. By studying the life of Joseph. Who at the moment finds himself in Pharaoh's dungeon.

Let's continue. Enter the butler and the baker. They work for the Pharaoh. And they were both sent to prison. You wonder how did that go down? Did the baker come up with a really overcooked piece of loaf of bread and the butler served it? He said you're both going to prison.

Whatever it is. In this case literally the butler did it right. So they're now incarcerated. And here's Joseph walking around sort of taking care of people. And he sees his two fellow inmates.

He knows this one day. They're very depressed. They have a long face.

What's wrong? And they begin to tell him their troubles. Now I love the fact that he was thinking of others above himself. So he's talking with these guys. And they both had these dreams. What were your dreams? Ok well one of them says I had a dream.

This is the butler now. He says I had a dream of a vine growing up with three branches. And then the three branches were clusters of grapes. And so I took the wine from the grapes and I put him in the king's cup and served him to the king. What does that dream mean? Joseph said, that's a good dream buddy. The Lord has shown me that that means you're going to get out of here and before you know it you're going to be serving wine to the king.

Yes. So the baker is going, oh my turn. My turn. Ok what was your dream? The baker says ok. I had this dream about three baskets of white bread.

I had them up on my head and in the top basket were some special baked treats for the Pharaoh. And so that's my dream. What does that mean?

Joseph is like, not so good. Your dream means that you're going to be beheaded and they're going to hang you on a tree and birds are going to eat your brain. Sorry to break that to you.

But that was the honest interpretation of the dream. You know it's hard sometimes to tell people the truth isn't it? You know we love to share the gospel and the good news that God forgives and you can have personal peace and a joy and all the great attributes of the Christian life. But a person may say, well what if I don't believe in Jesus?

What if I reject Him? What happens to me? Well now we have to tell them the other part. That there is a final judgment. There is a hell.

God doesn't want anyone to go there. But you have to tell people the truth. Joseph did that. So now the butler who is going to get out he says, no listen man you've got to do me a favor.

I did this for you. Remember your buddy Joseph when he get out ok. And the butler said, yeah I will never forget you. He never heard from him.

And so now he is just sitting there for two more years. He was forgotten. In fact the Bible tells us in Genesis 40-23 the butler did not remember Joseph but forgot him. Do you ever feel that way? As though God has forgotten you. I think Noah felt that way.

Bobbing around on the water with a bunch of stinking animals for all that time. And he wondered, did the Lord forget about us? I mean I know He saved us. But we have been here a long time and the Bible says, but God remembered Noah. I love that. God remembered Noah. And Jesus said, your father knows about every bird that falls to the ground.

Don't you think he cares about you. What you are going to eat. What you are going to drink.

What you are going to wear. God never forgets you. Sometimes we forget God. But He never forgets us. And the Lord had not forgotten Joseph.

He was just whipping him into shape. Because what was about to happen to Joseph was going to fulfill his dreams. In time people were literally going to be bowing before him but he wasn't quite ready. So the Lord needed two more years to kind of get some iron in the soul of this formerly spoiled young man.

And turn him into the man of God he needed him to be. Maybe you feel like you are in a dungeon right now. You are in a prison. Maybe it is a really bad marriage. Maybe it is a really tough job.

Maybe it is some kind of an illness or disability you are dealing with. And you feel like what is going to happen to me. God is in control of your life.

And you just watch. And so now here is Joseph sitting in prison not knowing how the story is going to end. Meanwhile the most powerful man on the face of the earth, the Pharaoh of Egypt, has a troubling dream. And in his particular dream he sees seven fat healthy cows in front of the Nile River. And then after them came seven scrawny shriveled up cows and the seven skinny cows ate the seven fat cows. Pharaoh woke up and went, Whoa I should not have eaten that Egyptian pizza last night.

What does this mean? Then he falls asleep and he has another dream. This time it is seven heads of grain strong and healthy growing from a single stalk. And then seven heads of grain also sprout but they are sort of scorched and withering.

And the scorched ones ate up the healthy ones. He wakes up. What does this mean? So he calls in all of the astrologers and the wizards and the experts and advisors. You see he had them on staff. They were on the payroll. They were supposed to help him interpret things and give him messages from the gods.

Messages from the stars. But these guys had no answers. They couldn't make sense out of Pharaoh's dreams. And then there is a butler. He is standing there and he is thinking, Oh why. I remember that Joseph guy. So he says to the Pharaoh, I met this guy in prison and he interpreted my dream also the dream of your former baker.

And I believe God has given him this ability. The Pharaoh says, Get him up here right now. So meanwhile down in prison there sits Joseph. His hair is probably growing a really long long beard.

They come into his house. You are going to go meet the Pharaoh today. We are going to give you a shave and a haircut.

Let's go. The next thing he knows he is in the presence of the Pharaoh. Genesis 41. By the way was that not the longest introduction ever?

That was the intro. Verse 14. Pharaoh sent for Joseph at once and he was brought quickly from the dungeon after a quick shave and a change of clothes. He went in and stood in Pharaoh's presence. I had a dream last night Pharaoh told him. And none of these men can tell me what it means.

But I have heard that you can interpret dreams and that is why I have called for you. I love Joseph's response. Verse 16.

It is beyond my power to do this. The Pharaoh's heart probably sunk. But then he went on to say, But God will tell you what it means and he will set you at ease. Now that took courage. And so now the Pharaoh tells him his dream. And Joseph says, Ok. I got it.

The Lord showed me. Here is what it means. Those fat cows getting eaten by the skinny cows. That is talking about seven years of plenty. In other words you are going to do really well in grain reserves and food for seven years. But you have seven years of famine following that. So you better stock up now and get some reserve in place so when the famine comes you will survive it.

And by the way you have got to get a really good person over this to administrate it. And all the Pharaohs, soothsayers, wizards, and magicians are saying, Me! Me!

Me! And the Pharaoh looks at Joseph and says, I want that guy right there. Next thing you know Joseph is the second most powerful man in the world.

He had gone from the prison to the palace. He had gone from rags to riches. Pastor Greg Laurie guiding us through the amazing story of Joseph. There is a lot more to the story than some technicolor dreamcoat. And Pastor Greg will have more as this study continues here on A New Beginning.

Including one more illustration before we leave today. If you weren't able to catch all of Pastor Greg's insight today, you can hear what you missed at harvest.org. Just look for the title, The Power of Forgiveness. You can also listen by way of our Harvest mobile app. Or call us anytime night or day at 1-800-821-3300.

That's 1-800-821-3300. And then we're happy to have some special guests joining us in the studio today. Pastor Greg and I are joined by Pastor Greg's wife, Kathy. Kathy, glad you're joining us. It's good to be here.

And Pastor Greg, why don't you introduce our other two guests? I'm speaking with our special guests, Shanti and Jeff Feldhahn. And they've written a very important book that I want to put in your hands. And the title of it is Thriving in Love and Money. There's a statement very early on in the book, and I find this very interesting because you would look at this and think, oh, this is a book about money. And it is, and in another way it isn't because this statement is made, here's the truth about everything we'll be covering. When we have conflict around money, it's not about the money.

So, Shanti, why don't you explain that statement? Yeah, actually, in this research, because this was based on this three-year research project, to try to dig out, like, how do you have a great relationship around money, right? And for me and Jeff, this had been a big deal in our marriage, and that's really the one-sentence summary of the reason why that this is such a big issue in so many marriages, is that when you're having tension about money, it's not about the money. It turns out it's about how money makes you feel and how it makes your spouse feel. There's a host of, like, expectations and beliefs about how money should work or insecurities or worries or all these other feelings that are running under the surface, and we don't even know they're there. But that's really what's coming out whenever there's those tensions or fighting, or like me and Jeff, we didn't fight about it, we just kind of... Didn't talk about it.

We just avoided it. I mean, we could have titled it, if it was the book about our life, we could have said, coping with money as opposed to thriving, because we did anything but thrive. So folks, you're listening to Shanti and Jeff Feldhahn, and they've written a book called Thriving and Loving Money. It's about money, it's about those things that you deal with, but it's about relationships, it's about trust, it's about communication, it's about life. And this is something that you need to have in your hands, and we want to send it to you. Listen, for no charge, I will send you this book for whatever you send. Now I would encourage you to be generous in ordering your copy, because we'll use those resources to invest in the kingdom of God, but we will rush you your own copy of Thriving and Loving Money, subtitled Five Game-Changing Insights About Your Relationship, Your Money, and Yourself.

Yeah, that's right, it's such welcome news for any family where money is a point of tension. Take advantage of the five practical principles spelled out in Thriving and Loving Money, and we'll send it to thank you for your donation of any size. We just want you to have this resource, and we'll put your donation to work helping more people through A New Beginning each day. You can write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514, or call us any time 24-7 at 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300.

Or go online to harvest.org. Well, next time, more from the life of Joseph and Pastor Greg's series called World Changers. But before we go, Pastor Greg has one more illustration from today's message, The Power of Forgiveness.

It's an interesting thing to me. Here's Joseph. He doesn't deserve to be in prison, and yet he's thinking about others, which reminds me of a ten-step solution for curing depression. If you're taking notes, you might want to write these ten things down. Step number one, do something for someone else who has greater needs than you. Do something for someone else who has greater needs than you.

Step number two, repeat step number one nine more times. Now, I know it's oversimplifying it. I understand there's clinical depression.

I'm not really addressing that. I'm just talking about those times in our life when we get a little bit down in the dumps, something didn't meet our expectation, get a little perspective. You know, sometimes you may not be feeling well, but you go and make a visit to someone in a hospital, and you see, wow, they're a whole lot worse off than I am. And I have to tell you, I've had situations where I've visited people in hospitals who are terminally ill, and when it was all said and done, they ministered to me more than I ministered to them. So as I see others who are suffering maybe a lot more than I am, it puts my problems in perspective. The preceding message from Greg Laurie was made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Sign up for Pastor Greg's free daily email devotions at harvest.org.