The New Way... of Forgiveness

Thanks for being with us. You may be seated. Thanks, worship team. Love that last song, one of my favorite songs. Um You can take your Bibles this morning and turn to Ephesians 4.

It's good to be with you. If you're our guest, my name is Brian. I'm a lead pastor here. We've been studying Ephesians. This morning we're going to talk about forgiveness.

As we've been studying it, we're talking about the new way of living because chapter 4 through 6 is all about the new way as opposed to the old way that we were redeemed from, a space of being under wrath, a place where we were to be slaves to sin, we find out, and especially in the first part of Ephesians 2, we find that out. God's done some great things in your life. He has. Moved in you, he's drawn you to himself, he's rescued you if you're here and you're a believer, and you sit on the foundation of Ephesians 1 through 3, if that's the case. And we have been looking at what that means for us then in our ethical lives.

Uh through Ephesians 4 through 6. My guess is that you have had people wound you. I can't imagine anyone here that has gone through life without wounds.

Sometimes we perceive wounds when there aren't wounds. Wounds from a friend can be trusted. Not everything that we don't like is a wound. But the reality is, we all do take on various things from and it just ranges.

Sometimes you've been manipulated. There are times you've had hurtful words spoken to you. There are times you have you may have been abused. You may have been abused perpetually. You've had betrayal.

Possibly in your life, maybe you endured adultery. Um Perhaps you have had family relationships go sideways and it's just centered around repetitive wounds that emerge again and again and again and again. The message this morning is for us. in that way. Because all of us walk a pretty common path.

I remember years and years ago in the earlier days of Lifeline, there was a situation that emerged and I'll I'll keep the names at bay to protect the guilty. But I remember they slandered me personally. and lied about me. after leaving my office. And that slander went very public.

It was a little internet sensation for a brief time. And they came back. One of the individuals came back into my office a few weeks later. and said to me, What do I have to do? to make this right.

It's a great question. What do I have to do to make this right?

Now let me tell you what would be an unbiblical answer. But we have sort of seeded this to pop psychology. Nothing. You're already forgiven. You might say that, well, Brian isn't the Christian thing to do, that you would already.

forgiven them. In your heart. I've taught about this before, but I have to say a word about this before we dip into forgiveness, because it is literally, I think, one of the most commonly misunderstood Christian isms in really, really good churches. Here's what I said to them. You've got to admit you lied.

And you have to demonstrate some level of repentance, right? By sort of walking back the public slander. Then we can move forward. But listen carefully. I didn't say this to them at that time.

Here's what I would say now. I would say until you do that I Can't. Forgive you. Not that I won't. I Can't.

And why would I say that? And that's because Here's how we use the language of forgiveness today. You know, brother, if you don't forgive... The person that wounded you. Regardless of whether they repent, you're only going to destroy yourself.

You need to forgive.

So you can move forward. You need to forgive so you can move forward. You can turn the pages of scripture. I challenge you to do it on your own. It's fine.

You study, you be Bereans, and you check me out on this. You will never find forgiveness. equal to the release of bitterness. That is not the definition of forgiveness. Forgiveness is not letting go of your bitterness.

Letting go of your bitterness is the prerequisite to any authentic forgiveness.

Okay. There are people who will spend eternity alienated from God. Why will they spend eternity alienated from God? Because they are not forgiven. And why are they not forgiven?

Because God's eternally bitter? They're not forgiven because they didn't Repent.

So I want you to envision the biblical model of forgiveness like this. Forgiveness just by definition. You're never allowed to move forward in bitterness. When that individual left my office, and by the way, to this day, years later, has never repented to me, ever. But when they left my office, I've never been allowed to be bitter, ever.

Ever. that forgiveness is somehow hooked in this way.

Okay? To bitter to holding on or releasing bitterness. I simply needed my Christian duty. The one thing I could take care of was my disposition and not be bitter. But to forgive is to let go of and release a debt.

And if the debt has never been acknowledged, even God doesn't release the debt. That's why people are separated from him forever.

Okay. So imagine that you are at the line of reconciliation with another person. You have released bitterness in your heart, that's your individual responsibility, and you have your hand out. And you are waiting for them. And what are you waiting to do?

You're waiting to forgive them. and you already have cultivated a heart of forgiveness. That's your responsibility and yours alone. and you're waiting to forgive them. Can you shake hands with the air?

You need someone who knows they need to be forgiven on the other side.

Okay? So you don't have to walk around in bitterness, you're never allowed to. I just want to categorize forgiveness not by the definitions of post-1960s pop psychology in America. We have to let the text articulate for us what forgiveness is, and it has to do with the canceling of a debt that has been acknowledged and recognized.

Now, here's what that means though. When the debt has been acknowledged and recognized, You have to have already come to the line anticipatorily waiting with bated breath For them to repent. What you're not permitted to do is to stay back here and say it's about time you got here. But you know, you really did da da da da, and you run through the list of all the things that they did again. You recycle because you really want to make sure they know just how bad.

Yeah, you know I feel bad, but let me tell you how bad.

Sort of work them over a little bit. Make them pay the piper a little bit while you mosey on up to the line of reconciliation. Your job is to cultivate a heart of forgiveness. And then be ready. To forgive.

So as we go through this, I want you to think carefully. I know some of you right now thought in your mind, but Brian, when Jesus was on the cross, he prayed, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Right, because you're good Bible students. Thinking, wait a minute. He's he's not.

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. I want you to notice two things about that. He didn't say, I forgive you, you don't know what you do. Isn't that interesting? He prayed, Father.

Would you forgive them? They don't even know what they're doing. Fast forward in your Bible. What happened in just a couple weeks? A whole bunch of them that were there ended up coming to faith in Acts chapter 2.

Acts chapter 2 is the answer of Jesus' prayer on the cross. They're forgiven. Why? Because they repented. Because they repented.

Okay. So I just want to make sure up front we really get Our understanding of forgiveness sort of in our heads a bit.

Now, to that end. I want to turn, I want to talk about this new way of forgiveness. Four elements necessary for forgiveness to materialize from the one offended, right?

So somebody's offended you.

Now, for forgiveness to materials, for you to get in a spot where you have a heart of forgiveness, where you can trigger that transaction upon their repentance and genuinely move forward and separate it as far as the east is from the west. Do what God does and remember their sin no more. Not hold on to it as you walk back and think, yeah, but I bet the other shoe will drop. Oh, I know it's going to happen again, and begin to be cynical and callous sometimes. That only makes it harder for you, by the way, to walk back up to that line again.

Because if you're eager in the first time, you'll mosey up on the 30th time, I guarantee it, if you don't keep turning this over again and again and again.

So, one of the things I want you to keep in mind: forgiveness. Forgiveness, a heart of forgiveness. is a disposition that is chronically revisited. It's chronically revisited. You need to come back again.

and again and again in your mind to it.

Okay, in your mind to it. We'll see some things as we move along that'll help hopefully make this clear. Let's read through our text, which is only three verses this morning. Ephesians 4.32, be kind to one another. Tenderhearted.

Forgiving one another is God in Christ. Forgave you. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children. Chapter 5, verse 1 and chapter 5, verse 2. and walk in love.

As Christ loved us. and gave himself up for us, A fragrant offering. and a sacrifice to God.

So let's think about four elements that are necessary. First one, the disposition that is necessary for forgiveness. Right here at the beginning. of uh verse thirty-two. You get this idea immediately about sort of a state of being.

And it's an imperative. B So, whatever he's about to say, you're supposed to, in your minds, read this and go, whatever he's going to describe, that's the land I'm supposed to live in. That is where I'm supposed to let these character qualities saturate me and get all over me, and it's an imperative. It's a present, so this is what you are to continually do and live in. You're to live in, and he's going to give you two characteristics that you are to live in.

Two characteristics you're to live in. The first one. is to be kind. to be kind to one another.

Now that word Crestos is the Greek word. And it it has a sense of overall moral goodness. And shows up in different contexts in different ways with how goodness situationally seems to land.

So you can have it in a text like 1 Peter 2, 2 and 3. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation, if indeed you've tasted. That the Lord is Good. That the Lord is good, that the character of God is such. That he has afforded you a salvation, that you get to grow up into Krestos.

So immediately we're drawn to a characteristic of God that we're called to emulate. Maybe you're feeling really weighed down. How does Krestos land? From God. Matthew 11.

Verse 30, for you're familiar, right? My yoke is easy, my burden is light, super, right? My yoke is. Krestoffs, that's the word. My yoke is kind to you.

My yoke is good to you. My yoke is it's easy. It's not burdensome. Doesn't push you down further and further and further and further.

So he's setting up the disposition necessary for forgiveness.

So, if you are looking for a pound of flesh because of someone who has hurt you. You don't yet have the categories. to be able to cultivate a heart of forgiveness. It won't materialize in your life. You might tell them they're forgiven.

You might. It'll be empty. It'll be vain. You'll do it because you don't want God to not forgive you because you've read enough of those passages.

So you'll get up the line. Half-hearted. Still angry. Smile pasted on your hypocritical face. And you'll say You're forgiven.

And you'll walk away. And you will feel. Resentment. You will feel callous. You'll feel cynical.

You'll feel bitter. You'll feel frustrated. You'll feel maybe even manipulated. Because you didn't cultivate a character of Krestos when you came up. And you weren't eager at all.

You were transactional and God saw right through it and he knows that you were no more forgiving than a man in the moon. Just because that person thinks they're forgiven.

Now you've created a problem, by the way. What's the problem you've created? You told them a lie.

So now you've got two problems. One, you owe them an apology for being a liar. Yeah. And two They're living in a non-reality and they're going to relate to you out of that non-reality and they're going to find somebody who does not have a heart that forgave it all. And now the relationship just grew in its complexity.

And by the way. Just so you know, if you want to cultivate hard soil, It's hard soil for someone who lied when they said, I forgive you. to come back and say, I lied when I said I forgave you. Because the reason you're on this side of it as the offended one is you think you have the moral high ground and you just passed it over to them by lying. That's hard pill to swallow.

Hypocrites aren't typically very humble. Be kind. Let me get this. Term tender-hearted. tenderhearted.

Um There's a word in Greek, splanknon. It's one of my favorite words. I think because it sounds sort of gross.

Sounds like you're coughing in the morning. Bye-bye. And it's actually in that way sort of like this It it has this sense of what it sounds like.

So the word splanknon was used in sacrifice, sacrificial language in the Greek Old Testament. The the heart, the liver, the kidneys, the important organs. The bowels The banners.

So splanknon is a word that typically is used for inner organs or bowels.

Now, in Greek, when you want to say something is good, sometimes you'll add a prefix. U, E, the equivalent for us of E and a U on the front of it. Think of a eulogy. A Lagos that is good. A eulagos, a good word.

You get up, that's what you do at a memorial. You say a good word, a eulogy about someone. This word is use splank non. You got good bowels, baby. You got good bowels.

You're good-bowled towards somebody else.

Now, I would encourage you: if you're having tension with somebody, do not walk up and say, I'm ready to forgive you, because my bowels are sharp today, I'll tell you what. I got good bowels. But that's what the word means. Good-boweled, good-hearted. We wouldn't say good kidney.

Old Testament, they might. That's kind of the idea. You got this epicent, this place in my guts, this place down in the basement of my life, and the authenticity of how I feel about you is so benevolent right now.

So benevolent from the inner life that I have. It's it's g good boweled.

So you got to be kind. And you have to have a heart that is ready to see them through the lens of goodness. Goodness. Um 1 Peter 3, 8, 9, you see the only other use in the New Testament of this term, use blank none. Finally, all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brother, love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

Just look at those list of characteristics that are all sort of rallied around that.

Now, pay attention, right? Because verse 9 then says, do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling.

Well, you'd only be able to do that in a human relationship if you've already cultivated what's described in verse 8.

So, when you are ready to walk into forgiveness and in your mind think, yes, I have to do this, I have to forgive them, I have to forgive them, I have to, I have to have to. You're not ready. You're not ready to forgive. You you can't Walk. With the mentality of have to to the line of forgiveness.

You won't forgive them. You just won't. You'll say the words, but you won't forgive them. Because you don't have these things in your life. And given when they recycle that behavior, you.

Shame on me. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. And you'll have that mentality toward them. Don't repay evil for evil, reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called. That you may obtain a blessing.

I always want you to just, I just hope you can ingrain in your mind from these repeated messages about the new way, that the new way pours out of a new heart. It all comes not by going, I gotta do, I gotta do, it comes from I do because I am. I have become this kind of person. I am one who is kind. I am one who is tender-hearted.

And now I'm in the spot where I can actually let. Forgiveness come out. Be kind to one another. continue to be. tender hearted, forgiving one another.

Here's the perspective. Forgiving. one another is a present participle, so it's a recycled idea. The word for forgiving here is a little bit unconventional. It's translated as forgiving at different points in time.

In fact, I'll give you just a couple of them. Let me put up a couple verses for you. Colossians 2, 13, And you who were dead in your trespasses, an uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us. All our trespasses. A chapter later.

Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, and then you get this what you got to put on, right? Seeing the same rhythm. Got to have something in your life. Hearts, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another. And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you.

also must forgive.

So The term that's used This karizo mai. Karis means grace. Grace, right? Or gift.

So the term is a term that doesn't always mean forgive. It's kind of like crestos, meaning good. And it situationally lends, and we get the sense that it dispenses kindness here, and it lightens a burden here, and it's sort of a broad moral goodness over here. And this term shows up in different ways, but usually it has a sense of being gracious in a particular relationship. And it's not wrong to have it translated as forgive here, because it is how a gracious spirit lands upon a conflict.

It's how a gracious spirit lands upon a situation where there's brokenness in a relationship. And there is no such thing. As a gracious spirit lacking. Forgiveness. At least the heart that's ready for it.

The heart that's prepared for it. Forgiving one another, and then you're going to see this a couple of times in this text. As Yeah. And if you underline in your Bible If you don't remember anything. from this message.

Don't remember anything. I really only want you to remember the word as. It's going to happen twice. As God in Christ. Forgave you.

Now When we have gone through Various passages of study I have shared with you repeatedly.

Something about the Greek language, and it's not to be cute. It is to be compelling and crucial. I've shared with you that sometimes you get what's called an aorist verb or an aorist indicative. And I have mentioned to you repeatedly this metaphor. that you should understand the era sort of like a Polaroid picture.

It's snapshot. It just tells you what happened. Here is how you're supposed to read this passage. You're supposed to read this and you're supposed to be kind. tender to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving.

one another. As God in Christ, Forgave. Yeah. And you are to pause. And you're to pull that picture out.

from the photo album of your life. And you're to sit with it. You're not supposed to go on yet. You're supposed to sit with it. And you're supposed to think, what was it that he had to forgive?

What was it? Just the I want you just to think about it for a moment. You might even just take a second and just jot it down. You've got things. Just What what kinds of things did he afterward give?

What's the nature of that in your life? Maybe you could ask yourself a question like this. What does it teach you about the nature of your own forgiveness of others? If you're supposed to forgive. And God has waited.

But the line of reconciliation for you. He has never not had a heart prepared to forgive you. It's one of the beautiful things about the language of atonement in the Bible. Is that there's no one in hell who can say, Wait a minute. I don't know that he loved me.

He has always been here. He has been here. Waiting. Waiting. He never lacks kindness and he never lacks a tender heart toward you.

Effort. What about you with the people in your life? Who are you not tender to right now? Right now. I I I don't mean that you can't.

I'm pushing past stuff. I'm not asking that. I'm not asking who it is that you're walking up to this line with. I'm asking you. Who is it?

that you are walking up to this line of forgiveness with With a heart That says I get Two, forgive the them. Who? Are you struggling with? Hey, I'm not sure. I want you through the rest of this message to think about what it'd mean for you to release it.

I want you to think about what it would mean for you. to go a little deeper. into what's actually happening in here. I mean, somehow, whatever. Your conception is of what God in Christ has done for you.

It stopped somewhere. It's it's it's stopped. And it hasn't gotten deep enough yet. And that takes time. That's hard.

That's hard work. It's hard work because I have to think more about what I've done to offend him. Think about that. God in Christ forgave you. Number three.

the imitation necessary for forgiveness. Therefore, And the therefore actually kind of doesn't just go back to verse 32 or even to just the ethical instruction of 17 through 32 that we've kind of talked about the new way. Um if if you let your eyes go back to verse 17. You see the word now? In verse 17?

And then let your eyes go back to verse 1, and you see the word therefore. This is the third time this live. little Greek word un shows up. And it shows up that way in the way the English translators translate it. You might not catch on because verse 17 is translated now.

But it's resuming, kind of like... Uh you have been Saved in Christ, Ephesians chapter 1 through Ephesians chapter 3. In light of that, verse 1. Come on back. In light of that, Verse 17.

In light of that Chapter 5, verse 1. It's as though he's starting this almost like a, he's building on the immediate thought, but is. Telling us, go back here. We got to stay thinking about what happened in chapters 1 through 3. We can't get away from that.

Always have to live in the shadow of the cross. Chapter 1 through 3 is all about the cross.

So we have to live in lieu of that. And he says, therefore, you get this imperative idea. Be imitators of God. As beloved children.

So let me give you, there's six times it's used in the New Testament. The word is the word that we get our English word mimic from. Or mine. Memetes. You're mimicking, right?

You ever have a child start mocking you, mimicking you? Everything you say, and they go, everything you say. How was your how was your day? I've had this happen many times and I just want to go postal. After a while.

Because there's no way to get out of it. Could you imagine if they never stopped it? It drive you clinically insane. I remember when I was a youth pastor, I had a young man. Who's in our youth group?

And he decided to do an imitation of me. And there are people here, by the way, I won't point you out, who do imitations of me. Shame on all of you. Um Yeah, watch it. But this guy, this kid in particular, he was really good.

And I mean it got in my head. I'd get up. A few weeks afterwards to teach, and I would catch myself doing something that I saw, I'd be in the middle of teaching, and I'd think of him in my mind going like this. I'm like, how is this 15-year-old punk in my head? What's going on?

To mimic. It's to act just like, right? It's to act just like. It's the parrot. in that way.

Be imitators of me as I am of Christ.

So Paul sets himself out, and he doesn't do this arrogantly. It's actually Quite a humbling statement in a lot of ways. You mean to say to somebody, watch everything I do because I'm watching everything that Jesus did and I'm doing exactly what he did. You want to know what Jesus looks like? Look right at me.

You want eagle eyes on your life? Say something like that. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord. For you received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit. Those are the two times.

you get a direct sort of like imitation of Christ. And that imitation of Christ, interestingly, is coupled with an imitation of one who is looking like Jesus. As well. It's actually even used of imitating the church. It's called to imitate the church.

The presumption is that the church, if we're genuine Christians, that we're actually seeking to. look a lot like Jesus. Parrot him in our individual lives. Let me give you a few other. places.

Not that the same language directly is used, but the concept is given. And we find different Characteristics and attributes of God. New Testament, there's three specific attributes of God that are pulled out for imitation. 1 Peter 1.15. Yeah.

But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.

So as he who called you is set apart from the things that would sully, would stain life. He is without sin, so you be set apart from the things that sully and stain life. You remember that, by the way, when we get to verses 3. through six. Be merciful even as your father is merciful.

Sometimes it's rendered be compassionate, even as your father. Is compassionate. That's Luke 6:36. And then Matthew 5:48. You therefore must be.

Perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. Wow. Complete. Teleos, uh mature. Gotta be a whole of a hole.

like your Heavenly Father's character.

Okay. is of a whole Notice that he says, as beloved children.

So you're to look like you would imitate a good father. And you long to replicate his character and to be like him in that way. to imitate him. I want to move to our final point. And walk in love.

Walk in love. As Christ Loved us. and gave himself up for us. A fragrant offering. and sacrifice to God.

The last part is beautiful. Les Part speaks of a doctrine known as propitiation. It speaks of that because the upward focus of the death of Christ is that God would no longer be wrathful to you because, in His justice, He had to be wrathful toward you. The same way that you would be enraged. Rightfully so at someone who was not enraged at rank injustice.

Right? That should bother you. And justice should bother you. Right? I I I uh Went to the the pregnancy resource banquet on Friday.

It was just spectacular. We have a number of their staff that come here, and we're just so grateful for what they do. The issue of abortion. enrages me. I mean, it really does.

I was out for a run yesterday, and sometimes when I run, I listen to podcasts, and I was listening to a podcast while I was out. Spa. Powerful stride through daybreak. And as I listen to this podcast, I was listening to uh Fellow believers. The host, in particular, who I do respect, I actually.

I used to, there was a book he wrote that was fantastic. But I'm listening to them, and I'm listening to them sort of. Speak pro-life kinda. And then kind of not. And I just started getting mad.

While I was running. I just started getting sideways. Because I thought That's unjust. It's unjust. There's no one more vulnerable than a child in the womb.

unjust. And we want justice to roll down. Amen? What if it's on you? Nobody said amen.

And that's our problem. Like Dallas Willard says, everybody loves justice till it lands on them. And then we want mercy like mad. Right? I want mercy like mad.

This is the place and space where you and I. Get to Know and experience what it was for the fragrant offering of God in Christ. To set us free from the justice of God. to live in the mercy of God. Do you love mercy for other people as much as you love justice for other people?

There are people waiting for your mercy in relationships. And they're waiting for it. You walked up to the line and you said you forgave them and you haven't. And they're waiting. God's waiting.

Can you celebrate it? As beloved children, Walk in love. Perpetual. Keep going. Walk in it.

That's the metaphor, right? The sphere. is in the best interests of another person. Love. And then you get the word ass, and so you get another one of these guys.

Right? Another one of them as.

Okay. So let's think about it. God in Christ forgave.

Okay. And now let's think about the love of Christ. You pull it out and you say that love in my photo album landed upon Warn me. Can you love people like that? Can you love the hardest person?

that you've ever had to love in your whole life like that. That's the question this morning. Because the hardest person you've ever had to love in your whole life is going to wound you again. They will. Just so you know.

The other shoe will drop. If you're wondering. It will. It's a good thing you and I. Came up to the line of forgiveness and repented and went.

God walks back from that in relationship. It's a good thing the other shoe never drops. You and I never fail him again. That's a good thing, huh? We know that's not true.

Christ. Love. This may seem odd, but what I actually want to do is I'm going to take you through a couple of quotes about something that we don't talk enough about. in evangelical circles, but um Good Puritans wrote a bunch about this. And one of the best was a guy named Thomas Watson.

I want you to Keep thinking about that. But I want you to hear something about meditation for a moment. Meditation. Watson talked about meditation, wrote a couple different pieces on meditation. how necessary it is and how useful it is.

Because when you and I come to a verse like this, Like you'll notice this message, we've kind of paced it slow. That's because we can't rush through this. You can read this and go, that was wonderful. I'm thankful. I'm forgiven.

Next. Not going to get at your heart. The duty of meditation being neglected. This is the duty of meditation being neglected. The heart will run wild.

It'll not be a vineyard but a wilderness. What's he saying? If you neglect sitting with a text like this and thinking about what it means for Christ to really have loved you in your sin, if you don't spend time turning that over and thinking about your life, your sin, that place in the photo album, what it means in the nature of how that love has landed on you, what will happen is your life, he says, will run wild and it will become a wilderness. You will make something like forgiveness so transactional that it will be devoid of its heart and what the thing you think it's doing is the very thing it's not. It's not transacting anything.

It's empty and it's vacuous and it's vain. You've got to think about it. Dwell on it. Slow down. Meditation is like the shining of the sun.

It operates upon the affections. Thinking about it does something to me. It warms the heart and makes it more holy. Meditation fetches life in a truth. I love that.

You read it and you go, yes, I. I know! How long are you going to keep turning over it? He died. Wrath of God satisfied.

I get it. I'm free. I know you do. Think about it. Feel it.

The text. is intended to be felt. The love of God. Working life. in the truth that he loves me.

Without meditation, the truths of God will not stay with us. You gotta keep rehearsing it. They offended you.

Okay. So where does your mind go first? Where should it go first? It should go first to the fact that you offended God. That's the first place it should go.

And you should think, what did he forgive me of? Don't move. into that offense. until you have reminded yourself through meditation what it meant for you to be forgiven. Serious meditation is like the engraving of letters in gold or marble which endures.

Without meditation, all our preaching is but like writing in the sand or like pouring water into a sieve. Reading and hearing without meditation is like weak medicine which will not work.

So I'm going to take his advice. And quietly, I'm going to ask you just to look at that painting for a moment. Just look at it. See it? You familiar with it?

It hangs up in our offices. hangs in my home. The return of the prodigal son. I read one art expert who said, if you've ever gone to, and I have not, I'd love to, but gone to St. Petersburg, Russia, where it hangs.

the original hangs, he said you would probably step away from it concluding after seeing the original that it's the greatest work of art in human history. What do you see? You see brokenness. It's interesting you also see a guy on the On the right, who's looking down at the whole transaction, that elder brother who just. Is happy to be a child as long as he has all the things he thinks he's entitled to, and if somebody else gets them, he doesn't want any part of it.

Then you see the Father who benevolently embraces the hairless. Fallen apart, one-shoed, bloody... garmented Filthy sun. The Catholic scholar who used to teach at Harvard and left there to go work with a enclave of mentally handicapped people in Toronto. went to the museum and he sat down.

for a day. and spent the day just staring at the painting. We just spent the whole day. And then he wrote a book. About it.

about what he learned. I'm beginning now to see how radically the character of my spiritual journey will change when I no longer think of God as hiding out and making it as difficult as possible for me to find him. But instead, as the one who is looking for me while I'm doing the hiding. Hmm.

Now and was gripped by the fact that the Father is anticipatory of an embrace. He gets to. He gets to So I quoted you this verse earlier. Be merciful even as your Father is merciful. You've been forgiven a lot.

And not from a God who did a mere transaction, but from a God whose heart was fully invested with joy and gladness. tender-hearted. kind to forgive you. And you're not allowed to do anything short of that. With anyone.

Can you not? That's what it means to be a Christian. That's what it means to live in the new way of forgiveness. I'm going to invite you to pray with me. I'm going to invite you.

To just kind of, as we pray and close through this last song, I just really want you to think about. What movement of forgiveness needs to happen in your life? What's got to happen preparatorily to get a heart? That's really kind. It's tender toward people.

Lord These are lovely words. They really are. But they're hard. They're hard. Both of those As is.

Kind of make this text difficult for us if the truth be known in real time. I pray. that you would help us to steward. The forgiveness that we've been given. properly.

Help us to get to. Live at that line of reconciliation. Help us to help people. who are hiding. Help us to love people well.

Help us to leave that line knowing that the other shoe might drop, but we're going to be okay. Because in kindness and with a tender heart we'll walk back again. And if that makes us fools.

So be it, Lord. Being fools for you. It's true wisdom, you tell us. In Jesus' name. Amen.