FOUR FACETS OF FORGIVENESS

0:04 It began, as most things do, with a choice. Do you pull the trigger of revenge or the lever of love and forgiveness. What do you do in a situation like that? What do you do when you're a betrayer, when the person who's hurt you, who's ghosted you, who's abused you, who's messed you around, what do you do when they're served on a silver platter? Again, do you pull the trigger of revenge or the lever of love and forgiveness. We've been talking about a guy in the Bible, specifically in the book of Genesis, named Joseph.

0:59 And Joseph is an amazing example of forgiveness. It's stunning how he dealt with something we all deal with, betrayal or getting hurt or you can call it what you want to, someone knifing you in the back or taking advantage of you.

1:24 And the section of scripture that we're going to look at today as we close down this series is one of the most powerful sections of scripture ever written about the real F word, forgiveness. I want you to think about a person right now. I mean, just scroll through your social media feed in your mind. Just scroll through that. Any names, any faces, any individuals that cause consternation or issues? Or is there anyone you're saying to yourself, I want to make them pay? Is there anyone like that? You might be in our Dallas campus watching right now. You might be at Fort Worth. You could be at Alasso Ranch. You could be at Frisco.

2:17 You could be right here in gorgeous Grapevine. You could be in one of our beautiful, beautiful other spots. And also you could be in one of our prisons. Who is that person? Who is that individual that you need to release, you need to forgive? the word resentment means to think again.

2:45 On the other hand, the word forgiveness means to hurl, to release. We're going to have memories of people who betrayed us, no doubt about it. We're going to think about that, think again. Yet we've got to take those thoughts and hurl them and get rid of them and use those thoughts as memorials for the glory and the power of God. Because what I'm talking about today is it's the guts of the gospel. This is what makes Christianity so unique from Taoism and Buddhism and other isms, Islam, all the isms you can think of. This is what makes it unique, this concept, this word called forgiveness.

3:44 I don't know about you, but I need forgiveness. I need it now, and I know I'm gonna need it in the future. So as a Christ follower, I'm talking to Christians right now, All I have to do is take a look at the cross. That should motivate me and stimulate me to forgive. Joseph's story is amazing. And let me go through this in an amazingly fast, fast fashion, so you can kind of understand what I'm talking about. Maybe you've missed a couple of installments. Maybe this is your first time at Fellowship Church. Joseph, mentioned in the book of Genesis, Joseph was a young guy, 17 years old. He had these dreams from God. He shared with his brothers these dreams from God. And these dreams were pretty wild. He said, hey, guys, you're going to bow down to me one day. I'm going to be in charge.

4:39 And he didn't really know what he was saying. His brothers didn't like it. His father showed favoritism. His father gave him a multicolored robe. And because of that, his brothers kicked him in the pit, then sold him off into Egyptian slavery, thinking, okay, he's gone. It's over. We've 86ed him, right? so Joseph ends up being bought by a very wealthy man named Potiphar. He works in his home for 10 years, does an amazing job. Potiphar's wife tempts him, tries to seduce him. He runs from her, leaving his robe that she literally ripped off of him. And when Potiphar's wife's husband came home, She told him the story. Thus, Joseph was thrown in prison again. And he's in prison for two years.

5:34 And because God had given him this gift of interpreting dreams, he was promoted from the prison to the palace in one day. And because he interpreted Pharaoh's dream due to the onslaught of a famine, he became, are you ready for this? The second most important person in the most important area representing the most important nation, the most powerful nation in the world at that time, Egypt. So that's where we find ourselves. Did you hear me say there's a famine in the land? A famine, a food issue, and the issue centered on grain. Back in the day, grain was more important than money.

6:23 Joseph devised a plan to save grain. When this famine hit, all the neighboring nations came to him to ask permission for grain, to buy grain. and take a wild guess at who Joseph faced during this tumultuous time, you guessed it, his brothers. Those 10 brothers, they hadn't seen him. I mean, they thought he was dead. Think about it. The last time they looked at him, he looked at their faces, looked in their faces with horror and shock and remorse as he was carried off. into slavery. I want you to notice the first thing about forgiveness from Joseph's life. The faces of forgiveness.

7:17 Say that with me? The faces of forgiveness. There are different faces of forgiveness in all of our lives. As I said, think through the social media feed in your mind. There's certain faces that causes your head to snap. Well, here's what the Bible says in Genesis 42, 6 through 7. It tells us, now, Joseph was the governor of the land, the person who sold grain to all of his people. But when Joseph's brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their, say it with me, faces to the ground. As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them. Hey, where did you come from? From the land of Canaan, they replied, to buy food.

8:12 Why didn't the brothers recognize Joseph? Well, Joseph now was clean shaven. Joseph now had on a royal robe. Joseph had immersed himself in the Egyptian culture. Joseph was speaking a different language through an interpreter, although he understood every word they said. Can you imagine? Just put yourself in his sandals. Can you imagine facing those 10 faces that have betrayed you, that have ruined your life, that's messed you around? You can say to yourself, I had so much potential, so much going for me, but you, you, you, you, you, you. He was staring in the face of betrayal. Have you ever met your betrayer before? Have you ever come face to face With someone who ripped you off Years ago, someone who was very close to me, a friend, turned his back on me, just left.

9:22 And I thought to myself, you know, I'll probably never see this guy again. One day out of nowhere, I was just attending a local basketball game at a gymnasium. I opened the door of the gymnasium. made a turn, there he was, his face. and I just stared at him and looked at him and we had some small talk A, B, and C and then we sat down next to each other watched this basketball game and we moved on. the reason that I was able to do that was totally and completely God it was totally and completely his grace it was totally and completely this spirit of forgiveness in my flesh I didn't want to do that in my flesh this series has been very very difficult for me to even communicate to you because I've been hurt and so have you.

10:33 This is tough stuff. But because of God's grace and because I have been forgiven, I released him again. I'm not great. God's great by God's mercy and power. And we were able to, you know, I wouldn't say thrive, but survive. Here's the phrase that pays.

11:05 You can't choose who hurts your face, but you can choose how you face your hurt. How are you facing your hurt? So not only do we have the faces of forgiveness and we're understanding the facets of them in Joseph's life, and we can apply these facets in our lives, Notice something else. The feelings of forgiveness. You know, I've heard there's a rumor that there's a lot of emotion and feeling going on when you talk about forgiveness, when you talk about being hurt, when you talk about being betrayed. There's a lot there, isn't it?

11:48 Again, go back to the brothers, put yourself in their sandals. They're in front of Joseph. He's looking into their faces. think about the feelings that he had. Think about the emotion. The Bible tells us in Genesis 42, 21, they said to one another, and he's overhearing them. They think because they're speaking in Hebrew that Joseph can't understand. Check this out. They said to one another, surely we're being punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we wouldn't listen. That's why this distress has come upon us. Isn't that interesting? Your sin will find you out. Seven times in this account, Joseph wept. Feelings matter in this whole game, in this whole issue called forgiveness.

12:50 and if you think about Joseph weeping, just think about this for a second. He wept because of pain, because of longing, because of reconciliation, because of joy, and because of grief. We're going to face feelings. The feelings can get us sideways with forgiveness if we're not careful. There are feelings involved. So I would say the feelings, the right feelings come on the heels of forgiveness, not before forgiveness, if that makes sense. How many times have you seen a football game,

13:42 the whistle blows, and the receiver takes a cheap shot from a defensive back. The ref doesn't see it, but this receiver is living. He just pushes the defensive back back. The ref sees it, flag is thrown, 15-yard penalty. They're out of field goal range. They lose the game. it's not the first hit, sir. It's not the first hit, ma'am. It's how you respond. It's how you respond. And as we look at Joseph's life, it's his response. Because you're talking about being hit with a cheap shot after the whistle had blown.

14:37 Are you kidding me? Feelings are interesting, though, when it comes to forgiveness. Let me talk about that a little bit because feelings can lie to us. Do you know what I'm saying to you? When we get into this forgiveness thing, because remember, life is about forgiveness. We're going to be hurt, and we've got to deal with this. Forgiveness, though, our feelings will tell us, means that we have to become BFFs.

15:08 That's wrong. my friend mess me around we're not BFFs anymore but that's a lie from our feelings another lie is if you forgive all the pain will go away well are you kidding me I have told you intimate stories about my life in this series about being hurt and betrayed. And you have better ones than that. I'm just telling you what I've experienced. The pain, when you think about it, can come up. That's when I've got to say, okay, God, this can be a memorial for you working in my life in forgiveness, so I just release them again. And for a lot of us, as we live our lives, we've got to say release, release, release, release, release, release, release, release, release, because the enemy, the enemy doesn't want you or me to walk in forgiveness.

16:17 Number three, forgiveness, another lie, means I'll forget. Forget and forget. Well, that's a joke. Number four, forgiveness excuses. What happened? Well, if I forgive you, well, it's all good, man. No, it's not. Your feelings are lying to you. Number five, forgiveness. Guys, listen to me. This is for me. Forgiveness makes you weak. Now, I've discovered this. When you take a guy, if he's married, he will apologize a lot in the marriage. but you take him outside of the marriage, no, no, no, no, no, not so much, not so much, but forgiveness is unique.

17:19 It's everywhere we turn. It's the answer to life. Again, it's the guts of the gospel. Forgiveness does not make you or me weak. It makes us strong. So the miracle is not forgetting. The miracle is choosing to say, this is under the blood of Jesus. So the faces of forgiveness, you got that? The faces of forgiveness. We have the feelings of forgiveness, and now we move to the facts of forgiveness. Just the facts. I mean, we got the feelings, yeah, But let's talk about the facts of forgiveness. What are the facts? What are the facts? What are the facts? Because the Bible tells us again in Genesis 45, 1 through 5. But let me just skip down to verse 3 because we need to hurry up.

18:16 Joseph said to his brothers, all right? So he's tested them. He's talked to them. They don't know who it is. So Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. what is my father still living but his brothers were not able to answer him because they were terrified at his presence with the snap of a finger these guys are nuked they're done game is over then joseph said to his brothers come close to me When they had done so, he said, I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt, and now do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.

19:17 Joseph had done preemptive forgiveness, hadn't he? He'd already released them. He'd already forgiven them. The emotions welled up. The feelings welled up. And he said, you know, looking back now, I see God working. And often in our lives, we don't understand how God has worked until we're up above the situation. And believe me, God put Joseph up above the situation. I mean, the guy was a heavy, heavy hitter. The facts of forgiveness.

19:59 Lisa and I have twins. I call them the Twin Towers, Laurie and Landra. And Laurie, while growing up, I remember she was from eight years old until probably in high school. Oftentimes we would all go to bed together in our house. Lights would be off, and here's what I would hear coming out of Laurie's room. Landra, I'm sorry for all the sins I've committed against you. Will you forgive me? Mom, Dad, Lee, Beth, EJ, I'm sorry for all of the sins I've committed against you today. Okay, once or twice of this confession is good, but every single night we came up with a nickname for her, Sorry Laurie.

20:56 I hope she's still doing that with Sam. So, that's her husband. That's her husband. That's the guy you saw up there on the screen with the ubiquitous cool tattoos. Sam's from Australia, so you got to give him some grace. They're a little like that. Okay. Ephesians 4, 32 says, be kind and compassionate to one another. I mean, where are the feelings in here? Forgiving each other just as Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, God forgave you. And how about the fruits of the Spirit? Galatians 5, here's what the Apostle Paul said. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and say it with me, self-control. That's the facts of forgiveness. Here's some facts that fuel us. I've talked about the feelings that mess us up. Let's talk about the facts that fuel us about forgiveness. Are you ready? Write these down very, very rapidly. Number one, forgiveness is about God. Forgiveness is about God. It, again, separates Christianity from the pack of all the world religions. Number two, Our greatest need is forgiveness, vertically and horizontally.

22:16 What's man's greatest need? Forgiveness. Number three, it can wreck us or redeem us. We pull the trigger of revenge or the lever of love and forgiveness. It's our choice. Number four, it's more for the offended than the offender. I've messed up so many times on this. I'm like, okay, I'm going to wait for this guy. I mean, this guy that messed me around, he's going to crawl back, and he's going to say, Ed, I was wrong. I'm sorry. Will you forgive me? Ed, I was wrong. I'm sorry. Will you forgive me? I wanted him to do like, you know, Laurie. Sorry, Laurie, but. more often than not that doesn't happen so instead of saying how could they do this to me say how can i do this to myself you've been forgiven i've been forgiven thus we should release and forgive one another so in joseph's life we've seen the faces of forgiveness the feelings of forgiveness, the facts of forgiveness. Let's look now at the freedom of forgiveness. Do you realize that the Lord Jesus wants us to walk in freedom? The Bible tells us this just straight up. After Joseph, after Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, his brothers freaked out, he moved his father from Canaan and his family.

23:51 There were 70 of them and they settled in the land of Goshen, which is in the Egyptian territory. Those 70 Jews became the Israelite nation. Are you following me? Later on that Moses led out and then Joshua and Caleb led into the promised land. Joseph said something I thought that was weird back in the day. He said, you know, he said, when I die, make sure to bury my bones in the promised land. And that was a big thing. So as you read your Bible, you're going to see how God's people took his bones. And when they finally made it into the promised land, they buried his bones in a place called Shachem. and those bones stood as like a trophy of God's grace and forgiveness.

24:50 This is kind of free information for you. You know, here's another sidebar that's interesting. I could do a whole message on this, but I can't. Think about Joseph's robe for a second. Okay, the robe that in essence got him pushed into the pit. Then you have the robe that Potiphar's wife stripped off of him. Then you have, the Bible tells us, he becomes prime minister. You have Pharaoh giving him a royal robe. And the Bible tells you and me, when we become Christians, we're clothed in the robe of righteousness and forgiveness. I thought that was interesting. It doesn't really relate to the subject. Well, it does, forgiveness, but it's just something to know. Genesis 50, 15.

25:43 When Joseph's brothers saw that their father had died, Joseph's dad was old, you know? They said, oh no, here it comes. What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all of the wrongs we did to him? And here we have one of the great phrases ever penned about forgiveness? Genesis 50, 20, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. Romans 12, 17, do not repay anyone evil from evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. You know, all of his Egyptian homies were looking at him and they were going, okay, we know the story. We know the deal. How is he going to treat his brothers? how about your homies? How about your posse? How about your group? How about your clique?

26:35 How about your friends? How about the people at the office or around the neighborhood? They know when you've been wronged. How are you going to respond? To strike back, penalty flag, or to wait, to absorb it and say, okay, God, what are you up to? Because every time we deal with forgiveness, every single time, we deal with the big three. Number one, those people who love you the most. We're gonna have to do some forgiveness work with them. Number two, those who we report to, those who are in authority over us. And number three, those that we see a lot. That's the big three. Those are the people we're going to have to deal with. So forgiveness doesn't rewrite the past. It sets you free in the present. I wrote this down here.

27:33 Forgiven people forgive people. I like that. Forgiven people forgive people. Would you say that with me? Forgiven people forgive people. Once again, forgiven people forgive people. If you have received the forgiveness and grace of God, you should run. to release others. I read about a guy who was thrown in prison.

28:05 And he had this situation where he was in a little cell by himself, and he was living. He was so upset, so angry about the guy who had thrown him in prison. Day after day, he would scream and yell, I'm coming for you. I'm going to get you back. And all of these other words. This went on day after day in this little prison cell. One day, he was just sitting on the edge of his cot and he looked at the door of the cell.

28:40 It was unlocked. All he had to do was just open the door and walk out. and he would have freedom. Isn't it true that unforgiveness and bitterness and remorse and pain can keep us in that prison cell? Isn't it true that we can say, I'm coming for you, man. I'm gonna get you back.

29:12 When we look and see the door has been unlocked by our Savior and our Lord Jesus Christ who wants us to be saved.