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"Ministers’
Minute" Volume 12
Number 2
"How to Get Over a Hurt" -- Matthew 6.12-14
This "MM" is the 2nd of 2013 -- and
the 134th email sermon overall. "Ministers' Minute" is a free service of encouragement to
preachers, chaplains, donors, and Christian workers around the
world. This sermon is the fourth in our current series on the Lord's
Prayer. Parts 1-5 are archived at the address below. Use it as a
devotional, edit it, share it, or use components of it!
May God bless your labors! -- Rod
Farthing, Development Director
ARM FAST
FACT
Baptistry Report
In addition to over 1,519 prison baptistries donated in the USA, ARM
has hundreds of baptistries now being used on mission fields and military
bases. It has been estimated that some 65,000 souls are "born again of the
water and the spirit" in ARM baptistries each
year.
Here is a baptism in the Philippines; our baptistries are
helping the growing Church all around the
globe:
At $795 per unit for portable baptistries and $975 for
Communion Table baptistries, we invest tens of thousands of dollars each year in
building and donating these units -- to prisons, military bases, and mission
fields.
In 2012, ARM sent SEVENTEEN
baptistries to mission fields around the globe. Other missions outposts
will be asking for baptistries soon. Plus, chaplains will be ordering more
for jails month to month.
If you, your
Sunday School class, or your church could sponsor even one of these, that would
be terrific. If you can only make a gift toward this baptistry fund, that
would be greatly appreciated, as well. Thanks for your prayers and
support.
Gifts for Baptistries may be
sent to:
ARM Baptistries, 3127 Hwy
K
Salem, MO
65560
"How to Get Over a Hurt" -- Matthew 6.12-14
One day, two monks were walking
through the countryside. They were on their way to another village to help bring
in the crops. As they walked, they spied an old woman sitting at the edge of a
river. She was upset because there was no bridge, and she could not get across
on her own. The first monk kindly offered, "We will carry you across if you
would like." "Thank you," she said gratefully, accepting their help. So the two
men joined hands, lifted her between them, and carried her across the river.
When they got to the other side, they set her down, and she went on her way.
After they had walked another mile or so, the
second monk began to complain. "Look at my clothes," he said. "They are filthy
from carrying that woman across the river. And my back still hurts from lifting
her. I can feel it getting stiff." The first monk just smiled and nodded his
head.
A few more miles up the road, the second monk griped again, "My
back is hurting me so badly, and it is all because we had to carry that silly
woman across the river! I cannot go any farther because of the pain." The first
monk looked down at his partner, now lying on the ground, moaning. "Have you
wondered why I am not complaining?" he asked. "Your back hurts because you are
still carrying the woman. But I set her down five miles ago."
That is what many of us are like --we are that second monk
who cannot let go. We hold on to the pain of the past and sometimes hold it over
our loved ones' heads like a club, reminding them every once in a while, when we
want to get the upper hand, of the burden we still carry because of something
they did years ago.
-Dr. Anthony T. Evans, Guiding Your Family in a Misguided
World
If I were to ask you to name the person who has hurt you the most in
your life, it probably wouldn’t take you too long to answer. It is amazing how
our minds can hold on to hurts – but we don’t have to if we will allow God to
free us from the pain. All of us have been hurt in life and the pain is real!
But it can be conquered through God’s help. We need to learn from Jesus’ prayer
how to get over a hurt!
The typical – the easiest and most human reaction to getting hurt is to
retaliate. Some capitalize on people’s vengefulness. Some big city papers carry
this classified ad: "Angry? Been wronged? Get even! Call 1-800-COW-CHIP and have
one delivered." There’s always someone trying to make a buck on the
predictability of human nature.
Jesus had a different idea- Matthew 6:12,14 "Forgive us our
debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.... 14 For if you forgive men when
they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you."
That part of the prayer prompts two questions- WHY & HOW?
Let’s deal with the why today. WHY FORGIVE?
1. I WILL FORGIVE
…. FOR God has forgiven me.
Colossians 3.13: "Bear with each other and forgive whatever
grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave
you."
One of Jesus parables with a sting in the tale is found in
Matthew 18.
Peter asked the question, "How many times must I forgive, 7
times?"
You know the story. One man owed another 10,000 talents.
He begged for and received forgiveness and then threw in jail the man who owed
him 100 denarii. One talent equaled 6,000 denarii!
Seventeen years wages for one man. Palestine’s whole tax bill was
900 talents per year. This man was forgiven the 10,000 talent debt. Perhaps
Jesus exaggerated the amounts for emphasis. Here is the sting.
Matthew 18.32,33: "Then the master called the servant in.
`You wicked servant,' he said, `I canceled all that debt of yours because you
begged me to. 33 Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I
had on you?'"
It is unthinkable for the forgiven not to forgive!
2. I WILL FORGIVE …. FOR
Resentment doesn’t work.
A farmer was struggling as he plowed with his mule. He was jerking on
the reins, yelling, cussing, and having a fit. But he was not using the
direct commands that are traditional among those who farm with mules ..."Gee"
and "Haw." A stranger came by the road close enough to hear and see what
was going by and spoke.
"I hope I'm not out of place in speaking here," he began. "But I
recommend you use 'Gee' and 'Haw' to instruct that mule what he should
do."
"No," said the farmer. "I won't do it. He made me so angry two
years ago that I vowed I'd never speak directly to him again!!"
WHAT GOOD DID THE RESENTMENT AND STUBBORNESS DO THAT FARMER??
It always hurts you more than it hurts the other person.
Job 5:2 "Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple."
Resentment changes nothing and makes us act irrationally. Job 18:4 "You
who tear yourself to pieces in your anger, is the earth to be abandoned for your
sake? Or must the rocks be moved from their place?"
Failing to forgive tears us up physically, emotionally and
spiritually.
"A rattlesnake, if cornered, will sometimes become so
angry it will bite itself. That is exactly what the harboring of hate and
resentment against others is -- a biting of oneself. We think that we are
harming others in holding these spites and hates, but the deeper harm is to
ourselves." E. Stanley Jones
The futility of seeking our own revenge is illustrated by an episode on
the old radio program Amos and Andy. Amos came home upset one day. He told
Andy, "There’s a guy at work who’s always slapping me on the chest. I’m going to
fix him. Tomorrow, I’m going to strap some dynamite to my chest and when he
slaps me it will blow his hand off!"
Hebrews 12:15 "See to it that no one misses the grace of God
and that no root of bitterness grows up to cause trouble and defile many."
Resentment and bitterness deplete your emotional energy and lead to depression!
You ought to forgive for your own sake, if not for the sake of the
offender!
3. I WILL FORGIVE ….
FOR I’ll need forgiveness in the future.
Mark 11:25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything
against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your
sins."
You will soon need the forgiveness of God. When you pray the
Lord’s Prayer you are saying, "God, I want You to forgive me as much as I
forgive everybody else."
Whatever you order for your neighbor you are ordering for
yourself. It’s like going grocery shopping for your neighbor who has
offended you. If you buy old bread and moldy cheese for him, that is what you
will have to eat. This is expressed in the Golden Rule scripture: Matthew 7:12:
"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this
sums up the Law and the Prophets."
If we treat people with kindness and mercy, we will be Christ-like. If
we extend mercy to others, God says He will extend mercy to us.
Stephen’s example is eloquent just as Luke recorded it in Acts 7.59,
60
While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit.” Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this
sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.
Stephen forgave as Christ forgave. So should we. Ephesians 4.32
says:
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in
Christ God forgave you.
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