Pray with Jesus "Forgive Us...as We Forgive"

[00:00:03] Forgiveness. [00:00:04] Have you ever needed forgiveness? [00:00:08] None of the adults have, no. They all have. They just didn't raise their hand. No. Yeah, we all need forgiveness quite often, really. We don't always ask for forgiveness. We could probably ask for forgiveness more when we do something wrong to somebody, could come to them and say, I'm sorry, that was wrong. Will you please forgive me? [00:00:38] Do you know what it's like to hear those words? Has anybody ever asked you for forgiveness? [00:00:45] Like, elam, I'm sorry, that was wrong. Will you please forgive me? Has anybody ever said that to you? [00:00:57] In my experience, there's like, nothing that heals a relationship like that. [00:01:05] When somebody comes to you and says, will you please forgive me? [00:01:10] I think it probably makes you want to forgive them. Now you could be in the middle of a tough situation still. Maybe it would still be hard, but a lot of times that's the ticket, all right, To a restored, healed relationship, it's forgiveness. [00:01:28] Have you ever needed forgiveness from your parents? [00:01:33] Yeah. Right? Yeah, Pastor Hesse has. [00:01:39] Yes. Yeah, me too. Me too. [00:01:44] All right, so when we do something wrong, one way to describe that is that we sort of step out of. [00:01:52] Out of the space in which we should be. [00:01:58] Should be walking, should be acting. All right, so let's think about it like a sheep for a second. All right? The shepherd is taking care of sheep, and there are places that he doesn't want the sheep to go because it could be dangerous for them. Alright? Or even, like, let's say one sheep runs off in the wrong direction, you know what all the other sheep are going to do? [00:02:22] Follow it. [00:02:23] Right? So you could have a problem where, like, a sheep goes somewhere dangerous, like it's going to fall off a cliff. Or you could have a situation where the shepherd doesn't want a sheep to go that way because then all the other sheep are going to go that way. And if it's off a cliff, that's even worse. Right? [00:02:39] Okay. You could think about our own wrongdoing that way. When we do something wrong, it could hurt us, right? Even. Even something like not telling the truth. [00:02:53] It might seem like a good idea in the moment, but it's actually gonna hurt us in the end because, for one thing, somebody's gonna find out and then we're gonna be in even more trouble. But then also, when we don't tell the truth, we're damaging ourselves. Like, we become somebody who's, well, willing to not tell the truth, and then that kind of changes the way we think about things and it's. And then later on like, oh, man, I have this habit of not telling the truth. Where did that come from? Well, it's because we've been practicing that, right? [00:03:23] So it can hurt ourselves, but then also when we do the wrong thing, it can lead others. [00:03:33] It can. [00:03:35] We're suffering today, Lord. Make us healthy. [00:03:41] When we do the wrong thing, sometimes we lead others to do the wrong thing, too. All right? Bad company corrupts good morals. [00:03:48] All right? So we're not just leading ourselves astray or damaging ourselves. We're leading others astray. The reason I wanted to talk about sin this way and wrongdoing as sort of like a sheep going the wrong direction is because in the Lord's Prayer, we say, forgive us our. [00:04:13] How do we actually say it? We say trespasses. [00:04:16] Right? Trespasses. [00:04:19] Who thinks they've seen that word somewhere, or. Yeah, Kinsley. [00:04:26] Well, yes, you've seen it in the Lord's Prayer. That's good. How about outside of the Lord's Prayer? Have you seen trespass somewhere? Like, what does that word mean, Simeon? [00:04:44] Going in the wrong direction. Sure, sure, Jonathan. [00:04:53] Yeah, right. That's where you see it, especially. Maybe you're. I think I see those signs mostly when I'm driving. Well, in the middle of a rural area, maybe, or in the mountains. Right? But you come across some property that's not yours. It's private property. And those people have probably had issues with people coming onto their land, like, whoa, that looks like a fun place to be, or, I want to go hunt there, or whatever it is. And. And they've got people coming onto their land, so they put up a sign that says, no trespassing, which means, don't step here. Don't cross my boundary or you'll be in trouble. That's what that means. So when we say, forgive us our trespasses, what are we saying? We're saying, forgive us when we cross boundaries that we shouldn't cross. [00:05:43] It's like, that shepherd. That's like, okay, I'm. The sheep need to stay here. I don't know how a shepherd communicates to the sheep, you know, except by saying, like, you know, using that shepherd's staff hook thing, you know, and come on back here, right? And then maybe the sheep learn. I don't know. I'll have to talk to a shepherd about that sometime. Right? But. So the sheep, they're crossing boundaries that they shouldn't. They get pulled back, right? And you and I, when we do the wrong thing, it's like crossing a boundary. We're trespassing. [00:06:13] Make sense Sabrina, you with me? Good. So. All right. Forgive us our trespasses. That's why we use that word. All right? [00:06:25] So forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. [00:06:32] Now we're going to take a step back and think about sinning, not just against our parents or against our friends, but sinning against God, who really gives us the boundaries. [00:06:51] Where do those boundaries come from? If we want to know what's right and what's wrong, so that we don't step over into what's wrong, where do we look to really, for that, Isla? [00:07:03] To Jesus. Very good. Yeah. God's son, Jesus Christ. And we look to his and our Father, God. And so we say, our Father, who art in heaven. Right. Remember, your will be done. Okay. What's his will? It's what he wants us to do. And that's, you know, that's our area. And when you step outside of that, we're crossing a boundary. We're trespassing. We don't want to be trespassing. We want to stay right in that safe place that. That God has said, like, this is where to be in his will. [00:07:35] Want to hang out there. [00:07:37] Okay? So God is the one who gives us those boundaries, who says this is right and this is wrong. This is where you should be. Don't step beyond that. Don't step into that area where you don't tell the truth. Just stay out of there for your good, for the good of the people around you. Just stay out of there. God's the one who tells us when. Where to be. Why does he tell it? Why does he give us boundaries? [00:08:00] Why do your parents give you boundaries, Valen? [00:08:09] So you can listen to them. Yeah, right, Elmer? [00:08:14] Ah, yes, because they love you, right? It's. They don't want you to get hurt. They don't want others to get hurt. They want you to learn the right. [00:08:24] Well, the right patterns of life, especially while you're young here. Because then you're going to grow up and, well, you've learned from your parents what's right and wrong. Right? Okay, so why does God give us boundaries to not step outside of? It's because he loves us. It's because he's our Father and he's made us his children through Jesus, and He loves us. Now. We do step across those boundaries sometimes, huh? That's why we need forgiveness. We all said we need forgiveness sometimes. When we cross those boundaries, what do we do, Lola? [00:09:08] Right, and then what do we do, Malachi? [00:09:16] Okay, but once we've sinned okay. We find ourselves, like, we've crossed a boundary, and we find ourselves outside of where we should be. What do we do, Lucille? [00:09:27] We ask for forgiveness, right? We recognize God shows us, like, hey, look, you're out of bounds. And you're like, oh, I am right? And ask for forgiveness. Please forgive me. And does God forgive us? [00:09:41] Yes. Yes, he does. Okay. It's like he forgives us because he loves us. [00:09:52] Now, think of this Jesus when he was on the cross. Just in a few weeks, we're going to be thinking especially about that. We're going to be. It's going to be Good Friday, and we're going to be thinking about Jesus, the cross. [00:10:08] And was anybody trespassing that day? [00:10:11] Who was stepping out of line, out of bounds, buddy? Elmer? [00:10:17] Pontius Pilate. Yeah, he washed his hands of it and he said, okay, sure, crucify him. [00:10:26] Who was stepping outside of bounds that day? [00:10:29] Maverick. [00:10:37] You want to pass it on, Jackson? [00:10:40] Yes, yes, yes, Pontius Pilate, Lucas. [00:10:46] Yes, Pontius Pilate. Okay. Somebody else, somebody else. Logan. [00:10:53] The disciples actually did. Yeah, because they all ran away from him. Like they weren't even going to stand by him, by his side and be his friends anymore. They just ran away because they were scared. They left him alone. Yeah, that's right, Hattie. [00:11:10] That's right. The Jewish religious leaders who wanted to crucify him. That's right, Sabrina. [00:11:23] The people. Yeah, the people were shouting, crucify him. [00:11:27] All kinds of people. And then there were also people doing really mean things like spitting on him and calling him names and making fun of him and all that kind of stuff was going on. What did Jesus say from the cross? You know what he said from the cross? There he was, they were doing all these things to him, and he said, huh? [00:11:48] Yeah, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. [00:11:54] That's how much God wants to forgive our sins and does forgive our sins as we repent and turn to him. What a beautiful thing that Jesus from the cross is forgiving those who are sinning against him now. So we say, forgive us our trespasses in this prayer because we know that every day we sin, we step out of bounds, and we need forgiveness. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. So we ask for forgiveness. And then we say, as we forgive, so forgive us as we forgive, okay? And that's because here's what happens. [00:12:42] God makes us his children and we're part of the family. [00:12:47] And so then we're looking to our Heavenly Father, and saying, make your will be done in me. Help me to want what you want. And you know what? Part of that is forgiving. Listen to these words from the first reading this morning. [00:13:04] Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. That means, like, live in you. Let Jesus Christ's word live in you. [00:13:13] Just like you might listen to the words of your father or mother or your teacher and meditate on them and think, okay, that's what I'm going to do, right? Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. The word that says also that you're children of God and that God loves you. [00:13:29] Let his Word dwell in you richly. Teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with all thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, that means speaking or doing, acting, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. [00:13:56] So because we're God's children and following Jesus, looking to Jesus, remember, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, then we do everything in Jesus name. [00:14:12] So if somebody does something to us and we don't want to forgive them, like, eh, I'm not going to forgive you. [00:14:19] Wait a second. But our Heavenly Father forgives, right? Like, this is your will be done in me, remember? So there's an issue there, there's a problem. Then if you find yourself doing that, what do you do? Well, you realize I'm out of bounds. [00:14:36] You say, forgive me. [00:14:38] Forgive us our trespasses again, right, as we forgive those who trespass against us. All right, let's pray. [00:14:48] Heavenly Father, thank you for making us part of the family. Thank you for forgiving us. Thank you for the words of Jesus Christ on the cross. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Give us well the mind of Christ. Make Christ to dwell richly in us through faith and conform us to Him. Make us think like him and speak like Him. In fact, Lord, speak through us and think through us and do through us through faith in Jesus name, Amen.