Today we continue our series of messages on the theme "Renew Our Spirit." Based on 2 Chronicles 7:14, we are talking about our need to follow God's formula if we want to be on the receiving end of His healing and blessings. Read the verse with me. "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

We began by the staff pastors humbling ourselves before God and you as we shared some of our personal struggles over the past few years. Then we talked about how we need to earnestly seek God's face when we pray. Last week we talked about making spiritual U-Turns in our lives through repentance.

Today's message serves as a bridge. It represents one specific area that I believe often gets neglected and as a result keeps people and churches from receiving God's healing and blessings. It represents one specific area of sin that many need to repent from and make spiritual U-Turns. I'm talking about our need to forgive one another. Next week we're going to camp out on God's forgiveness and then in the final week of this journey we will celebrate God's healing and all that He has done for us.

Even though the Bible is filled with verses teaching us to forgive one another, living out this biblical truth can be very difficult. It's one of those truths we have learned to shove aside to the back of our souls and neglect. My prayer is that today's message will go to the back of your soul and bring any element of unforgiveness to the forefront and make you miserable until you deal with it. That's kind, loving thing for a pastor to say, isn't it?

Lack of forgiveness has never really been much of an issue for me. I don't say that arrogantly. It has to be a grace thing because I suffered a lot of abuse and neglect during my growing up years. Sometimes I wonder how I would handle it emotionally if my biological father (no one knows his whereabouts or if he is even alive) all of a sudden made an appearance in my life.

It still hurts to think back on those years and wonder why my real dad left his family when I was two years old. I wonder why my step dad, the one who raised me and the one that I called Dad, struggled so much with drug and alcohol addictions. I hurt inside when I wonder why my Dad never showed up for any ball games or school functions or scout meetings. Yes, it hurts. But I don't think it's a forgiveness issue.

Don't get me wrong. I don't have this area perfected. With events over the past couple of years I have struggled more in this area than I can ever remember. I have had to put extra sentinels around my heart to guard against any root of bitterness sprouting through my soul.

What about you? Do you have problems forgiving others? Are there any ruptured relationships in your life, recent or years ago, that you're having difficulty releasing? Lack of forgiveness is not just some minor faux pas that can be put on a back burner. Lack of forgiveness is sinful and must be dealt with as such.

Before we get into the Bible verses for today, let me state two major reasons why you must confront these issues. First of all, lack of forgiveness hinders your relationship with God. It robs you of joy. It leads to a bitter spirit. Second, lack of forgiveness quenches the power of God in a church. His power is quenched even if there is one member who is at odds with another person. Imagine how much power is quenched if there are many members who are unwilling to confront this problem head-on.

"Ken, I know I need to forgive. But he is not willing to forgive me." "Ken, you don't understand how much she hurt me." "I will forgive her if she forgives me." I cannot tell you how many times I've heard statements like those. Through the years I've heard it from my kids when trying to help them with relationship issues. I hear it in counseling sessions with married couples. I hear it when someone has been victimized.

Here is the deal. Before I go any further, I need to settle one issue. This message is for you. Hearing a message like this, it is easy to think, "Boy, I hope so and so hears this." Or, "I sure wish he would have been here today." I want you to get all those other folks out of your mind because today God wants to talk to you. The Bible says, "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone" (Romans 12:18). What you do with these truths has absolutely nothing to do with how someone else responds to the message. You aren't responsible for the other person. You are responsible for you. You let God speak to your heart and trust Him to take care of everyone else.

In Matthew 18, Jesus had just finished talking about how a believer needs to go to the person who has wronged him and seek to make things right. Those instructions prompted Peter to ask Jesus a question. He asked it from the sincerity of his heart. He wanted to know how many times he should forgive a person. Let's pick up the story there. [Read 18:21-35 and comment.]

Jewish custom indicated that forgiving someone three times represented a forgiving spirit. Peter more than doubled those parameters with his willingness to forgive up to seven times. Of course, when Jesus said we need to forgive seventy-seven times, he was not suggesting that on the seventy eighth time you stop forgiving. Some translations read "seventy times seven times." Again, the idea is not withholding forgiveness on the 491st time. The point is that we need to forgive as many times as circumstances provide opportunities to forgive.

Then Jesus told this story about the unmerciful servant. This servant owed the king ten thousand talents. In our currency today that would be millions and millions of dollars, certainly more than the man could ever repay. He got down on his needs and begged for forgiveness. The king took pity on the man and totally cancelled the debt. What grace!

The next scene turns ugly. This forgiven servant found another servant who owed him a hundred denarii, amounting to a few dollars in our currency. He choked him in anger. The man pleaded for an extension, but the forgiven servant had no mercy. He had him thrown in prison.

Next scene. Some guys who saw what happened are standing before the king ratting on this guy. The king is furious and orders the servant to be brought before him. It was a one-sided conversation. "I forgave you. You should have forgiven the man who owed you. I'm locking you up until you pay your debt to me." That would have been a life sentence because there was no way he could ever pay back millions of dollars.

Jesus summed up the lesson with a stinging response. "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart" (v. 35). Keep that verse on the screen for a bit. Look at it carefully. Let it sink in. If you grasp what Jesus is saying here, you will see why I am so passionate about helping followers of Christ understand how critical it is that they forgive anyone who has wronged them. The level of God's forgiveness toward you depends on your level of forgiveness toward others.

If this teaching was found here only, I might try some way of manipulating the verse to mean something other than what it obviously means. But then I remember the Lord's prayer, "Forgive us our trespasses, AS we forgive those who trespass against us." At the end of the Lord's prayer, He said point blank, "But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins" (Matthew 6:15). On another occasion Jesus was talking about faith and He ended that lesson by saying, "And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins" (Mark 11:25).

God designed us in such a way that we never reach our maximum level of joy until Jesus has full reign in our lives. When we harbor resentment, we've allowed the person we're bitter toward to edge his way into our lives. Jesus is not in control. We've allowed the very person who caused us the most harm to dictate how fulfilled our lives will be. Do you want that person to have that kind of influence on you and keep you from all of God's blessings? That's why releasing the person, forgiving him, is so critical to your spiritual well-being. Richard Moore, of Derry, Northern Ireland, was just ten years old when blinded by a British soldier who fired a rubber bullet at him at point-blank range. He was on his way home from his local school.

For as long as he could remember, Richard wanted to meet the soldier who shot him. Thirty years after the incident, he finally did. After discovering who the soldier was and where he lived, Richard wrote to him to get permission to visit, and then he met with him face-to-face, offering his personal, heartfelt forgiveness. Here's what Richard later said about the experience: "After that, something peculiar and wonderful happened. Something inside me changed, something paradoxical. I began to realize that the gift of forgiveness I thought I was bestowing on the soldier who shot me, was actually a gift from God to me. It didn't even matter whether the soldier wanted or needed forgiveness; the gift freed me, leaving me with a sense of serenity and blessedness. All through my boyhood my mother had wanted the impossible for me-that I would be given back my sight. I even woke up one night to find my dear mother on her knees, next to my bed, pleading with God. When I met the soldier and forgave him, I believe my mother's prayers were answered. I was given a new vision, and my real wound, the one that needed healing more than my eyes, was healed."

There is freedom in forgiving others. What I'm talking about may be the very thing that is keeping you from the healing and blessings of God. Who do you need to extend forgiveness to? Who do you need to release this morning from the wrongs they rendered against you?

Is there a parent you hold bitterness toward? Is there a brother or sister you resent? Is there a son or daughter you need to forgive? Is there an ex-spouse you need to release? Is there a fellow church member you need to forgive? Maybe one of the pastors has let you down and you need to forgive him. Could it be a boss who didn't promote you? Or maybe he fired you. How are you handling that? Some of you may have been physically or sexually abused at some point in your life. Those scars still haunt you. You've got to release them. Maybe there's a friend who is no longer a friend.

I don't know all your circumstances. But I do know God's Word. Lack of forgiveness hinders your walk with Jesus and quenches what God can do in His church. So what are you going to do about it? Are you going to let that bitterness keep taking root until it destroys you? Or are you going to deal with it God's way?

Very simply, here is how God wants you to handle these issues. First, if you have wronged someone, make it right. It doesn't matter if the other person is at fault also or not. It doesn't matter if the other person reciprocates or not. Remember, as far as it depends on you, be at peace with all people.

Talk to God first. Then write a letter, make a phone call, or set up a face-to-face meeting. If the person is dead (seriously), set up a chair and imagine that person is sitting in front of you. And talk to him/her.

If you have wronged someone, make it right. If someone has wronged you, release and forgive. Release and forgive. Release and forgive. Yes, go to the person and reconcile the relationship. That person may or may not agree with you that he wronged you. Doesn't matter. Release and forgive.

This is hard stuff, isn't it? Very hard. But let me remind you. The wood on which Jesus died was hard, wasn't it? The spikes they drove into His hands and feet were hard, weren't they? Do you think it was easy when Jesus said, "Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing." Has God forgiven you? And do you really think you're better in God's eyes than the person who wronged you? Think again. God wants you to forgive others. Unless you forgive...Well, let's not go there again because I believe today is going to be a significant turning point for many people. Some of you are going to be set free because you will respond to what God is calling you to do.