Servant
Leadership School
January 19, 2003
Grace Upon Grace (ch.5)
Illustration
THE BARBER
After twenty years of shaving himself every morning, a man in a small
Southern town decided he had enough. He told his wife that he intended to let
the local barber shave him each day. He put on his hat and coat and went to the
barber shop, which was owned by the pastor of the town’s Baptist
Church. The barber’s wife, Grace,
was working that day, so she performed the task. Grace shaved him and sprayed
him with lilac water, and said, “That will be $20.” The man thought the price
was a bit high, but he paid the bill and went to work. The next morning the man
looked in the mirror, and his face was as smooth as it had been when he left
the barber shop the day before. Not bad, he thought. At least I don’t need to
get a shave every day. The next morning, the man’s face was still smooth. Two
weeks later, the man was still unable to find any trace of whiskers on his
face. It was more than he could take, so he returned to the barber shop. “I
thought $20 was high for a shave”, he told the barber’s wife, “but you must
have done a great job. It’s been two weeks and my whiskers still haven’t
started growing back.” The expression on her face didn’t even change, expecting
his comment. She responded, “You were shaved by Grace. Once shaved, always
shaved.”
Why is it important that we learn to
forgive others?
I think it was an interesting point that Chuck made regarding the Lord’s
prayer. The one point Jesus expanded
upon was forgiveness:
(Mat 6:14-15 KJV) For if ye
forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: {15}
But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive
your trespasses.
We need to forgive others because God has forgiven us so much.
Matt. 18 – the servant was forgiven the huge debt. He should have passed that forgiveness on to
others.
(Eph 4:32
KJV) And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath
forgiven you.
Not allowing “grievance stories” to cloud our reasoning and our counsel to
forgive.
Sometimes people can do a real good job telling us about the horrible time
they’ve gone through and how some certain person has been so unfair to them.
We can tend to get caught up in the pain of their problem and not realize
that we ought to be nudging them towards forgiveness. But what happens is that we help the person
feel more secure in carrying a grudge instead of forgiving.
I found some interesting examples about people who have learned to forgive.
Illustration
On the evening of April 25, 1958,
a young Korean exchange student, a leader in student Christian affairs in the University
of Pennsylvania, left his flat and
went to the corner to post a letter to his parents in Pusan.
Turning from the mailbox he stepped into the path of eleven leather-jacketed
teenage boys. Without a word they attacked him, beating him with a blackjack, a
lead pipe and with their shoes and fists. Later, when the police found him in
the gutter, he was dead. All Philadelphia
cried out for vengeance. The district attorney secured legal authority to try
the boys as adults so that those found guilty could be given the death penalty.
Then a letter arrived from Korea
that made everyone stop and think. It was signed by the parents and by twenty
other relatives of the murdered boy. It read in part:
“Our family has met together and we have decided to petition that the most
generous treatment possible within the laws of your government be given to
those who have committed this criminal action--.In order to give evidence of
our sincere hope contained in this petition, we have decided to save money to
start a fund to be used for the religious, educational, vocational, and social
guidance of the boys when they are released--.We have dared to express our hope
with a spirit received from the gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ who died for
our sins.”
A. Leonard Griffith,
Beneath the Cross of Jesus
Illustration
Yemen: missionaries forgive the murderers of their 3 colleagues “Following
the murder of three American missionaries Martha Myers, Bill Koehn and Kathy
Gariety on 30th December 2002 in a Christian hospital in Yibla,
Yemen, their colleagues are more convinced than ever that God is doing
something in the hearts of Yemenis,” reports the Baptist mission agency
International Mission Board. Several hundred Yemenis attended the funeral in
Yibla, and lined the streets for half a mile. “Something is happening in my
heart,” said one of the Yemenis. “That is my father,” said one of the Yemeni
hospital staff at Bill Koehn’s funeral. According to some reports, Martha
Koehn, his widow, wants to remain in Yemen
to encourage Yemenis mourning her husband’s death. The murdered missionaries’
colleagues say that they mourn their friends, but forgive the murderer. “The
Christian hospital in Yibla is known not only for excellent medical care, but
also, and more importantly, for unconditional love,” says staff member Lee
Hixon. “Jesus’ call to take the Gospel to the suffering has far more weight
than the risk of living in a nation such as Yemen.
If you had asked these missionaries whether they were prepared to sacrifice
their lives to see Christian churches planted in Yemen,
they would all have answered ‘of course!’” says Hixon.
The need for repentance
There are times when we simply need to forgive another person, whether
they’re repentant or not.
We do this because Jesus told us we need to forgive others.
We do this because it’s healthy.
Grace doesn’t mean that we don’t deal with problems.
Sometimes we confuse grace with tolerance of sin – don’t
Sometimes a person’s problem will require that we be a little firm.
Calvary Chapels do exert discipline – this surprises some people.
We have had to remove people twice from the church. We have asked people to
step down from ministries because of sin.
But the whole goal of discipline is to encourage a person to repent. And
when they repent, we must restore.
(Gal 6:1 KJV) Brethren, if a
man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the
spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
Erring on the side of grace rather
than on the side of judgment.
We’re going to make mistakes in how we handle situations. I think it preferable that we would err on
the side of grace rather than on the side of judgment.
Critical attitudes towards others
How we view other churches – judging others
(Rom 14:4 KJV) Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to
his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is
able to make him stand.
How we view each other
Do we treat each other with grace?
Are we surprised when we find out that people in church aren’t perfect?
I find a disturbing attitude where we say, “I’m just not going to put up
with this any more”. I think modern
psychology has taught us that we should be assertive and not let other people
dictate what’s going to happen in our lives.
But we need to leave room for patience and grace.
Balance on many of the controversial
issues
Not just for sake of numbers, keeping people in your church.
Keeping a Biblical balance on issues – we believe a balance because we
believe the Bible presents the same balance.
The Priority of the Word (ch.6)
Dave Dunagan