You and I have been blessed with a memory. God created us that way. No, friend it didn't evolve from a non-intelligent blob of mud. What a marvel! We can remember! And, we can forget. That's a marvel, too you know; God created us that way, too! Sometimes we can choose to remember or we choose to forget. Let us study about that today. What do you say?
Welcome, my friend, to our Bible study program In Search of the Lord's Way to be saved by the blood of the Lamb of God-- and to walk in the light so we may be cleansed daily by that same blood. Say, it's good to have you with us. We pray we will both be blessed.
We are happy to have Glenn Colley of Huntsville, Alabama as our speaker today. He will be speaking about something that he feels very passionate about. If you think you would like a free printed copy, or a CD or an audio cassette tape of this unique sermon, just write us at In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Our e-mail address is searchtv@searchtv.org. And our toll-free telephone number is 1-800-321-8633.
Our guest today preaches and is an elder in the West Huntsville Church of Christ in Huntsville, Alabama. I am almost envious of him; he is a third generation preacher. What a blessing! He is a graduate of Freed-Hardeman University; has been preaching for 29 years. He is married to Cindy. They have two children. He and Cindy have authored and co-authored several books, most of which focus on family matters. As with all our guests, we have asked him to speak today on a subject about which he is very passionate. After the hymn, Glenn Colley will introduce our study, which he titled, God Made Me Forget, with the reading of his text.
Thank you, Mack. Thank you for inviting me. I am happy to be part of this program. Our scripture reading today is Ephesians chapter 4, beginning in verse 21. “If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry, and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.” Let’s pray together. Holy Father, we are so thankful for Thy goodness, and the blessings that are around us that are new every morning. And, Father, we are thankful for our families; and we know that we don’t always act as we should. And we are thankful for Thy word that teaches us of other families and how they work through conflicts and problems. And help us to learn the truth and help us to be what Thou would have us to be in everything. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
I suppose if we think about it we would all say we have memories of the past in which someone said or did something which hurt us. I mean we humans are complicated, and by middle age we have a good bit of baggage we carry around in our sub-consciences. For some, it is pain caused by a member of their extended families. Most of us experience such pain in one way or another.
One family had an aged mother and her several grown children. When she needed to move in with one for constant care, a daughter gladly volunteered. Mom lived in her care for an extended period and then ultimately died. She had a little money left, two or three thousand dollars, and three of the siblings declared it should be divided evenly between them. But two of them disagreed and said it should all go to the one who had cared for her all these years. Well, that disagreement grew to division, and then to grudge, and was carried to their graves without being resolved.
I know a family which includes a man whose anger flares over nothing. Reunions are always tense as family members try not to set him off. After each reunion ruined by him, family members get in their cars to return home and again deal with the hurt.
I talked with a 60-year-old man the other day who recalled a time when he was in his twenties and his father spoke harshly toward him. As he told me this story, big tears swelled up in his eyes. All these years; but it still hurt.
The Bible speaks of families and of their internal pains. I mean one only has to remember Eve and her son Cain; or Jacob and his brother Esau; or Isaac and his brother Ishmael. We may just have left it covered in our hearts, only to have it occasionally surface in conversation and bring back all the memories to hurt us again.
I want to show you the account of Joseph and his baby named Manasseh. In Genesis 37 and verse 2 we find Joseph at 17 years of age. His mother is of course deceased, and his father loves him dearly. He makes Joseph a very fine coat as a symbol of that love, a coat of many colors. The problem is Joseph is his father’s favorite; now never have a favorite among your children and if you ever do make sure you don’t ever let any of them know it. Joseph’s brothers deeply resent this. In fact, they’ve grown to hate him. To make matters worse, Joseph has dreams and is naive enough to be amused by them and tell them to his brothers and to his father. I say naive because while one is about sheaves and wheat bundled in a field, and the other is about the sun, the moon, and the stars; the point of both is that Joseph’s brothers are bowing down to him. Joseph found it amusing. But the brothers found it infuriating. One day their anger reaches its peak and they sell brother Joseph to a slave trader who takes him and resells him in Egypt to a man named Potiphar. They were glad to assume they’d never see Joseph again.
Well, Joseph worked as a house slave for eleven years in Potiphar’s house until his master’s wife began making inappropriate advances toward him-- oh he resisted them, telling her that adultery was a sin against God and he wouldn’t do it. But feeling spurned, she loudly accused him of attempted rape and Joseph found himself alone in an Egyptian prison. Of course he wasn’t really alone. The Lord God was with him. Joseph honored God, and God was about to honor Joseph.
In prison, Joseph miraculously interprets a couple of dreams with God’s power. I mean dreams that carried real meaning. A couple of years later, King Pharaoh himself has a troubling dream and he hears about Joseph’s remarkable ability. Joseph, of course, is happy to help, and explains that for the next seven years there will be plenty of food, but following that there will be seven long years of famine. He then gave the king this advice: During the plenty, appoint some wise man to tax the people 20% of their grain and put it back as a supply for the famine years. Well, the king agreed, and then he said he couldn’t imagine a better candidate for this job than Joseph himself. Well, Joseph went from prisoner to the right hand man of the king in a snap of a finger. The king gives him gold and garments, and power; oh, and one more thing: he gave him a beautiful wife named Asenath, who soon bore him a son; and they named him Manasseh. In Genesis 41 and verse 51 Joseph looks at that baby and then he gives us a glimpse into his own heart. The Bible says, “And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house.” You see, God found a way to take care of Joseph’s pain.
So, what can you do to get relief from the pain of being wronged by someone you love-- a family member? I guess there are three possible ways.
The first one is to get even. In Genesis 27:41 there were two brothers, Jacob and Esau. Esau hated Jacob so much that he declared that as soon as their father had passed away he would kill his brother! Well, he didn’t actually do it, but the anger did keep them apart for many years.
Dale Carnegie once noted that the only animal the grizzly would allow to eat with him was the skunk. Grizzly bears in Yellowstone often come to eat at the place where the garbage is dumped. This huge bear can fight and beat almost any animal in the West, but he lets the skunk share its meal. Carnegie said that the grizzly surely resented the skunk, and could have easily killed the little creature in any fight. And no doubt the bear would have liked to have gotten even with him for this intrusion. But he didn’t. Why? Well, because he knew the high cost of getting even. It’s just not worth it. Getting even isn’t going to stop your pain; it will increase it. And afterwards you will still retain the original hurt, and now in addition you will have the guilt to deal with. Your stomach will churn, your mind will storm at night, and if you aren’t careful your soul, well, your soul will turn black with the hatred as you plot revenge.
The second way to try to get relief from being wronged by someone you love is to simply forgive him. You might have thought I was going to bring this one up first. You know, you can and should have a forgiving spirit, but there is something I want you to know. True forgiveness can only take place where there is repentance; think about it. In Luke chapter 17 and verse 3 Jesus said, “Take heed to yourselves, if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.” On the cross Jesus did this; He prayed on the cross regarding His enemies, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” That is Luke 23 and verse 34. How did God answer that prayer? Well, He had the twelve apostles preach to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins” (Acts chapter 2 and verse 38). There are no sins more serious in the mind of God than refusal to forgive when I’m asked to do so. Why in Matthew 6:14 Jesus said, “If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Get the point; true forgiveness must be preceded by repentance. Yet you may say, “Well, Glenn, this won’t fix my problem-- the one who has hurt me will never ask forgiveness. He will never believe he’s done anything wrong.”
The third way to get relief from this hurt is the right one. And it is the secret of Joseph and Manasseh. It is simply this: Focus on God’s abundance. Joseph, who had been sold more than a decade ago, had been mistreated and imprisoned, but is now second in command in a powerful nation. And he has a lovely wife and a son. He thinks of all of this and he says, “God made me forget all my pain and all my father’s house.” It is the secret. Focus on God’s blessings! No matter what that person has done to you that was bad, God has done more that was good. Someone might say, “Well, Glenn, that is easy for you to say but you don’t know my case. My sister took some of my parent’s inheritance that was rightfully mine! Right now my grandmother’s chest of drawers is in her house and not mine; and Grandmother always said she wanted me to have that chest!”
Do a little experiment with me right now. I mean right now in your imagination, stack up all the material things with which God has blessed you-- I mean whatever you have-- furniture, clothes, the TV, maybe even a car or a bank account. Now, mentally stack them all up. It’s a pretty big stack isn’t it? Now put that chest of drawers over on the other side and compare the two lots. Looking at those blessings makes that chest of drawers look pretty small, doesn’t it?
Another might say, “Well, yes, but my hurt is different. My hurt came when my relative said some awful things about my children!” Well, that may be, but you still have your children. His harsh words didn’t change their good qualities with which God blessed them. They didn’t rob you of your love for those family members or their love for you.
Of course someone might say, “But Glenn, in my case, my sister got the million dollar stack and all I got was the chest of drawers.” Well, the experiment still works for you, too. Along with your chest of drawers, if you are a Christian, add salvation promised to you in heaven and hear Jesus saying, “What is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” Listen, your soul is your most valuable possession.
Think of the goodness of God with me. The Psalmist loved to speak of God’s goodness. Can you remember some of the Psalms that have to do with the goodness of God? Well, you remember Psalm 23 and verse 6, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” 25:7 says, “Remember not the sins of my youth, (did you ever feel that way) nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember me for thy goodness' sake.” 27:13 of the Psalms said, “I nearly fainted, until I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” Or how about Psalm 31:19, “Oh how great is thy goodness.” Psalm 33 and verse 5 says, “He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.” I like Psalm 52:1, “The goodness of God endureth continually. Psalm 107 says three different times, “Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness.”
Think also of the many things for which God has forgiven you if you are His child. In Matthew chapter 18 and verse 21 of the Old Book we read a parable of a king who was calling in a big debt. It seems a man owed him 10,000 talents. Now a talent was a weight of gold or of silver. The Bible doesn’t say which but it doesn’t matter; either one would have been far more than this man could ever repay. The man begged for mercy and asked for more time. The king felt sorry for him and forgave him the debt. I mean he just erased it completely. Oh what a happy day for the man who owed so much. But, but, then, as this happy man went back to the street he came upon another who owed him well a very small amount. He said, “Pay me right now.” Well, the man said exactly the same thing he had said to the king only moments ago: “Have mercy on me and I will repay thee all!” But he wouldn’t. He commanded to have the man sold as a slave to repay the debt. Well, when the king heard of this he was furious, and had the unmerciful man sent to prison until the original debt was paid. Now what is the lesson of the parable? This-- that I must have a heart eager to forgive, and that the place I learn how to be forgiving is from God’s throne, and how much He has forgiven me! The apostle Paul talks about this in Ephesians 4 and verse 32 when he says, “Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you.”
Next time that painful history about that family member returns to your mind and starts hurting again, I want you to remember Joseph’s secret. Start focusing on how abundantly God has blessed you.
And one more thing: Are there hurts within your family which could be helped by you asking forgiveness? Some parents’ broken hearts could be mended by a formerly rebellious teenager asking forgiveness. Some young people have hearts that could be healed by parents asking forgiveness. Surely, some husbands and wives could be reconciled if one, or the other would humble himself and ask for forgiveness.
For today, learn the lesson of Joseph who held his baby boy Manasseh and said, “God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house." Would you pray with me, please? Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for our families. And we know that we can’t change other people, but we know that we can change ourselves. Help us, Father, to be the kind of husbands and wives we should be, and children, parents and aunts and uncles; and help us to be the kind of person that will not hurt our family members, but will help. And that we will be the kind of people who will encourage others to be faithful Christians and to stand for what is right. Oh, Father, please bless our families. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
See! I told you, you would appreciate this message. Oh, I know you did! It was my privilege to hear Glenn Colley speak at the Tahoe Family Encampment earlier this year, and it was a pleasure to hear him and he is a great man of God. And he and his wife both taught classes out there and they were well received in their classes and their teaching just went over so well. Thank you, Glenn Colley, for the message. You have made us want to try harder and more enthusiastically to be a faithful child of God-- and we're grateful to you; always will be.
We are looking forward to next week’s speaker also. Jeff Jenkins of Lewisville, Texas will be our speaker at that time. And we are just so grateful that these men have taken the time to come and to be with us and to speak these great messages to us. And we pray that you can be back, too.
And I am looking forward to being back with the message on September 2 on Sunday and then where the program is seen during that week with our anniversary program. We will be beginning our 28th year on that date, and we have some plans for the future that I want to talk with you about. And we are so grateful to God for his providential care for us in this program always, and we are just so grateful to God for His blessings.
Friend, if you would like a free CD or audio cassette tape-- or even a printed copy of the text of this sermon today, simply mail your request for it to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083-- or by email to searchtv@searchtv.org. Or, you may want to just pick up the telephone and call. We will pay for your call. Our telephone number is 1-800-321-8633.
Why not worship with a church of Christ in this area Sunday? You see, they and their members are the reason that we don’t spend a lot of time asking you to send us money. They support the program financially, and that is the way this program is financed throughout all of the United States and even beyond that. And we would be so pleased to hear from you that you were able to come and be in the assemblies of the churches of Christ in the area where this program is seen. We hope that you will be back with us next Sunday, right here-- same time, same place with another message from God’s Word. We are in Search of the Lord’s Way to be Christians and to live the Christian life. God bless you now, we love you.
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