Forgive us! I really mean it, please forgive us. Please forgive your pastors. If there is one thing that will affect your view of church, your ability to listen to your pastor during the sermon, it will be if you hold something against them.
Maybe you have hurt feelings against your pastor because he never called you when you were going through that loss of a loved one. Maybe he was there for you during the loss, but not much since then. Maybe he was a little too harsh with you when you were dealing with those issues in counseling. Maybe you feel like he asked you to do too much in your ministry or made you feel like you were not doing enough at the church. The list can keep going, but please remember: your minister, your pastor, your preacher is not Jesus. He is not perfect, which means he has faults just like you. Let me even go this far; if anyone, outside of your spouse, needs your forgiveness, it is probably your pastor.
There are many reasons why you need to forgive your pastors: it honors God, it pleases Christ, but let me offer one other reason . . . we desire it! I cannot speak for all pastors, but the ones I know would be quick to seek your forgiveness if they had any idea they have offended you. The reality is that they probably have no idea you are offended. Whatever it was, it was probably done out of ignorance, not intentional. Talk to us, plead with us, but please never hold something against us.
The Apostle Peter says that the most important thing that we can do in our relationships with one another is to keep fervent in our “love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). The church is in big trouble if the people inside the church do not learn to forgive. Do you want to know why? We are in trouble because we all mess up. I mess up in life. You mess up in life. We all mess up in life
We are all sinners. And if you hold onto the sins that other people commit (especially pastors) and then keep bringing it back to them, it will destroy a church. But extending forgiveness brings healing. Forgiveness means you hold no grudges. It means you do not hold on to the offense.
I am often at the crossroads of forgiveness or bitterness. And when that happens, there is one thought that helps me decide which road to take. I think of all those offenses that have been committed against me, all those hurt feelings, and then I multiply them by an infinite amount. That is what I have done to God just in one day because of my sins. And yet, Christ stands to offer complete, whole, absolute forgiveness for all of my sins. The Apostle Paul calls us to forgive each other just as the Lord has forgiven us (Colossians 3:13).
Do you want to act like God? Then forgive like Christ. Extend the healing power of forgiveness to anyone who has wronged you today . . . especially your pastor. I promise you one thing. If you do, his sermon will be much better next Sunday.
