Please don't feel embarrassed if the children are a bit noisy, we welcome everyone here.

"Forgiveness."

Our sentence for today is from Luke Chapter 6 Verse 37 :

"Jesus said, 'Do not condemn others, and God will not condemn you; forgive others and God will forgive you.' "

"I believe in Jesus".

During the last verse of this hymn : Sign Holder comes to the front ( Hospital side ), Grandma, Child 1 and Child 2 come to front on organ side.

( Pointing to the Cross ) We have placed this big Cross here to remind us that Jesus died that we might be forgiven. By His willingness to die for us He opened the way for us to be reconciled - which means to be put right - with God.

Those of us who choose to follow Jesus and who come before Him seeking repentance and forgiveness for the things we have done wrong are forgiven by God, provided we have forgiven those who have wronged us. Remember that Jesus taught us to pray to God, "forgive us our sins, as we forgive those that sin against us".

The blue material ( point to blue material ) surrounding the Cross reminds us that wrongs once forgiven are as if they have been thrown into the deep sea, never to be remembered any more. That's something we've known even longer - For in the book of Micah, in the Old Testament of the Bible, we are told that God will trample our sins underfoot and send them to the bottom of the sea. The small pebbles ( hold up a small pebble ) which we shall throw into the sea are symbols of our desire to forgive others and ourselves, our desire to let go of the hurt that has been done to us, and our willingness to receive God's forgiveness.

Perhaps the hardest part of that is letting go of the hurt. If we've somehow been done down, we often want to get even; but forgiving is recognising that there are better things than getting even with people - such as getting right with God.

So once we've thrown a wrong into the sea ( Point to the NO FISHING notice ), we can't go raking it up again. It's gone - vanished - disappeared for ever.

So the "NO FISHING" notice is a reminder to us all that being able to forgive ourselves or others can take time and can be hard work for -

The FIRST step in forgiving is deciding to do it. Say to yourself,

( emphatically ) I WILL forgive. I WILL take this problem to Jesus and leave it with Him ( which is symbolised by throwing a pebble into the 'sea' ) ( Throw a pebble into the sea. )

( normally ) The SECOND step in forgiving is to say in your mind, with as much meaning as you can,

( emphatically ) I FORGIVE

( normally ) The THIRD step is to keep on doing it.

Every time you notice yourself thinking wrong thoughts about this problem.

( emphatically ) STOP ( hold up STOP sign ) ( normally ) and repeat with as much meaning as you can,

( emphatically ) "I FORGIVE. I have given this to Jesus He is dealing with it" -

( normally ) and keep on doing this, until one day you will find that through the Grace of God you are truly forgiven. Remember that when the disciples asked Jesus how often they should forgive someone, He said that they should just keep on forgiving.

So the "NO FISHING" sign is a reminder to us to train ourselves to stop thinking about what has happened and to leave the outcome with God.

At different parts of this service we will use the "NO FISHING" SHOUT to remind us to do this.

It goes like this -

At different parts of the service I will hold up this STOP sign ( hold up STOP sign ) and say ( emphatically ) "STOP and Remember, they've gone -" ( normally ) and everyone replies ( emphatically ) "NO FISHING".

Let's try it now :

( holding up STOP sign ) STOP and Remember, they've gone -

Sign Holder takes STOP sign and leans it against the wall and returns to her seat.

Grandma, Child 1 and Child 2 come to centre front.

Minister comes down centre aisle and sits on a chair in front of the altar.

One day whilst a minister was sitting in his church study there was a knock at the door.

( Young Woman comes in and sits on the other chair. )

How can I help you ?

It's hopeless. I can't go on living like this. It's a real mess. It all happened so long ago, I'm so miserable, so ashamed, not even Jesus can forgive my sins. My sins are too great to be forgiven.

Minister and Young Woman move over to stand by the 'sea'.

Now imagine this is a very beautiful sea shore. It's a very calm day and the sea looks like glass, and on the beach there are many pebbles.

In my hand I hold a very small pebble.

Minister picks up small pebble.

You pick up a big rock.

Young Woman picks up a big rock ( larger pebble )

Let's throw this pebble and this rock into the sea.

First it's my turn.

Minister throws pebble in the 'sea'.

Did you hear the sound it made ? A ripple. Where is my pebble now ?

The only difference was the sound and the ripple.

But they are both hidden from us now.

So it is with forgiveness. Everyone needs the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus cures all sins, big and small.

Young Woman slumps down crying.

The minister placed his hand on her head and prayed for her.

Minister places hand on her head and prays.

PAUSE.

After a short time the woman lifted her head and her face was shining with God's glory.

Please stand.

Reader comes to lectern.

If we're truly sorry, we can say "Sorry" to Jesus and He forgives us, but the trouble is many people find it difficult to receive Jesus's forgiveness.

We find that God's gift of grace - love, joy, peace, forgiveness - begins to fill us instead of the hurt.

Early the next morning Jesus went back to the Temple.

( Jesus comes down the centre aisle and sits on chair in front of the altar, slightly to organ side. )

All the people gathered round Him.

People come from various direction and stand behind Jesus. Do not stand in front of Him.

The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees brought in a woman who had been caught committing adultery.

But He bent over and wrote on the ground with His finger.

Teachers and Pharisees mime asking Jesus questions.

Teachers and Pharisees continue to mime asking Jesus questions.

He straightened up and said to them :

As the people leave, the woman slowly stands up.

Jesus straightened up and said to her :

Jesus goes down organ side.

Woman goes down Hospital aisle, Reader goes to back down Hospital side.

People get ready at back for the next story, Mum, Child 3 and Child 4 at back, Dad at Hospital side.

It's about a missionary family, I can't remember what country they were working in.

But they had a real problem.

There was Mummy and Daddy and a couple of children all living in a fairly small house with an old Aunt of the mother.

This Aunt had nowhere else to live and was miserable and difficult. She never said a kind word to anyone.

She didn't wash very often so she was a bit smelly.

She sat in the best chair and got in everyone's way.

She found fault with everything - the children, the weather, the food, the country they were living in, absolutely everything.

She made life so miserable for the whole family.

They tried to be kind and loving but it was SO HARD.

Even Mummy was getting exhausted.

One day the children came home from school.

Children come down centre aisle and stop at altar rail looking around, Mum comes down organ side ready for her part.

They couldn't believe their eyes or their ears - no nagging voice, no Aunt sitting in her chair. They listened hard.

Children listen.

No - they really couldn't hear her, no nasty cough or sniffle, no nagging voice.

Where was Aunty ?

They ran inside.

Where's Aunty ?

Quick, wash your hands and come to the table, let's forget all about her until after the meal.

Dad comes in from Hospital side, they all sit round the table eating.

I know she is my Aunt and has nowhere else to live, and no money to go anywhere else. We can't afford to rent a place for her, but she really is making our lives very difficult.

I don't know what to do either.

I know what we could do.

They stand up and drop a pebble in the sea and go to the back down the Hospital aisle.

By the end of three weeks Aunty was a completely different person.

She'd stopped grumbling, almost.

She'd begun to smile.

She was taking regular baths and the whole house was transformed.

It was truly amazing what God did in those few weeks as each member of the family prayed night and morning for this difficult lady.

Right - every night before I go to sleep I'll pray for him.

Grandma and the Children go down Hospital side to their seats.

The Messager picks up the "poisons" and comes to the lectern;
Narrator returns to her seat down Hospital aisle;
Actors come to stand in a long line against the wall at the organ side;
Helper prepares to give correct pieces of paper to actors as needed;
2nd helper stands near altar ready to remind actors what to do;
3rd helper stands at back to direct actors who get confused.

When our grandchildren started crawling we had to do a bit of a clean up at our house.

Our daughter-in-law, who is a doctor, helped us and we searched through all our cupboards for poisons.

Things like methylated spirits ( hold up ), medicines ( hold up ), dish washing powder ( hold up ), Janola ( hold up ) and other things.

We moved all these things to a safer place and put child-proof locks on our bathroom and laundry cupboard doors too.

We certainly didn't want our grandchildren, or anyone else, to find and accidentally take poison in our house.

BUT many of our houses are full of another sort of poison which we all should recognise and deal with,.this is the poison that is caused by unforgiveness.

Unforgiveness makes it difficult for us to form good relationships with God and with other people, it acts like a slow poison and shows itself in actions such as :

RAGE;

ANGER;

ARGUING;

SLANDER;

GOSSIP;

RESENTMENT;

BITTERNESS;

MALICE;

UNFORGIVENESS;

GUILT;

HATE.

The family with the difficult Aunty had this problem, as each day Aunty dropped little bits of poison into their lives. They found that as they all agreed to pray for Aunty, God was able to help them love her more, and Aunty found that God was beginning to change her on the inside.

But, some people say, "How can I possibly forgive that person, their actions were so dreadful ?" In fact there have been at least two articles, recently, in the Herald newspaper where people have said, "I will never forgive the person who did that dreadful act to a member of my family". And I understand how they feel.

But my reply is - how can you possibly not forgive them ? - for whilst their evil act remains unforgiven in us, we continue to scatter little drops of poison around as we move through life. And that one dreadful act continues to ruin our lives, sometimes for years.

It is only as we let go of this unforgiveness and begin the hard process of forgiving that we are set free, by the Grace of God, to live free and unfettered lives and to truly display Godly attitudes which are antidotes to the poisons, such as -

For each item in the following list of "antidotes", Helper gives an actor the card showing the item's name, and tells the actor when to move. The actor takes the card with the word on it, walks along by the altar rail, holding up the card to show to the congregation, then gives it to 2nd helper, who sticks it on the front of the altar. The actor then returns to the congregation and sits down again.

PEACE;

CALMNESS;

GENTLENESS;

TRUTH;

LOVE;

FORGIVENESS;

JOY;

PATIENCE;

KINDNESS;

SELF-CONTROL.

Some past events which have left us with bad feelings can get in the way of how we feel and act today.

I want to encourage all of us to give these past hurts to Jesus, to ask Him to deal with that whole problem and to heal us.

Often to start this process of healing we need to come before Jesus and say :

"I WILL forgive the past,

I WILL forgive that person who hurt me,

I WILL forgive the hurts of childhood,

I WILL forgive myself for lost opportunities,

I WILL forgive God,

I WILL forgive whatever or whoever it may be,

I TRULY WILL forgive.

I no longer want to live in this state of unforgiveness and hurt.

Dear Lord Jesus, teach me to forgive, fill me with Your grace so that I may be a forgiving and a forgiven person."

God honours this prayer and begins to teach us to forgive. Remember this can take time and hard work, for while God will look after the teaching, we still have to do the learning. But eventually, if we work at it, we do find ourselves filled with God's gift of Grace to forgive completely.

I'll just remind you of the forgiveness steps we need to take.

The FIRST step in forgiving is deciding to do it. Say to yourself,

( emphatically ) I WILL forgive. I WILL take this problem to Jesus and leave it with Him.

( normally ) The SECOND step in forgiving is to say in your mind, with as much meaning as you can,

( emphatically ) I FORGIVE.

( normally ) The THIRD step is to keep on doing it.

Every time you notice yourself thinking wrong thoughts about this problem,

( emphatically ) STOP ( normally ) and repeat with as much meaning as you can,

( emphatically ) "I FORGIVE. I have given this to Jesus He is dealing with it." -.

( normally ) and keep on doing this, until one day you will find that through the Grace of God you are truly forgiven.

PAUSE

We invite you now to come forward and throw a 'pebble' in the 'sea' as a symbol of repentance and the desire to be forgiving and forgiven.

When all who want to have come forward :

"Amazing Grace".

Blessing.