Forgive Us...

The Lord’s Prayer

OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN

Mt 6:9-15

This term we have been looking at the words of the Lord’s Prayer with you.

How does the prayer go?

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

Your Kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as in heaven

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins,

as we forgive those who sin against us.

Lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power and

the glory are yours.

Now and for ever. Amen

Today I would like to look at:

Forgive us our sins as

we forgive those who sin against us

WHAT IS A SIN?

Question: Can any one tell me what a sin is?

Answer: Something that we do wrong

TRICK

Question: Can you think of things you have done wrong that we would like God to forgive us for.

Let’s write four of these on a piece of paper

1.

2.

3.

4.

Now let us assume that

this bag represents God and

the papers we have written on represent what we have done wrong.

By putting what we have done wrong into this bag, we are saying sorry to God and asking Him to forgive us.

What do you think happens when I ask you to take the paper out of the bag again?

1.

2.

3.

4.

What is written on the papers?

You see – God forgives us.

Now can I ask you to put those papers back into the bag.

2. FORGIVE OTHERS

Question: What do you think happens if we don’t forgive others who come and say sorry

Please will you put the papers back into the bag

If we don’t forgive others, look what happens to what we have done wrong.

What is written on 1, 2, 3, 4.

You see WHEN WE DON’T FORGIVE others the wrong things we have done is not been forgiven by God.

Story: My mum was Austrian – she died one and a half years ago.

Question: Anyone know what the capital of Austria is?

Answer: Vienna

She had two brothers – Wolfgang and Blasius.

My uncle Blasius made sure that when my grandfather died in 1940, he - and not Wolfgang his older brother -inherited the family farm.

Wolfgang was only given a small piece of land to build a house on.

And so Wolfgang and his family never forgave Blasius and his family for that.

They lived side by side for forty odd years in the same

village until Wolfgang died – not speaking to each

other since my grandmother’s death in 1957.

And what is so sad is that Wolfgang’s daughter, my cousin Gitti has continued the war with Blasius’ daughter, my cousin Geissi.

You see unforgiveness leaves bitter scars that destroy families.

Story: Let me tell you another story.

Gordon Wilson had a daughter Marie, who was killed in the IRA bombing of Enniskillen on 8 Nov 1987. Gordon was a committed Christian and said this about the feelings he had to those who killed his daughter.

"I bear no ill-will against those responsible for this. That sort of talk will not bring her back to life. I shall pray for those people tonight and every night. I know there has to be a plan even though we might not understand it. God is good and we shall meet again."

What a difference between Gordon Wilson’s attitude and my uncle Wolfgang’s family.

What is more likely to help bring peace into the world?

Forgiveness or unforgiveness?

GOD wants us to be as generous as he is.

So he has made our forgiveness DEPENDENT on the way we forgive others

We are saying to God in the Lord’s prayer:

We want you to forgive us in the same way as we forgive others

So if we forgive others who come and say sorry, God will forgive us.

If we don’t forgive others who come and say sorry then we are saying we don’t want him to forgive us either

3. HOW OFTEN SHOULD I FORGIVE

How often should I forgive?

Peter once asked Jesus.

“How many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”

Jesus replied: I tell you not seven times but seventy times seven. (Mt. 18:21/22)

Question: How may times does that make? Seventy times seven

Answer: 490. That is a lot of times in a day!!

So can we close our time in prayer:

PRAYER:

Heavenly Father, we know we have done wrong and we ask you to forgive us.

Help us also to forgive others who come to us to say sorry.

We ask you to keep us safe at school today and give a good time.

We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen