Forgiveness

Forgiveness

October 1, 2017 Morning Service

Immanuel Baptist Church, Wagoner, OK

Rick Boyne

Message Point: Getting and giving forgiveness is critical to a Christian’s spiritual health.

Focus Passage: Psalm 32:1-11

Introduction: Forgiveness: give up resentment of or claim to requital; 2 :to cease to feel resentment against

In his book. Lee: The Last Years, Charles Bracelen Flood reports that after the Civil War, Robert E. Lee visited a Kentucky lady who took him to the remains of a grand old tree in front of her house. There she bitterly cried that its limbs and trunk had been destroyed by Federal artillery fire. She looked to Lee for a word condemning the North or at least sympathizing with her loss. After a brief silence, Lee said, "Cut it down, my dear Madam, and forget it." It is better to forgive the injustices of the past than to allow them to remain, let bitterness take root and poison the rest of our life.

Michael Williams.

I. Getting Forgiveness from God

a. Confession is integral

b. This is only possible because of what Jesus has done for us

II. Getting Forgiveness from Others

a. Seeking out forgiveness by acknowledging wrongdoing

b. "Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. (Matthew 5:23-24 NASB)

III. Giving Forgiveness to Others

a. Then Peter came and said to Him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" Jesus *said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. (Matthew 18:21-22 NASB)

b. Doesn’t mean that everything is ok, like nothing ever happened

c. Let it go

d. Forgiving someone else is really for you, not them

e. Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, was reminded one day of a vicious deed that someone had done to her years before. But she acted as if she had never even heard of the incident. "Don't you remember it?" her friend asked. "No," came Barton's reply, "I distinctly remember forgetting it." Luis Palau, Experiencing God's Forgiveness, Multnomah Press, 1985

Application/Invitation: Do you really forgive yourself? Or is it that you accept God’s forgiveness instead?