I Choose To Forgive - Part 2 Series

MATTHEW 6:14-15 “I CHOOSE TO FORGIVE – PART 2”

A) Let me remind you of something that is very important in this message, and that is,

if I am ever to forgive someone, I have to make a decision – It’s a choice.

* It is not our human nature to forgive someone who has deeply hurt us.

* We have to decide ... We have to make a choice to forgive ... And when you choose to

forgive those who hurt you, you take away their power.

* I began this message last week with this point .......

(1) I CAN’T CHANGE MY PAST – I CHOOSE TO FORGIVE

A) We all have things about our past that we wish we could change.

* Things we’ve done ... Things others have done to us ... If we could just live our life over,

we’d do some things differently.

* But we can’t go back, and God didn’t make us to carry the weight of the past.

* We don’t have the capacity for that, so we’re gonna make a good choice today, right now,

the choice to forgive.

B) The context of our passage comes on the heel of the Lord’s Prayer – v.9-13.

* If you look at what He said next, you can tell what He was thinking next.

* He was thinking about the part of the prayer that gives them forgiveness ... And what He

was thinking was, “Yea, people gonna have a hard time praying that.”

C) “Forgive me my debts.” ... Luke’s gospel says, Forgive us our sins.”

* Jesus uses the word “trespasses” which means, “My stumblings – My failings ...

My fallings ... And we all fall in many ways.

* You’re at church today with a lot of people who have fallen in a lot of different ways,

including the person that’s talking to you right now.

D) You think about the ways that we’ve failed God ... Have you thought of them?

* Now pray this, “God, I want You to forgive me the way that I forgive other people.”

* I don’t hardly know of anybody who really feels that way ... How many people want God

to forgive them better than we forgive other people? ... It’s just really hard to pray that.

* Well, Jesus knew that they’d be hung up on that, so He went on and said in v.14-15 .......

E) You really ought to choose this forgiveness thing.

* And let’s make sure we know exactly what we’re talking about here.

* What is forgiveness? ... Here’s the definition: A decision, an act of my will, a choice .......

* That’s the first thing – It’s a choice.

LET ME ADD SOMETHING TO THE DEFINITION NOW

A) To release a person (set free) from the obligation that resulted when they injured me.

* Every time someone hurts you – Every time someone acts against you .......

* Every time someone punishes you and takes from you, you have a choice to make.

B) What choice do you have? ... You cannot change the past .......

* And God did not give you the capacity to carry it forward ... So what remains for you?

* Just the choice to forgive ... Cause if you don’t choose to forgive, that stuff will pile up on

you till it crushes you and throw shrapnel into every person that you love and care about.

C) Unforgiveness will destroy you and those around you.

* Forgiveness is a decision – It’s a choice – It’s an act of my will to release a person from the

obligation that resulted when they injured you. (Crisis and a process)

* The first thing you have to do is you have to see your unforgiveness as sin ... And you have

to know that God is not gonna forgive you if you don’t forgive others.

D) Here’s the thing – People got all kinds of crazy excuses for not forgiving.

* So I’d like to cover some of those (Get sweatshirt and put it under coat)

E) Unforgiveness is cancer in your soul and you carry it around with you.

* And here are some reasons people give for not forgiving .......

* The hurt is too big ... But when I think about that, I think, the bigger the hurt, the more

you’d want to get it out.

* The size of it is no reason to hold it – If anything it’s a motivation to take it seriously and

get rid of it.

HERE’S ANOTHER ONE: TIME WILL HEAL IT

A) Yea – I don’t think that’s gonna go away with time.

* It’s not going away just because you’ve flipped some pages on the calendar ... But I’ll