Forgiveness

Matt. 18:125-17, 21-35

I: Jesus teaches forgiveness.
1. “But if your brother wrongs you.”
2. “Go and have it out with him at once”
3. “Just between the 2 of you.”
4. “If he will listen to you, you have won him back as your breother.”
5. “But if he will not listen to you.”
6. “Take 1 or 2 others.”
7. “If he still won’t pay any attention, tell the church.”

II: Never forget to forgive:
1. Would 7 times be enough?
2. “The kingdom of heaven is life.”
a. A king settling accounts.
b. 1 owed thousands of dollars.
c. 1 owed $20.
d. But both begging to have mercy.
e. One received but refused to remember.

III: “For if you forgive other people.” Matt. 6
1. Man’s forgiveness hinged on how he forgives.
2. Gods flow of forgiveness can be stopped by an unforgiving spirit.
3. Forgiveness is more than not holding something against another (restoration).

IV: When it is hard to forgive:
1. A repeated wrong.
2. When the wrong was deliverate.
3. When they don’t belong to our group.
4. When we have been refused to consideration.
5. The hardest to forgive is the one we have wronged.

V: The Pattern set by Jesus.
1. Peter forgiven.
2. “Forgive them for they know not.”
3. Paul the Apostle.
4. Our helps to forgive.
a. A sheet of our own wrongs.
b. A sheet of others wrongs.
c. A knowledge of how Jesus suffered and forgave.