Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements

Are there any announcements?

Today is Potluck Sunday and Communion.

Saturday is our annual Christmas Eve service at 6:30pm.

A time of song and fellowship.

Introduction

Good morning and welcome to FCC.

We are so glad that you joined us today for a time of worship and word!

Today, we have potluck immediately following church, so let’s dive right in to the Word.

We have come as far as Matthew 6:14, so let us open our Bibles there:

Read Matthew 6:14-15

Prayer

Lord Heavenly Father, we praise and adore Thee, and we hallow your name Lord.

We come before you asking that you would do a work in our hearts and fellowship today.

We desire to hear from you Father because you said, My sheep hear my voice and follow Me.

So Father, please remove all distractions and give us ears to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to us your people and sheep.

Please lead us beside still waters and restore our soul and teach us the depths of sin and forgiveness.

Not by strength, nor by power, but by your Spirit saith the Lord.

We surrender all to you right now, casting all our cares upon You, for your yoke is easy and your burden is light.

Come Holy Spirit, come.

Speak to our hearts for we need you!!!

In Jesus Name, Amen!!!

Review

Last week, we finished up the disciples prayer, not the Lord’s prayer and again, I say this because Jesus did not sin and we see a portion that deals with sin in this amazing template.

Jesus laid out a template for us to follow, not to sight from memory with meaningless words, but with filling in the petitions that he laid out for us with heart felt words that come from deep within us.

There was 6 petitions in all.

3 to God and 3 to man, but all for His glory church

And now we arrive at a place in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus brings up the very thing he said in verse 12 again in verse 14-15.

WHY?

Why is Jesus bringing forgiveness back up again church???

Look here:

And then here:

In my studies of these two texts I have come to the conclusion that Jesus brought it up again for two reasons:

Forgiving others is no easy task.

And we struggle to remember what matters most to the Lord.

When someone offends us, or sins against us, or does something we do not like church, our flesh begins to cringe and if we are not careful, that cringe will turn into a resentment, unless we turn to the Lord and seek to forgive them.

I say turn to the Lord, because it takes the power of the Holy Spirit working in our lives to forgive the offender.

If we are not quick to forgive, the offense will turn to resentment and resentment not dealt with will turn into anger, anger hate, and hate into bitterness church.

Bitterness in the heart not only caused Esau trouble, but will cause us trouble and this trouble will not only impact us spiritually, but mentally, emotionally, physically, relationally, and socially.

Basically unforgiveness will destroy us and those in our path if not dealt with!

Here we see Jesus expanding on verse 12 as we forgive our debtors.

And he repeats this lesson over and over throughout the Word of God church, because the Lord knows that we will struggle with forgiveness...

Forgive-aphiēmi-(af-ee'-ay-mee)- v. -to forgive a debt, to send away, keep no longer, to let go, to yield up, to acquit, to dismiss, to set free.

— to stop blaming or taking an offense into account.

How does this apply to us? Do we have any unforgiveness in our hearts?

Do we have offenses that we need to send away?

Did you know when you harbor a grudges of unforgiveness in your heart that the person you a resentful toward is taking up space in your head and that they are not even paying you rent?

It sounds funny, but it is true because people who are resentful towards others tend to be remunerators.

That means that they are on a hamster wheel that spins around and around about what happened to them or even someone else and it controls their life.

Sadly, it will effect their health in all areas:

Look at what this study from John Hopkins says:

Whether it’s a simple spat with your spouse or long-held resentment toward a family member or friend, unresolved conflict can go deeper than you may realize—it may be affecting your physical health.

The good news: Studies have found that the act of forgiveness can reap huge rewards for your health, lowering the risk of heart attack; improving cholesterol levels and sleep; and reducing pain, blood pressure, and levels of anxiety, depression and stress.

And research points to an increase in the forgiveness-health connection as you age.

“There is an enormous physical burden to being hurt and disappointed,” saysKaren Swartz, M.D., director of the Mood Disorders Adult Consultation Clinic at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Chronic anger puts you into a fight-or-flight mode, which results in numerous changes in heart rate, blood pressure and immune response.

Those changes, then, increase the risk of depression, heart disease and diabetes, among other conditions.

Forgiveness, however, calms stress levels, leading to improved health.

So church, Jesus is serious when he teaches on forgiveness.

His desire for us is to walk in forgiveness, to live and abide in forgiveness everyday and we cannot do this apart from walking with Him.

The voice of sin may be loud, but the voice of forgiveness is louder.