Sermon Tone Analysis

into..

What is Forgiveness

To stop feeling angry or resentful toward (someone) for an offense, flaw or mistake

To excuse for a fault or an offense; pardon.

To renounce anger or resentment against to absolve..

Psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky calls forgiveness “a shift in thinking” toward someone who has wronged you, “such that your desire to harm that person has decreased and your desire to do him good (or to benefit your relationship) has increased.”

Forgiveness, at a minimum, is a decision to let go of the desire for revenge and ill-will toward the person who wronged you.

It may also include feelings of goodwill toward the other person.

Forgiveness is also a natural resolution of the grief process, which is the necessary acknowledgment of pain and loss.

Forgiveness is not the same as reconciliation, Forgiveness is not forgetting.

Forgiveness is not condoning or excusing.

Forgiveness is not justice

The first to apologize is the bravest.

The first to forgive is the strongest and the first to forget is the happiest.

Forgiveness is one of the most powerful things you can do for yourself.

Feelin betrayed, hurt by somone you trusted

Can’t get that knife out of your back

Holding a grudge for something that was done to you

Every time you see someone your blood pressure goes up

Though these are natural and instinctive emotions designed to protect us from harm of future similar events these feelings will never lead to what GOD truly desires for us …

You have the power to forgive

Colossians 3:12–13 (KJV 1900)

12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; 13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do

But when sin is regarded as a moral “debt” (opheilēma) owed to an offended holy God, this verb has the sense “remit” or “pardon” or “forgive.”

Forgiveness, then, is the remission of the indebtedness to God caused by sin.

It is significant that in Matthew’s account of the Lord’s Prayer we read “Forgive us our debts (opheilēmata)” (Matt 6:12) while Luke has “Forgive us our sins (hamartias)” (Luke 11:4).

But when sin is regarded as a moral “debt” (opheilēma) owed to an offended holy God, this verb has the sense “remit” or “pardon” or “forgive.”

Forgiveness, then, is the remission of the indebtedness to God caused by sin.

It is significant that in Matthew’s account of the Lord’s Prayer we read “Forgive us our debts (opheilēmata)” (Matt 6:12) while Luke has “Forgive us our sins (hamartias)” (Luke 11:4).

In the Bible, forgiveness is never portrayed as automatic.

While it finds its ultimate basis in God’s sovereign love, there are prerequisites for the human receipt of forgiveness from God—the provision of appropriate sacrifice to atone for sin, the acknowledgement of wrongdoing (confession), and a turning away from the confessed sin (repentance).

These three points are well illustrated by the following verses.

“Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

(Heb 9:22; cf.

Matt 26:28)

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins.”

(1 John 1:9)

“Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.’”

(Acts 2:38; cf.

Luke 24:47)

The aim of forgiveness is reconciliation between the offending party and the aggrieved party.

Anything short of such a reconciliation is less than the fully-orbed sense of forgiveness.

When there is no acknowledgement of wrongdoing and therefore no repentance, forgiveness may be offered to the offending party but its ultimate purpose, which is the restoration of harmony, cannot be achieved.