Jesus said a lot about his expectations that his followers forgive people who sin against us, seemingly going so far as to say that God’s forgiveness of us hinges on our forgiving others. It’s embedded in the Lord’s Prayer (“Forgive us, as we forgive those who sin against us.”), and in the story above, the forgiven servant who withholds forgiveness from his servant finds himself being punished severely.
And yet many people–even Christians–still harbor bitterness in their hearts from offenses from long ago, holding on to anger and resentment that eats at them, hurts their relationships with other people, and puts a barrier between themselves and God.
In the sermon on Sunday, we’ll look at this shocking story and glean several lessons that Jesus wants to teach us: why forgiveness is so crucial, what it looks like, and how we learn to practice it. We hope that God will use his Word to cause each of us to look within our hearts and find those simmering areas of anger or bitterness that might be there.
0 Comments