Forgiveness Received Becomes Forgiveness Extended | The One Another Way - Ephesians 4:30-32 | Clayton Heath

And welcome to Silver Dolph Baptist Church.

It's so nice to see all of you here worshiping with us.

If we haven't met, my name is Clayton Heath, and I have the privilege of being a part of our team here at Creekside and our young adults ministry team.

And today I have the privilege of sharing with you God's word.

So if you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to turn with me to Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

It's going to be in the New Testament.

If you're newer to the Bible, it contains the part, uh it is the part of the Bible that contains the things that happened during and after the life of Jesus, the New Testament.

And Ephesians chapter 4 is where we're going to be today.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

And then hopefully on your way in, you got a worship guide from our guest services team.

And we give those to you for lots of reasons, but you know by now that we give them to you because it is no small thing that God is the creator of the universe and he speaks to you and me.

And so when he does, we want to be sure that we pay attention and we write down the things that he says.

This morning we uh continue on in our series called The One Another Way.

And what we've been looking at is what the New Testament, what scripture calls us to as believers, and how we are to interact with really, namely, other believers, really how we can experience transformed relationships in our life.

And I've got good news for you, friends.

This morning we're talking about the hardest one.

Over the last couple of weeks, uh, we've talked about love one another, encourage one another, and bear with one another, care for one another, I mean.

Uh, and we go like, you know what?

Easy peasy.

You know, we like those.

Uh they're they're the they make us feel good, we want to do them, we want to be better at them.

Uh, but today we get to walk into the 401 class, and we get to do the one that is the one that we're maybe most hesitant to surrender to the Lord, and I'm talking about forgiveness.

And even if I as I say that, some of you maybe feel a little bit differently, or maybe you walked in and took a peek at the worship God, and I'm not saying that you were trying to figure out an excuse to leave church this morning, but you certainly were a little bit more uncomfortable than you normally are.

But here's what we have to understand, right?

Forgiveness, this Christian virtue that we're talking about, we don't forgive other people.

We are not able to forgive other people because we muster up enough gusto and we are so great.

We're certainly not virtue signaling anyone, we're not gaslighting anybody, and we're not avoiding hard conversations.

The point and the truth this morning is very simply that if you and I confess that we are blood-washed believers, we can forgive and we are commanded to forgive, not because the wound you have is so small, but because the grace you received was so great.

That is the sermon today.

We don't forgive because the wound is so small, we forgive because the grace we received is so great.

Let's read what the Apostle Paul commands us in Ephesians chapter 4 this morning.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

We read it in chapter 4, verse 30 and 32.

It says, And don't grieve God's Holy Spirit, you were sealed by him for the days of your redemption.

But let all bitterness, anger, and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you, along with all malice.

And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.

And when we read this passage, if we can be honest, we read that and it's like, okay, cool.

And we get to the part where the words say, forgive one another, and I don't want to say that they feel hollow, but I think that if we're honest, we can read them, and it just feels like we can gloss over them quite easily.

But if you know anything about life, friend, you know that forgiveness is not an easy subject.

When we're talking about this series, we're talking about the one another way, and we're talking about it because what the Bible offers us to experience in our life is transformed relationships.

That you and I can experience life abundant now because of what Christ has done for us.

But the problem, or rather, the reality that's facing us is that the relationship that we want requires the grace that we have received.

So for us, as we confess Christ as our Lord and we go about in our marriage relationship and our familial relationships, with friends, with co-workers, with the people that are around us, if we want to experience what the Bible offers us that we can experience, then the relationship that I want requires the grace that I've already received.

But we want closeness without vulnerability.

We want community without conflict, we want relationships without disappointments.

But how many of you know you can't go around in life very long if you want the relationship that you desire without having to forgive others and be forgiven yourself.

Now, a couple of disclaimers before we start.

Today, no matter how passionate I may get, or no matter how I may frame forgiveness and what has happened to you, I am in no way making light of what's happened to you.

I'm not saying what happened to you didn't matter.

I'm not saying in some cases it didn't change your life.

In no way am I making, am I seeking to make light of anything that somebody has done to you or said over you.

And then to be clear, for some of you, today brings up the really the tragedy of abuse.

And there's, again, like as earnestly as I can say to you, there is no way that I'm making light of any abuse that you've suffered.

To be clear, if you are facing abuse, call the police.

There's a police officer out in the lobby.

We want to help you.

You do not, we do not want you, you do not have to stay in an unsafe environment environment.

Forgiveness does not mean accepting abuse.

And while that may not be part of all of our stories, all of us, I imagine, we could pass the mic around today and talk about something that marked you because somebody said something over you.

Or a wound that you still carry because of the way that someone disappointed you, how they hurt you.

And frankly, we're all in a situation of where that has left us today.

And the truth is, as we talk about forgiveness, as we see what Scripture has commanded us, we can only extend forgiveness because we have been the recipients of forgiveness.

Forgiveness is something that we extend because Jesus has forgiven you.

And so you're here and you're like, okay, Clayton, I get it, man.

You're the preacher, man, and I get it.

You're supposed to talk about forgiveness.

You're supposed to say that this is the thing that we're supposed to do, but I don't know if you know my situation and I'm unsure about how to go about it.

Well, fortunately for us, friends, the Apostle Paul will list us what we are to do in order that we might walk in transformed relationships, transformed by forgiveness.

If you're taking notes, the first thing I want you to write down today is this is that we've got to remove what unforgiveness produces.

If we wanna walk in transformed relationships, if we wanna be forgiving Christians, then the first thing we have to do is remove what unforgiveness produces.

Look at what the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 31.

Ephesians 4:31

He says, Let all bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you along with all malice.

If we wanna forgive people and walk in obedience to what we're commanded to do, Paul says that the first thing that we've got to do is we've got to cut out some things that unforgiveness produces in our life.

And Paul starts by naming what grows in our hearts that holds on to hurt.

See, some of you are here today and you're like, Clayton, I don't have a problem with forgiveness.

Well, what is it that the Apostle Paul says that unforgiveness produces?

Number one, he says it produces bitterness.

What's bitterness?

Bitterness is the silent resentment that you and I carry.

Anger, the internal reaction to being wronged, wrath, anger that boils over, shouting, anger expressed through hostility, slander, using someone's failure to destroy their reputation, malice, secretly hoping someone faces their demise, rejoicing in their suffering.

This is what Paul says that you and I must remove from us if we are to experience transformed relationships.

What begins inside, we begin to wear on the outside.

What we swear, you and I only carry ourselves.

Nobody else is affected by my unforgiveness.

Nobody is affected, Clayton, by the fact that I still hold on to the grudge to the person who did me wrong.

It always, always, always finds its way out of us.

How many of you know bitterness never stays contained?

It's just this thing that you carry, but quickly it turns into how you evaluate and interpret everything that that particular person says.

It changes how you describe them to others, how you respond when their name comes up.

Because here's the reality for us, friends, you ready?

Unforgiveness doesn't keep the pain in the past, it gives the pain permission to shape the present.

You and I walk around thinking that the grudge that we hold, the bitterness that we, the resentment that grows in our hearts, nah, it's just for us.

It lives five, ten, twenty, thirty-five years ago.

But unforgiveness doesn't keep the pain in the past, it gives the pain permission to shape my present.

And here's what's so crazy Paul doesn't give us a pass.

If you have your Bibles, there's no asterisk and then some fine print on the bottom that says, you have to forgive other people.

You've got to remove these things unless these certain offenses have been committed against you.

He doesn't say that you have to manage these things.

He doesn't say, you know what, brothers and sisters in Christ, we really ought to work on these.

We gotta muster up.

We got, you know what?

You should see a therapist or something.

People are saying those are good for these types of problems, and so you should go do these things.

No, he says to remove them.

But Clayton, I've been really damaged.

I was really wounded.

A parent marked me with their critical spirit my whole childhood.

My spouse blew up my marriage and our entire family.

My my um boss cheated me out of a business deal.

Or maybe just like maybe you're not pointing to some specific grandiose moment.

But there is a resentment that resides in you because your wife just constantly nags you, or because your husband just never pays attention, and everything's fine until the fight breaks out and then the talents come out.

Your brother is always screwing up, somebody hurt you.

Again, today is we're not pretending that these things never happened.

We're refusing to let the wound determine who we become.

Because Paul doesn't just root the problem in it makes your life worse.

If you see unforgiveness advice out in the world with people who don't follow the Lord, their recommendation might be rooted in the health benefits, which there are.

It might be benefited in clearing up your mental health space, which it does.

But Paul is not saying you should forgive because it's just gonna improve your life.

He says you should forgive because it grieves what the Holy Spirit is trying to do in your life.

Look at it in verse number 30.

It says this, and don't grieve God's Holy Spirit.

He starts out the sentence with this, so that means that we could flip it.

Let remove all anger, bitterness, malice, slander, all this, and don't grieve God's Holy Spirit.

It could go both ways.

Why is he saying that?

It's because forgiveness is not merely a relational issue between you and another person, it's a spiritual issue between you and Almighty God.

Because what the Bible tells us over and over and over again is that Jesus, when he pays the penalty for our sins, dies on the cross, goes to the grave, resurrects over hell and sin, he is not just forgiving you, but he is building a new community.

First Peter says, You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood and a holy nation.

God is picking us blood-bod believers to be a new community, a people marked by grace and kindness and reconciliation and love that points people back to the love that Jesus has for us.

And so, you know what that means for you and me?

That means that when we cling on to bitterness and to hurt and anger and malice and slander and all those things, we resist the very work that the Holy Spirit is trying to accomplish in us.

In other words, might your spiritual life be stale right now because you're unwilling to surrender that hurt to the Lord.

That's why Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter 5: if any of you have a problem with your brother and you're at the altar worshiping me, leave the altar, go make peace with your brother, and then come back and you can worship me.

That's how serious God takes unforgiveness.

We cannot ask the Spirit to transform our relationships while protecting the bitterness that is destroying them.

And you're like, what are you getting at, Clayton?

Here's what I'm getting at.

For some of you, you don't need any help recognizing unforgiveness or bitterness or resentment in your own life based on what somebody has done or said to you.

But for some of you, you're resistant.

Maybe even unaware.

You're here today and you're like, oh man, Clayton, yeah, I got some people in my small group, they have some unforgiveness problems, Clayton.

Here is what I need you to do.

Hit them hard today, brother.

Go after it.

And I'm asking you, can you realize and acknowledge the unforgiveness that you're carrying in your life?

Can you recognize that list of symptoms that the Apostle Paul gives us and say, that may be a warning sign to what I'm carrying in my heart?

Another way to put it would be whose name immediately changes your emotions?

Whose failure do you keep rehearsing in your life?

Whom do you enjoy criticizing?

Who do you hope gets hurt the same way that they hurt you?

A boss, an ex, a neighbor, a cousin, a friend that we're not too friendly with now.

Forgiveness starts, friend, with removing what unforgiveness has produced in us.

That's the first thing.

The second thing I want you to write down is this is that if we're gonna walk in forgiveness, the second thing we've got to do is we've got to recover the compassion of Jesus Christ.

We've got to recover the compassion of Jesus Christ.

Look at what Paul says next in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 32.

Ephesians 4:32

He says, But be kind and compassionate to one another.

Be kind and compassionate, okay?

So don't crieve the Holy Spirit, remove the slander, the anger, the malice, okay.

That's the command in the negative.

That's what we're that's the inverse.

That's not that's what we're not supposed to do.

So what is it that we are commanded to do instead of that?

And what the Apostle Paul says should take its place is kindness and compassion.

And we know, if you know your Bible, that biblical compassion is more than just feeling sorry for somebody, but it's allowing us to see the person and move toward them with mercy.

And some of you are like, okay, Clayton, here you go.

Preacher Man's gonna talk about getting warm and fuzzy.

That's this is what's wrong with Christianity right now.

We're just talking about feeling good towards other people, especially towards people who are who have wronged us.

I don't really want to feel warm and fuzzy.

For the record, I'm not telling you that you should feel warm and fuzzy.

Paul is commanding you to react the same way that Jesus reacted to you.

How does the gospels describe Jesus in Matthew chapter 9?

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

Look at it.

In Matthew 9, verse 36, it says, When he, Jesus, saw the crowds, he did what?

Matthew 9:36

He felt compassion for them.

Why?

Because they were distressed and dejected like sheep without a shepherd.

When Jesus saw the same crowds that other people saw, he had compassion.

Some people saw inconveniences, he saw sheep without a shepherd.

Some people saw needy people who get in the way, he saw sheep without a shepherd.

Some people saw problems or sinful and difficult people.

Jesus saw sheep without a shepherd.

Can I just remind you, though, this verse describes an actual event when Jesus saw a crowd of people, it describes how Jesus Christ viewed me and you.

You see, compassion changes the way that we interpret people.

It doesn't excuse their sin, but it allows us to see more than just their sin.

Compassion reminds us that they are more than the worst thing than they have done.

To be clear, compassion doesn't call evil good, and it refuses to let another person's failure erase their humanity.

Because how many of you know, very quickly it becomes easy to let what someone has done or said become all that they are.

She is what she said, she said to me.

He is the pain he caused me.

They are what they did to me.

But if that is going to be something that dictates how we live, then you and I, friends, are rejecting a doctrinal principle that goes to the very root of what it means to be a Christian called a Mago Dei.

That is to believe that every single person is created and walks and bears the image of Almighty God.

And so if we believe that, then even when we're hurt and harmed by other people, it changes how we move towards that person because Jesus moved towards us with compassion.

I think that we could talk about a lot of examples of this, but the greatest example that I can think of comes from an Amish community in Pennsylvania.

If you know the story, about 20 years ago, in um on October 2nd, 2004, a man walked into a room, one room schoolhouse on an Amish community in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and he killed five little girls.

Nothing redeemable about this situation except the response that came after.

If you know the story, if you remember it in the news, the community responded radically.

The parents of the girls that were murdered showed up at the shooter's funeral.

It was a dad of a slain little girl that held the shooter's father as he wept at his own son's grave burial.

The families invited the shooter's wife to attend one of the funerals for a girl that was killed.

She was the only person that was outside of the community that was let in to experience it.

They forgave him and his family.

And we hear that story and we go, that's impossible.

I mean, good for them, Clayton.

Like, yeah, that's amazing that they did that, but that couldn't be me.

And I'm here to tell you this morning to encourage us and remind us that if we are confessing to be bloodbought believers in Christ Jesus, then the same thing that they did is the command that the Apostle Ball gives to you and me.

To remove malice, to be compassionate, and to forgive one another.

And you're like, okay, Clayton.

I get it.

You get a pass.

You're preaching about the word of God, and I guess forgiveness is in there.

I see what you're saying.

Yeah, we shouldn't be angry, we shouldn't shout as much.

We should be compassionate towards other people.

These are Christian tenets, these are Christian principles that we talk about.

But if that's, friend, how you think what and what you think forgiveness is, then we're missing out on the whole piece of the pie.

The last thing that I want you to write down this morning is this is that if we're gonna walk in forgiveness, then we've got to remember how completely we've been forgiven.

If you're gonna walk in forgiveness, if you have any hope of demonstrating compassion towards someone who has wronged you, the only way, friend, that you are going to be able to do it is by regularly reminding yourself of just how much you've been forgiven by Almighty God.

In fact, I want you to turn to the person you're seeing next to, and I say, you have to remember how completely you've been forgiven.

You gotta remember how completely you've been forgiven.

Look at what Paul says in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 32.

Ephesians 4:32

He says, forgiving one another, be kind and compassionate, forgiving one another.

Why?

How?

For what purpose?

To what end?

Because why?

Just as God also forgave you in Christ.

If we're gonna walk in forgiveness towards the people around us that have harmed us, that have wounded us, if we're gonna let go of resentment or bitterness, if we're gonna start stop trashing people's reputation.

This is it, friend.

It is the beginning, it is the middle, and it is the end.

In fact, today almost only had one point, this one, but you know, I gotta talk for a couple of minutes, so I had to have some more content than that.

But this is it, all right?

Jesus forgave you.

And you're like, yeah, yeah, Clayton, I know.

I'm at church, it's Sunday, I get it.

Jesus forgave me.

He died on the cross and he paid my sin and he resurrected.

I get it, but you don't understand.

No, no, I don't think you understand, friend.

What does the Bible say?

Hebrews chapter 10, verse 14, for by one sacrifice he is made perfect.

Hebrews 10:14

He made you perfect because of his death forever, those who are being made holy.

Ephesians chapter 1, verse 7.

Ephesians 1:7

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace.

Psalm chapter 103, verse 12.

Psalms 103:12

As far as the East is from the West, so far he has removed our transgressions from us.

You can say amen whenever you want.

Hebrews chapter 10, verse 17 through 18.

Hebrews 10:17–18

Then he adds, their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.

And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.

1 John chapter 1, verse 9.

1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

Colossians chapter 2, verse 13.

Colossians 2:13

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ.

He forgave us.

How many?

All our sins.

Having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us, he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross, and having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle over them, triumphing over them on the cross.

Paul does not ground forgiveness in the size of the offense.

He grounds it in the size of the gospel, friends.

We forgive not because the wound was so small, but because the grace we received was so great.

And this is the message.

We don't forgive because the wound is so small.

We're not minimizing, we're not making light of, we're not forgetting.

We're saying I'm choosing to focus on what I've been forgiven of.

Paul doesn't say forgive because they deserve it.

He doesn't say forgive because they apologized correctly, because it wasn't so serious.

He says, forgive just because and just as God forgave you.

And I can know if I can just remind us today, brothers and sisters, friends, you did not deserve to be forgiven.

But he forgave you anyways.

The pattern and the power for our forgiveness is the forgiveness that we have already received through Christ Jesus.

Let me see if I can illustrate it like this.

When we talk about forgiveness, a lot of times, we can talk about, I want to forgive this person, but it seems really hard.

For our illustration today, we're gonna think about this chair as forgiveness, all right?

So here's what happens to us in our life.

We get wounded, we get harmed.

Someone says something to us, somebody does something to us, they leave us out, they say a hurtful comment, we get cheated out of the business deal, we get hurt in some way.

And so then what happens is we're carrying a wound and we look at forgiveness as the destination.

And we say, okay, Clayton, I hear you.

You're saying that I should forgive because Jesus forgave me.

Okay, cool.

Uh that's where I want to get to, but I'm over here, and it's gonna take a lot of work to get over there to that place.

I don't know if I can ever get to that place, but I want to get there, I just don't know how to get there.

But listen, friend, that is a gross misunderstanding of how Apostle Paul just described forgiveness in Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

In other words, we don't move towards forgiveness.

What the Bible says is that we move from forgiveness.

And so that means that when we live our life, we sit in a place of forgiveness because we've already received it because of what Christ Jesus has done.

So when someone harms us or wounds us or forgets us, we're not in another place hoping we might get here.

I'm already sitting in the spot of forgiveness because of what Christ Jesus has done.

So I don't want to say there's forgiveness over there, and I'm gonna move towards that hopefully.

No, I'm moving from forgiveness because of what Christ Jesus already did.

So I don't see someone and I don't say, I hope one day I can forgive them.

I receive what Christ has done, and I say, because of that, I'm moving from it, not towards it.

And you say, okay.

I get it, Clayton.

But it just feels really hard.

Yeah, it's really hard.

I hear you.

I recognize it.

You're saying, okay, I see it's in the Bible.

That illustration makes sense to me, but I just can't ignore it.

Can I ask you something, friend?

Did God ignore the sin in your life?

Let me remind you, you, I, we were born a rebellious race, sinful.

The Apostle Paul says in Romans, it's not just because of what we did, but it's who we are.

And we rejected Almighty God, each and every one of us, and did Almighty God just ignore our rebellion?

Let me just remind you, he did not, because at the cross, he didn't do ignore it because it was dealt with fully through Christ Jesus.

He bore our guilt, he bore our shame, he bore our sin, and your forgiveness cost a lot.

And you're like, yeah, Clayton, that's what I'm trying to say.

It's gonna cost me a lot.

And I'm saying, no, no, it already cost a lot.

Sure, it might cost you your pride, your ego, you letting the grudge go.

But for the believer, the greatest cost has already been paid for by Christ Jesus.

So we don't move towards forgiveness, we move from forgiveness.

Why?

Because a forgiving, a forgiven heart is a forgiving heart.

And so you're sitting here and you're like, okay, Clayton, but the person that harmed me is dead.

Okay, Clayton, but forgiving that person isn't gonna change anything about my life.

Forgiveness doesn't change the past, but through the grace of Christ Jesus, it can keep it from controlling the future.

Because at the cross, Jesus did not merely teach forgiveness, he demonstrated it.

Do you remember what he says as he's hanging, beaten and bloodied with nails in his body?

In Luke chapter 23, verse 24, he says, What?

Luke 23:24

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

The people crucifying for Jesus are not asking for forgiveness.

And yet Jesus' heart was positioned towards mercy.

Maybe you heard the story of um a couple named Dan and Lynn Wagner.

And Dan and Lynn are from Santa Cruz, California, and um about 15 years ago, they were on their way home, uh, them, their Dan and Lynn and their two girls, Christy and Maddie, who are 14 and 16 years old.

And they were on their way home from a Christian worship event, almost like a J Fest or some Christian conference.

And on their way home through a residential neighborhood where the speed limit is 25 miles an hour, um, another driver under the influence, driving more than double the speed limit, crashes into the side of their minivan.

And Dan and Lynn wake up in the hospital a couple of days later, to every parent's greatest horror, that Christy and Maddie, 16 and 14 years old, were killed instantly in the car crash.

The driver, a lady named Lisa, was under the influence.

She went to jail, obviously, for a manslaughter.

And Dan and Lynn would tell you that over the next months and even the first year of living in the wake of that grief, that they uh their whole life was warped with this anger and resentment toward this woman.

But Dan and Lynn confess that they are bloodwashed believers, that they place their faith in Jesus Christ.

And so as they're spending time in God's word, as they're spending time in Christ's community, the Lord begins to impress upon both of them that they have to forgive Lisa, this woman who drove their, who killed their little girls.

And so finally, Dan and Lynn, they call the parole officer of Lisa, and wouldn't know it, it was about the month that she was about to get released from prison.

This is years later.

And Dan and Lynn ask if they can go and they can meet with this woman, and kind of surprisingly, the county jail uh lets them go and meet with her.

And as they sit across the table from this woman who drove a car into the side of theirs and it killed their little girls, they say the words, we choose to forgive you.

Just weeping in tears.

Imagine their surprise when Lisa, in tears of her own, looks back at her and says, I have given my life to Jesus a couple of years ago because of a prison ministry, and I'm here to ask forgiveness from you.

And then Lynn looks at this woman and says, Will you be our new daughter?

Could you imagine?

And we sit there and we go, There you go again, Clayton.

You're telling some impossible story of something that I'm never gonna be able to achieve.

Friend, if you think that forgiveness is based upon your willingness, we are missing out on what the Apostle Paul is commanding us to do through Christ Jesus.

We don't forgive because of our willingness, we forgive because of Christ's sacrifice already paid for.

Why?

Because a forgiven heart becomes a forgiving heart.

Forgiveness received becomes forgiveness extended.

Amen.

Would you pray with me?

Lord Jesus, we love you.

God, we're so thankful for who you are, for what you've done for us.

God, we're thankful that you are God and that we are not.

God, we're thankful that in our sinfulness and our rebelliousness to you, and our um, God, in our anger and our wrath towards you, your word says that while we were still sinners, Christ Jesus died for us.

So, Holy Spirit, I'm just asking you this morning that you would um just bring anew the realization of how much we've been forgiven.

For the new believer, for the believer who's been following you for 40 years, would you restore to us the joy of our salvation?

Holy Spirit, we can't forgive anybody in our life because we have the willingness or the power or the motivation, but we forgive empowered by your spirit because of what you've already forgiven us of.

Would you help us to walk in the freedom of forgiveness?

Would you help us to be more like you in forgiving the person who's harmed us?

God, we love you, we trust you.

It's in your holy and precious name we pray, and all God's people said Amen.