Forgiven to Forgive | The One Another Way - Ephesians 4:31-32 | Ben Schoening

Amen.

Man, I love, I love to worship.

I love to sing about the worthiness of our God and our King.

If I haven't had a chance to meet you, my name is Ben Schoning.

I serve on the team here at Apison.

And hopefully, when you walked in, you got a worship guide.

Go ahead and open up your Bibles to Ephesians 4.

We're going to be there.

We read the verses that we're going to be going through together here just a minute ago.

John led us through that.

You know, and out of all of the one another kind of instructions that we're going through in this series, today might be one of, if not the hardest one, that we're going to be looking at, right?

Forgiving one another.

And some of you, some of you just perked up right now and you thought about how much the person sitting next to you needs to hear this.

So it's a good thing that they're here.

But but the truth is we all need to hear about this.

We all need to hear about the importance of forgiveness.

Now, the challenge that we have with this word forgiveness is kind of two things.

Number one, we tend to, especially in a setting like this, we have a really hard time with forgiveness because we tend to attach that word to the hardest thing that we've ever gone through, to the thing that has caused us more pain than anything else.

So we have a really hard time offering up this idea of forgiveness when we attach it to that heaviest thing that we've ever experienced.

But we also have a hard time because many of us in here, and I know this is true for me, somewhere along the line in our childhood, we heard the word forget in line with forgiveness, forget or forgive.

Right?

I remember as a kid hearing a song that went, We forgive and forget, when they ask us to forgive, we forgive and forget, when they ask us to forgive, we we think that we were supposed to forget that which we were supposed to forgive.

And so when we couldn't forget those things, we we figured forgiveness just couldn't be an option anymore.

And it's said that forgiveness is kind of the basic foundational Christian attitude, as it's the first thing that we really experienced with Christ, his forgiveness.

Right?

We become so dependent on his forgiveness.

We don't fully know Jesus without knowing his forgiveness.

So we love his forgiveness.

We are completely and utterly dependent on his forgiveness.

His forgiveness is our hope.

His forgiveness is our lifeline.

Without it, we're doomed.

So we are absolutely, completely dependent on his forgiveness.

We rely on his forgiveness.

We need his forgiveness to be extremely liberal.

We need his forgiveness to cover everything.

I mean, do you know how wicked I am?

I mean, can you even begin to imagine how depraved I am?

I'll give you a big hint.

It's about as wicked as you are.

That's about how evil I am.

It's about as evil as you.

And so we are all completely dependent on the forgiveness of Christ.

And the wonderful thing about Jesus' forgiveness is it is for everyone.

It's readily accessible for everyone.

It doesn't discriminate, it's not delayed, it is perfectly and readily available for anybody who is willing to receive it.

And it's perfectly complete, covering all of our sins.

The forgiveness of Jesus is this greatest prize of eternal, of eternal wealth.

There's no way that we can comprehend just how valuable that God's forgiveness is.

So if this is something that's that's so wonderful, if it's something that we've come to know in such this incredibly miraculous way, then why do we struggle so much with implementing this in our own lives?

Right?

Why is it that it's so much easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to give our forgiveness?

It's a whole lot easier for me to say, hey, will you please forgive me?

Than it is sometimes for me to say, I forgive you.

Why is it?

Why is it so difficult?

And so what I want us to do this morning is we're gonna briefly, here in just a moment, talk briefly about what forgiveness is.

We're gonna talk about why we struggle so much with forgiveness, and then we're gonna talk about why forgiveness is important.

Now, we're not gonna have time to get to the how do we forgive, so my hope is that that's some things that you discuss within your small groups this week.

But there's two things that we need to establish first about forgiveness.

Before we talk about the significance of it, we need you just to understand briefly what biblical forgiveness is.

First of all, and you can write this down forgiveness is a condition before it is a confession.

Forgiveness is a condition before it is a confession.

What this means is that before we ask for forgiveness or before we give our forgiveness, our hearts must already be in a posture of forgiveness.

Right?

We must be a forgiving person.

Being a forgiving person is synonymous with being a follower of Christ.

I can't be a follower of Jesus Christ and be an unforgiving person.

It is a condition within our hearts.

So that's first off.

Second of all, the second principle about forgiveness that we need to understand is we won't fully understand, you won't fully understand true forgiveness until you understand that you've been truly forgiven.

We're not gonna fully understand forgiveness until we allow ourselves to meditate on the fact that we have been truly forgiven.

Right?

When I stop and consider how much that I have been forgiven of, I mean, I can't help but be compelled to forgive.

I mean, it's just it just becomes part of who we are.

So again, why do we struggle with it?

Why is it that we struggle with this reality?

And I'd like to think for most of us in this room, we don't want to struggle with forgiveness.

We want to be a forgiving person.

Those of us that profess Christ as our Savior, we don't want this to be a challenge for us.

But let's consider some of the struggles, some of the hang-ups that we have that oftentimes keep us from offering forgiveness.

We read this here a minute ago, but Ephesians 4.31.

It says, get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, and slander, along with every form of malice.

Well, one reason we struggle to forgive, it just says it right here, we're bitter.

Why?

We struggle to forgive oftentimes because we're bitter.

We've been jaded by life.

We've been hurt by others.

So we begin to expect not only less of others, we begin to assume the worst of others.

There's this growing trend in our culture.

It actually has been kind of building for the last hundred years.

In fact, in 1937, there's a philosopher named Bertrand Russell, and he warned us of this growing tendency to see victimhood really not just as a reason for sympathy, but as this badge of moral superiority.

And the more of a victim I am, the more morally virtuous that I must be.

I read a book recently called The Rise of Victimhood Culture.

And there's a whole lot to say about this mindset and how it handcuffs us and keeps us from moving forward.

But one thing that this victim mindset leads us to is this false belief that we are morally elite and we're superior to others around us.

And so we become bitter towards people.

Right?

We start assuming the worst of others.

And this causes us to be stingy with forgiveness.

Right?

I'm not gonna offer you forgiveness.

I'm not gonna give you my forgiveness.

You're you're not you're not worth it.

I mean, we demand an apology from people.

We we demand it, we're expecting it.

But but we're gonna hold back whether or not we're really gonna forgive that person.

We're gonna make sure that that apology meets our standards.

I'm gonna make sure that that apology is sincere, that it's genuine before I give you my forgiveness.

Well, this completely contradicts the character of Christ, who, while I was still a sinner, look what it says in Romans 5.

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

He didn't wait to see how sincere my apology was going to be.

He didn't wait to consider how obedient I was gonna be.

What about when Jesus was on the cross?

Remember what he said?

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

He was offering his forgiveness to a people who were completely unwilling to even be repentant of it.

But he had a heart, he had this mindset of forgiveness.

He offered his forgiveness because he had a forgiving heart.

I mean, all of us, all of us in this room will face hurt and unjustice, and many of you in here, many of you in here have had more than your fair share of hurt and injustices in your life.

But bitterness is heavy and it's oppressive.

The forgiveness of Jesus is very freeing, it's very light.

Right?

We gotta get rid of this bitterness.

But the other the other thing that it says here, another reason we're kept from having this forgiving heart is we're angry.

We're angry.

How many of you know an angry person?

I mean, they just they just don't look at the person next to you.

That's rude.

Right?

They just they just always seem to be angry.

They lash out at others, maybe because they've been lashed out so much.

You know, they they've they've adopted not what the golden rule is, but what I call the rusted rule of I'm gonna do unto others before they do unto me.

Right?

I'm gonna get at this person before this person ends up hurting me.

You know, when we think of an angry person, we think of a guy like Ebenezer Scrooge or the character that Clint Eastwood played in whatever movie he was where he says, get off my lawn, right?

When we think of an angry person, we think of these characters right here.

But you know, the truth is, unfortunately, the reality is we live in a very angry culture.

There was a fairly comprehensive study done by the American Psychological Association back in 2024.

It's a couple years ago, and it found, the results found that we have significantly increased in anger in the last 10 years.

The two overwhelmingly correlations for this anger and rage was number one, social media.

Number two, a 24-7 news cycle.

Right?

We are glued to this concept of being angry.

Right?

I mean, there's been several studies that have found that people are more likely to engage with content that causes outrage.

Right?

And news outlets, they know this.

I mean, they they've they've kind of been living with this mantra, feeding their algorithms of if it bleeds, it leads.

Right?

They know let's just let's just keep everybody angry.

And what this actually creates is this this cultural mindset in thinking that the world is more hostile than it actually might be.

But we're so focused on those things that cause us anger.

In fact, in some ways, many people have come, become almost addicted to their anger.

It's the emotion that they feel and they sense more than anything else, and so they build a tolerance to that, and now it must increase.

Now we read in just a few verses before this passage in Ephesians 4, verse 26 and 27, it says, be angry and do not sin.

Ephesians 4:26

Do not let the sun go down on your anger, give no opportunity to the devil.

Do you know how hard it is to be angry and not sin?

I mean, I would contend that not many of us in this room today, me included, practice righteous anger.

I I think we'd like to think that we do, but but to to actually think that that we get angry and not have slanderous thoughts towards others, not sin in our anger, would generally be a lie.

Right?

We we get angry, now sure we might not break stuff, you know, throw stuff, cut someone out.

We might not do any of that stuff, but but we start having some slanderous thoughts.

We start having some ill-will thoughts towards people.

We start wishing and hoping for their demise.

Right?

In fact, what we just read here in Ephesians 4.31, it says, get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, and slander along with every form of malice.

Right?

What this is saying is that we we tend to insult one another.

We talk about one another behind each other's back.

We even make attempts to ruin people's reputations.

That's what slander and malice is.

We want, we fantasize even sometimes about them getting caught and them getting in trouble.

And obviously at this point, we are miles and miles away from forgiveness.

We are so far from the line of forgiveness we can't even see it.

And so that's why we've deceived ourselves in thinking that we have righteous anger because we haven't done anything wrong.

We have forgotten about what we're doing in our minds, which is not feeding a heart of forgiveness.

That's why we're instructed, not just in Ephesians, but in Colossians, Paul's not only having to tell the church in Ephesus this, he's also having to tell the church in Colossae this.

It says in Colossians chapter 3, put away all anger and wrath and malice and slander and obscene talk from your mouth.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

In James 4, James says, do not speak evil against one another, brothers.

You know why God's people had to be instructed not to speak evil against one another?

Because they were speaking evil against one another.

That's why it had to continue to be instructed to God's people.

Bitterness and anger and rage and slander and evil towards others, this all hinders us from becoming more like the person of Jesus Christ and walking in the true freedom that He offers.

So then so then why forgive?

Why would we forgive?

Yes, there is the passage today, I'll read it again.

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.

And then it says, be kind to one another.

Tenderhearted, forgive one another as God in Christ forgave you.

So we have the whole obedience component here, right?

We're supposed to forgive because we're told to forgive.

We even have this I forgive because I've been forgiven component.

But but why else would we forgive?

I mean, what's the what's the whiffem?

What's the what's in it for me component here?

Why would I forgive?

First of all, that's a very arrogant and self-centric place to function from when we're seeking to apply God's scripture to our life.

But God, in his mercy and in his grace, he offers us more blessing after blessing after blessing when we walk in obedience.

So let's consider why walk in forgiveness, why practice forgiveness?

Well, first of all, forgiveness can lead to restoration.

Forgiveness can lead to restoration.

You know, the enemy loves to divide by dissension.

It's really the first ploy.

His first strategy was to deceive and then divide.

He did it with Adam and Eve.

He lied to them and then he divided them.

Right?

It was Adam blaming Eve, Adam turning his back on Eve instead of being reunited with her.

The same thing happens in the church.

It happened in the early church.

Let's read in 1 Corinthians together.

Paul says this, I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, to live in harmony with each other.

Let there be no division in the church.

Rather be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.

For some have told me about your quarrels.

Some are saying, I am a follower of Paul.

Others are saying, I follow Apollos, or I follow Peter, or I follow only Christ.

Has Christ been divided into factions?

Now, these were divisions that were happening over doctrine, but it was still division nonetheless.

Do you think that the enemy knows that more can be accomplished when the church is united?

Of course he does.

Of course he does.

So he's going to make every effort he can, every attempt he can, to divide and descend the church.

In 1946, an accidental duo was formed.

Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, they formed accidentally.

They performed together.

It wasn't intended to.

And for the next 10 years, these guys became the biggest money-making duo in all of Hollywood at that time.

In their 10 years together, they made 16 movies together, they would have collaborated on a bunch of other projects and shows and things like this.

They would have been making$4 million a year, which in today's money was much more like$50 million a year.

And what was unique about these two was that every single thing that they did together in those 10 years, everything was profitable.

Everything was profitable.

But then in 1956, this duo came to an abrupt end because of their pride and their egos.

And many would talk about what the world lost out on in terms of entertainment.

Right?

What could have been had these guys been willing to lay aside their pride and their egos.

Now, there's probably all kinds of stories like this.

You could probably spend a ton of time looking into like Hollywood fallouts and celebrity feuds, but I would not recommend that.

I would think it would be a complete waste of time.

You have another story in the Bible given to us with Hosea and Gomer.

Some of you are familiar with the book of Hosea.

And the majority of the book of Hosea, it's one of the minor prophet books, and it's and it's about the warning of God's judgment on his people.

But we get a little snippet of Hosea's personal life.

Hosea is instructed by God to marry an adulterous, unfaithful woman named Gomer.

And so he does.

But she apparently goes back to her adulterous, unfaithful way of life.

And God instructs Hosea to walk in forgiveness.

God says this to Hosea, go show love to your wife again.

Though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress, love her as the Lord loves the Israelites.

What the Lord was going to do through Hosea's forgiveness was restore the identity of purity and honor into Gomer's life as Hosea's wife.

He was going to use forgiveness to restore her identity of purity.

She didn't deserve it.

She didn't earn this forgiveness, but it was going to be a forgiveness that can only come from God.

There was no way that Hosea was going to have this kind of forgiveness on his own.

This forgiveness was only going to come from the Lord, and it was going to restore her identity.

The true message of forgiveness and restoration is that while our offered forgiveness might not restore the relationship, it might not restore the relationship.

It's going to restore our identity.

A crucial part of my identity is that I am a forgiven saint.

I am a forgiven child of God.

That is a crucial part of my identity.

It is probably the most significant part of my identity.

Before my identity as a husband, before my identity as a father, before my identity as a son or as a pastor or anything else, my primary identity is that I am a forgiven saint.

I am a forgiven child of God.

So when I choose to forgive, I am being restored back to who Christ created me to be: a forgiver.

Just like Christ, I'm a forgiver.

And so we have to fight against this notion that the person we are choosing to forgive doesn't deserve my forgiveness.

You know who doesn't deserve to be eternally forgiven?

You.

Me.

We don't deserve this kind of forgiveness.

And so you might be right.

The person that you're choosing to forgive doesn't deserve your forgiveness.

They haven't offered an apology.

But the greater goal here is not the restoration of a relationship before it is the restoration of identity.

Forgiveness can lead to restoration, but forgiveness can also lead to reconciliation.

Forgiveness can lead to reconciliation.

You know, right?

Reconciliation, it can be interpreted, it can be understand in a few different ways, but there's a biblical understanding that we need to press into.

I want to read a passage out of 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

It says this if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away, behold, the new has come.

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their sins against them, and entrusting to To us, the message of reconciliation.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.

We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

The word reconciled is mentioned five times in these three verses.

So there must be something important about this principle that we need to lean into.

Now, what we have the tendency to do when we think of the word reconcile, especially within the context, I oftentimes, most often, will use this word when I'm doing marriage counseling.

And so we oftentimes tend to use the word compromise interchangeably with the word reconcile.

We kind of think those two principles are alike.

And sometimes there is compromise can be kind of an appropriate idea or concept.

One of the ways to understand this from a biblical perspective is that the word reconciliation in this biblical sense in 2 Corinthians 5 means to exchange at equal value.

Right?

That's one way we get hung up on this.

It's that whole equal value thing because we value things differently.

I mean, I'll give you a personal example of this.

Jen and I, my wife and I, we have very different ideas of what a date night should look like.

Jen wants to stay at home and have dinner and then spend some time on our back porch.

I want to go out and have a date out, right?

Now, why?

What are the underlying values as to why we want these differing things?

Well, for Jen, she doesn't like spending money.

I think I've shared that with you before.

So when we're out, we're spending money, she doesn't enjoy it that much.

But for me, I value lack of clutter and lack of a mess.

So when we're at home, I can't really sit and enjoy it because I know we need to clean up the mess we just made.

Now, the the easy compromise would be okay, this date night we're gonna stay home.

The next date night we go out.

That might be the easy compromise here.

Now, this is an easy compromise.

This is an easy point of reconciliation, and yet we oftentimes struggle with even these easy things.

Here's another example that I always use when I'm talking about reconciliation with couples.

I want you to imagine that this half of the room, you're downtown over in St.

Elmo.

Okay?

This half of the room, you're over in Lookout Valley.

So right here in the middle is Lookout Mountain.

Okay?

Over in St.

Elmo, you're looking up at the top of Lookout Mountain.

And over in Lookout Valley, you're looking up at the top of Lookout Mountain.

Who has the right view of the top of Lookout Mountain?

Who has the right view?

Or?

We both do.

We both have the right view.

We're both looking up at the top of the mountain, but from two varying perspectives.

Now, when we apply the other definition of the word reconciliation that we just read about in 2 Corinthians 5, the other way to understand this is that we are brought back to oneness.

We are brought back to sameness.

And so the key is who's going to be the first one to leave their side of the mountain and go and see it from another perspective?

Who's going to be the first one to deny themselves?

Remember what it says in Matthew 16, where Jesus says, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me?

Right?

This is one of those opportunities we have to deny ourselves and be willing to see it from another person's perspective.

This is how we practice reconciliation.

Now, again, we're talking about really easy things here.

We're talking about really simple things here.

We're talking about things that we have differing opinions on, but we're both right.

There isn't necessarily a wrong.

So how in the world do we apply this same principle of reconciliation when someone has actually wronged us, when there isn't a right perspective?

I mean, I'll use myself as a personal example, because there are times where I have actually hurt Jen.

I've mistreated her, I've misspoken to her.

I don't have a right perspective.

She doesn't need to come and validate what I was thinking or doing or saying to be right.

But a way that she can practice this is by saying, hey, I can understand and I can see that you were really stressed today.

I can understand that you're really having a tough day and you're lashing out at me.

I don't like that.

I don't appreciate that.

But I forgive you.

Right?

That's her offering, her reconciliation.

That's her offering this kind of forgiveness by at least being willing to go and see from my perspective, even if my perspective wasn't right.

This is what Christ modeled to us.

When Christ reconciled himself to us, right?

When Christ modeled to us, he stepped into our humanity.

He didn't sin, but he experienced everything we experienced.

And so he's able to say, Hey, I know what you did.

And even though I don't like what you did, it wasn't right what you did, I have a better plan for you.

And I do forgive you.

This is how he demonstrated to us that he reconciled himself to us, and so we need to do the same thing in return.

We need to practice this same effort that Christ practiced.

It says in Romans 12, it says, if it is possible, as far as it depends on you, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

We must work as hard as we possibly can to pursue reconciliation.

Christ modeled this to us perfectly.

A people who didn't deserve it, a people who didn't earn it, a people who didn't ask for it, but a people who are absolutely desperate for it.

Now, let me just I just want to add this one kind of disclaimer about reconciliation.

Some of you know I'm I'm an adjunct professor in a graduate counseling program at Liberty, and so I'm gonna put on my professor hat for a second.

And I don't want to get too much in the weeds of this, but reconciliation might not, and oftentimes is not always attainable.

Right?

For example, the the person you might need to forgive has already passed away.

And so while forgiveness, it always starts in the heart, reconciling with that person can't be an option.

But but your forgiving heart is you being reconciled back to the person of Jesus.

But but similarly, there might be someone you need to forgive in your heart, but it would be incredibly inappropriate or even wrong to reconcile with that person.

Because maybe that person you need to forgive has been someone who has incurred abuse or or or trauma, and there's there's no way that person is willing to be repentant or reconcile.

And so in this case, reconciliation with that person is not necessarily possible.

That's not necessarily the goal.

But again, like the first example, embracing and having a heart of forgiveness towards that person is you reconciling your heart to the heart of our Savior.

Does that make sense?

Having a forgiving heart will lead us to reconciling with our forgiving Savior.

So forgiveness can lead to restoration, forgiveness can lead to reconciliation, and then finally, forgiveness can lead to redemption.

Forgiveness can lead to redemption.

You know, the more I walk with Christ, the more amazed I am by the power of his redemption.

I mean, the fact that he can take not only worthless things, but things that were intended to actually cause damage, things that were intended to hurt me, things that were intended to destroy me, he can turn those very things into the greatest victory of my lives.

My life.

It completely blows me away.

It's awesome, it's miraculous.

Ephesians 1, earlier in the same book, Paul writes, In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he has lavished on us.

I mean, we we know what it is to redeem something, right?

We take something worthless.

In fact, Jen and I, our last date, we had a piece of paper.

It was worthless.

It was an absolutely worthless piece of paper until we turned it in at the restaurant that night and it was a buy one, get one free.

All of a sudden, this worthless little tiny piece of paper had a value of like$26.

That's what redemption is.

We take something that is meaningless, that's worthless, we redeem it for something that's of value.

You know, it's it's fascinating.

I read I read about some things that were created by accident, that were created really out of failures.

The microwave, for example.

Microwave oven.

It was invented in 1945.

This engineer by the name of Percy Spencer, he was he was testing these radar magnetrons, and as he was doing that, he noticed the candy bar that he had in his pocket started to melt, right?

Realizing that these electromagnetic waves cooked food really fast, which led to the first commercial microwave.

Post-it notes.

Post-it note, 1968, there was a scientist named Percy Spencer Silver.

He accidentally, accidentally, he created this weak but reusable adhesive.

It wasn't really good enough for anything, it couldn't stick permanently, but years later, a colleague of his took this weak adhesive, reusable adhesive, and he would use it as bookmarks in his hymnal.

My favorite one that I read about was the potato chips.

It was in 1853.

It was at this resort called the Moon Lake Lodge Resort in Saratoga, New York.

And there was a favorite dish that was there at this at this lodge.

It was called, the dish was called French fried potatoes.

They were thick cut, French fries, really, was what probably what we know as steak fries.

And there was a chef that was there.

The chef's name was was George Crumb.

He was this mean, uh, just kind of grumpy, short-tempered chef.

I don't know why chefs are like that.

Why have chefs become like these drill sergeant type of people?

Anyway, maybe it starts with George Crumb.

So he he's he's cooking one night for this equally short-tempered, stubborn customer.

And the French fried potato dish comes to this customer.

This customer starts complaining about the potatoes being too thick.

He demands that he gets a new order, and so it's taken back to George Crumb, and George Crumb is fuming with anger.

And so, in his pettiness, George Crumb decides that he's gonna cut these potatoes as thinly as he possibly can.

He's gonna flash fry them and then douse them with salt, and then as the plate is being taken out to this customer, George Crumb is actually watching.

He's waiting for this customer to just get irate, which was only going to be to the pleasure of this sinister chef, right?

But instead, he sees the customer really enjoy these potatoes.

In fact, this customer starts inviting others to share to try these potatoes, and eventually George Crumb opens a restaurant with Saratoga chips being the kind of the flagship item.

Right?

Now, these are all these are all uh um inventions that were birthed out of frustrations or out of failures.

They were they were failures that turned into fortunes.

Here's what we must understand about the nature of our Almighty, all-wise God.

There is nothing wasted on Him.

And we just we just sung about that.

There is nothing wasted on Him.

There's nothing that has happened in our lives.

There's no hurt, there's no pain, there's no damage that is either been caused by us or to us that He can't redeem and do something incredibly beautiful with.

Ephesians 4.32.

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.

When we forgive, when we allow God to redeem those very things that so deeply hurt us, that wounded us, that sought to destroy us, we are becoming more like the person of Jesus.

We are surrendering all of it to Him and allowing Him to do what only He can do.

When it comes to forgiveness, right, what's in it for us?

Why would we forgive?

Well, we're restored, we're being restored back to who God created us to be.

We're being reconciled back to Christ, back to oneness with Him.

We're getting rid of all of that bitterness and the anger and the rage and the slander and the malice and the sinisterness.

We're getting away from all of that and pressing into becoming more like the person of Jesus, being one, being the same with him.

And then we forgive because we allow him to utterly take those things that are worthless in our life.

Those things that were intended or meant to destroy and rob us from life.

And we're allowing God to do what only he can do and redeem that hurt, redeem that pain for something that he's gonna get the glory of.

So here's how I want us to respond now.

We're gonna sing the song we sang last week at the altar.

And there's a couple different ways that I would encourage you to respond this morning.

One, we can respond just simply out of gratitude for his forgiveness.

I mean, maybe you just need to allow yourself to be overwhelmed by how much you've been forgiven of.

That's one way we can respond.

But another way that we can respond is we can ask the Holy Spirit to start doing some work of purification in our lives.

We can start asking God to reveal to us those people or that person that we need to forgive.

It needs to start in our heart.

I am not I'm not advocating that right now you have to text that person, right?

And make it all right now.

It's not what I'm advocating for.

What we're asking, what we need is to first have a heart like our Savior.

I'm gonna invite us to stand right now.

I'm gonna pray for us, and we're gonna respond in that way.

Heavenly Father, Jesus, we thank you for the forgiveness you so freely offer to us.

It's it's amazing, it's it's powerful, it's miraculous.

We can't live.

We have no existence, we have no hope without it.

And Jesus, we want to be like you.

We want to be restored back to who you created us to be.

We want to be reconciled to you.

We we want you to redeem these hurts, these tragedies in our lives.

Use it for your good.

We lay it down.

We lay it all down before you now to be lifted up and exalted in our lives in Jesus' name.

Amen.