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Feb 28, 2021

Debt Relief (click for resources)

Passage: 2 Corinthians 2:5-11

Speaker: Brian Land

Series: 2 Corinthians

Category: Grace Brevard

Keywords: grace, forgiveness, repentance, confession

The purpose of correction is repentance, and then renewal and hopefully reconciliation. But we often get stuck. When we are the ones corrected, we can get stuck in despair and not able to fully believe we are forgiven. When we are the ones that corrected somebody, we tend to hold grudges, keep score and “make the person pay” over and over, which can become a tool of Satan as he seeks to divide us, keeping us either disbelieving we are fully forgiven by the Lord or falsely-believing that we are better than others.

2.28.21 GBV Livestream from Grace Brevard on Vimeo.

Illustrations

2.28.21 Album

Sermon Discussion Questions

(Click HERE for a printable version)

The Call to Forgive
Think about these things that forgiving others is NOT:

Forgive and Forget - do you “forget” the sin against you?

Ignoring - Is forgiving just ignoring sin?


Dependent - Forgiving isn’t dependent on the offender’s
repentance or change


Restoration - Forgiveness doesn’t necessarily lead to a
renewal of the relationship. Why not?
What about abuse?


Scorekeeping - How do you “keep score” of others’ sins?


Think about these things that forgiving others is NOT:

Obedience - We are commanded to do it
Undeserved - The other person doesn’t “deserve” it
Incremental - It takes time. It’s a process.
Sacrificial - It costs the forgiver a lot
Freedom - It sets both people free
Reflection - It reveals what we believe about our forgiveness.


The Barrier to Forgive
What keeps us from forgiving other?

Evil Weapon - Unforgiveness does huge damage.
Feels good - We like to make the other pay.
Leverage - We like the upper hand
Expensive - It’s really hard to “pay” the other’s debt


The Power to Forgive

Forgiveness cannot merely be a command that requires will power. It has to come deeply from the heart and spawn out of our deep appreciation of BEING FORGIVEN.

“At the cross in holy love God through Christ paid the full penalty of our disobedience himself. He bore the judgment we deserve in order to bring us the forgiveness we do not deserve. On the cross divine mercy and justice were equally expressed and eternally reconciled. God’s holy love was ‘satisfied’ . . . Divine love triumphed over divine wrath by divine self-sacrifice.” John Stott, The Cross of Christ

This next part is your homework on your own. Pray and do this work in your own heart.

Who comes to mind when you go through this?
Take this pain to the Lord.
Ask him to help you see His gift to you.
Plead for the grace to apply it.
Pray FOR the person that has hurt you.

Here's a handful of more questions since this is such a big topic.

  1. How does culture tell us to deal with unresolved conflicts or broken relationships? How is it different from God’s standard?
  2. Is your reaction to hurt or offense in your life an attempt to seek revenge and wound the person who has wounded you? After conflict, do you seek relief or release?
  3. Do you find yourself reacting to hurt and offense more with an outburst or with a quiet, subtle “gnawing teeth” of a bitter heart
  4. What characteristics in your life might indicate that you haven’t fully forgiven past hurts, even if you know in your head what you need to do?
  5. How has hurt changed you from who you were before those hurtful events occurred?
  6. Why do we think we are incapable of forgiving some people? (Ex. “I just can’t seem to forgive them. If you knew how badly they hurt me, you’d understand...”)
  7. Are there any people who have so deeply wounded or offended you that you feel it may be impossible to forgive them? What goes on in your heart when you hear their names, know that you may run into them, or have to be in the same room with them
  8. How should a Christian deal with recurring offenses, especially those that open up old wounds
  9. How might unforgiveness affect our prayers? (See Mark 11:25.
  10. How does forgiveness demonstrate the Gospel to others?
  11. Why do we have a Gospel responsibility to forgive others, even of the worst transgressions?