25 Jun Pardon Me (Because my forgiveness does not begin with your apology) PART 3

God forgave us fully, finally and freely and that is exactly how we should forgive others…fully,
finally, and freely! We must not allow ourselves to become bitter.

Over the past few weeks we have been sharing this message based on Ephesians 4:30-32,

“And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby you are
sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and
evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.”

We then shared a few of the key words in these powerful Bible verses. The
Greek word translated “bitterness” is pikria which means “to be sharp or bitter.” The Greek
word translated “wrath” is thumos which means “to breathe hard.” The Greek word for
“clamour” is krauge, which literally means “to throw a fit.” The Greek word for “evil speaking”
is blasphemia, which means “to slander.” The Greek word for “malice” is kakia, which means
“bad or badness.”

In verse 32, the Greek word translated “tenderhearted” is eusplagnos, which denotes “from the
heart.” Finally the Greek word for “forgiving” is charizomai, which means “to grant favor,
forgiveness or pardon.”

Then we began a deep dive into the powerful subject of forgiveness.
We are to forgive “…as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.”

We shared how God forgives us…
1. Fully!
2. Finally!
3. Freely!

Last week we shared with you “Four Bitterness Barometers”:
1. Love graciously even when someone deserves your bitterness.
2. Bitterness is easy. Forgiveness is hard.
3. Bitterness produces bondage. Forgiveness produces freedom.
4. Betrayal is what someone did to you. Bitterness is what you do to yourself.

Then we jump into “13 Forgiveness Facets”:

1. Forgiveness is letting go of vengeance without letting go of justice.
In other words, if someone abused your child, you must let go of the vengeance. You
must let go of your desire to hurt those that hurt you. But that does NOT mean you let
go of the justice. In other words, while we must forgive for our benefit…we should see
to it that the child abuser is put in prison for the benefit of other children! We must let
go of the vengeance without letting go of the justice!

This week we continue our series with…

2. When you forgive, you let a prisoner go free…you!
How do you know if you are still holding unforgiveness? Here are two good indicators:

a. When someone walks in a room…they change your mood.
b. When someone walks in a room…you lose your peace.

3. When you hold unforgiveness you allow the offender to abuse you continually.
Hanging on to unforgiveness is like you drinking poison and expecting the offender to
die! Unforgiveness is like pouring gasoline on your head and lighting it on fire…and
hoping the offender will burn!

4. Forgiveness looks like weakness. However, forgiveness is the strongest thing you can
do because you take your power back!

Please allow me to share with you “7 Principles to get your Power back”:

1) Anger must be fed to continue.

2) You feed your anger with your thoughts and words.

3) If you “bury the hatchet” and the handle is exposed…it is easy to pick up the
“hatchet.”

4) Now your emotional energy is fueling your history at the expense of your destiny!

5) Your anger is at what did happen. The promises of God are what could happen.

6) When we hold onto what did happen…we don’t have the energy to step into what
could happen!

7) When you let go of the unforgiveness and anger…you get your peace, joy, health,
destiny and power back!

Next month we’ll continue our series!