Martin Hannon - 17th January 2021
Forgiveness & Resilience
There are two players: The first is a video recording of the whole service including the sermon, the second is an audio recording of the sermon only. Questions for home groups: 1. Do you feel release when you forgive someone who has hurt you? If you are able and if you are comfortable, you might share an example. 2. Accepting God's forgiveness can be difficult, what problems do we have with this? 3. What can we do to help people feel and realise they are forgiven? 4. Do you hold on to things that you should forgive? How should we tackle this problem? In his book, The Forgiving Book, Desmond Tutu writes, “Forgiving and being reconciled to our enemies or our loved ones are not about pretending that things are other than they are. It is not about patting one another on the back and turning a blind eye to the wrong. True reconciliation exposes the awfulness, the abuse, the hurt, the truth. It could even sometimes make things worse. It is a risky undertaking but in the end it is worthwhile, because in the end only an honest confrontation with reality can bring real healing. Superficial reconciliation can bring only superficial healing.” 5. In our relationships with each other and with God, in what ways does forgiveness help us cope better with adversity? 6. How do we get better at forgiveness? In the Weight of Glory, C S Lewis wrote, "To believe in the forgiveness of sins is not so easy as I thought. Real belief in it is the sort of thing that easily slips away if we don’t keep on polishing it up."
Bible References: Matthew 18:21-35