Welcome to our service today. It is great to have you here and we would love to invite you to stay after the service and join us for morning tea.
Directly after Jesus teaches about prayer and gives what we refer to as The Lord’s Prayer, He gives a startling warning about forgiveness. He says that if we refuse to forgive others, God will also refuse to forgive us.
When we don’t forgive others we are denying our common ground as sinners in need of God’s forgiveness. God’s forgiveness of sin is not the direct result of our forgiving others, but it is based on our realising what forgiveness means. It is easy to ask God for forgiveness, but sometimes difficult to grant it to others. Whenever we ask God to forgive us for sin, we should also ask ourselves, “have I forgiven the people who have wronged me?” God forgives us solely because of His great mercy which we don’t deserve. As we come to understand this we will want to become more like Him and therefore pass it on to others. Maybe today some of us need to ask God to search our hearts and show us if there is anyone we need to forgive.
Blessings,
Sandra
Beckenham Baptist Church 