The Transformative Power of Unconditional Forgiveness

### Quotes for Outreach

1. "Jesus has forgiven you. If you're a guest with us, you may know that, you may not know that, but you're going to leave today knowing it, that Jesus has forgiven you of all of your sins. He has paid the price for all of your sins. And some of us in the room may be thinking, we may be on one side like, well, that's not too bad. I'm a pretty good person. Your Bible says you're a sinner. And there's others of us in the room who think, well, there's no way he can forgive me for all the things. He doesn't know everything. No, he knows everything you've ever said, everything you've ever done. And he has forgiven you." [01:25] (35 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "Forgiveness is attitudinal. Forgiveness is a decision made within the heart of an individual to forgive another person. It only requires one party for forgiveness to be offered. This is a common misconception that there requires two willing parties, for forgiveness to be offered. No. Reconciliation, yes. For reconciliation to occur, there needs to be two willing parties. It requires humility among both parties. But for forgiveness to be extended only requires one person. It only requires one person to say, to have the composure and the posture and the attitude to say, I choose to forgive you." [08:46] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "What is forgiveness? It is a voluntary suffering. It's choosing to suffer voluntarily when I say, I choose to forgive you. What are you sacrificing? What are you suffering from? Human nature says, I want to get even. I want revenge. I want to lord it over them. I want to remind them of this from the day, from today until they die. There are things in this room that have happened 20, 25, 30 years ago that we still hold on to, and we bring it up when we go back for family reunions. And to forgive means, I'm going to voluntarily lay down my right to ever bring it up to you again." [10:22] (43 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "Jesus healed somebody who could not pay him back in any way. He, there was nothing this man could do to even, even ask for it. He couldn't even walk. He relied on his friends to bring them there. Boy, it'd be great if, if we all had friends like that, right? Do anything it takes to get them to hear the good news of the gospel. I'll take them anywhere. I'll put them on anything. I'll get them there. I want them to hear the good news. And he heard the good news and he got up and he walked." [19:00] (30 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "Forgiveness is granted before it is felt. A society, here's what I've, what I've, recognized and what we've all recognized as society or a marriage or parenting without prepaid forgiveness is a society on the verge of civil war. If we are waiting for one small act before we blow up at each other and we are on the verge of civil war, we're on the verge of civil war in our marriage. We're in the verge of civil war between parents and children. If we do not learn to live with prepaid forgiveness, grace covers a, a multitude of sins." [27:11] (38 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


### Quotes for Members

1. "As a church, we're to bear with one another. There are times I'm to bear with you or I'm to bear you and you're to bear me. We're to bear with one another, to lean on one another. That's what it means to be a church. We give each other grace. There are days I need grace and there's days you need grace. There's some days we all need grace. And what does it mean to be a community of followers of Jesus? As a disciple of Jesus, I'll extend grace to one another, bear with one another, forgiving each other, forgiving each other. As the Lord has forgiven you, how are we to forgive each other? How am I to forgive you? How are you to forgive me? We're told how. We're told how. And the example is as the Lord has forgiven you." [02:55] (55 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "In our culture today, there's a few options, right? In our culture today, kind of crazy, the culture in which we live because I either withdraw myself, I'm just going to run away. Somebody hurt me, I'm going to run away. I'm going to block them, right? Phones and emails, and I'm going to go a different direction. I'm never going to run away. I'm never going to run into them again. I'm going to withdraw myself. The word cancel has shown up here now in our culture. I'm going to cancel them. I'm never going to give them an opportunity to speak to me, to say anything to me. I'm never going to see them again. I'm going to cancel them so I can withdraw. I can run away. I can cancel. The other option, which is actually celebrated in our culture, is you get revenge. Stand up for yourself. You go after them. Don't let them treat you that way. Go after them. Get angry. Get angry. Which one do you tend to do? Which one is most natural to you? These are common responses to conflict. It happens all the time. It happens even in the church." [07:17] (71 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "What does it mean to truly offer forgiveness to say, do and ask the question. Don't, don't run out of that conversation until you ask the question, do you forgive me? Do you forgive me? And to say, I forgive you means somebody has to pay the cost for, for our relationship with our heavenly father, Jesus, paid the cost. Somebody has to pay the price for sin. The gospel is not just that God loves you. He's going to look the other way on your sin. It's okay. Don't worry about it. No big deal. No, it's penal substitution. It's, it's justice and unconditional love coming together at the very same time. God doesn't overlook our sin. He pays the price because he is a perfect judge. And that sin, there has to be a price for your sin and my sin. There's a price to be paid for sin." [11:50] (52 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "Forgive others as the Lord has forgiven you. And I asked myself, how dare you, Kyle, receive the forgiveness and grace, unconditional love of Jesus and not be willing to extend that same forgiveness to another, person. What does this look like in your life? What does it look like to say, I forgive you? And maybe for some of us, for the first time today, we're hearing what it means to truly forgive. means the debt has been paid. It's been canceled. And Jesus has done that for each and every one of us today." [29:57] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "Philip Yancey is one of my favorite authors. He wrote a book called What's So Amazing About Grace. He says this, God took a great risk by announcing forgiveness in advance. You think about that. There's a risk there. But what if? But what if they don't change? What if they keep doing it over and over? God took. He took a great risk by announcing forgiveness in advance. And here's what God did. He left us the freedom to either accept it or reject it. My friends, your sins have been forgiven. You have a choice to either accept that or reject it. The choice is yours." [31:08] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)