10/14/2026
14Oct2026
Wednesday Bible Study
Minister Lisa Minor
"Forgiving Our Debts As We Forgive Our Debtors: The Danger of Unforgiveness"
Sermon Notes:
The Lord's Prayer: Matthew 6:9-13
Matthew 6:6,12
*Jesus taught us how to pray. Your Father knows what you need before you ask.
*A debt is a sin; forgiveness tears up the IOU.
*Debt in Aramaic means sin. Forgiveness is cancelling a debt that can never be recovered.
Jeremiah 31:34
God's memory loss:
1. We repent
2. God forgives
3. God chooses not to remember.
*Yet we replay the failure, revisit the guilt, reopen what God [has] closed.
Matthew 6:14-15
*When we fail to forgive, we starve our soul. We need forgiveness daily, like daily bread.
Matthew 18:21-35
Why is unforgiveness dangerous?:
1. It blocks God's forgiveness.
*Matthew 6:14-15
*Mark 11:25
2. It hands legal ground to the enemy.
*Ephesians 4:26-27
*Matthew 18:34-35
Who forgave the "Unforgivable"?:
*Jesus (Luke 23:34)
*Joseph (Genesis 50:19-20)
*David (1 Samuel 24, 26)
*Stephen (Acts 7:50)
*Esau (Genesis 33:4
*The Prodigal Son's Father (Luke 15:11-32)
*"Forgiving does not mean it was OK. It does not excuse what happened. It means you move on without harboring unforgiveness."
3. It poisons you and defiles others
*Hebrews 12:15
4. It hinders your prayers and worship
*Matthew 5:23-24
*1 Peter 3:7
*Modern-day examples of radical forgiveness:
1. The Mother Emanuel AME Church Shooting (June 17, 2015):
*Following the tragedy, the families of the victim's chose forgiveness over hatred. Rev. Anthony Thompson, who lost his wife, Myra, testified that choosing to forgive immediately was a necessary act of Christian obedience to prevent their own spirits from being consumed by the shooter's hate.
2. Mary Johnson-Roy & The Adopted Spiritual Son:
*In 1993, Mary Johnson-Roy's 20-year old son, Laramiun Byrd, was shot and killed by 20-year old, Oshea Israel. For twelve years, she hated the man who killed her son. But, she recognized that bitterness was "eating her from the inside out," and she chose to visit Oshea Israel in prison. Following a conversation with him, she chose to forgive him, and the two built a close, maternal relationship.
*The enemy attacks thoughts, emotions, decisions, then the body.
*Unforgiveness holds the body in chronic “fight-or-flight”.
What unforgiveness does to the body:
*Heart strain and high blood pressure
*Weakened immune system
*Higher risk of Type 2 diabetes
*Digestive distress
*Unforgiveness is drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.
*Letting go relaxes muscles, steadies blood pressure and lets the immune system rebound.
"Forgiveness is not weakness, pretending everything is OK, denying what happened, or giving people access again, or allowing abuse.
"Forgiveness is the strength to release yesterday:
*Freedom: no longer controlled by what happened to you.
Forgiveness is internal; restoration is relational:
*Forgiveness: "I release you"; Forgiveness removes bitterness
*Restoration: takes two people willing; Wisdom says “you no longer have access to me”
Released, not reassigned to pain:
*Mercy without truth becomes enabling
*Grace is the power to move on, not to stay in bo***ge.
"Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Walk in the authority God has given us. Walk in the victory of living out God's purpose."
