I've got video clip that I would us to watch and I would like you to tell me what you
think it's about
The Fast show (Series two part 2)
Police men sketch - a lady looses her dog and goes to a police station to report it
missing. The Policemen (Christians) obsessively talk about Jesus. The punch line is that
the police catch the man who stole the dog, and then "forgave him" and "set
him free".
Middle bit
What did you think that was about?
Forgiveness
Stereotypes
Christians / Jesus freaks
You could get a lot of different things out of that
But the thing I would like us to think about is the punch line
" Even better
news, we forgave him and set him free"
It's making the point that Christians are supposed to forgive each other, what ever they
have done
Now how hard is that?!
Does anybody know why Christians are into this forgiving thing?
It's because God wants us to live in a world where people:
get on
don't fight
don't bitch
don't bully
don't criticise
put people down
hold grudges
Learning to forgive is part of that
Now I bet if I asked you to think of
the last hurtful, nasty thing that was said to you it hurts inside
the last nasty thing that you did to someone you feel ashamed / "dirty"
Now we many not admit it, but we all carry this around in our head
It's what the Bible call's sin
Stuff that people have done to us, we've done to them, and we've done to God by ignoring
him
The reasons Christians talk about forgiveness is because the Bible tells us that God can
help us to take that stuff away
I would like us to spend a moment thinking about that
Is there something upsetting you ?
Is there anything you'd like to sort out in your life?
[Hand out paper and pencils]
What I'd like us to do is pray about these things and by doing that we are:
asking God to help deal with the stuff people have said to us
asking God to help us change our ways
So write down something that would like God to help you with
Post it in the prayer box
End bit
The message P23 "In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you
do. You can't get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If
you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from Gods part"