Welcome to South! We're glad you joined us today! Below you will find some sermon notes and Bible passages, to help you follow along with Pastor Scott's message in a series entitled "Christlike". We hope you will be encouraged by what is taught today.

Do we have to?

If we have experienced the forgiveness of Christ in our lives and are in fact a follower of him, then we MUST FORGIVE someone we have a COMPLAINT against.

We need to remember our identity when it comes to forgiving.

We are holy (clothed in Christ's righteousness) and beloved (we are objects of His love).

We need to put on forgiving qualities.

1) Compassionate Hearts – which is a quality that refers to a desire to display sympathy and mercy toward another.
2) Kindness – closely related to compassion, this quality builds on it as it refers to displaying grace or the mellowing of all that might be harsh.
3) Humility – this quality is really the antidote for the self-love that poisons our compassion and kindness toward others as it simply refers to thinking of others first instead of oneself.
4) Meekness – humility allows us to put on this quality, which is a reference to power under control; and when put on, it allows one to be willing to suffer injury instead of inflicting it.
5) Patience – which meekness allows us to put on, because the Greek word literally means long-tempered.
6) Bearing with One Another - when you are patient you can endure and hold out in spite of persecution, threats, injury, indifference, or complaints and not retaliate - which is what bearing with one another means.
7) Love - the quality that seeks the best interest of others without expecting anything in return.

"Let the peace of God rule in your hearts" - How do we do that?

The peace you are choosing cannot be based on your circumstances of how you were sinned against, but rather on Christ. If the circumstances are ruling your heart, you will never find peace. Secondly, you need to realize that the peace of Christ you are choosing to rule your heart with is based on His sovereign control. The harm that someone brought into your life did not catch Christ off guard. And if we are going to have peace in the midst of that situation so that we might choose forgiveness, then we must understand that Christ is still in control in midst of the pain and hurt you may be feeling because of what was done to you. Thirdly, you need to realize that the peace of Christ you are choosing to rule your heart with is based on his sovereign control to do something good in your life.

Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. The Word of Christ that Paul mentions here is simply a reference to God’s Word, the Bible. Paul’s encouragement to us is that we need to be making the choice to let God’s Word take up residence in our lives in an abundant way, in order that the truths contained in the Word will permeate every thought, word, and deed of our lives.