Trinity Bible Church Ottawa

My Dear Friends,

It has now been two years since we arrived at Trinity Bible Church to join with you in the furthering of God’s Kingdom. Prior to arriving at TBCO we had already heard of the great impact this church had for evangelising and the furthering of God’s Kingdom. God had been doing incredible things at TBCO since it was birthed some 25 years ago.

The past two years have been a miraculous journey as so many people with varying Christian backgrounds came together to discover how we could journey together with God. The one word that I would use to describe this journey is grace. I have seen and experienced so much grace from each of you as this most recent chapter in the history of TBCO has unfolded. You folks have been awesome.

This Sunday we will spend a few minutes celebrating what God has done in “our” church family and individual lives this past couple of years. I for one am a different person/pastor today than I was two years ago. I thank each of you for helping me in this journey. I thank you for the love, encouragement and “grace” you have offered.

When you arrive at church this Sunday you will see a cake at the front of the church with two candles, it’s “our” anniversary. I am hoping that each of you will come to church with a sentence or two (please no more) of thanks to God for what He has done in your life or in His church this past couple of years. The Lord has blessed us so much, this Sunday I will be inviting you to join me in thanking God for His activity in our souls.

Regarding my sermon, this Sunday we will visit our heavenly Father, The King, who sees the debt that we owe and knows that it’s enormous. He knows that it’s gigantic. He knows that we have blown it. Yet he does not approach us with anything but arms that say come home, welcome home, you’re here, I’ve missed you. And he hugs us and he kisses us and he says you are my child. Why does he do that? Why does he treat us with such kindness? Because He is the God whose name is love.

Because he has treated us this way, he asks us to treat others with that same kind of mercy and grace.

So because I received mercy and forgiveness from God, I can forgive others. Simple, right? A plus B equals C. God forgives me, I forgive you. Simple. We’re done. That’s the way it always goes. Right? Right! Isn’t that the way it is in your life? God forgives you and you forgive everybody else.

There’s a problem. I don’t like to forgive. Let’s be honest. I don’t always like to forgive and I bet you don’t either. As I have really thought about this I think the biggest barriers in my personal relationships through my lifetime up to this very day, through almost thirty years of marriage, through being a parent, through close relationships, the deepest barriers that I have to success in my relationships is me. Not wanting to forgive.

This leads us to the truth of our message this Sunday, The unforgiving become the unforgiven.