21 Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”

22 “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!

23 “Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. 24 In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. 25 He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt.

26 “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ 27 Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt. 28 “But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.

29 “His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. 30 But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full. 31 “When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened.

32 Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ 34 Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.

35 “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”

He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.

Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.

Take a moment to read through the passages slowly. Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you through them.

Is there a word or phrase that God is drawing to your attention? What is He saying to you through these passages?

1) What stood out to you from the Scripture passages and/or this week's message?

2) In what ways is God challenging you and/or encouraging you through the message?

3) Do you find it easy or difficult to receive God's forgiveness? When does that feel like a struggle for you?

4) Why do you think forgiveness is so central to the gospel? What happens when we are unable to receive and extend forgiveness?

5) What do you think about the quote "resentment is like swallowing poison and waiting for the other person to die"? In what ways is that true?

6) Tamille discussed four things that forgiveness is NOT: weakness, subverting justice, forgetting ,or things going back to how they were before. Did any of these surprise you or stand out to you? In what ways do these misconceptions get in the way of our ability to truly forgive?

7) Tamille described the stages in the fourfold path to forgiveness as described in the book The Book of Forgiving by Desmond and Mpho Tutu: telling the story, naming the hurt, granting forgiveness, and renewing or releasing the relationship. What did you think about this process as a path forward in forgiving? Is there anything you think it's missing?

8) How do we know when to restore and when to release a relationship? What does it look like to release a relationship after forgiving someone? In what ways might a relationship change after being restored?