🎯 EC SUNDAY MESSAGE SUMMARY
May 17, 2026
Focus: Dealing with Offenses & Unforgiveness
Ministered by Pastor Donnette Norman
Unforgiveness is a spiritual bondage that actively works against God's purpose in our lives. In Luke 17:1, Jesus emphasized that offenses are inevitable. It is true that offenses come to test our character, our ministry and is a manifestation of how much we love and care for people.
Offenses come to reveal both the heart of the offender and the heart of the one to whom the offense is targeted. God wants us to refuse to allow them to be stumbling stones, but instead He wants us to see them as stepping stones and embrace vulnerability, love and the ministry of reconciliation.
It was Marion Williamson who once said that “unforgiveness is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die”. We may have done or become victims of strategies such as giving people the silent treatment, getting even with people, spreading just enough information to ensure somebody's reputation suffers, holding grudges and so on, but what we call justice, God calls bondage.
We must realize that every moment we spend keeping hurt, disappointment and pain alive, we are not punishing are offenders, we are imprisoning ourselves. When we truly forgive someone, we will not be offended with them, but see them through the eyes of love and compassion and our hearts are then free to obey God’s instruction towards them. God is a righteous God and he wants us to have righteous emotions at all times. We should never entertain negative emotions.
We must realize that every moment we spend keeping hurt, disappointment and pain alive, we are not punishing are offenders, we are imprisoning ourselves. When we truly forgive someone, we will not be offended with them, but see them through the eyes of love and compassion and our hearts are then free to obey God’s instruction towards them. God is a righteous God and he wants us to have righteous emotions at all times. We should never entertain negative emotions.
Unforgiveness is a battle that keeps hurts, disappointments and pain alive. It is a chain that wraps itself around our hearts and every day we choose NOT to forgive, we are actively working to keep something painful breathing; nursing a wound to make sure that it never heals.
Offenses and unforgiveness must be evicted from our hearts, from the root. God is faithful to reveal the true state of our hearts according to Philippians 3:17. God will extend the revealing of our hearts to wider circles, if we refuse to change. Matthew 18: 15-17 highlights this clearly. God will tell you in a still small voice to let go of your offenses and unforgiveness. If you do not change, he sometimes starts at home where He allows someone to tell you of your negative disposition. He extends to more persons telling you the same thing. If you refuse to change, the circle that your negative disposition is revealed to gets wider, affecting more people.
There is no doubt that offenses and unforgiveness affects our hearts. Some people have mastered the art of skillfully masking offenses and unforgiveness in their hearts by doing kindly acts to others, showing respect and gratitude, giving flattering speeches, being dutiful at church and even having a disciplined prayer life. An embittered heart however cannot be hidden; someway, somehow that unforgiving, offended heart will be expressed through your exhalation.
You must refuse to believe that the act of forgiving someone is weak and frail and that it will grant them permission to hurt you again. This is wrong thinking and wrong thinking is the root of all sins. It is important that we see the severe dangers of walking in unforgiveness and offenses.
God delivered us from the wicked, dark heart of offenses and unforgiveness at Salvation, when He gave us a new heart. We must choose to walk in the purity of this new heart daily.
Our deliverance also lies in listening to the Holy Spirit, keeping communication lines with people open as the Lord leads, because communication promotes interaction and fuels action necessary for reconciliation.
God wants you to love and pray for your offenders. Matthew 5: 23 shows God’s desire for you to first be reconciled with others before you even come before Him to offer gifts.
Examine yourself daily. If you are angry with God for how your life turned out, ask God to forgive you. if you are thinking that there's a position that you should have gotten at school, at work or in the church, embrace God’s perspective about this. if someone spoke to you or treated you badly, rebuked you, falsely accused you, FORGIVE, let me repeat…. FORGIVE, instead of leaving a gap.
If you are saved, keep your heart pure and know that your new heart was never meant to survive in darkness, choose to abide in purity of heart. If you are not saved today, cry out to the Lord for Salvation and He will hear you and give you a brand new heart, free of all offenses and unforgiveness and filled with His ability to love unconditionally.
Summarized by: Keyana Brown
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