Freedom Through Forgiveness | Cornerstone Church | Pastor Linn Winters

The big idea

When someone hurts you, Jesus's plot twist replaces an eye for an eye with forgiveness, handing the offender over to God, and blessing them, because revenge never satisfies.

Jesus offers a better way through the pain people cause us than the world's instinct for revenge. Instead of demanding equal payback, He calls us to forgive, release the offender to God, and even bless them, so that bitterness does not chain and ruin our lives, and so others might see Jesus in us.

Point 1 of 9

Pastor Linn compares Jesus's 'you have heard... but I tell you' teaching style to a movie or book plot twist that upends our expectations. He notes that when Jesus introduces a plot twist it almost always requires faith and feels challenging at first, but life becomes remarkably better on the other side of stepping into it.

Point 2 of 9

Pastor Linn explains that the punishment-fits-the-crime principle underlies U.S. law, but when we import it into personal relationships it becomes revenge, and revenge never calms the heart or brings satisfaction even when accomplished. He clarifies that criminal matters like physical or sexual abuse should be prosecuted, but relational hurts (a withholding parent, an unfair firing, a betraying friend) are the ones this teaching addresses.

Point 3 of 9

Pastor Linn walks through 2 Samuel 13, where Amnon rapes his half-sister Tamar and David does nothing, leaving Absalom enraged. He notes that Absalom's anger was legitimate but that his heart, wired like ours, decided he had to bring justice himself.

Point 4 of 9

Pastor Linn shows Absalom getting his men to murder Amnon at a banquet, illustrating how revenge escalates far beyond the original offense. He contrasts this with a passive-aggressive path of quietly rooting for the offender's pain, noting both leave the avenger, not the offender, trapped, like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies.

Point 5 of 9

Pastor Linn tells the extended personal story of a rat that died inside a wall in his and Lisa's first apartment: closing the door on the smell didn't work, and it eventually filled the whole home. He applies this directly to bitterness carried toward one person spilling out onto a spouse, a child, or anyone who reminds you of the original wound.

Point 6 of 9

Pastor Linn narrates how Absalom, still unsatisfied after killing Amnon, undermined David's authority at the city gate, staged a coup, and was eventually killed by Joab while caught hanging by his hair in a tree. He draws out that Absalom was in line to be king but bitterness caused him to lose God's plan for his life entirely.

Point 7 of 9

Pastor Linn defines forgiveness as tearing up a mental ledger of grievances and declaring the person owes you nothing, distinct from forgetting or restoring trust. He shares his own story of his father abandoning the family, his youth pastor telling him he was becoming just like his dad through unforgiveness, and the moment he chose to forgive a father who never asked for it.

Point 8 of 9

Pastor Linn cites Romans on leaving room for God's wrath rather than repaying evil for evil, and shares how his wife Lisa models this by forgiving people who deeply hurt them and turning them fully over to God without lingering angst.

Point 9 of 9

Pastor Linn returns to Matthew 5's call to turn the other cheek and go the extra mile, explaining that kindness instead of retaliation makes people stop seeing you and start seeing Jesus. He tells the story of his friends Tony and Stacy, where Stacy's sustained kindness through 'the love dare' after her conversion eventually convicted Tony's heart until he wanted what she had.

Take it into your week

Pastor Linn frames the response as one step at a time: forgive, hand them to God, and be kind.