Forgiveness - The Unmerciful Servant
Heavenly father, this morning I ask that you would help us to see you more clearly. That is we open as we open your word that we would behold you and who you are and who you have called us to be in light of that. Lord, I ask that you would open us up as receptive hearers, but that you would also help us to be not people who simply look into a mirror and forget what we look like or look into your word and forget to do it, but help us to be doers of the word as well. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Speaker 2:Amen. Good morning, Conduit. How are you? Good. We're gonna continue on the series in forgiveness.
Speaker 2:This is the second of second message in the series, probably before or 5 weeks. And as always, if you miss a message here or there, you can always catch them online, afterwards on our YouTube channel, or Facebook page or wherever. So we're gonna jump right in this morning, maybe hit some of the things that we talked about last week, but try to cover a lot of ground, this morning. We have 2 things about forgiveness that kind of pull to understandings of forgiveness. They kind of pull against each other.
Speaker 2:They create some tension. Okay? We're gonna talk about those first. Little hope about what forgiveness is and what it takes to
Speaker 3:forgive, what it
Speaker 2:takes to experience forgiveness. It's a realization that, we all need to come through that forgiveness is a miracle. It is supernatural. And we need a supernatural miracle, a supernatural intervention of God into our circumstances to make forgiveness possible. What is impossible based on our emotions, what is impossible based on how we're feeling towards someone who has hurt us, how we how how we want to act in the midst of or in relationship to someone who has injured us.
Speaker 2:God is God works a miracle in that. So for under we need to understand first that when we are asking the Lord to help us to forgive someone else or to create in us a heart and spirit of forgiveness, to create the impossible in us. But that is not to say if we say that forgiveness is a miracle,
Speaker 3:that is not
Speaker 2:to say that forgiveness is 100% dependent on God doing it for us. This is the tension. Right? We have the tension. We have this thing, this realization that forgiveness is a miracle over here, and it pulls us this way.
Speaker 2:But we also have this understanding over here that forgiveness is not just a miracle that God does. Forgiveness is a decision that you and I must make. And our decision to participate in participate in the the the things that God is ready to do, is willing to do, is able to do, but has not yet done. That participation is called faith. Our stepping forward into a future that has not yet been realized, but that God has promised is there if we move forward.
Speaker 2:God has promised that as we, as a forgiven people, extend forgiveness to others, that we will find freedom from our most significant and deep injury, pain, hurt,
Speaker 3:comes at the cost
Speaker 2:of our initial step of faith. We must be willing to act, to move, to step, before we feel like acting, moving, stepping, forgiving. Okay? When we say this phrase that we used last week, when we say forgiven people, forgive people, we are essentially saying that we listen, we understand. I understand.
Speaker 2:Virtually, everyone understands the difficulty of extending forgiveness to those who have hurt us. Forgiveness is first something that we do under our own power, we are really, honestly doomed to failure. Accomplish forgiveness
Speaker 3:in
Speaker 2:our
Speaker 3:lives with
Speaker 2:others. Before. It is impossible for me to forgive that person for that thing that they have done to me. For those words that they said, for that action that they took, for that thing that they did, for that thing that they should have done but didn't do. It's impossible for me to forgive them.
Speaker 2:And in a manner of speaking, I would say, you're probably right. It is impossible. And we will continue to find it impossible to be forgiving people if we do not step into the miracle working power of God offered to us in Jesus Christ to help us forgive those who have hurt us deeply. Said
Speaker 3:this, a little bit
Speaker 2:last week, and, we're gonna talk about it for a minute here. When we when you and I are forgiven, we then do forgiving things. We extend forgiveness. A person is forgiven. And because they are forgiven, they now extend forgiveness to others, which
Speaker 3:leads us as forgiving people to emotional, mental, and spiritual freedom. We looked
Speaker 2:at and spiritual freedom. We looked at this triangle from last week, right? And we we asked the question, what is our identity as people of faith in Jesus Christ? Well, when we confess our sins and repent of our sins, the scripture says that, first John, first John chapter 1 verses 8 and 10 that, if we say that we are not we are without sin, we lie and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Speaker 2:Right? Peter says in Acts chapter 2 verse 38, repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins. Right? So when we confess our sins, when we repent of our sins, we are forgiven of our sins and our identity changes. We are no longer for forsaken in sin.
Speaker 2:We are now found as forgiven children of God. Our identity changes. Our identity is now as a forgiven people. We are children. We have been forgiven of our sins and cleansed from all unrighteousness.
Speaker 2:That is who we are. Because that is who we are, we do things that those type of people do. Forgiven people forgive people. Since I am a forgiven person in my identity, the action that I take is one of extending forgiveness to others. We're gonna see how that is a necessary component of forgiveness according to Jesus this morning.
Speaker 2:We're gonna see all throughout the gospels that those are forgiven. Those who are forgiven, a necessary component of their forgiveness is the extension of forgiveness to others. So forgiven people forgives people. Once our identity informs our actions, actions, then we begin to feel as though we have been set free from the burden and hurt of what people have done to us. And our feelings change.
Speaker 2:We no longer hold on to bitterness for what has happened to us. We no longer hold on to hurt. We no longer hold on to anger. We no longer heard hold on to malice and rage. But what have we often done?
Speaker 2:We've often taken this triangle and flipped it upside down. And we've put feelings on the bottom and actions in the middle and right and identity on the top. And we've said, okay. Once I start feeling forgiving feelings towards that person, then I will take the action of extending forgiveness to them. And then once I extend forgiveness to them, then I will be identified as a forgiving person.
Speaker 2:It's actually the opposite is true. We cannot. It is impossible for it is impossible for us to forgive out of our feelings because how many times do you feel like forgiving someone that has hurt you deeply? 0 out of 0 times. Right?
Speaker 2:We don't ever feel that way. And so we wait for the feelings to come. We wait for the feelings to come. We wait for the feelings to come, and they never come. So we never forgive, and we never find freedom from the hurts that have been done to us.
Speaker 2:And so we live in a perpetual state of spiritual, like we're spiritual orphans, not having an identity as being found in Jesus, never being set free from what has hurt us because we refuse to take a step of faith while we still feel hurt. If we were to take this triangle and kind of like superimpose the terms of forgiveness on it, it would look a little bit like this. Because our identity is forgiven, we are forgiving people. When we are forgiving people, we find freedom from our hurt. We find freedom from our injury.
Speaker 2:We find freedom from the things that have been done to us. And if we try to find freedom, if we took this triangle and we turn it upside down and we try to find freedom before we're willing to do the work of forgiveness, we will always be in bondage to those who have hurt us and always be in bondage to the moments that we were hurt. We have to find another way. We have to do it somehow differently. We have to activate our faith in a miracle working God that says when you step into actions of forgiveness, even though you don't feel forgiving, you are going to find freedom.
Speaker 2:That is how we change. Now, I said that Jesus spoke about the connection of forgiveness, god's forgiveness of us, and our forgiveness of others. And we're gonna talk about that extensively this morning. Jesus spoke so vividly
Speaker 3:about forgiveness in the gospels.
Speaker 2:He left really nothing to be imagined. Is connected to our forgiveness of is connected to our forgiveness of others. Remember last week, we talked about the vertical dimension of forgiveness. Right? God forgives me as I confess of my sins and repent of them and trust in Jesus.
Speaker 2:I'm forgiven through the blood of Jesus. And because I'm forgiven, now I am able to forgive other people in my life. It's impossible for me to forgive other people in my life if I have not grasped the magnitude of God's forgiveness of me. They are connected. We cannot separate the 2 of them.
Speaker 2:Now last week, we talked about how God's forgiveness is that foundation upon which we forgive other people. Right? Forgiven people, forgive people. But Jesus takes the conversation further. He actually offers a dimension to forgiveness, that relationship of forgiveness that we might not expect or might not have seen before.
Speaker 2:For instance, in the Sermon on the Mount in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus says this in Matthew chapter 6 verses 12 through 15. This is familiar, right? Because we pray this in the Lord's prayer. Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. That's like what we talked about.
Speaker 2:Right? Forgiving people, forgive people. I Lord, forgive me of my debts as I in the same way, in the same manner, in the same magnitude that I forgive others. That's pretty common. But let's listen.
Speaker 2:He goes on, and he adds something to it that should listen. If you're holding on to unforgiveness, it should scare you. God's not in the business of trying to like shock you and scare you, but God does want to bring shocking revelation of the Holy Spirit into your heart. To shake you out of your spiritual apathy. To wake you up.
Speaker 2:To open your ears. To open your your eyes so that you see and believe his word. Because he goes on to say this. For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly father will also forgive you. Good news.
Speaker 2:Right? But if you do not forgive others their sins, your father will not forgive your sins. This is a pretty clear statement of Jesus. Right? That the heavenly father is ready, willing, able, eager to forgive you of your sins.
Speaker 2:If we don't usually have if qualifiers or but qualifiers when it comes to things that we receive from the Lord. Because we have developed in some ways a culture of Christianity that says right? Like like we talked about last week. Well, no. God forgives everyone, and God forgives everyone, and God forgives everyone.
Speaker 2:But as we talked last week, like, listen. Forgiveness is universally available, but not universally applied. We must respond to the offer of forgiveness with confession and repentance. And what Jesus himself here says is like, listen. The measure of forgiveness that is offered to you is equal to the measure of forgiveness that you offer to others.
Speaker 2:This is not the only place in the gospels where Jesus says this. He also says it in Mark chapter 11 verse 25. He says, and when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone forgive them so that your father in heaven may forgive you. Now one of these things we're gonna talk about, we're gonna talk about a dimension of this verse next week. Right?
Speaker 2:Because what Jesus says here, also offers like a really, I'll say a difficult truth, but I I believe that it's a freeing truth. Because when Jesus says, and when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them. So that your father in heaven may forgive you. Talked a little bit about this last week. Listen.
Speaker 2:I am extraordinarily aware. Sometimes more aware than I personally and emotionally have the capacity to handle. I am extraordinarily aware of some of the deep, deep hurt that many of you carry. Of the ways in which people have been abusive, harmful, of how you have experienced extraordinary trauma and injury and pain in your life. And you have carried that and carried that and carried that and continue to carry that without having or feeling the opportunity or the conviction or the strength or the faith to set it down before the lord in forgiveness so that you may be healed from it.
Speaker 2:So that you may be healed from it. And so when I talk about the necessity to forgive others for the things that they have done to us, I am not just talking about the small things that are relatively easy to forgive. I am also talking about the very, very significant things that have caused extraordinary hurt and harm to us. Because I believe in the depths of my being and in faith in God's word that when Jesus says, bring it to me. Come to me all you who are weary and heavy burden, and I will give you rest.
Speaker 2:If you stand praying, hold anything against anyone, forgive them so that you might experience the freedom that forgiveness offers and you might walk into the freedom of forgiveness from God. So it is not a minimization of what has happened to us to say that, hey. Listen. As followers of Jesus, we're gonna forgive everyone from for anything. It's not a minimization of the pain.
Speaker 2:What it is is a recognition that the pathway to bring purpose to your pain according to God is forgiveness for the person, so that you may surrender your story to Him, and He can redeem it in His time. So we have Matthew chapter 6. We have Luke chapter, or Mark chapter 11. And then we have Luke chapter 6. Just another example of Jesus saying the same thing.
Speaker 2:What does he say about the measure, the connection of forgiveness between God's forgiveness of us and our forgiveness of others? He says this, do not judge and you will not be judged. Do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and it will be given to you.
Speaker 2:A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Very simple question even coming out of Jesus' words there is, what is the measure of god's forgiveness that you desire to experience in your life? Forgiveness for all things, for big things, for small things. What is the measure of forgiveness that you desire to experience in your life?
Speaker 2:That should be proportional to the measure of forgiveness that you offer to others. But one of the most vivid examples is a parable that Jesus told. It's not even just a statement about what Jesus is saying in the Sermon on the Mount of the Lord's Prayer about forgiveness. One of the most vivid examples of the connection between out god's forgiveness of us and our forgiveness of others is a parable that Jesus told in Matthew chapter 18 called the parable of the unmerciful servant. We're gonna read it here and then talk about it for just a few minutes.
Speaker 2:And by just a few minutes, I mean the rest of the sermon. Alright. So, Matthew chapter 18 verse 21. K? Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?
Speaker 2:Up to 7 times? Jesus answered, I tell you not 7 times, but 77 times. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began to settlement, a man who owed him 10,000 talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
Speaker 2:The servant fell on his knees before him. Be patient with me, he begged, and I will pay back everything. The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a 100 denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him.
Speaker 2:Pay back what you owe me, he demanded. His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, be patient with me and I will pay you back. Sounds familiar. Right? But he refused.
Speaker 2:Instead, he went and had the man throw into prison until he could pay the debt. And when the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened. Then the master called the servant in. You wicked servant, he said. I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.
Speaker 2:Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you? And in his anger, his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart. Now how does this parable start? The parable starts with Peter coming to Jesus with a question.
Speaker 2:Lord, how much, how many times do I have to forgive a brother that sins against me? Should it be and you can just see it in Peter's face. Should it be like, I don't know, something super spiritual like 7 times? It says, you know, not 7 times, but 77 times or 7 times 7 times. Some of your translations, will say, what is the point of Jesus's answer?
Speaker 2:It's like, no. Like, not as many times as you think you should to be super spiritual, but an infinite amount of times, Peter. There is no there there is no magnitude beyond which you can forgive. What's interesting here is that it shows that there is a decided difference between the way a person looks at and thinks about forgiveness and between the way that God looks at and thinks about forgiveness. The person is over here and asking Jesus, like, well, there's gotta be a limit.
Speaker 2:Right? Right, Jesus? I mean, like, after the person hurts us 7 times, there's gotta be this limit of times where I no longer have to forgive them. That seems fair to me. But Jesus doesn't think about forgiveness in the same way that Peter thinks about forgiveness.
Speaker 2:Jesus says, no. We have very different views on limitness, limitlessness of forgiveness, Peter. Here's the reality. Peter was asking the question not to explore the magnitude of forgiveness that he could offer. Peter was asking the question, looking to rationalize forgiving only up to a certain point.
Speaker 2:Have to forgive them anymore. Don't you agree? So what Peter was trying to do was to get the Lord to bless a rationalization for unforgiveness. And Jesus comes in the response to say, there is no rationalization that you can make Peter. Now, lest we get really down on Peter for asking a dumb question that he probably knew the answer to but was looking for some kind of response anyway.
Speaker 2:We do a fantastic job of finding rationalizations for not forgiving people. A really good job. We got lists upon lists. Upon lists upon lists and rationalizations. Right?
Speaker 2:How about this one? Common rationalizations that we often hear, about for unforgiveness. Here is why I'm not forgiving this person. What they did to me is just too big of a thing. It's too big.
Speaker 2:We just talked about this a few minutes ago. Right? This is not a minimization of the significant things that have been done to us in our lives, the things that we have experienced. But we often come to a rationalization of unforgiveness by saying, hey, listen. What has been done to me is so extraordinary and big and heavy.
Speaker 2:There is no way possible that I could could forgive that. And when we come up with what we think are logical reasons to rationalize unforgiveness, there are also logical reasons to, like, defeat those rationalizations. For instance, if you say, well, the thing is too big. It is too heavy. It is too significant for me to forgive.
Speaker 2:All the more reason to set it down. You don't make a rationalization that you're gonna heavy hit, carry a really heavy box all the time and never set it down. And the reason that you're struggling to carry it around in your life and not set it down is because like, I can't set this down. It's too heavy.
Speaker 3:It's
Speaker 2:actually because it's so heavy that moves you to set it down as fast as you possibly can, knowing that laying it down is the only way to become free from the burden of carrying it. Forgiveness is the thing that brings freedom from extraordinarily heavy burdens. It is the pathway that God has determined to bring freedom from the hurt that has been done to us. So if we picture our hurt as a large heavy burden that we must bear but that we didn't choose to bear on our own, it does not make sense for us to continue to carry it if God is making provision in forgiveness for us to set it down and experience freedom. Another rationalization that's often used for unforgiveness.
Speaker 2:Time will heal it. Time will heal it. We even have this not in the bible, not gospel centric thing that we say in the culture that says time what? Heals all wounds. I will tell you anecdotally from my life, it's the things that were done long ago to me that I didn't forgive back then that have the most profound negative impact on me now.
Speaker 2:It's not the things that were done to me yesterday that I'm struggling to forgive or not forgive. It's the things that were done to me a decade ago, 2 decades ago, 3 decades ago. And I walked away from them being like, well, if I just create enough separation between me and the moment that I was hurt I will eventually feel forgiving things. Do I need to go back to the triangle? I'll just time will heal it if I just create enough space.
Speaker 2:But then what happens? You're thinking, oh I've lots of time between me and them. Like, lots of time between me and that moment. And then you run into them at Walmart. Right?
Speaker 2:And all of it just comes like and you realize time healed nothing. Time healed absolutely nothing. Listen. It takes an intentional decision of forgiveness to bring healing, Not time. When an injury has occurred the only thing that time does is promote infection.
Speaker 2:When you have a gaping wound on your body and you go to the emergency room for care, they don't look at it and be like, yeah, no intervention is needed. Just give it some time. You'll be fine. Because there's an understanding if there's not an intentional intervention to bring healing to the place of wounding, the most likely result is infection that leads to death. And when we approach the hurts of our lives with this idea that all I need to do is create is just span a little time between me and when I was hurt, and then I will be fine.
Speaker 2:We we we are setting ourselves up for incredible spiritual infection. Now I will tell you with this next rationalization we're gonna spend a lot of time on this next week. Okay? This the specific topics here. Okay?
Speaker 2:But we we do this rationalization a lot. I'll forgive them when they say that they're sorry. When they say they're sorry, that's when I will forgive them. Well, guess what? It ain't coming.
Speaker 2:They ain't saying it. They're not saying they're sorry. I mean, maybe by the grace of God and the conviction of the Holy Spirit, they come to a place where they realize they have injured and hurt you, and they come to you and say, I have done this to you. Please forgive me. By God's grace, that's what we desire for everyone's life.
Speaker 2:Right? But listen we need to understand that forgiveness happens on 2 planes, right? There's a conversation of forgiveness that happens between me and my heavenly father in prayer. Jesus talked about that Matthew chapter 11 verse 25, right? We already talked about that.
Speaker 2:If while you were praying you realize you have anything against anyone forgive them. Right? So that the father in heaven may forgive you. So there's this vertical dimension, right, of of forgiveness here where I am Lord, please forgive them for the hurt that they have caused them. Let would I forgive them for the hurt that they have caused in my life?
Speaker 2:Lord, please develop within me, a cult cultivate the soil of my life so I have only or I have only a disposition of love to them. Lord, I forgive them for what they have done. It's an opportunity to to pursue forgiveness for that person for what they have done so that your soul can be unburdened from the weight of the hurt that was caused with whatever they did to you. And then there comes, God willing, hopefully, maybe, sometimes, but not all the time, an opportunity to communicate and extend the forgiveness that you have already accessed in relationship in prayer relationship with your heavenly father, to them individually so that they may know that they are now free from the burden of having injured injured you and you need to make it up. You don't need to make it up.
Speaker 2:I've forgiven you. I've canceled the debt. The Lord's forgiveness of me has given me the supernatural miraculous ability to forgive you even though I didn't feel like it and still don't feel like it. You're forgiven. The debt is canceled.
Speaker 2:We are good. I love you. Gonna talk a lot about forgiveness and reconciliation and relationship next week. Okay? Next rationalization that we often give for unforgiveness is this.
Speaker 2:I can't forgive because I can't forget. I can't forget what happened to me. I can't forget what they said. I can't forget what they did. I can't forget that moment and how could I possibly forgive them if I can't forget them.
Speaker 2:And what is actually really true 99.9% of the times is that the reason you can't forget is because you're standing in a place of refusal to forgive. The reason we can't we can't access freedom from the harmful memory of that thing is because we are living in unforgiveness. And what happens is, or what unforgiveness is, is unforgiveness is the conscious decision to regularly revisit and relive the and relive the offense. Did you hear that again? Unforgiveness is the conscious decision to regularly revisit and relive the offense.
Speaker 2:And so we live in this perpetual reliving and revisiting of the thing that has been done to us. We stir it back up in our memory. We cuddle it and nurture it and water it and watch it grow. Because somehow, in some ways, familiarity with the moments and words and people that have hurt us somehow brings us a level of control and comfort over that moment. But it doesn't lead us into freedom.
Speaker 2:It only leads us into death. Last rationalization for this morning is this. If I forgive them, they'll just do it again. Maybe. I mean we're sinful people.
Speaker 2:I've asked anyone that's married, if you've been married for a long time you better become and you're probably an expert in forgiveness. Right? You should be. Asking your spouse to forgive you for moments that you have hurt them, for things that you have said, done or not done. Right?
Speaker 2:And if if Sherry withheld forgiveness from me or I withheld forgiveness from her because I just well I mean she's gonna do it again. Or if she said no I'm not gonna forgive you because I know you're just gonna do it again. Right? Does it make the hurt any better? Does does hurt number 1 successfully work as a shield against hurt number 2?
Speaker 2:It doesn't. Does it? We are not shielded from being hurt again in relationship because we're holding on to unforgiveness. Now we just have 2 things to carry rather than 1. But when we are eager to forgive in all of our relationships and when we willingly forgive, we are constantly free to forgive the next thing because we're not holding on to a whole bunch of heavy things that we thought were gonna protect us over being hurt again.
Speaker 2:Holding on to one hurt is not a shield against continued hurt. We do a great job at rationalizing unforgiveness just like Peter tried to. But if we're not gonna take the way of rationalizing unforgiveness like Peter, what else does Jesus have to say in the parable? Well, he says that look back at verses 23 through 26. He says, therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants, and as he began the settlement, a man who owed him 10,000 talents was brought to him.
Speaker 2:Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had he had be sold to repay the debt. The servant fell on his knees before him. Be patient with me, he begged, and I will pay back everything. Listen, you need to hear this really clearly. Those who have hurt us, those who have harmed us rarely, if ever, accurately measure the depth of the offense.
Speaker 2:They rarely understand how deeply we have been hurt. They rarely understand. They they they rarely accurately estimate or measure the depth of the hurt that has been caused to us. Jesus knows this and uses the parable to communicate it. What does he say the servant owes the master?
Speaker 2:He says he owes him 10,000 talents and then makes the makes the plea just be patient with me and I will pay it back. The question I had going into this parable was like how patient would the master have to be in order for the debt to actually be repaid? Has the person accurately measured the debt that he is in to the master? So let's just do let's do do some quick math. Okay?
Speaker 2:We're gonna math some math here, some ancient math. He owes him 10,000 talents. Okay? A talent one talent is equal to 6 1,000 denari. Right?
Speaker 2:In the ancient Near East. A denari is one day's wage. So if you live in New York State, you work you earn minimum wage, you work for 8 hours per day, you make a $120 a day. 100 and $20 is 1 denari. K?
Speaker 2:So one talent then is equal to $720,000 which means 10,000 talents is equal to 7,200,000,000 with a b dollars. 1,000,000,000. That's what the guy owed the master. Be patient with me, and I will pay it back. We did some quick math in between services.
Speaker 2:And if you were Josh Allen, who the, the Go Bills. Right? Who was making $50,000,000 a year, you would have to play football for a 144 years to pay off $7,200,000,000. Or 244,000 years if you were making minimum wage. The dude didn't estimate the depth of the debt that he was in.
Speaker 2:Right? He had no idea how deep he was in the doo doo. There was, like it was big debt. K? What was the point essentially by Jesus using such outrageous numbers here?
Speaker 2:The debt that the servant was in was unpayable. There is no possible way that this man could have paid off the debt. There was only one way out from underneath the debt that the servant owed the master. And there is only one way out of the hurt that has been caused by others in your life, and that is forgiveness. There is only one way out of the hurt that has been caused in your life, And that is to forgive the one who has hurt you.
Speaker 2:Forgiveness is the decision to release someone from the debt that resulted when they injured you. Now you would think that someone who was forgiven of such significant debt would go out and be like, man. I am on a mission to forgive others just like I have been forgiven. But the point of Jesus remains in the parable here as it does in the other gospel passages that we looked at here. What did the servant do after he was forgiven of 7,200,000,000?
Speaker 2:He goes and chokes someone and throws them in jail for owing him, what, 600 denarii, is it? Or something like that? A 100 denarii, which is equal to what? Josh Allen makes that per pass. Forgiven of 7,200,000,000, Judgment for someone who owes him 12,000.
Speaker 2:What is the master's response when he finds out? Anger. So what did he what what does he do? He drags the servant back in front of him, and he says, I have I have I have forgiven your debt all this much, and then you went out and you threw someone in jail for a small amount of debt? And what does the servant say in response to the master's condemnation in that moment?
Speaker 2:Look in the parable. What does it say? What does he say? What does the servant say when he's called out on the carpet for his unforgiveness? Tell me when you find it.
Speaker 2:What's he say? Find it yet? It's not there. What does the servant say? Nothing.
Speaker 2:Why? Because there's nothing to be said. In the face of such extraordinary discrepancy between what he was forgiven for and what he is willing to forgive, there is nothing that the servant possibly could say. Listen to this. When we refuse to forgive others, we have no cause to ask forgiveness of God.
Speaker 2:What has been forgiven in us is infinitely greater than what we are not forgiving in others. This is how my heavenly father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart. These are the words of Jesus folks. This is not your pastor speaking. So let's say we ask the question then, well then how does forgiveness happen?
Speaker 2:Maybe we walk through a little bit of a process here for a moment. How does forgiveness happen? We might be saying things to ourselves, to each other this morning. Okay. I know my own sin.
Speaker 2:I grasp the depth of the forgiveness that has been offered to me in Jesus Christ. I see it. I understand it. But Lord, I I see my sin. I grasp the depth of forgiveness that has been offered to me by confession and repentance of my sin in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:Step 1. Number step 2, I've now confessed my sin. I've repented of my sin. I am asking God to forgive me. My identity has been changed.
Speaker 2:I am now forgiven. I'm standing in a place of a as a changed person, forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ, cleansed of my unrighteousness, confessed and repented of my sin, understanding what it took to forgive me. Now I I am ready to forgive. The Holy Spirit is now actively, even in this moment, convicting my heart, moving me towards the choice to forgive someone that has hurt me. Listen, I believe with every fiber of my being right now, that the holy spirit of God is speaking into your heart, the person.
Speaker 2:The one. Or maybe the 2 or the 5 or the 10 or the 20. But I know it. That the lord is speaking to you. This is the person you need to forgive.
Speaker 2:The holy spirit is actively working that even in this moment. Convicting your heart, my heart, our hearts. Moving us towards the forgiveness, the choice to forgive someone that has hurt me. So now we are at the moment of forgiveness preparing to journey on the process of forgiveness. Because there is a moment of forgiveness and there is a process of forgiveness.
Speaker 2:The moment is the moment. It is the moment where you decide, I need to forgive this person. Okay. It's a person that I don't have relationship with. It's a person that I can't have relationship with.
Speaker 2:It's a person that I am not currently in relationship with, but they have hurt me significantly. And I need to be unburdened of this pain, and so I'm going to go to the Lord. And I'm going to ask the Lord to help me forgive them that I may be free from this burden. Father, I forgive them for doing this to me. Please work in me a heart of forgiveness that cultivates the soil of love in my heart to them.
Speaker 2:But sometimes, the person that you need to forgive, the person that the Lord is impressing upon your heart even right now is someone that you're still in relationship with. You live with them. Maybe they're maybe they're sitting next to you. Maybe they're in this room. Maybe it's me.
Speaker 2:Maybe it's the guy next door to you. Maybe it's someone that you work with, but you know who the person is, and you still are speaking with them. And they come to you and they apologize. They say, I am sorry for what I did. Sorry for what I said.
Speaker 2:You're in the moment of forgiveness. Thank you for your apology. I forgive you for saying that, doing that. I forgive you for this. I want you to know that the debt between us, that the gap between us, that the gulf between us, it is no longer there.
Speaker 2:I forgive you. We'll talk more about that next week. About the conversation of forgiveness in relationship. The dynamics of forgiveness in relationship. So make sure you come back next week.
Speaker 2:But now that you've experienced the moment of forgiveness either in conversation with the Lord about someone that you're not in relationship with anymore or with the person whom you are in relationship with and extending forgiveness to them, now you come to what is even the more difficult pros the the more difficult point, which is now the process of forgiveness. You did the moment. Now it's the process. Because you've all been there. Right?
Speaker 2:I forgive you. We're good. Walk away. Man, I do not forgive that person. I don't right?
Speaker 2:Right? But here are some commitments that we make in the midst of the moment so that we can succeed in the process of forgiveness. This is what we're ending with. Okay? Number 1.
Speaker 2:When I forgive someone, what I'm committing to is I won't bring it up to them again. Yeah. I know I forgive you for that, but do you remember when you did that? And this usually happens when they hurt us again. They hurt us again, and we're like, yeah.
Speaker 2:But you remember that time that you did that thing to me? And you're like you're like, you forgave me for that. Like, what? Well, I have not forgot about it, so we're bringing it up again. Right?
Speaker 2:But no. When we forgive someone, we're making a commitment to not bring it up to that to them again. In the same way that the Lord does not revisit our sin upon us. Right? When he forgives us, he separates us as far as what?
Speaker 2:The e our sins from the this east is from the west. Right? Micah chapter 7, it says that he tramples our iniquities under his feet and remembers them no more. Amen. So when we forgive others, we're committing to
Speaker 3:I'm not I'm not gonna bring it up
Speaker 2:to you again. I remember them no more. It did not happen. Forgiveness has been extended. I'm not gonna bring it up to them.
Speaker 2:I'm not gonna bring it up to others. You know? Hey, man. I know, like, listen. You gotta know what he did to me, what she did to me, what he said.
Speaker 2:I just want you to know. I just want you to be aware, you know. No commitment is I'm not gonna bring it up to others. They've been forgiven. That sin has been trampled under the foot of the foot of the Lord.
Speaker 2:Remembered no more. I'm not gonna bring it up to others. I'm not gonna bring it up to, them. The third is the hardest. Right?
Speaker 2:I'm not gonna bring it up to who? Myself. I'm not gonna bring it up to myself again. I'm not gonna go back into the depths of unforgiveness where I revisit and relive the pain that's been done and sit in it. Like a dog returns to its vomit.
Speaker 2:Now what happens? When we fail somewhere in the process of forgiveness, we must return to the vertical moment. Trusting that forgiveness is a miracle that God will do in us as we exercise faith in the moment of forgiveness. When we find ourselves reveling in, reliving, revisiting the the hurt that that person has done in our to us, but we have forgiven them and we were just stewing over it and angry about it and we're letting it affect us and we're talking to this person about it. We're like, oh shoot, pause.
Speaker 2:Back over here. Lord, it's me again. Father, I forgive them for the pain that they caused in my life. Lord, would you please continue to work the miracle of forgiveness and freedom in my heart so that I can be set free and they can be set free from this hurt? K.
Speaker 2:Back in it. Back in the process. Not gonna bring it up to them. Not gonna bring it up to others. Not gonna bring it up to myself.
Speaker 2:Find myself failing in the process again, what do I do? You return what? Return to the moment. Return to the moment where forgiveness forgiveness. Lord, me again.
Speaker 2:Forgiveness is a miracle that the lord does in us when we step out in faith to believe that he will set us free even before we feel it. Forgiveness is hard, y'all. It is hard. And and and the reason I started by saying that forgiveness is a miracle at the very beginning of the sermon is because of how difficult it is, and and of how necessary it is for us to express faith in the power of God to do in us, through forgiveness what we are unable to do on our own. So let me pray for us one more time here as we ask the Lord to show up in miracle working ways and close in worship this morning.
Speaker 2:Heavenly father, would you help us, Lord? Would you help us, Lord, by doing a miracle once again? The death and resurrection of your son, Jesus, was a miracle, Lord. Defeating the grave, coming in power to set us free from both the power and the penalty of sin, Lord. We believe in that miracle and receive it by faith.
Speaker 2:Now, Lord, we're asking that you would help us, that you would help us to do what is impossible to do on our own, which is to forgive others who have hurt us. We thank you, Lord, for the forgiveness that is offered to us by the blood of Jesus Christ. Thank you, Lord, for making your forgiveness universally available. We come, Lord, in response to that with a confession and repentance of our own sin that we may be forgiven of our sins and as John says, cleansed of all unrighteousness. Lord, work in us the miracle of forgiveness that we may be set free to forgive others in the same way you have forgiven us in Jesus name.
Speaker 2:Amen.
