Kingdom Instructions Pt 2

Good morning. It's good to see everybody. As everybody's coming in and finding a seat, why don't you guys go ahead and stand with me. We'll pray and we'll get started.

Heavenly Father, Lord, just thank you for this day that you have so graciously provided for us, Lord. Let's pray as we come in here today, Lord, or as we're watching online, God, that you would just prepare our hearts, Lord, to receive from you, Lord. Lord, help us to set everything aside and to focus on you this morning, Lord. Help us to lift a joyful noise to you this morning, God, and glorify you.

We pray these things in your precious and holy name. Amen. Have a seat if you like, and we'll continue on.

God is good, and all the time.

Oh, I've been here the moment that I wait Until I lay my eyes, I will sing Of the goodness of God So, with every poor voice Send me through the fire The dark are closed I've known you as a father To sing of the goodness of God I sing without hope When death was arrested You don't make a day When death was arrested Rejoiced as though you had Oh, Jesus, you are our living hope. God, in a world where we're living in a world where we're living in a world they want you to place our hope in so many other things, so many other people, Lord. I find we're just going to be constantly let down, Lord. But in you, we're never let down, Lord.

You are our living hope. Our hope in this world and our hope in the next. Lord, this morning, God, if there are those here, God, that don't know you as their living hope, I pray that today would be that day.

I pray that today is the day that they give their lives to you. That they find salvation in your precious and holy name.

Hallelujah.

Praise the one who has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my Savior. Jesus Christ, my Savior. Lord, I just pray this. Pastor Ryan comes this morning. Let your Holy Spirit go before us, Lord. And just begin working in our hearts, Lord. Lord, prepare our hearts to receive from you, Lord. Let your word go out with power, God.

And just change us, Lord. Let your will be done this morning, God. Just bless this time. Bless the word as it goes out. Bless the kids at the other end of the hall. We love you, Lord. We praise you, Lord. And we thank you in your precious and holy name. All God's people said. Amen. Why don't you guys go ahead and take some time in fellowship with one another.

Good morning. If you could begin. To locate your seat.

Grab your bulletin. We'll get ready to go over a few announcements before we get started.

First of all, on the left-hand side of your bulletin. Hey, everything's happening this week. So, as opposed to last week when the only thing happening was VBS. So, all those things are going on. So, find some spots to get plugged into. Middle section of your bulletin. The biggest thing we've got coming up in the next few weeks. There's a pastors and leaders conference at Calvary Chapel of Johnson County.

Just outside of Kansas City. It's a great time to get together. You don't have to be a pastor or a leader to go there. I don't really know why they call it that. But that's what it's called. Anybody can go. It's free. You just got to provide your own lodging. A lot of pastors. Kind of like the one in Wellington. A lot of pastors from the Midwest Calvary Chapels will be teaching there.

So, come check that out. Also, a couple of other things to take note of that are not in your bulletin. We have. Are there still leftover t-shirts out there from VBS? There's a handful. There's a handful. There's a handful. There's a handful. There's a handful. There's a handful. There's a handful. We have leftover t-shirts, both adult and kid t-shirts from VBS.

So, if you're like, hey, my kid could use an extra t-shirt, help yourself. We'd love to give it to you. The other thing is that last week I was wearing the t-shirt that said, your life has value. You kind of see that at the very bottom. We've got the sell sheet out there for those. So, if you're interested in getting one of those, they're $20. There's about four different colors that you can choose from.

And again, any of the proceeds from that is going to go to Family Life Services. So, if you're interested in getting one of those, they're $20. So, if you're interested in getting one of those, they're $20. So, if you're interested in getting one of those, they're $20. So, we'll probably have that sheet out there for maybe two or three weeks, and then we'll get those going.

So, take note of that. And then the other thing is that we don't just have this place looking this way because it's super fun, although it is super fun. I'm not going to lie. I feel like I'm on a game show right now because that's kind of what this was. First service, Jeff Phillips was like, could we get rid of this and give you a long, skinny microphone, and you could say the price is right?

So, all of this is we left. We left it up because I thought, man, so much work went into VBS. We should leave some of the decorations up because it's kind of fun and festive. But Glenn Bliss has put together a video slideshow for us of everything that went on at VBS last week. So, let's watch that, and then I'll thank a few people afterwards.

It was a controlled chaos for three nights, and mostly controlled chaos. We had 91 kids, which is just amazing. So, it was just, I mean, the whole place was just full of tiny people. And it was awesome because they all got to hear about how valuable they are to God. And we had so many workers, and it was amazing. And thank you to everybody that came out and worked.

All the people in the green shirts that you saw on there, I don't even think that covered everybody that worked here. Not to mention the fact that we had people that showed up on work days that painted really cool things and did work like this. So, I'm so thankful for all the, I mean, so much of our church was involved in it. It was just amazing. So, it was a great time, and we were very blessed.

Your kiddos are watching this same thing in VBS, or in VPS. And so, we're done until next year. They're watching this same thing in Sunday school today. And then, I think the link will definitely be available on Facebook. I'm looking at my wife because she knows things. On Facebook this afternoon, and hopefully the website this afternoon. So, if you want to go back and watch it again, or show your friends, whatever.

All right. Those are the things that are going on for our responsive reading this morning. We are going to be in Psalm 100. Psalm 100. Psalm 100. Psalm 100. For our responsive reading, we'll look at the New American Standard Bible together. If you need a copy of that, there should be one in your row. If there's not one in your row, it's time to make a friend.

And as you're turning to Psalm 100, if you would stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word.

I will read the odd verses, if you will follow along with Pastor Allen in the even verses. Psalm 100. A psalm for thanksgiving. Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before him with joyful singing. Know that the Lord himself is God. It is he who has made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him. Bless his name. And if you'd read verse five with me. For the Lord is good. His loving kindness is everlasting and his faithfulness to all generations. And Lord, I do praise you for your faithfulness. Your faithfulness to give us that living hope that we sang about this morning.

And so, Lord, I just ask that you would be faithful to your word this morning. Lord, teach us through the power of your Holy Spirit what you want us to see. And Lord, may your spirit impart to each one of our hearts what is necessary for us this morning. We just pray these things, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would, open up in your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 18.

Matthew, chapter 18.

Last week, we started into a series as we are covering Matthew chapters 18 through 20. And this series is called Kingdom Instructions. Last week was the first part of those Kingdom Instructions where we asked the question, who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And, of course, the disciples had asked Jesus that question. And he sat a little child in front of them and he said,

unless you convert and become like one of these, then you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. And, of course, we talked about the fact that that didn't mean being childish. It meant being childlike, humble dependence upon God. And as we are humbly dependent upon God, he ushers us into the kingdom of heaven. And, of course, then Jesus talked about how much the little ones meant to him,

that you shouldn't stumble one of these little ones, whether they be kids or believers. And that at times, little ones do go astray, but his heart is always to bring them back. And we ended last week with that parable of the lost sheep. Jesus said, If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains while he goes and finds the one who has gone astray?

And when finding that one who had gone astray, there is more rejoicing over the one that had been found than over the ninety-nine who had not strayed. With that as a backdrop, we move into this next section today, because part two of kingdom instructions is called restoration and forgiveness. Restoration and forgiveness. And so we'll talk about those two subjects today.

And, of course, the first subject that we'll cover is the subject of restoration. And we pick up in verse 15 of chapter 18. It says, If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every fact may be,

If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by my Father who is in heaven.

For where two or three have gathered, gathered together in my name, I am there in their midst. Now, as we come to this aspect of restoration, the first thing that we come to is this confronting of a sinning brother. Jesus says it right here. He says, If your brother sins, and he'll go on to give three steps, actually four steps of confrontation that are to take place in the life of a believer when they have a brother that sinned against them.

But before we get into those, I had some questions personally as I was preparing this. I said, I found myself in this aspect of looking and studying about confrontation. I asked myself three questions, and so I want to ask those to you and then answer them for you, at least as far as I can tell that the Holy Spirit has shown me. The first question is, why do you confront?

As a human being, I'm not very natural at confronting people. Confrontation is not something I'm good at. As a matter of fact, I tend to shy away from it. However, there do come points in time when you must confront. But the question is, why? Why can't I just let somebody? Live however they want to live? Why can't I just accept the wrong that they've done to me and never confront it?

Why can't I just let people live the way they want to live and let me live the way I want to live? Well, I think that there's two reasons. Number one has to do with the parable that Jesus had just told. I think the first reason why we must confront is because sometimes brothers go astray. We know what Jesus's heart was toward the one that went astray, right?

Jesus said, Because of the great love for the 100, that even if one of them goes astray, I will leave the 99 on the mountains and I will go after the one until I find the one. And when the one has been found, I will rejoice because one has been brought back to the fold. Well, if that's Jesus's heart towards those who have gone astray, then we as his people should have that same kind of heart. Knowing that Jesus wants to go after the one who has gone astray, perhaps he wants to use us as his instrument to help.

Bring the one back that has gone astray. So I think that's the first reason why at times we must confront people in their sin. The second reason why I think that there comes times when we must confront is for the purpose of restoration. For the purpose of restoration. I always like to close out a lot of the funerals that I do with a statement. The statement goes like this.

All of our lives really can be summed up with one word. And that word is relationships. Because all of your life is made up of relationships. And I always like to include the relationship that you have with your creator and the relationships that you have with each other. And knowing that life is made up of relationships, we must realize that life is too short for bad relationships.

Life is too short for those relationships not to be in the best place possible. So why do I take the time? Why do I step out of my comfort zone? Why do I do something that's awkward and hard? Like confront someone? Somebody else in their sin? Because I have such a strong desire to see my relationship with that person restored. And I have such a strong desire to see that person's relationship with their creator restored

that I'm willing to step outside of my comfort zone, outside of what would be natural to me. And that's to sit back and let you live how you want to live and say, I'm going to do something difficult. I'm going to step out and I'm going to confront you on something that's wrong. That was the first question I had. Why do we confront? The second question I had is, what are we to confront?

Because I think this is an important one to be answered. I want you to notice what Jesus says we're supposed to confront here. If your brother sins. What we confront is when one sins against us. And we must remember that that's the thing that we are to confront. Listen, if somebody annoys you, you don't have to confront that. I'm going to say that again. If somebody annoys you, you don't have to confront them.

If you think differently than they do, you don't have to confront that. It's okay. We can all think differently. But when sin occurs, then it needs dealt with. But listen, I should be able to prove that what I think that they're doing is sin. I should be able to prove that with scripture. Because it can't just be my opinion. You see, confronting people on opinions is what's getting us in trouble right now.

It's what's getting the world in trouble right now. But if I can look and say, this is what scripture says, and you're doing the opposite of that, I need to talk to you about it, then I'm confronting the right thing. So I confront because of my desire to see them restored. I confront only the sin, not just my opinion. But then the third question I had was, so how do you confront?

The only thing that the Holy Spirit I really felt like ministered to me about this is, I must always confront with a heart of restoration. Because I not only confront for the purpose of restoration, but I confront with a heart of restoration. Paul puts it like this. He says, You see, if I see you walking in sin, or you have done something to offend me that's sin, and I only want to prove you wrong because I'm angry, or I'm vindictive, or I'm vengeful, or you named the wrong emotion, then what am I going to do to you?

I'm actually going to push you away from Christ. I'm actually going to push you away, I'm actually going to push you away from the church. I'm actually going to push you away from me. But if I come to you with a broken heart, because I know that my relationship with you has been damaged, and your relationship with your creator has been damaged, and all I want to do is see that restored, then I'm going to come in a completely different way.

Because I'm going to come at that with a desire to see us get back to the way we used to be. That your relationship with your creator would be the way that it's supposed to be. And so with that as a backdrop, we move into these instructions that Jesus, gives us on confronting a sinning brother. And he begins to give us the steps. Step one, if your brother sins,

go and show him his fault in private. And if he listens to you, you have won your brother. First of all, let's take note of what he did not say. What he did not say is, make sure that you go tell everybody else that you know about what happened to you. He doesn't say, go and build a case for yourself with all of your other friends. He doesn't say, go and spread the word to everybody,

or tell everybody else about what that individual did. He says, go to them in private. And I want to point out what that word means. That word means with no one else around. That means if somebody sinned against you and you're going to confront them, don't do it in the hall after church. You know why? Because everybody can hear that. I wouldn't even go in the office here at church.

I'd go somewhere where nobody knows that the two of you are having a meeting and confront that issue when it's just you and them. You know why? Because that's what scripture says to do. Go to that person in private. That way nobody else knows. You know what love does? Love conceals. Love doesn't reveal everything to everybody that somebody else has done. Love is content to cover a multitude of sins.

And the way that I start by doing that is I start by going to someone in private when they've sinned against me. And you know what? If they hear me, which is what it says, if they hear you, then you've won your brother. In other words, if they hear and they say, you're right, what I did was wrong. I have a struggle in my life. You're right. What I did is wrong.

I have an area where I need to work on in my life. And man, you've won your brother. That doesn't mean they'll never stumble in that again. But it means that they recognize the issue and are willing to work on the issue. However, if your brother does not hear you, then there's a second step that needs to be taken. Step number two, take two or three witnesses.

Notice what it says in verse 16. But if he does not listen to you, take with you one or two more so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every fact may be confirmed. Step two is this. He hasn't listened to you on your own. She hasn't listened to you on your own. So find a couple of trusted friends. In other words, people that will keep it to themselves.

People who are not going to take that news and share it with everybody else in the world. But people who are going to keep that to themselves who are not also struggling in the same area of sin, who are not also struggling in some strong areas of sin in their life and have the same heart of restoration that you do. Take two or three with you. Why? Well, I think that there's a couple of reasons why.

Number one is for accountability. That way, other people know everything that has been said on your part and everything that has been said on the offending brother's part. That way, there's no question. That way, if a false accusation comes up, you can defend yourself against it. Because in the world that we live in today, we all know the fact that false accusations don't have to be true

or accusations don't have to be true for them to have legs and run and to destroy someone's life forever. So you take somebody else with you for accountability. But the second reason why you take somebody else with you is for enforcement. Because if it's just me standing here, well, all of a sudden it looks like my opinion. But if I have two other trusted friends,

who are godly individuals and they say, he's right because this is what it says in scripture. He's right because this is what it says in scripture. Then all of a sudden, there is by the mouth of two or three witnesses, a fact established. Jesus actually quotes Deuteronomy chapter 19 verse 15 here. Now, if they still won't listen, there's a third step that's to be taken.

The third step that's to be taken is to go before the church. Now, I question myself exactly what this looks like. Does that mean like, your small group that you're a part of, does it mean bring them up in front of the entire church? Personally, I don't know if I've ever actually seen this happen in a church where a person is brought up in front of people and they've said, this person's been confronted.

They refuse to repent of their sin. They need to be dealt with. But I would think if I had to stand up in front of God and everybody and confess my sin, well, that's got a real purifying effect to it. I have seen that have to happen. It has a real purifying effect. But if an individual's heart is so hard that even at that point in time, they refuse to repent of sin,

he says, then you are to treat them as a Gentile and a tax collector. What does he mean by that? Treat them as an absolute stranger.

I don't know. I don't always know how this is supposed to play out in real life. I've actually had some people come to me with questions about this here recently because these are hard things to do. Here's what I do know. Sin brings you to a place where you can't and it brings about isolation in the same way that at times holiness can bring about isolation.

When I was in Bible college, I worked at Shawnee Mission Park up in Johnson County. When I worked at Shawnee Mission Park, I worked around a bunch of other guys my age. I was 20 years old and these guys all partied very hard, but they were good friends of mine. I enjoyed hanging around them. But when we clocked out at 3.30, no matter how much time I spent with them during the day

and we would joke together during the day, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, we probably weren't gonna hang out that evening because I wasn't gonna go party with them and they didn't. They knew that. Matter of fact, one of them who if I were around today, we would pick up where we left off and we would spend some time talking to each other. He told me one time, he said, man, if you weren't a Christian, you'd probably be hanging out with us all the time because we all got along really well.

But holiness isolated me because I was living a different life than them. Therefore, I was isolated from the things of the world. Sin is the same or should be the same in the church. Sin should isolate an individual because if we're living a godly life as a church and you're living a sinful life as an individual, then by nature, we're gonna separate ourselves from you because we don't wanna do the things you're a part of.

And quite frankly, you're not gonna wanna do the things we're a part of because you're not gonna wanna get into the word of God. Why? Because the word of God will keep revealing your sin to you. You're not gonna wanna spend time in prayer. Why? Because prayer will continue to reveal your sin to you. You don't wanna spend time in fellowship around other brothers and sisters in Christ

because it has a convicting effect upon you. And so there's this natural isolation that takes place in brothers and sisters. When you know someone that you continue to confront in their sin and they refuse to repent of their sin, you know as well as I do, your relationship can't be the same with them. I have had to do this before to say, listen, I love you, but as long as you're living in this, we can't really be that close of friends anymore because we live two completely different lives.

And when you're ready to repent, I'm ready to take you back. But until then, this is just the way it has to be. Jesus then goes on to talk about the authority that Jesus has given the church to do this. Notice what he says. Truly, I say to you, verse 18, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven. And whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.

Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by my Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in my name, I am there in their midst. He says, I'm telling you, Jesus, I'm telling you the truth, that if as a church you make a decision to discipline an individual, kind of like in 1 Corinthians, when the man was caught up in that sexual sin and Paul said, you need to let them go, let them go live their life until they're tired of the world and then they can come back. Once you've let them go, heaven agrees with what you've done because what you've bound on earth has already been bound in heaven.

But I need us to understand something. If that's the way you are with someone, if you have reached that point with someone where you say, until you change, it won't ever be the same, you have to always keep those arms out and ready because the minute that they repent, you need to welcome them back. The moment that they're willing to say, you're right, it's sin, I'm sorry, those arms need to be so wide open to welcome them back. As a matter of fact, that's part of why 2 Corinthians was written.

In 1 Corinthians, Paul said, hey, there's sin, deal with the sin, send him out to do his own thing until he realizes what he's doing is destructive. And in 2 Corinthians, he said, hey, listen, he realizes what he's done is destructive. He's repented, welcome him back. Bring him back in because restoration is the point of the church. Restoration is the goal of the cross.

Restoration is the point of all of these steps that we're to take is to bring the sinning brother back so that he can be restored into fellowship with us and into fellowship with his creator. And so as he's dealing with these, these issues of confronting a sinning brother, Peter has a question and it's a great question because next what we're gonna deal with is we're gonna deal with forgiveness. Notice what he says, verse 21. Then Peter came to him and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?

Up to seven times? And Jesus said to him, I did not say to you up to seven times, but up to 70 times seven. For this reason, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king, a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began to settle them, one who owed him 10,000 talents was brought to him. But since he did not have the means to repay, his Lord commanded him to be sold

along with his wife and children and all that he had in repayment to be made. So the slave fell to the ground, prostrated himself before him saying, have patience with me and I will repay everything. And the Lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him 100 denarii.

And he seized him and began to choke him saying, pay back what you owe. So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him saying, have patience with me and I will repay you. But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their Lord all that had happened.

Then summoning him, his Lord said to him, you wicked slave, I forgave you all the debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave in the same way that I had mercy on you? And his Lord moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. My heavenly father, will also do the same to you if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.

Ooh, that's hard truth right there, isn't it? Well, it all starts with a question. After all of these things that Jesus had been teaching, Peter had a question that he wanted to ask Jesus. So Peter comes to him and says, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him up to seven times? Now, everybody's super hard on Peter in so many ways.

He makes it so easy. He's just an easy target, right? But this is one, one time that I kind of disagree with popular commentators and I actually think this shows a lot of growth on the part of Peter because as Peter asks him this question, I think there's great sincerity in the heart of Peter. He says, how often shall I forgive my brother? And I think Peter's starting to kind of get

the idea of the unending forgiveness of Jesus Christ. And the reason why I think that is this, the popular opinion among rabbis at that point in time was that to really be righteous, you should forgive your brother of a sin up to three times, three times. And so when Peter says, how often shall I forgive my brother of his sin up to seven times, I actually think that shows a lot of growth on the part of Peter. And he's like, hey, I think I'm starting to get it.

Grace is amazing. Maybe even like seven times. And probably all the disciples are like, that seems like a good one. That's a good number, good number, right? Because it feels like he's really getting it. And the other reason why I think this shows growth on the part of Peter, is you notice Jesus doesn't rebuke Peter. Jesus had no problem calling Peter out on things

and he doesn't rebuke him this time. It's kind of one of those, you've got the idea, you just haven't taken it far enough yet. And isn't that kind of how it is in our walk with Jesus Christ? Is he begins to reveal things to us about his love and his grace and his mercy. And we're like, I think I understand it. Are you saying this? And he's like, you've got the idea,

you're just not taking it far enough. Let me show you to an even deeper degree what I mean. And that's exactly what Jesus does. And so next, Jesus answers him. He says, I do not say to you up to seven times. And the disciples are all probably like, see, I told you I was wrong, that's a bad idea. I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to 70 times seven.

Well, this was a mind-blowing statement that Jesus made right now. Because if the popular opinion amongst the most godly men that they knew at that point in time was to forgive somebody three times, Jesus just blew their gourds with what he just said. Because what do you mean? 70 times seven, that's so many times. Now listen, I need us to understand something.

This doesn't mean you should grab yourself a notebook, make yourself a list of names, and start keeping a checklist. 395, right? Because 70 times seven, 490 times, right? That's what he meant. I should keep a list. Because once 491 gets there, I know I don't have to, I can't forgive him any longer. I get to hold it against him at that point in time. And while that sounds ridiculous,

how many of us keep that list? How many of us keep that list? How many of us keep that list? How many of us keep that list? How many of us keep that list? How many of us keep that list? How many of us keep that list? How many of us keep that list? How many of us keep that checkmark? Ryan, I like to forgive like Jesus does. No, you don't. None of us do. Because that's not natural to us.

What's natural to us is to hold grudges. You know how I know? Look at the political parties in this country, right? What's natural to us is to hold sin against each other. If you don't believe me, just look at Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, right? Like this is a natural thing for us to do. No, what he meant was unlimited. Unlimited. Unlimited amount of forgiveness

that is to be offered to others. So I have a question for you that only you can answer in your own heart. Where's your limit? For you personally, and I don't think you can answer this in the next 30 seconds, where's your limit? What's the point in time when you say, nope, I won't forgive any longer? I'll bring this up at the end as well in one of the points that I make,

but I have people ask, if someone doesn't repent, do we still have to forgive? My opinion is yes. Not for the sake of the one who has hurt you, but for your own sake. Because unforgiveness is a prison that you can't get out of. Where's your limit? Jesus said it should be limitless. He goes on from there to tell a parable, to tell a story that will illustrate what he means.

It's a familiar parable, but let's go over it anyway because it's kind of interesting. He says, for this reason, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to, so he's gonna tell a story that compares this kingdom principle so that we can understand it. He says, there was a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. And when he begun to settle them, one owed him 10,000 talents, and that man was brought to him.

We're gonna find that there's three players involved here. There's a king, there's slave number one, we'll call him Larry. If your name's Larry, someone in first service named Larry, listen, it's not, I'm not talking about you, okay? This is not my veiled way of saying, and I know that this one's you, right? I'm just throwing names out that came to my mind.

And then there's slave number two. We'll call him Tom, right? So this is a story of the king and Tom and Larry. So the king is settling his accounts, right? And as he's settling his accounts, he's like, I want my books to be balanced out. I'm gonna make sure everybody has paid me what they owe me. Hey, do you realize this guy, Larry owes you a lot of money.

How much does he owe me? 10,000 talents. That doesn't mean anything to the Western culture mind, right? 10,000 talents. I'm like, so it's probably a lot, but what does that mean? A talent was the largest possible monetary unit at this point in time. And so what Jesus says here is, a man owes 10,000 of the largest monetary units at that point in time. If you read some translations,

like the Weiss translation, and some commentators are like, it's about 12 million. And I'm like, well, that's a lot of money. That doesn't sound like that much money. But then I read this guy named R. Kent Hughes on this, and I loved what he had to say, because he actually brought in some modern day inflation. And so his book was written like 10 years ago, so I can't imagine what it is today.

So he said, let's look at it this way. If 10,000 of the largest monetary unit, which nobody in that world saw, it would be as if in our day and age, we said he owed zillions of dollars. Now, I don't know if zillions is actually a number, because I'm not really a math guy. That might be a made up number, but it sounds like a lot, right? Basically, he was like, it's a ridiculous amount of money.

And Jesus uses this ridiculous number for a particular purpose, because he wants them to understand how great a grace this king is gonna show to Larry. And so Larry gets called in, and he owes a zillion dollars. And in 10,000 lifetimes, he'll never know, in 10,000 lifetimes, he'll never be able to make this amount of money. So he looks at him, and he says, this is what you owe me.

You can't pay it. I'm gonna sell you and your family into slavery, because that's the best way I can think of to somewhat recoup some of my money. And Larry knows what faces him. So all he knows how to do is one thing, beg. So he falls down on his face before the king. That's what prostrate yourself means. Means he fell down on his face before the king. And he begged, and he said, please.

Show me mercy, and I will do everything I can to repay every single cent. Arkent Hughes, again, in his commentary, pointed out something really interesting. He said, you know, this is the perfect picture of someone that comes to Jesus and prays the sinner's prayer. Because there's an understanding of the need, and there's an understanding of the desire for mercy, but there's also the false idea that somehow I can repay it someday.

How many of us, when we came to Jesus, were like, man, all I know is I owe a debt I can't pay. I am so much of a loser sinner that there's no way I can ever make up for everything that I've done wrong. But if you'll show me mercy, I'll spend the rest of my life trying. Right? And we think, we'll make God a promise. If you save me, I promise I'll serve you with my whole life.

And then, of course, the longer you walk with Jesus, the more you realize, I didn't really understand grace. Because the cool thing about somebody that comes to Jesus for the very first time is they don't need to know all the details. They just need to know two things. Number one, they're a desperate sinner. Number two, Jesus is a great savior, right? And so, once you know those two things,

Jesus fills in the details as you walk with him for the rest of your life. So this is a perfect picture of the sinner's prayer. And the king reacts in the same way that Jesus does when we come to him with the sinner's prayer. Notice what it says in verse 27. And the Lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him. I have this great Bible program on my computer.

It's called Olive Tree Bible. And it's got a Strong's tagged Bible. And all I gotta do is click on the word and it'll not only give me the definition, but every time the word is used somewhere in scripture. And this word compassion is kind of fun. Because this same Greek word for compassion is used several other places throughout Matthew. You know who's always using this word compassion?

Jesus. Jesus felt compassion for the people. I have compassion for them. Every time it's used, it's used by Jesus in the gospels. Isn't that great? It's almost like Jesus is talking about himself here. Says he felt great compassion for him. And so he released him from the debt and he forgave him, right? That's the feeling we should all have right now. Be like if the national debt got paid off, right?

We're all just stoked. And so this guy's no doubt feeling great. I was listening to that first song that we sang this morning. I guarantee it was like, oh, happy day, right? Because all of his debt was washed away. Like clicking his heels as he walked down the yellow brick road. But his heart's not really changed yet because notice what happens. Larry has another friend.

Another friend that owes him money. We come to the second, slave two. Notice what it says. But that slave, Larry, went out and found one of his fellow slaves, Tom, who owed him 100 denarii. And he seized him and began to choke him, saying, pay back what you owe me. Now, we're told that Tom owes Larry 100 denarii. Like $10,000. A big debt, yes. Compared to zillions, eh, maybe not as much, right?

You would think at this point in time, Larry's going, dude, I just got forgiven of zillions of dollars. I have a brand new lease on life. And I need to get a new car. So I need him to pay me back what he owes me, right? You think he'd be like, I don't care who owes me anything. Everybody gets me. You get forgiveness, and you get forgiveness, and you get forgiveness.

The Oprah of forgiveness at that point in time, right? He's giving it out to everybody, but that's not how he acts. He goes to him and says, or his fellow slave falls to the ground and says, verse 29. He goes to him and says, or his fellow slave falls to the ground and says, verse 29. He goes to him and says, or his fellow slave falls to the ground and says, verse 29.

Have patience with me, and I will repay you. Sound familiar? It's almost like he'd heard those words before. But Larry was unwilling. And he went and he threw Tom into prison, verse 30. But Larry and Tom aren't in there. I threw those in. Larry was unwilling, and he went and threw Tom into prison until he should pay back what he was owed. When his fellow slaves saw what had happened,

they were deeply grieved. And they came and reported to their Lord, all. That it happened. What a sad day. He was forgiven of so much, and yet he's unwilling to forgive his fellow slave of the amount that he owed him. Well, the king hears about it. Now he's gonna confront him. So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved. He came and reported all that happened.

Verse 32, then summoning him, his Lord said, you wicked slave. I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave in the same way that I had mercy on you? He goes and he confronts him. He says, what did you do? Why would you have done this? I forgave you of so much. If you're an underlining person,

I think that you should underline verse 33. Highlight it, put a little star next to it, maybe a happy face, because it's important. Should you not also have had mercy on your respective servant, today. I did. I used to do that, too. No, I never did. I stuck up. fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you. You know why I think you should underline it?

Because that verse should be imprinted on the fabric of your being. Because if you're here this morning and you are a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, you need to understand that you should be willing to forgive others in the same way that your father forgave you. Because you owed a debt that there was no way in 10,000 lifetimes of being the best person in the world that you could ever repay. And when you fell on your face for mercy before God, he released you from the debt, forgave you, and made you one of his kids. So should you not take

that same mercy and show it to all of the people around you? It ought to be the heartbeat of our lives. It ought to be the way of our lives. It ought to be the way of our lives. It ought to be way that we live, the way that we act. Matter of fact, I think if we as the church lived by this principle, we would see the church become a much more powerful place. We would see the Holy Spirit

moving through the church in a powerful way like we never have before, because I think that what we have going on in the church of the United States of America today is the exact opposite of that. What we have going on in the church of the United States of America today is we have people suing each other because they're angry with each other. We have people forming groups that are opposed to other groups. We have an unforgiveness that is rampant in our churches, and because of it, we have bitter factions throughout the churches in the United States of America today, and because of that, we lack power, and because of that, we lack holiness.

And the only way that we will restore that is if we begin to live just like Jesus said right here, should you not also forgive them in the same way that I forgave you? He goes on to say, verse 34, as the illustration concludes, and his Lord moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. And then verse 35, my heavenly father will also do the same to you if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart. If there was musical accompaniment to the Bible, at this point in time, it would go, right? Because that was a

dramatic point that Jesus just made. Right there. Because Peter had asked him what seemed like a pretty good spiritual question to start with, and while Peter was on the right track, he didn't go far enough, because the grace that we should show to each other should go beyond our limits, beyond any limitations. And if we don't, it's a pretty stern warning given to us there, is it not? Well, I would like to kind of wrap this

little section up with four points. It's actually three questions, and then one little point to drive the whole thing home. Anytime I've taught on salvation, or on, excuse me, on forgiveness, I've had people come to me with questions afterwards. And undoubtedly, a section like this brings up questions, especially the way that it ends. And so I've come up with the three questions that some of the people have come to me

and asked, and then one hopefully final statement that will kind of drive it home. Number one, is our salvation dependent upon forgiving others? Jesus just made a pretty harsh statement right there, so the question should come, does that mean that my salvation is dependent upon whether or not I'm going to forgive other people around me? I would say, no, it is not dependent upon me forgiving others, because that would X out an incredible amount of scripture. What it is, is reflective of where my heart is.

It's reflective of my salvation. And I would say this, if you can't forgive someone else for what they've done for you, you need to ask yourself if you've really come to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior. I think it's a genuine question you should ask, because if I can't forgive someone else, then I have really no good fruit to show that I have actually been forgiven by the Lord. And I think that sometimes we need those hard, challenging questions, because we are to test ourselves to see whether or not we're in the faith. Because if I can harbor unforgiveness

against somebody and have it not affect my heart, then I have the right to ask somebody, then do you really know Jesus?

Is it dependent? No, but it is reflective of it, because forgiven people, like I'll say at the end, will forgive. Number two, what if the person has passed away? This question comes up a lot with people that I talk to. Perhaps someone has injured you, someone has hurt you in the past. And rather than forgiving immediately, you hold on to that bitterness, and you hold on to that bitterness even past them going

to the grave. What do I do if the person that I've harbored unforgiveness against for all those years has now passed away, and I can't go to them, and I can't make it right with them? What I would say to that is this, you must now forgive them in your heart, and then confess it to the Lord. You can't go back and change what's been done. That's impossible. And unfortunately,

there's an aspect of the consequence of that that you will have to live with for the rest of your life. Because listen, we can choose our sin, but we can't choose our consequence. And those consequences are very real, but you can still really be forgiven. The challenge now is forgive them in your heart. Forgive them for what they've done to the best of your ability, and then take that to the Lord. Take that to Jesus and say, Lord, I harbored

unforgiveness all of these years, and now I missed out on the best years with that person. There's nothing I can do about it now, but I want my heart to be right with you, and to the best of my ability, my heart right towards them. That's all you can do. And I promise through that, God is able to bring that comfort of forgiveness. Number three, and this is where it gets a little bit hard.

How can I forgive terrible things that have been done to me? Anytime I've ever taught on forgiveness, I've had somebody come up to me afterwards. They asked me if we can visit in my office. And we go in and we talk, and they share with me the things that they went through as a child. They share with me the things that they've been through as an adult. They share with me some

sort of what I would call heinous thing that has happened in their life. And they say, it altered who I am. It changed the very fabric of who I am. I don't know if I can forgive them. How am I supposed to do that now? May I say, first of all, it's okay to be hurt. It's okay for that to hurt you. If you've been through something, it's okay for that to hurt you. If you've been through

something, it's okay for that to hurt you. If you've been through something, it's okay for that to hurt you. If you've been through something, it's okay for that to hurt you. If you've been through something, it's okay for that to hurt you. If you've been through something, it's okay for that to hurt you. If you've been through something, it's okay for that to hurt you. If you've been through

something, it's okay for that to hurt you. If you've been through something, it's okay for that to hurt you. If you've been through something, it's okay for that to hurt you. If you've been through something, it's okay for that to hurt you. If you've been through something, it's okay for that to hurt you. If you've been through something, it's okay for that to hurt you. If you've been through

something, it's okay for that to hurt you. If you've been through some sort of abuse in your life, you should not feel ashamed of that, nor should you feel ashamed of the fact that that hurt still hurts, that it still bothers you, because that's natural. That's normal. But what you do need to do is you need to, first of all, take that hurt to the Lord. Don't hold

it inside anymore. What I mean by don't hold it inside is don't pretend it's not there, because I think oftentimes when we go through something hard that hurts us, especially when it's hurt from being a child, we put up a wall to where we don't even admit that it really hurts, to where we don't even admit that that's a problem for us, and it's time to let that wall down with the Lord and take that hurt to Him. Whatever that means for you, you've got to take that to Jesus. Whether that means you find a trusted friend that you guys can talk about it together, or whether you are able to just get alone with God and just pour it all out to Him, you have to take that hurt to Jesus, because listen,

restoration, and He is a God who heals hurts, but He won't heal a hurt that you're not willing to open up and allow Him to do surgery on. Take those hurts to Jesus. And then the second thing is have a heart that is willing to forgive. My favorite line in all of one of my favorite books by Andrew Murray, it's called Absolute Surrender, is this. Andrew Murray said,

sometimes the only thing we can do is pray, Lord, I am willing that you would make me willing to be surrendered to you. All God wants in our hearts is a willingness to come to that place, because I guarantee if you've been through something that really hurt you in the past, you don't feel like forgiving that person. You don't feel like offering them forgiveness, especially if they're not repentant. This brings me back to what we talked about before. However, Jesus is able to work that

forgiveness into your heart. It's not an easy thing, and it won't happen overnight, but He is able to do that work in you. But it starts with a willing heart. Lord, I'm willing to let you work that kind of forgiveness into me. Lord, I'm willing to allow you to change my heart from the bitterness that I have right now. And then He's able to do that. If they're not repentant, then let yourself out of the prison.

Sin is what's keeping them in prison. Bitterness is what's keeping you in prison. We read a great book when we went down to Florida. We actually listened to it on Audible. I'll give you a little indication of how long this book is. We listened to it all the way down and all the way back. It's called Unbroken. The story of Louis Zamperini. If you've watched the movie, I'm sorry, read the book,

because the movie does not do the book justice. She did a wonderful job. I'm sure it's a great movie if I hadn't read the book first. But read the book, because it will take you through the true spiritual journey that he went through. If you don't know the story, he was an Olympic runner, ended up in World War II, ended up in a prison camp in Japan in World War II, and went through

things no human being should ever have. And when he came back, he was full of nothing but fear and anger. And the only thing that could change him was he finally one day showed up to a Billy Graham crusade in LA. And at that point in time, God changed his heart. And instead of all of the fear and anger, he was filled with the love of Jesus Christ and forgiveness for the very man who abused him the most. If you go on YouTube or

something, you can look it up. It's a great book. It's a great book. It's a great book. It's a great book. It's a great book. It's a great book. It's a great book. It's a great book. And it's a great book. It's a great book. And it's a great book. And it's a great book. And it's a great book. And I look up old interviews from the 90s of Louie Zampirini, because he missed out on going to

the Summer Olympics in Japan the year that World War II started. He missed out on going to the Summer Olympics that year. And then because of injuries that he faced while he was in prison camp, he couldn't keep running. But he finally got to go to the Olympics one last time. And it was in 1998 when he carried the Olympic torch into the Winter Olympics that were in Japan.

and they asked him they said how can you be who you are today with everything that you've gone through how can you be the man that you are today and he said because I forgave him the only way I could get out of the prison that I was in is because I forgave them and the man that did all of that to him never once repented and yet that forgiveness was still in his heart friends the only way that you can be let out of that prison of the terrible things that have been done to you is if you take the hurt to Jesus and offer a heart that's willing to forgive and that leads me to number four forgiveness flows from a heart that's been forgiven forgiveness flows from a heart that has been forgiven I think one of the greatest things we

can do as believers in Jesus Christ especially that have walked for Jesus walk with Jesus for any amount of time is to forgive and to forgive and to forgive and to forgive and to forgive is to ask him to remind us exactly what he has saved us from that's one of the great things about being in the word consistently is when you're in the word consistently it's that mirror for what really takes place in my heart both in the past and in the present and as that mirror reflects what's really in my heart all I can do is say thank you Lord thank you that you're patient with me on a daily basis and that you have forgiven me of so much how can I ever hold anything against anybody else knowing what you've done for me

because I know who I'd be without him and I know who I am because of him I can't hold anything against anybody else if you're here this morning and you've never experienced the forgiveness of Jesus Christ you've been holding on to your sin you've been holding on to your stubbornness your self-righteousness whatever it is then then you can't experience what I'm talking about until you come to me and I can't hold anything against you you need to come to Jesus you need to come to Jesus pour out all that sin to him and just like the man just like the man who said I know I owe you like a zillion dollars but could you show me mercy when you come to him like that do you know he'll release you and he'll forgive you and he'll

make you brand new if you're here this morning and you've been holding on to some of this unforgiveness you're like man I know Jesus has done a work in my heart but I'm not going to but I also know the things some people have done to me I'm having a hard time letting it go I'm having a really hard time forgiving and today's the day to start releasing that to Jesus today's the day to come to him and say I'm willing for you to give me a heart that's willing to forgive the people that have hurt me the most and you'll find that once you do that one little chink of the armor will come off one little link of the chain will come loose and you will be one step closer to freedom

amen let's all stand the worship team is going to come up and lead us in one last song and as they do as they do so allow the Lord to search your heart I don't know why I feel like God wants to do some business in some people's hearts this morning I think that there's some people who have been hurt in the past and you've held on to it and it's time to let it go it's time to give it to Jesus it's time to let him heal would you bow with me father we come before you and I thank you for the great mercy that you have shown to each and every one of us and Lord as you have shown that great mercy to each and every one of us I pray that that mercy would be at work in our hearts as we show that to the people that are around us Lord soften us

make us more like you and do away with the things in our hearts that are not of you I do just want to offer up a moment as your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed that if that's you this morning you got that unforgiveness in your heart been holding on to some bitterness or some hurt I want to be able to pray for you this morning and so I just want you to slip your hand up in the air because I want to be able to pray for you I knew God wanted to do something better for us I wanted to be able to do something better for us some stuff this morning Lord Lord I just lift up each person whose hand is in the air right now and Lord you know the hurt that they feel Lord the damage that's been done in the past that they

feel like has altered who they are but Lord I also know that you are a God who restores Lord you bind up the broken hearts and you heal wounds and so Lord for each of those people with their hand up right now I just pray that you would just do that work in their heart Lord that you would do a work of healing first of all of those wounds that they would begin the process today of carrying all that hurt to you and Lord I want to pray for the forgiveness that needs to be offered to the people that are around them whatever that looks like however that has to take place I pray that you would give them that willing heart to first of all in their hearts forgive but Lord also when

those conversations need to happen that that you would give them the grace to be able to have those conversations Father I thank you that you're so good to us continue the work that you've started here this morning I pray in Jesus name amen be blessed how awesome and great is your love Lord that you'd send your son Jesus to pay the the price for our sin to pay the consequences that we rightfully deserve Lord God what an amazing love that is Lord and if Lord if there are some here Lord this morning that have never experienced your love let them know that you're here for them and that you're here for them and let today be that day let today be that day Lord you're so good to us and so kind and gracious and

merciful Lord and forgiving and we thank you thank you for the new life the forgiveness and the freedom or that we can find in you that we can find in your love Lord today I pray that as we leave leave here I pray that we would leave changed that we would be different Lord if we're in this Lord I pray that today would be the day that we let that go that we would learn to forgive as we have been forgiven that we would forgive greatly because we have been greatly forgiven Lord we love you guys we thank you Lord we praise you and we pray these things and your precious and holy name all of God's people said you guys have a wonderful week be blessed