That's my alarm clock for the next week 100%.
That was amazing 250 years happy belated birthday to this
country. Come on somebody 1776 who is
there for that make sure no time travels in this place or nothing
like that. But it's such a special I'm I'm
so grateful I'm about you. I love this country.
Who here either you or your family or say your parents
migrated over here from a different country.
Wow, look at the hands. That is so amazing.
I don't for some reason, sometimes this holiday can be
controversial. It should not be.
I'll give you a small example. Couple of years ago I was doing
travel around the country, part of a missions organization and
one of the guys that I was with, his name was Somsai and he was
from a country called Laos. And we were in this worship
service and after the worship service, he was bawling his eyes
out, just crying. But it wasn't just like a
worship cry. It was like a, a hurtful,
painful cry. And after what I asked him, you
know, hey, brother, what's what's going on?
Are you OK? And he looked at me dead in my
eye with tears down his face. And he said, I wish I could do
this in my country. So if there's any reason to
celebrate the freedom that we have, it's the freedom to be
able to worship our King and our God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Today we're going to be in Matthew chapter 18.
If you're going to open up your Bibles, if you need a Bible,
raise your hand. We have ushers to give you
Bibles. I just want to get to the text
now that we were ready to go rock locking and loading.
I guess I was moving so crazy last service that I was like
sweating that Bruno came up to me was like, brother, are you
OK? I was like, I think I think I'm
OK. But so here we are.
Second service, grateful to be here.
Matthew chapter 18. You can open up to that text
now. Now I would say this, well, I'll
let me start here. We're talking about the unveiled
Kingdom, which is Jesus revealing his reign and rule on
this earth. What does it mean to live as
Kingdom people? We've been walking through, we
walk through Genesis now we're walking through the parables and
Jesus is giving us truths in the context, or I would say in the,
in a, the form of a story, what he would call a parable.
And so for us, our goal is the Lord's Prayer.
Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy
Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
So the prayer is not for us to one day get to heaven, although
I hope to be there and be face to face with glory.
My prayer today is that we would see heaven on earth.
That's the prayer of Jesus and that's my prayer for this
message. And I would argue that what
we're going to be talking about today is one of the number one
reasons that that reality we do not see many times in our lives.
I would argue that this is one of the most important stories
that Jesus talks about. And I would say the reason why
many of us in this room can walk foot into church and walk out
the door and not experience freedom.
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
And part of that freedom is wrapped up in the Word of God in
our lives. When we can just understand and
walk in obedience to His Word, we can experience freedom.
And so my hope and prayer is if you're someone in this life that
has not or in this time has not experienced freedom, I believe
that for you today. Jesus said, if you have the
faith of a mustard seed, the smallest seed, if you have that
kind of faith, the Lord Jesus Christ can move mountains in
your life. So and I believe that for you
today. Do you believe that for yourself
that God can change your life by the power of his Spirit and by
the word of God? I believe that for you a year
and a half ago, which is crazy how time flies.
My mom said when you get older, time flies.
She was right. OK, I don't know.
You hit 30 years old and then you're just like the you're just
the timeline just speeding up. A year and a half ago is when I
started here at Illuminate Church, and I was just getting
used to the staff. I was a week into learning about
the role I serve as a high school and young adults pastor.
What? What any of any of y'all here?
All three of you. OK, OK.
All right. Thank God.
All right. They're here.
Like what? Pastor Davis preaching.
We're not heading in. And I remember a year and a half
ago, the week of I walk into my office and I see like these,
these crumbs are like almost like ceiling tiled dust on my
table. And I was like trying to figure
out like what is going on here? And I and I, I'm, I'm looking
around and all of a sudden I look up.
That's Mr. Bean in my ceiling. So we have a Mr. Bean caricature
that gets moved around and someone with a ladder put Mr.
Bean in my ceiling tile. I literally died.
OK, I got brought back to life. I 100% died and I'm still trying
to forgive whoever did that. Maybe a staff member and her
name starts with AT. OK, but I'm not going to tell
you who. You just got to look on the the
Illuminate Church website. Still trying to forgive them to
this day. And I think that it's kind of
funny because if you think about it, like, think about your life,
right? If you imagine the most fun
times, the most enjoyous times, the times we've experienced,
like peak life, I almost guarantee you in some sense it
was with someone, right? It was in the context of
relationships, someone you were with.
Like, think of those glorious times, a wedding, a marriage, a
vacation, a graduation. Like, yeah, it might have been
an achievement for yourself, but what's so special is being able
to celebrate that with other people.
Our greatest moments and joys in life are in the context of
relationship with each other. But also, if you look back on
your life, I almost guarantee you that most of, if not all of
the hardest times of your life are also with people.
So this thing, this gift called relationship that God gives us
that we can walk in and experience and joy is also the
root of a of a lot of our pain. So much pain, so much so that we
can live years and decades of our life still living in that
pain that was caused by someone else.
A family member, a friend, a coworker, a boss, a manager, a
pastor, and whoever it is, they can be the cause of trauma and
pain that we carry with us for the rest of our lives.
And I hope and I pray that today you can walk out of here and not
have to carry the weight that you were never designed to
carry. I carried that weight for years.
I'm so familiar with that story. Looks like to carry that burden
when I was I was born in Los Angeles, CA Any Cali people here
in the house? Let's go.
All right, That's what I'm talking about.
And I lived there for five years.
OK, so not I was born there was not raised.
I visit later, but I love California as far as I can
remember. I think it was good.
I was 5 and I moved. My parents got divorced.
I was five years old, and my mom took me and my three other
siblings to New York shortly after we moved there.
Yet again, I'm about 5 years old.
She met my stepfather, who was a retired drill instructor.
And so he's someone that served in two decades, over 2 decades
in our military. By the way, if you served in
this country, thank you, thank you, thank you.
We would not be free if not for those that paid the sacrifice.
And so you I just want to say you can imagine maybe what his
household was like. My household was like it was one
of the, if not the hardest experiences of my life was being
in that household. Like like when I was be at
friend's house, their their punishments for doing wrong
things was like you can't play video games for me.
My punishments were like, hey, you can't have electricity in
your room till to this day. It wasn't until I was literally
16 years old that I lived with air conditioning and it gets
hot. OK, or it was like something
like this. My room was in the basement of
our house. And my punishment for not being
a good child or whatever the issue was, was you could not
turn up the heat the pellet stove in the basement to be able
to warm up the room. So I remember being 12/11/13
years old, literally in my covers trying to hide from the
frigid cold and I was not provided a solution.
And on top of that, it was things like I was not able to
shower back in the day. They had those little sand
timers, you know, like the little minute in the board
games. I had two minutes to shower.
And by the way, it wasn't when the water got warm, it was just
when the water turned on. So I would get 2 minutes, the
timer would go, I would turn on the water, I'd be freezing, I'd
wash my body, try and put shampoo.
I'd turn the water off, try and clean myself, turn the water
back on. Many, many times I would be left
with shampoo in my hair, soap all over me because the time for
my shower had ran out. Other times it was like if you
did this wrong thing, you wouldn't be able to eat
breakfast or lunch or dinner. I was 90, under 90 lbs as a high
schooler. I was so light because for, for
really lack of nutrition that they did not even have a
wrestling weight class for my weight.
And that's the environment that I grew up in.
And on top of that, it was the words, it was the slander, it
was the anger, it was the screaming, it was the yelling.
It was all the time walking on egg shells.
And I would be lying to you if I didn't say there was bitterness
growing over time, year by year. My three older siblings left.
A year later, my my older brother Danny left.
A few years later, when my sister was 16 years old, she
left. She wanted to get out of the
house. My brother made it to graduation
at 17. At 17 years old, he's like, I
got to get out of here. And every single year a sibling
would leave. It got harder and harder and
harder and to the point I was 15 years old.
If I were to be honest, I would say I did not want to live
anymore. That's where I was at.
And so I remember crying out to God and, and anger and
frustration and I said either I'm not going to live anymore or
I have to get out of here. A few months later, right before
I turned 16, I was going to be babysitting my cousin in New
Jersey and I thought, this is my escape plan.
So I was like, well, I'm going to bring all of the stuff that I
have and I'm going to take a one way flight out of New Jersey to
Florida, where my dad was living at the time, and I'm going to
buy a one way or I'm not going to buy.
I ain't got money, OK? My dad is going to buy a one way
flight ticket and I'm never coming back.
And so at that time I had saved up about $900, which when you're
15 years old, brother, that's like $80 million, OK, 900 bucks
in my bank account. And I purchased this computer,
which is like my prized possession, this big old clunky
computer. And I was trying to figure out a
way to get it in the car because I didn't want to let anyone
know. And so here I am.
I bring the monitor out. My mom's like, what are you
bringing a monitor? And then I bring this big old
suitcase, which was my, which was my computer.
And at that moment, she realized that I was moving out.
I wasn't coming back. I'll never forget this moment on
my driveway, 15 years old, my mom and I are playing tug of war
with my suitcase back bag and going back and forth and
screaming and yelling and cursing.
And I was at the end of myself. I did not even care anymore.
And my stepfather, he gets on the back porch and he's looking
at me. And my stepfather was one of the
scariest men I've ever met in my life.
And he looked at me and he screamed, what are you doing?
And I remember looking in the eye and said, I hate you.
I hate this place and I'm never coming back again. 15 years old.
It was the first time I saw I wouldn't even say resentment.
It was hurt and pain in his eyes.
I've never seen that before and I think in that moment he
realized he had gone too far. And so I left 15 years old hate
in my heart, bitterness and anger and I kept my promise for
years. So when it comes to this idea of
unforgiveness or forgiveness, I am someone that walked that
path, that lived that life, that knows what it means to carry
burdens and pains in our life. I know what it's like not
wanting to forgive. I know what it's like to carry
the burden of that pressure. And some of you, if you were to
be honest, you would be in that place right now.
And I want to encourage you and say Jesus knew in his infinite
wisdom that relationships would be messy.
Jesus knew that we would experience traumas, and Jesus
knew so much that he showed us a better way.
Jesus showed us a way to deal with our mess That happens in
relationships because Jesus knows the most beautiful
experiences are in relationship. When we think about our faith
walk, the most beautiful thing is that we have a relationship
with God. And guess what?
Jesus also saved all of these other people that are Kingdom
people and we are here from different countries and nations
and backgrounds and languages all as the family of God.
Is that not a beautiful picture of what God can do?
It's so beautiful what the Lord can do and the life of someone
bringing people together. And so he wants to show us a
better way. So right before we get to
Matthew 18, Jesus reveals his glory.
It's called the Mount of Transfiguration.
He gives a bunch of teachings about what does it mean to be
Kingdom people. So they recognize that Jesus had
a level of authority. He talks about those who are the
greatest are those who are the most humble.
And then Jesus talks about you cannot give in to temptation.
He says it's better to be without an eye or a foot to me
thrown into hell. Pretty intense language.
But and then he goes to say this, but yet your father
rejoices when one lost sheep ran away from God and yet comes back
home. And this is where we start in
verse 15. Jesus says this, if your brother
sins against you, go tell him his fault between you and him
alone. If he listens to you, you have
won your brother. Now this is important because
this is the second time in the Gospel of Matthew that Jesus
uses the word church or ecclesia.
So this is so in other words, if there's two times, if Jesus is
saying this is what my church is like, the first time was in
Matthew chapter 16 when Peter makes the confession that Jesus
Christ is the Messiah, Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
So the bedrock of this church, Jesus says on this rock, I will
build my ecclesia on this rock. I will build my church on this
confession of my lordship of me being the Messiah.
And then he says that one more time in chapter 18 and talking
about reconciliation with people.
In other words, Jesus says the bedrock of my church is not just
a confession of of my lordship in me being the Messiah, but
it's also how do we deal with conflict.
The foundation of a church is a healthy people that can manage
conflict well, and my prayer is that we would be a model of what
Jesus wants us to do. So what is Jesus doing here?
He's laying out a process, God's process for wholeness and
restoration. He gives us three steps here.
The first step is to share the truth on honestly and privately
with the goal of unity. Share the truth honestly and
privately with the goal of unity.
Now, in the Roman Empire, this was a little bit countercultural
because when people got an arguments, they would gather as
many people as possible to get on their side so that way they
would be honored again. So when there was an issue and
there was a tension, there was an issue about my honor and how
people should be treating me. And so I'm going to gather
family members, members, council members, government members, I'm
going to bring them so that way we can be reconciled.
But reconciliation was really just you saying that I'm right
and me being honored again. And what's interesting is Jesus
actually tells us the reason why we share the truth.
You might have missed it at the end of verse 16.
He says if he listens to you, you have won your brother.
In other words, when it comes to disagreements and tension, the
goal of a Christ follower living in the Kingdom of God is for
them rather than for you. And that flips the whole
perspective because when we go into a disagreement and we're
frustrated with someone, is not our goal to tell them how I
feel. It's not our goal to tell them
what I how I am, right? It's not our goal to to walk out
of there with a level of pride and conviction that I was the
one who was right. But Jesus says a Christ
follower, Kingdom culture type people, my goal and disagreement
is to win you over to unity. Again, that's something
different and that's something unique.
And unfortunately, a lot of us, I would say, has a pattern or a
behavior that we exhibit when we are sinned against.
For some of you, you like to withdraw from your pain and hide
it inside. You're someone that just bottles
us up. Like you just kind of ignore it.
You let it go. Typically, though, when you
bottle something up for too long, it tends to explode.
For some of you, it's to isolate, right?
When someone sins against you, I'm not going to talk to them.
I'm going to go some. I'm going to run away.
I'm going to hide some of you. It's to get angry.
You lash out, which caused the situation to be even worse.
You're trying to tell them how you really fear feel and anger.
And some of you, it's to get passive aggressive.
You're not aggressively trying to condemn them, but you're
passively doing it. So you can say, well, I didn't
always say anything bad, but you're taking shots behind their
back. I call them jabs.
You know what I'm talking about, passive aggressiveness.
Or for some of you, it's even to run.
And for me, that was my solution.
When I left New York and I moved away to Jacksonville, I then
moved to Gainesville and then I moved to San Diego and then I
moved to Phoenix, AZ and then I moved to Georgia and then I
moved to Winston, North Carolina.
Then I moved back home to New York.
And then I moved. And all of these moves was
because I was trying to run away from the pain.
But the fact is, you can't run away from bitterness and
unforgiveness. We cannot run away no matter how
far you travel. There are people here that have
traveled to the state because they wanted to leave a
situation. By the way, I'm grateful for
that. If you came here because you
were in a toxic situation, then then I'm I'm so grateful you're
able to get out of that. But how, why would you move away
from the problem while you're still carrying the problem?
It's time for us to find a level of resolution so we don't have
to carry this bitterness in our heart because we can either
pursue the problem out of anger and bitterness or we can run
away out of fear and pain. We can either aggressively try
and make something happen, responding out of anger,
responding out of frustration, or what we try and do is run
away because that's too touchy of a subject for me.
So the question is, when you think of even in your life, were
you even willing to have the conversation?
Were you even willing to talk to them in private and be able to
try and address this issue? And some of you are like, yeah.
And it went terrible. Thanks for asking.
I want to encourage you that Jesus knew it would not be easy.
He recognizes that that relationships can be messy and
He does not just leave us with Step 1 continuing in verse 16,
it says, but if he won't listen, take one or two others with you
so that by the testimony of two or three witnesses, every fact
may be established. So the second step is to share
the truth with community with the goal of clarity, sharing the
truth in the context of community, helping people,
having people with you to help with the goal of let us
understand why there's division to us.
Because if for some reason we have a conversation and there's
no solution, that means there's two perspectives that are not
being resolved. And that's why we have a
mediator. That's why we have counsel.
That's why you have a third party step into the room.
And what most of us do in this room is many times we don't even
have the conversation. And if we do have the
conversation and it doesn't go well, we.
Stop the process. But Jesus knew in many cases it
would not go well which is why he provided us a way in a step
to use. And I believe even if we do this
step we many times wait way too long.
Didn't you guys know this? Like think about in your life,
if there's someone that has sinned against you, the longer
you wait, the longer it festers, the more it builds up, the more
resentment, the more pain you start having conversations with
yourself that don't even exist. You internal processors, you all
know what I'm talking about. You've replayed that
conversation 18 times over again.
I'm probably underestimating. And so that that's not a healthy
way for us. And what happens, I would say is
we don't even do step one. And if we do, it's the most
unhealthy in our marriages. Think about it.
We do step one in our marriages specifically, over and over and
over and over and over and over again.
It's our favorite step. And so we'll tell our spouse
what's wrong with them. But then we wait way too long to
find a mediator to seek counsel. Counseling is a gift and a tool.
We should be able to use it. And if you're like, well, I
don't know if I can afford counseling.
Guess what? Even having a third party can be
such a great, such a great resource for us to be able to
reconcile with each other. What if we were willing to go to
Step 2 quicker and sooner that way instead of going to
counseling? Because we're not, we don't want
to get a divorce. We go to counseling because we
want a healthy marriage. Kingdom people in Kingdom
marriages aren't aren't marriages that are constantly
hanging on a thread. They thrive.
Now we go through hard seasons, we go through hard times.
I know what I know what I'm talking about.
Like I, I've experienced that myself.
But there should be a level of difference.
And that's because we follow God's process.
And I believe if we followed step one and step 290% of our
pains and 90% of our disagreements would be resolved
if we just follow Jesus process. And if you're still like, but
what if it doesn't go well, then Jesus got you covered.
All right, let's go to verse 17. Here's what he says.
And if he doesn't pay attention to them, tell the church.
And if he doesn't pay attention even to the church, let him be
like a Gentile and a tax collector to you.
So the third step is to share the truth with church authority
with the goal of humility. So we share the church, share
the truth with people in the church body.
That's why we have elders and pastors and people in leadership
to be able to have a godly perspective and help you guys
reconcile. And I love what Jesus says here.
I just want to back up a second. He talks about.
And if he doesn't pay attention even to the church, let him be
like a tax collector or a Gentile.
Jesus is saying if they won't even listen, then there's no
different than them and the rest of the world.
So one of the fundamental pieces of our walk with the Lord and
for us to be revealed as Kingdom people is to follow the process
of Jesus and to be humble, so much so that no matter the
conflict, we can somehow find some sort of resolution for it.
But if we're not willing no matter what, if we're not
willing at any point in time to be willing to reconcile with
someone, Jesus says, then there's no difference between
you and someone outside of the church.
Audio problems. But guess what's saying not
today. All right, We we ain't doing it.
Absolutely not. I've got to pick up a
microphone. We'll see what happens.
I guess I'm picking up a microphone.
Praise the Lord, Thank God. Look at this perfectly placed
microphone. Just it's almost like it
happened. First service.
OK, we almost there. 123ABC ABCDEFG OK, LONOP.
All right, wonderful. My goodness, Lord, we love you.
We love you so much. Let's let's continue on here.
In verse 18 to 20, Jesus says, truly, I tell you, whatever you
bind on earth will have been bound in heaven.
Whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven.
He's talking about this forgiveness idea.
And again, truly, I tell you, if two or three agree about any
matter that you pray for it, it will be done for you by my
Father in heaven. For where two or three are
gathered together in my name, key phrase, I am there among us.
Now verse 20, I would argue is one of the most popular verses
that's used out of context. Now I get why people say it.
I get it. We're recognizing when we're
gathered together, the presence of Jesus is real.
Absolutely. But that's not Jesus was talking
about. So if you say that prayer,
there's a small chance I'm cringing a little bit.
OK, I love you. It's just out of context.
So what is Jesus talking about? Because there's a deeper
meeting. Jesus is saying, when you follow
my process, when you follow my plan, when you seek my will,
when you seek my word, when you seek my way, the presence of God
is in that moment and what we're trying to deal with our pains in
our own way, and we wonder why it does not work.
And here's why. God is saying, I'm willing to
enter in that place, but you have to follow my process to
receive my presence. You have to be willing to walk
in obedience to my Word. We want the Jesus solution, but
we don't want the Jesus process. And many of us can have a habit
of doing it our way for so long. God is saying to you right now,
isn't it time that you let go of old habits?
Isn't it time that you let go of old patterns that do not produce
life? You know, they don't produce
life. It's time to do something
different. And here's the next big question
that many of us might be asking is, but what if I can't forgive?
That's an honest question. What if I can't forgive?
And I'm not going to stand here on this platform and minimize
some of the things you have gone through.
Some of you have gone through some of the most gruesome
divorces, the most gruesome divorces.
Some of you have had a close friend stab them in the back.
Some of you have dealt with years and years of trauma.
Some of you deal with people from your workplace that makes
work life a living hell. Some of you were in a
relationship and that person just wrecked your heart.
Some of you have dealt with physical and what I say sexual
abuse from a family member disgusting and in your heart
you're saying you have no idea what I've been through and all I
can say is your right. But the Lord does and the Lord
says in Psalm 3418. He says I am near to the broken
hearted and I save the crushed and spirit.
The more broken you may feel in a moment, even more close is the
presence of God. If you would just open up your
heart. I remember when I was 1920 years
old, I had a really bad breakup and everything.
When you're 19 and 20 is the end of the world, You know what I'm
talking about, OK? We got to grow up sometimes and
it was like the end of the world.
Someone that I was close with, it ended terribly.
We had this big back and forth argument and the conclusion of
it is we're done, it's over. And at that time, I was riding a
motorcycle. And so I get on my motorcycle,
put my helmet on and I start riding faster than I should
have. I start riding and I was in
Jacksonville. There's this bridge called the
Buckman bridge. It's like this multi mile
bridge. It takes a few minutes to get
over it. And here I am a motorcycle
helmet. And I'm just like bawling my
eyes out and I'm, I'm almost imagining the 8 year old in the
car like, wow, mom look, it's a guy in the motorcycle.
And I'm just like, Oh my goodness, my life is over.
Like that's just how I imagine it's happening.
And I'm on the I'm on this bridge where there's no cover
and it starts pouring. Literally I'm having the worst
day of my life and when it rains, it pours and it's, I'm
like, am I in a movie? Like what is even happening
right now? So frustrated.
So I finally get over the bridge.
I pull into the Panera. Just just overpriced food.
I, I pull into the Panera and I'm sitting there and not
getting food 'cause I couldn't afford it.
And I'm just at, I'm just in disarray.
I'm frustrated. And I remember I'm literally
looking down at the ground and I said, Lord, why am I even
serving you anymore? Honest prayer, Like, God, this
is so miserable. This is what's happening right
now. And a guy out of nowhere walks
up. He said, Sir, here's $10, lunch
is on me. Keep serving the Lord.
I'm in a moment of complete brokenness.
Yeah. And I'm, I'm looking at this
$10.00 bill. And before I can even look up,
he's gone. I don't know if it was an Angel,
I have no idea. But what I do know is this is
God is present in our pain. That's what I do know.
That's the truth. So then we get to this next
verse and and I love Peter because he literally represents
everyone in this room. So you hear the whole process.
Step one, Step 2, Step 3. And you're like, Dang, like
that's, that's kind of a lot of work.
I don't know about you, but that takes some time.
It takes some effort. And so here's Peter in verse 21.
It says, then Peter approached him and said, Lord, how many
times must I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me?
As many as seven times. So what Peter's trying to say is
like there's got to be a cap, you know, like like there's got
to be some sort of like, I hear what you're saying, Jesus, I
understand forgiveness. I get this idea, but at some
point, like there's got to be a limit in my opinion.
Like I'm like 7's too much. You know, I'm like you get 2 two
times and you're out. All right, three strikes, 'cause
I like baseball. That's about all you get.
So Peter's being honest, he's like, he's like, let's figure
this out. This is how Jesus responds in
verse 22. I tell you, not many as 7 Jesus
replied, but 77 times. Now this is important because
Jesus's response changes literally everything that we
know about pain, about suffering, and about hurt.
Jesus says we should forgive as many times as it happens the
number of completion. And I don't know about you, but
I don't like Jesus's answer. Let's just be real honest with
the text. Like I I am not a fan of what
Jesus is talking about here. I'm just struggling with one
time. And so then you ask the second
question, well why? Why must we forgive?
And I believe Jesus gives us 2 answers.
He begins by telling us a story in verse 23 telling us a
parable. He says for this reason the
Kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who wanted to
settle accounts with his servants.
In this story the king is clearly God.
So is the king or God himself is settling debts owed to him.
Verse 24 he says. It says when he began to settle
accounts, one who owed 10,000 talents was brought before him.
Now this is an astronomical amount of money.
Talents. This many talents is worth
between 10 and $12 billion in modern money, which I'm like,
brother, what did you buy? Like take me on a shopping
spree? My goodness, like 10 to $12
billion, that's an astronomical amount.
Like what did you do to even incur that much debt?
Insane amount of money verse 25 it says since he did not have
the money to pay back, his master commanded that he, his
wife, his children and everything that he had sold to
pay the debt. Back in the Roman days it was
commonplace for people to go into slavery to pay off the
debts. Now, let's be honest is is that
even happening would not justify the debt that he incurred.
But at least for this master, it would be enough for justice to
be done. So wouldn't absolve all the
debt, but at least there'd be some sort of justice for all the
debt that he incurred. And then in verse 26, it says at
this the servant fell face down before him and said, be patient
with me and I will pay you everything.
No, you ain't you ain't going to pay him everything like you're
too far gone. And this is what happened.
The master of that servant had compassion, released him and
forgave him the loan, which I want to say this, if you run a
bank in here and you want to loan me $10 billion, which you
will later forgive, find me out in the lobby.
All right? I just want to throw that
request out there. If someone has it on their heart
I want to say that. But think how crazy though that
response is, all of this debt and he has compassion and
sympathy and says you're free, you're free to go.
So what does this man do? Verse 28 that servant went out
and found one of his fellow servants who owed him 100
denarii. So mind you this is about 3
months wages maybe a few $1000 at most and he grabbed him and
started choking him and said pay what you owe.
This is the immediate response of a man who was just forgiven
10 to $12 billion and he goes out to one of his friends and
servants and chokes him and say you owe me this money.
What a response. At this his fellow servant fell
down and began begging him. Sounds familiar from earlier Be
patient with me and I will pay you back.
But he was not willing. Instead he went and threw him
into prison until he could pay what was owed.
And when the other servants saw what had taken place, they were
deeply distressed and went and reported to their master
everything that had happened. And then after he had summoned
him, his master said to him, You wicked servant, I forgave you
all that debt because you begged me.
Shouldn't you also have had mercy on your fellow servant as
I had mercy on you? And because he was angry,
rightfully angry, his master handed him over to the jailers
to be tortured until he could pay everything that was owed.
And I don't want you to miss this last verse.
So also my heavenly Father will do to you unless everyone of you
forgives his brother or sister from his heart.
We sit here and we listen to the story and we ask the question.
I don't understand why the servant would respond that way
after he had just been forgiven. How could like how could he lack
so much compassion after the king forgave a debt he could not
pay? And God is saying to us is did
you forget the debt that was paid for you?
Did you forget the debt that was forgiven?
Because I sent my son and your entire life you lived in
wickedness and as an enemy of God, and you wanted nothing to
do with me. And yet in your sins and in your
trespasses, I sent him to provide a way so you could be
free and forgiven. And it's so similar to a
situation in First Corinthians chapter 6, the apostle Paul,
he's addressing the same issue of people in the church that
have pretty much spat on the grace of God.
And in verse 9, I'm going to start, here's what he says.
He says, don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit
God's Kingdom? Do not be deceived.
No sexually immoral people, no idolaters, adulterers, males who
have sex with males, no thieves, greedy people, drunkards,
verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit the
Kingdom of God. And the apostle Paul is creating
a category of those that are separate from God's Kingdom.
And it's easy to look at that. And you're saying, well, I guess
the apostle Paul is mad. This is Holy Scripture and we
have to read to the end. What is the point that he's
trying to make in verse 11? And some of you used to be like
this as a believer in Jesus. This is called BC, before
Christ, before you're connected, before you were saved, before
you were redeemed, before you were forgiven, and you are
defined by your sin. That's what some of you were
like. And I had a conversation a few
months ago. I was talking to Rihanna.
She's our kids director. She's amazing.
And I was just asking. We had like a really personal
conversation. I was like, man, Rihanna, where
were you five years ago? Just think about it, like where
were you five years ago? And she looked at me and she
said, where was IA year ago? Like how much God can do?
God can do more in one year than you can do 100 years on your
own. That's the God that we serve.
That's what we serve. And here's how it ends.
The end of verse 11. Such were some like you, but you
were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the
Spirit of our God. That's who it used to be.
But you've been saved, you've been justified, you've been
redeemed, you've been forgiven. So why must we forgive?
Because we have been forgiven of our greatest sins with His great
love. That's the fact of the Gospel.
We've been forgiven that kind of way.
And some of you might be saying, but, but pastor, I don't really
feel that right now. I still feel the brokenness.
I still feel the hurt. I still feel the same.
I still feel the heartless and the hopelessness.
And I want to say there's one more reason that Jesus gives us
in Matthew chapter 5, verse 22 to 24.
Here's what Jesus says, but I tell you, everyone who is angry
with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment.
Whoever insults his brother or sister will be subject to court.
Whoever says you fool will be subject to Hellfire.
Jesus is saying the anger and the frustration and the division
will receive judgment not just on earth, but when you face me
in heaven. And here's what he says in verse
23. These powerful words.
So if you are offering your gift on the altar in the synagogue
and there you remember that your brother or sister has something
against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar.
First go and be reconciled with your brother and sister and then
come and offer your gift. So if you're coming to this
church and you're coming to God and you're, you're going to this
place to be restored, to be redeemed, to be forgiven and you
want freedom, Jesus says go. He says, go back home.
He says, go make that phone call.
He says, go send that text. He says, go have that
conversation. Go say what needs to be said.
Why? Because for us, we can never be
free unless we forgive. Jesus believed this so much.
He said, I would rather you stop worshipping for just a moment to
go and reconcile. That's how much the Lord Jesus
believes in this. And so years past, I left my
home. I was 15 years old.
I kept my promise, never came back, made a mess of my life, 24
years old and I said, Jesus, for the rest of my life I'm done
trying to follow myself. I'm going to follow you, Lord,
whatever you tell me to do, I'm going to do it, whatever it is.
One month after that prayer to the Lord, my mom gives me a
phone call. And mind you, I have, I have
spoken to her maybe three to four times in 10 years, had not
seen or spoken to my stepdad since I had left.
And she calls me on the phone and she shares with me that her,
her husband, my stepfather had Parkinson's disease.
He was on blood thinners. He was struggling to walk.
And if you're on blood thinners and you fall, it could be
catastrophic. You could, you could die.
And she's lacking time off. She doesn't know how to care for
him. And on that phone call, God says
go home. I hung up the phone and I said
absolutely not. I said, Jesus, I'll do anything
but that. And here I am praying before the
Lord and the Lord has asked me this simple question.
Did you really mean what you said?
Go home. So I called my mom a couple
weeks later. It took me some time and we're
on the phone and I said mom I'm coming back home.
At that time I was living in North Carolina.
I was dating someone who serious relationship ended up becoming
my wife. Had a good job living at home
like life was great. Quit my job, left my girlfriend
and went home. And I remember driving up with
all my stuff in my car and seeing him for the first time.
And I don't even know how I would feel.
There's a lot of feelings. But I served him.
I served and loved the man that I hated, not just like I hated
this man. And I served and I loved him to
the glory of God. And three months later, we're at
the dinner table just by ourselves.
And I finally had the courage to ask the question.
Why didn't need any other context.
He knew what I was asking. Why did you treat me like this?
And he was a man of very few words.
He paused for a moment, looked at me, and he said, because I
was angry. And for some of you're like,
that wasn't a good answer. But for me it finally made sense
because when he said I was angry, in that moment I saw a
reflection of him in me. It was like a mirror.
The last 10 years of my life, I was driven by anger and
bitterness. And in that moment, I just had
this sense of compassion and empathy because I saw myself as
God saw me as Jesus saw me. When I was angry and I was
bitter and I was frustrated and I was living in sin.
The Lord had compassion and sympathy on me.
And how could I not give him that same compassion?
How could I not give him that same sympathy?
How could I not give him that same mercy?
How could I not forgive him? I had been forgiven.
And here's what's so powerful about it.
That moment changed my relationship with him because I
did not view him as an enemy. I view him.
I viewed him as God. Seed him in love and compassion.
Three months after that moment, he was at my wedding.
Five years later, and I want to put up this last picture here.
Five years later, I had just been ordained as a new pastor
and I was doing my first funeral and it was his.
Before God gave me a beautiful wife, before God gave me a
greater purpose, before God changed my life, the first thing
He had me do was deal with the anger and unforgiveness in my
heart. But God is reminding us that we
have to follow His process to receive His presence.
We have to be willing to have the conversation, to seek help
and get a mediator. We have to ask for church
support. If we can't solve the problem,
we need to be able to forgive and reconcile.
And I want to give you before you walk out of this space,
three things and I believe three steps to walk and freedom person
a pain in a process when you think in your life, what is that
person's name? What is their name of the person
that hurt you? Second thing, how did they hurt
you? What is the what is the pain
that you have in your heart because of something that
happened? And third thing, what is the
process? What is your first step?
And for some of you, you might say, I don't know if I can do
it. And your first step is just to
pray, just to ask for the Lord. Because here's what I'll tell
you. The type of forgiveness that God
has called us to is supernatural.
It's supernatural. And God isn't going to give us a
command that He's not going to empower us to do.
It's by the power of the Holy Spirit.
And I want to make it clear, I'm not the hero in the story.
I'm not this holy man. I'm a kid that was broken and
destitute and the Lord changed my life from the inside out.
And he said, I want you to go. I didn't even want to go.
So my story is a story of Jesus redeeming me and me trying to
see that redemption in others. It was because of him.
Jesus is the hero of the story. He is the one that changes
everything. He does all of that and so if
you go back, if you have the conversation and reconciliation
is not possible, forgiveness always is because you can never
be free unless you forgive and you can't truly receive the
forgiveness of God without even being able to forgive others.
That's a product of being Kingdom people and above all
else, and I'll end here is an order for you to even walk in
that power or walk in that authority.
It starts with a relationship with the Lord.
You can't do it apart from Him, and so if you've never been
forgiven yourself, that's the first step.
The fact is, Jesus Christ live the perfect life, died on a
cross for your sins, was bloodied and bruised and beaten,
died and three days later rose again.
And when He did that, He created access for you to be forgiven
for your sins and your evils and your brokenness to be castaway
as far as the East's from the West.
In other words, when God looks at you for those that have a
relationship with Jesus, he does not even see your past sins.
He doesn't even see the pains. He doesn't even see the
brokenness. He sees you as a son and as a
daughter. And my hope and prayer is that
some of you, before you leave, you would make a profession of
faith this morning because there's no better way than
Jesus. There's no greater hope than
Jesus. There's no greater savour than
Jesus. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for your presence, your
compassion, your empathy, your love, your care, your kindness.
And what I pray right now for the hearts that are served in
this room. I pray God first for those that
you are revealing something that is time to let go of people in
this church, people in their family, people back at home
where wherever that is. God, I ask God that you would
give them the strength, give them the courage to walk in
freedom. Give them the the power to walk
and follow the process. I pray for those hearts in this
room and I pray God for the one. If it's just one, Jesus, you
said you left the 99 to find the one, just one who wants to make
a profession of faith. I pray God that by your Holy
Spirit you would bring them to that place.
And so we're going to pray a prayer together as a body.
Let's say, Heavenly Father, I recognize that I am a Sinner and
I need forgiveness. I believe that Jesus died on the
cross for my sins and I confess that Jesus rose from the grave,
is my Lord and is my Savior in Jesus name.
And if you're praying that for the first time, I want to
encourage you to make that personal just for a moment.
Just be mindful of a holy moment.
Just say, Lord, I don't even know what this means fully Lord,
but I know I trust in you. I believe in your sacrifice.
I have faith. And if that's you in this space,
on the count of three, I'm going to ask you to raise your hand in
boldness as a sign of profession.
We have something to give you. We have something to bless you
with. So if that's you, you're making
a profession of faith today. On the count of you, raise your
hand 123 anyone in here? Today is the day of salvation.
Don't let a day go by. Thank you, Jesus.
You can. Once you can receive a gift, you
can put your hand down. Thank you, Jesus.
Thank you, Jesus for your forgiveness.
Thank you, Lord, and I think for those that just made a
profession of faith and as the body of Christ, I want us to
stand. And before you came in, you were
given communion elements. And I think it's appropriate
before ending a service on forgiveness that we're reminded
of the reason that we have forgiveness, which is the
sacrifice of Jesus. If you don't have a communion
element, feel free to raise your hand.
We have ushers that can bring some extras around.
Keep those hands raised. And this is what all throughout
church history the church has called a sacrament.
It's a it's a sacred thing by which we walk in obedience to
the Lord. And when Jesus picked up the
bread, he gave thanks and he says, this is my body which is
broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.
You can take worship this last song.