Forgive From the heart
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning rivertree. Hello to everyone watching online or at our cove campus.
It’s a real joy to be with you this morning.
If you have your bibles go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 18 and in a moment we will start reading in verse 21.
We’ve been working through the 18th chapter of matthew for the last month and there has been
as we’ve been on this journey one of the themes we have seen thorughout the chapter is this idea of the “one”
It’s start with Jesus talking about the humilty of the one and the childlikeness our faith must take on
then it moved to the sensitivite to the one and how Jesus was goign to protect children or the little ones
from there we see the seeking of the one and how Jesus as the good shephed talkeed about leaving the 99 and going after the one
then it moves into the confortation of the one
how when a brother sins agaisnt you and what you should do with that.
but this isn’t where it ends.
no Jesus doesn’t end with confrontation but with a continual openness and readiness for restoration.
everything Jesus taught in this passage up to this point was counter cultural.
Child weren’t valued in there Jesus cultre but he values them
no shepherd who had 100 sheep would actually leave the 99 to go after 1. most of them would just be happy they still had 99.
If sin was commited agaisnt someone they wouldn’t go and confront they would probably just write that person off forever
and know when Jesus beginngs to bring one more teaching to the table that was counter cultral in Jesus day and in ours today.
He beginngs to about the pathway to restoration in our relatinoshps and restoration for our very souls
that pathway is the pathway of forgivness
The way Jesus beginnings to teach on this is counter to the culture, it seems somewhat wreckless. The story he tells to illustrate his point seems absurad
and that’s the point. To follow Jesus. to be a christian to actually live out all the bible teaches is to be different.
Espically when it comes to forgivness.
forgivness changes you. Not only does it have the chance to resotre a broken relationship it’s also redemptive to your own soul.
my hope for this sermon is we can learn truly what forgivness from the heart looks like.
let’s read
Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.
After all this Peter ask an intersting question
He ask Lord how often will my brother sin agaisnt me and I forgive him? As many as seven times?
it’s a great question. Peter has just heard Jesus teaching on confronting sin and seeing restoration but he has an insight.
In some ways he’s quesiton ins’t really a question that he wants to know the answer to
Most likely Peter is asking this question to impress Jesus and others around him.
Peter wants Jesus and others to know he gets it forgivness is important. But there is a limit right?
Most people agree that the rabbis and other teaches of Jesus’ day said to forgive someone up to 3 times.
so when peter offers up the idea of forgiven 7 times. he is really saying.
Look at me. Jesus you have be eleveating all the teaching of the old testment.
In stead of murder you said don’t even hate a brother
instead of adutry you said don’t even lust after someone
instead of 3 times here is my idea Jesus how about 7!
I’ve arrived. I’ve got it. My heart is really big I think.
peter thinks he’s on to something.
but, Jesus answer is telling. Jesus ses seventy-seven times.
some of your translations might say 70 times 7.
for you math lovers in the room some of you are like okay I get it. But what Jesus is doing and it’s illustated in his story he tells after this is making sure no one misses it.
It’s extremly more then we think.
let’s look at Jesus story:
“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
2,000 years later as we read this we can almost miss how shocking this story was.
A man came to the king and owed 10,000 talents.
if we just think he owed 10,000 dollars we might think to ourselves. That’s not great. That’s a lot of death. Maybe the king could tell him about dave ramseys finical peace university
or maybe the guy could have a garage sale, or pick up an extra job delivery bread and fish to peple who missed out on Jesus big miricale.
but it’s more then that.
most people estimate 10,000 talents is equally to around 600 million dollars in todays money.
this is meant to shock us, this is meant to be commical and almost absuard
and until we view this story through those kind of lens we will never realize just how absuard it is.
Think about the wieght of that. Some of you know the pain of debt and owing something. But with that kind of debt I think most of us would agree
a garage sale or an extra job isn’t going to fix this problem.
but the stoyr get’s more absurd.
the man falls to his knees. (that’s probably right)
but then he makes an even more request
he says have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.
this man is living in a different reality.
you get it. If someone owed you this kind of money and said i’ll pay it all back you couldn’t help but laugh
this debt is insumatable.
but before we look at the kings response I think another quesiton is fair.
how in the world did he get this kind of debt?
How is this even possible?
there is a very small percent of people throughout history who could convice someone to loan them this kind of money.
surley no of the listeners to Jesus that day could even fathom this kind of debt.
this is the point.
but there is something else here. What does it say about the generosity of the king to allow him to go into this much debt.
but the master looks at him. He sees his situation and has pity.
and he does something even more absuard
he realeasing him and forgives him.
in other words the king absorbs the debt.
the story is meant to point our hearts to the gospel
it’s meant to help every single person who hears the words think about the debt they owe God.
How we could never pay it
how we were hopeless
and like the person in this story we think
God just have patience with me
give me time
i’ll get it right
all the wrong i’ve done. All the peopole I’ve hurt. All the mistakes I’ve made
all the shame I feel
I’ll fix it. Give me time. I’ll pay it back
I’ll be better.
I’ll sin less
I’ll read my bible more
I’ll give more money
and then I can pay you back for what you’ve given me
and in the same way the king had pity on the servant
God has compassion on us
he saw us all when we were far off and new something we didn’t even know.
whatever we thought we owed him it was more. and it was more then we could ever pay.
As Tim keller said we were far worse off then we think
but while we were still sinners CHRIST died for us
reminded us of this truth
We are more loved then we can imagine.
that’s what the king showing the servent when he forgave him
so we know how the rest of the story goes right?
the servant expiernces the kings love, and forgvness and he beginnis to offer it to everyone else.
but that’s not what happens
something equally as shocking is the next part of the story
This guy goes out finds someone who owes him money. 100 denri about 5 dollars in todays money
and says pay what you owe
the servant said the thing
give me time
it would have taken about 4 months to pay the guy back
and this guy who had just be forgive looks at him and begins to CHOKE him
this is shocking
this is absuard
it’s like a datline eposide or a true crime podcast
“tonight on dateline we tell the stroy of a man who had 600 million dollars debt forgiven in one day and then choked someone who owed him 5 dollars
stay tuned this season to find out why
the servant hadn’t allowed the forgness he had expiernced to get into the deepest places of his heart
he was offered forgviness but didn’t really expiernce all the benfits of it
and because of this the master calls him back reminds him of all he had been fogven on.
called what he had done wicked
and deliverd him to the jailers where he would pay all of his debt
and this is also pretty profound. Becasue while this is teaching many things one thing we can take away from this is when we fall to forgive we end up in our own prison cell
we end up suffering just as much as the person we won’t forgive.
Jesus ends this teaching letting them know this is the same thing which will happen to you if you do not forgive from your heart
There are a couple other passages in matthew that might help us know what it means to forgive from the heart
when teaching on prayer Jesus taught to pray
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
This is a line that millions have prayed since Jesus time
it’s still prayed in chruchees every sunday
it’s prayed by football players at times on friday nights
it’s a prayer of aspiration in mnay ways
but it is scary
Jesus is not teaching in order to earn Gods forgivness you must forgiven
he’s teaching to be a christian is to forgive
it’s this idea as we are expiercing Gods forgivenss we forgive others
An example Ross used years ago when describing forgivness has been helping to me
What Jesus is saying here is like breathing
in order to breath you have to inhale and you have to exhale
if you just inhale and never exhale what happens?
You die
I thought about seeing who could hold their breath the longest but then I thought there is some middle school student at one of our campus who might push the limits
so I thought I just offer you that
and in the same way this is forgivness
if you expiernce forgivness but don’t offer. You don’t exhale your soul is dying.
It’s doing damage to you
we all know that
to be a living christian is to breath in forgivness and to breath out forgivness
when we forgive from the heart we are ddeclaring something true about God
and something true about ourselves
soething true about the cross
when we forgive from the heart we aren’t stuffing our resetment and just not dealing with the situation but we are realsing that person
and as we realease that person we will expirence our own healing
something amazing in Matthews gospel so far has been all the phsyical healing miricales we have seen and as great as those are I think the expiernceing forgivness is just as great if not greateter
if you think all the way back to the parylized man whose 4 friends layed him in front of Jesus
Jesus doesn’t heal his body first
he heals his soul
the scripture says Jesus saw him and said your sins are forgiven
before healing his phisical conditon he forgives him
how profoudn. How wonderful
and the same is true
when forgivness is expierenced there is a healing that takes place
I long for that for every single one of you today
if you’ve never expirenced the forgvness of God I pray today you would
that you would turn from your sin
ask God to forgive you
and trust in the finished work of Christ paying your debt on the cross
and his new life would become your new life
I remeber when I was 15 years old and I called on Jesus to save me and he did I felt a weight liftied off of me
and some of you have been trying to pay back the debt to God for a long time. For far to long. you are exhuasted
we think do I need to give something more? But what more could we really give then what Christ has already given for us
and Jesus says come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest
for some of you you’ve done that already
you’ve expiernce the sweetness of forgivness
but someowhere along the way your sin or someones sin agaisnt you has caused their to be a rift in a horzontal relationship
in some ways you feel improsined by unforgivness
you’ve inhaled forgivness but the exhale seems scary
but I’d encrouage you to come back to the cross even with this
the cross is the level ground for all of us.
it’s the place where all of us are in the same place. the place we need our debt paid for
The cross doesn’t just forgive the indebtedness to god
But also to one another
sometimes we think
this person has hurt me so bad. They owe me more.
but it’s fair to ask the question do we need to give something more that what christ already gave on the cross
even our smallest debts our to be understood within this greater sacrifice.
and brecause the cross covers our indebetness to each other we can trust what Jesus says in matthew 5:23-24
Abandoning positions. Climbing down from the place of right you stand in. Jesus paints a picture of someone going to the temple, buying their sacrifice, and approaching the altar where they will leave their gift, and as they come into the presence of a loving and gracious God they remember some relationship that has gone wrong.
Jesus Galilean audience would have traveled about 3 days to the Temple. Almost comically, Jesus tells the listeners to leave the live animal there in the Temple and return home.
It would have been a week round trip to find and repair this relationship.
this is a long time.
but to be reconciled is the better worship
not the serice
not the songs
not the tithe and offering
Forgivness is an event but it’s also a process
and it’s often on that road to forgivness that God begnins to heal our souls also
Is it really possible to be right with other people? Jesus says it is. Is it really that important? Jesus makes a point to say it is.
Worship is subordinate to forgiveness and being reconciled with one another
Colossians 3:13
Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
Forgiveness restores relationships
Forgiveness heals you.
Illustration
i’ve expiernced this so many times first handed. but I’ll tell you about a time this last year.
had a fun night with friends.
and then the next day something suprising happend.
my friend walked up to me and let me know I had really hurt them
it was at church. I was had made my offering of work to the Lord and it was time for me to be reconciled to my family member in christ
it was something I did not expected
but when they shared how I hurt them
I ask for pity
I asked for forgivness
and they didn’t choke me
they said of course. A little teary eyed
and it’s intersting right? if you’ve ever been in that spot I was like is this over? are we no longer friends? Did my sin just ruin this relationship
but they said they forgave me and I had to trust them
that’s hard sometimes
but pretty quickly we were sharing a meal with our families
and vacation together that year
forgivness
it restored our relationship and probably brought it to sweater and deeper places
but it also healed my soul
When you forgive, you aren’t earning God’s forgiveness, but you are declaring loyalty to Jesus and his Kingdom. If Christianity is about anything it is about forgiveness.
Forgiveness isn’t stuffing resentment but it releasing that person.
maybe you are longing for that person to come to you and ask for forgivness hears some hope
Whatever The thing you are waiting for the other person to do the cross can also cover that.
I feel like I need to say this also
forgivness is not deyning our pain
forginvenss is not forgetting
forgivness is not
Years ago I was walking through a season with a friend and we were talking about some of the unforgivness in my life and encouraged me to forgive from the heart and they gave me a way to do that
they told me to get alone by myself and pray and ask the holy spirit to show me anyone I hadn’t forgiven
anyone I was still holding onto bitterness and restentment for
and I thought this sounds horrible but okay
I was ready for healing in my life
I was ready to expiernce the freeom forgivness brings
they gave me a little sheet of paper with this prayer
Dear Jesus, I forgive ______________ for ____________________. I have held on to hurt, resentment, and bitterness. I confess that I’ve tried to make ______________ pay
for what was done to me. I now realize I have been held in a prison of bitterness because of it. Lord Jesus, I choose not to hold onto my resentment any longer. I thank you for setting me free from the bondage of my bitterness. I relinquish my right to seek revenge and ask you to heal my damaged emotions. I now ask you to bless ____________. In Your Name. Amen.
oh man it was so much harder then I thought it would be
there were situations the Lord brought to mind that I didn’t even realize I was still holding onto
but can i tell you what. after hours of tears and some real hurt being exposed
I was free.
no longer was I in the prison unforgivness held
it was transformative
and my hope is the same for you
let’s pray
Jesus how often should we forgive?
I pray
Colossians 3:13
Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
I pray for the person who is allowing bitterness to hold them in prison that today they would expirence the freedom forgivness would bring