Sermon Tone Analysis

CONNECTING WITH GOD

THE PRAYER OF RELEASE

Sunday March 14, 2021

Scripture Reference: Matthew 6:9-13, Matthew 18:21-36

"Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.

10 May your Kingdom come soon.

May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

11 Give us today the food we need, 12 and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.

13 And don't let us yield to temptation but rescue us from the evil one."

Matthew 6:9-13 (NLT2)

Intro.

A. The Misery Twins.

1.

Last week I began to talk about what I want to call the misery twins the first of which is Guilt.

There are probably some of you here today who are struggling with this first twin.

You live so much of your life feeling guilt, guilt for things you didn't do guilt for things you did do, guilt for things you can't undo and the list goes on.

But Guilt has a twin and we will talk about that evil twin today.

2. The evil twin of guilt is resentment.

These two things may well be the biggest barriers you and I face when it comes to discovering a life of peace and joy and fulfillment.

The fact is guilt and resentment effect every relationship in our lives and remember when we began this series we talked about how vital relationships are for us.

God has built into us the need to be in relationship with people, but the fact is guilt and resentment are keeping us either from having relationships themselves or from having healthy relationships.

You see guilt normally has to do with what I have done whereas resentment has to do with what others have done to me.

3. Now it is one thing to forgive someone who has hurt me once, but what about the person who has done this several times or who seems to be a repeat offender?

[] For most us this is where the three strike law comes into play.

Three strikes and now we are throwing away the key.

What does the bible say about the repeat offender?

Let's look and see.

D. Matthew 18:21-35 "Then Peter came to him and asked, "Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me?

Seven times?" 22 "No, not seven times," Jesus replied, "but seventy times seven!

23 "Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him.

24 In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars.

25 He couldn't pay, so his master ordered that he be sold-along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned-to pay the debt.

26 "But the man fell down before his master and begged him, 'Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.'

27 Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.

28 "But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars.

He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.

29 "His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time.

'Be patient with me, and I will pay it,' he pleaded.

30 But his creditor wouldn't wait.

He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.

31 "When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset.

They went to the king and told him everything that had happened.

32 Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, 'You evil servant!

I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me.

33 Shouldn't you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?' 34 Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.

35 "That's what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart."

Matthew 18:21-35 (NLT2)

1. V. 21 says "Then Peter came to him and asked, "Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me?

Seven times?".

You have to know that Peter is feeling pretty good about himself right about now.

You see the Jewish law at this time said that you had to forgive a person who offended you three times and after that you were done.

So, Peter is not only doubling the number of times he is willing to forgive but then he even throws in this one extra.

You probably recall that the number seven in the Bible usually refers to completion.

Maybe Peter thought that this would really impress Jesus.

2. Notice Jesus' response V.22 "No, not seven times," Jesus replied, "but seventy times seven!

What was Jesus was telling Peter and more importantly what is Jesus tell us?

He is telling us that counting doesn't count!

If I am keeping track of the number of times I have forgiven someone then the reality is I have not forgiven them the first time.

It means I haven't done what this part of the Lord's Prayer is all about and I have not released them.

3. Notice in V.21 the word in the NLT that is translated "someone".

In the Greek this word is "brother".

Here is one of the toughest things about forgiveness, it is forgiving those who are closet to us.

After all my family should love me enough not to hurt me, right?

Of course, this is why being hurt by the family is so painful; because we think the intimacy of the relationship disqualifies us from being hurt.

4. Now let's just go ahead and deal with another painful reality.

When you come to Jesus as your savior you become a part of the church family.

If you are going to fulfill what the bible says, then you are not only a part of the universal church, but you must also be a part of the local church.

If you are new to the church, you need to know something very important.

This family is not perfect, and neither is Calvary Chapel, Valley Christian Church, First Baptist, or any other church in this community.

The reason we and all these other churches are not perfect is because they are filled with people like you and me.

Unfortunately, I can guarantee you that at some point in time someone in this church, someone will do something that will hurt you in some way.

Sadly that person could even be me.

I wish it weren't so but it is, but we are still family and even though we get hurt sometimes in our families we don't disown them.

We find a way to work through those problems because we are family.

Trans.

Now last week I told you about how we need to seek and find forgiveness for ourselves, for the sin in our own lives.

Today I want to talk to you about what I think is more difficult and that is forgiving others and releasing them from the supposed bondage we put them in.

What I mean is that someone hurts you and you get angry with them and refuse to forgive them for what they have done.

What we do is we keep them in this little prison in our minds and every once in a while we let them out so we kick them around a little.

You see for a time we hadn't thought about what they did, but maybe we see them, or something jars our memory, and we start reliving how much they hurt us and how angry we are with them.

Of course, here is the bummer, while we keep reliving what they did and we keep thinking we are punishing them the fact is we are the only ones being punished.

Most of the time that other person has no clue that they did anything to hurt us in the first place.

OK so what can we do to get past this and really forgive that person and release them so that we can live a full and enjoyable life ourselves?

Here are three reasons we must forgive those who hurt us and release them.

I. WE MUST FORGIVE THEM BECAUSE GOD HAS FORGIVE US.

I know this may sound very basic to us but it is also essential.

You see we have to forgive others the debt that may be owed to us because our debt has been paid.

A. Your Debt Has Been Paid.

1.

You see we are ALL in debt.

The bible is clear on this, "For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard."

Romans 2:23 (NLT2) I don't care how good we have tried to be I don't care how religious we might think we are I don't care how many years we have attended church.

We have ALL sinned and fallen short of God's standard.

In the parable we read about the unforgiving servant he had an enormous debt.

In today's economy that debt would have been around 12 million dollars.

It was an Impossible debt to repay.

We owe a great debt we have sin in our lives and no amount of church attendance or good deeds or money will pay off that debt.

We need what happened for this servant.

2. The King had pity on him.

God had pity on us.

God saw the condition of our lives and instead of wiping us out which is what we deserved He sent Jesus to die for us so that through him this great debt could be paid, and we could have the relationship with God that He has designed for us since creation.

3. Now there is something very significant that happens in this parable that also happen for us.