Turn your Bibles this morning, if you would, with me to Matthew chapter 18. And I'm going to read two verses this morning, Matthew chapter 18 and verses 21 and verse 22. And I'm going to ask you if you're physically able to stand and honor the Word of God as I read these verses that you would do that. And I remind you again this morning, it's only in the Word of God that we get the true story of the world, amen? And so important that we see that, understand that. This is His living Word revealed to us, Matthew chapter 18 and verse 21 and 22. Then came Peter to Him and said, Lord, how off shall my brother sin against me? And I forgive him. Until seven times? Jesus said unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times, but until seventy times seven. Let's go, Lord, in prayer this morning. And again, I would ask you, if you're standing next to your husband or wife, your family, reach over and hold hands as a family as we pray here this morning. Father, we love you and praise you. And God, we thank you for your precious Word. It is a living Word to us. And I pray, God, that we've come into this building this morning, Lord, looking to receive from the Word of God how that we might walk more holily and be more like Jesus Christ. I pray, Father, that we have not come just to be hearers of the Word only, but to be conformed by the Word of God into His image. And I pray, God, that you might reach with your holy finger into every pew and to every heart and break that heart afresh in the relationship with you and to each other. And God, if there be someone here today that's lost without Jesus Christ, that today might be that day of salvation for them. So Father, we look forward in anticipation to all that you're gonna do through your word this morning. We pray, we ask these things in Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen. And let me just say as I get started this morning that this morning I want to share with you how we are to forgive. And tonight you won't get everything that you need to get if you don't come back tonight because tonight I'm going to talk about what happens when we don't forgive. So this morning, how are we to forgive? We might say overall, we might call this message forgiven and forgiving. So there's no question. In my mind, one of the greatest, if not the greatest problems of the body of Christ is the sin of unforgiveness. In ministering to and counseling families over the past almost 40 years, I witnessed hundreds of Christians who are living a defeated Christian life that lack joy and communion both with God and fellow Christians due to a lack of either receiving or granting forgiveness to someone else. If we're all here honest today, We'd all agree that some of the hardest words, certainly, that we utter from our mouths are, I forgive you. Why? Because we're so filled with pride that it's hard for us to admit that we could ever be what? Wrong. It's hard to admit that you're wrong. We're very prideful people and it takes humility to forgive or ask forgiveness. And sadly, I've seen so many Christians refuse to grant forgiveness from those who seek forgiveness. John Stott said, forgiveness is as indispensable to the life and health of the soul as food is to the body. Forgiveness certainly is at the heart of the Christian experience and one of the clearest certainly declarations that we truly are a Christian. I've had people come to me, even Christians come to me in counseling and say, I could never forgive my wife, I could never forgive my husband, I could never forgive so and so. And I think to myself, what you're saying indirectly when you say that is, I am not a Christian. Because if you are truly forgiven, Jesus says, we will be what? Forgiving, okay? An old-time writer said this, and I thought it was very powerful. He said, to return evil for good is devilish. To return good for good is human. But to return good for evil is divine. Let me say that again. To return evil for good is devilish. Listen, to return good for good is human, but to return good for evil is divine. In the parable of forgiveness in Matthew 18, Jesus shows us what it means to return good In verses 15 through 20, Jesus is instructing us of the importance of forgiving and reconciling a brother or sister who has sinned against us. It's a very important teaching on reconciliation, where if a brother or sister does not repent and reconcile, it can lead to church discipline. Of course, the goal is always to restore that brother or sister. Now this teaching prompts Peter to ask Jesus the question in verse 21 that we read in our text. How often or how oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? And Peter says, till seven times. It's seven, the magic number, Jesus, that I should forgive. So Peter came to Jesus with a question that we often probably ask ourselves, maybe sometimes even unknowingly, if not out loud like Peter, we ask ourselves, how many times am I required to forgive someone? Or Jesus, what are the limits to forgiveness? Now Peter is doing what we often do. He's trying to put a calculator on forgiveness or put forgiveness into a mathematical formula, we might say. So Peter says, should I forgive up to seven times? Perhaps Peter was thinking this was very Very big thing for him, very holy thing for him to say, very spiritual thing for him to say because the rabbinical law only required they forgive three times, seven being the number of completion. Maybe Peter thought, well, if I go to seven, Jesus, would that be the maximum number of times I should forgive someone? Peter probably thought, surely that's enough. But look at Jesus' answer again in verse 22. Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times. But I say until 70 times 7. So Jesus says, no, Peter, it's not 7 times, but Jesus says 7 times 70 or 490 times. What was Jesus saying to Peter, really? Jesus is saying to Peter that any time you find yourself putting a calculator on forgiveness or putting a limit on forgiveness, you're not truly forgiving. Anytime you're adding up to your credit, how many times you've forgiven or forgive somebody, you're not really forgiving them. So Jesus is saying to Peter that forgiveness is not a matter of mathematics, but forgiveness is a matter of the heart. I mean, you don't forgive, listen, you don't forgive your wife, guys, I hope, or you don't forgive your husband or children based on a set number of times each day. I hope you don't do that. Guys, I hope you don't go to your wife and say, honey, listen, you're up to five times that I've forgiven you today. You only have two left. So you better watch out. I mean, I don't think any of you have some chart on your refrigerator that has each one of your children's names on it, the husband and wife's names on it. It's a forgiveness chart. So each time you forgive them, you put it down on the chart. But when you get to this certain number, that's over. You better watch out then. I hope you don't do that, right? Jesus says to Peter, it's not seven times. But 70 times 7 or 490 times, now somebody might be saying here, some wife may be saying here today, well, you know, I've already been calculating my husband, he's up to 451, he's only got 19 left. Is that what Jesus is saying? No, it's not what he's saying. The point is not an exact number, but rather an unlimited number. Jesus is saying to Peter, if you really understand forgiveness, you understand that the number of times you forgive someone is unlimited. So to drive home this point to Peter and to us here this morning, Jesus gives us a parable on forgiveness. And I want to dive into that as we continue this morning. So look at the first scene, we might call it, of this parable where we see the unpayable debt. In verse 23 of our text, it says, therefore, is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king? which would take account of his servants. Notice Jesus starts with the word, therefore. This is a significant word as it links us to the previous passage where Peter asks, how many times am I to forgive who? A brother. How many times am I to forgive a brother? So the parable is all about a believer who sins against another believer. That's very, very important to see and understand. The parable is primarily about how we in the family of God are called by God to forgive each other. But first we must see how much we as a child of God have been forgiven. The kingdom of heaven that Jesus talks about in verse 23 refers to the sphere or dimensions of God's rule on the earth through grace and salvation. All who are born into this kingdom Listen, are born, are translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. Amen? By his son, Jesus Christ. The king represents God. This is the first parable in the New Testament that refers to God as a king. So in this parable, Jesus, when he says, therefore, is the kingdom of heaven likened to a certain king, he's referring to his father, God, as that king. The servant that we read about here in this parable, we think of a slave typically when we think of a servant, but the servant is not the type of servant we might normally think of like a household servant, but refers to a person often called in that day and time a satrap who were governors over the affairs in different providences of the kingdom. So the servant, when he talks about a servant, this is like a governor over a certain province in the king's kingdom. So these servants represent us as born-again children of God who are to be good stewards of God's kingdom that He has placed us into the kingdom of light. And notice that the day came when the king takes account of all his servants for their stewardship that day comes. Look at verse 24. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. So we see there came a day of reckoning. This is the day when the king looked at his books to see who owed him what. Folks, this is a picture of God who, as His discretion, calls man to account for his sins. A man is called to this accounting through the conviction of the Holy Spirit of God. Now, I'm not sure that this servant was hoping that this day would never come. I'm sure he was thinking to himself, I hope it doesn't. I don't want to be held accountable. This servant owed him 10,000 talents, which is an unpayable debt, as we'll see, and I'm sure this servant was hoping someday he would not be called to reckon for that 10,000 talents, but this day had finally come. He knew he would have to answer at some point for this 10,000 talents, but he's hoping it wasn't today. It's kind of like a child who disobeys their parents. They don't run to mom and daddy. It's very unusual. They run to mom and daddy and say, listen, I did this and this, and I'm here for my punishment. We don't normally do that, do we? And they go and try to hide it from them so they won't find it out because they don't want that day of reckoning for what they've done to come. But when mom and dad do find out, there probably is a day of reckoning. And listen to the king. had not called the servant..." Now, this is so important. I said this in Sunday school, too. If the king had not called the servant to him, the servant would never have come. The king had to call that servant to him in this day of reckoning, or the servant never would have come to him. It says in Romans 3, 10, no man seeks God. Just like Adam and Eve sinned, and then they did what? They hid from God. They tried to hide from God. You can't hide from God. Man has always tried, ever since sinning against God, to hide from God. That is, unless God calls us to salvation, unless God comes to us in a depraved, sinful condition, we would never, ever go to Him. But notice the size of the debt in verse 24, which is really the key to understanding this parable. Jesus says His servant owes 10,000 talents. Now to give you an idea of how much money this is, when the tabernacle was built and all the items were overlaid with gold, it only took 29 talents of gold to overlay it. So we're talking about this servant owing 10,000 talents of gold. In fact, the largest numerical number in the Greek language is 10,000. It's like saying to someone, you owe me a trillion, trillion dollars. It's an unpayable debt that this king is calling this servant to pay. And that's the point, really, in the parable. Through some mismanagement, through some corruption, He had acquired this humongous debt that was impossible, and that's important to see, impossible for Him to ever pay back. And folks, that's a picture of our sin. Through the calling and conviction of the Holy Spirit, God shows us the immensity of our sins and the impossibility of ever paying for those sins. Listen, I don't care how many good works you do. It doesn't matter how much money you give to the church, how much money you give to the needy out here. Those are great things. You can take all those things. It doesn't matter how much you do. You could never ever yourself pay your sin debt. A lot of men think they can. A lot of women think they can. People generally think if I'm good enough, then God will accept me. But God, just like this servant, coming to this servant and says, listen, it's a day of reckoning, 10,000 talents of gold you owe me. This is an unpayable debt. He had no way to pay it. There's no possible way he could. So this is a very, very tense moment as this servant is before the king. How did Paul come to know Christ? Jesus came to him on the Damascus road and said, Paul, Paul. Why persecutest thou me? What was Paul doing? The me there was his body, his church, Jesus' church. Why are you persecuting my body, my church? Why are you killing Christians? He's getting Paul to recognize the immensity of his sin, that he was a sinner in need of a Savior. I can remember when I was 13 years old. And the Holy Spirit of God began to deal with me and show me my sin and how I was a sinner and how I could never pay off that sin myself. And at that point, God came to me and drew me to himself and gloriously saved me. And I hope today, even as I share that, that you can remember that time when God gloriously saved you. And if you can't remember that time, then I pray that time would be today, amen? But notice what it says in verse 25. But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. Notice it says he had not to pay. And because he had not to pay, he and his family were to be sold into slavery. And folks, I really believe this is a picture, we might say, of eternal separation from God in a place called hell. I think verse 25 is talking about hell where man is sent to pay for his sin debt if he is not trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as his Lord and as his Savior. Where else do people go as punishment for their sin debt that they owe to God? And they cannot pay. But even if they spent all eternity in hell, their sins are so great they could never pay it off. That's how big this debt is. And listen, when people are sent to hell, eternal separation from God, it's because they've sinned against a holy God and they're getting their just punishment. This servant didn't say that he wasn't guilty. because he knew he was. He didn't say, I'm not guilty. I didn't do that. He knew he was guilty. He was standing before the king. He knew the king had a day of reckoning and it caught him there and he knew he deserved punishment for a debt that he could never ever pay. And folks, that's every one of us. We all have a sin debt that's unpayable and therefore we all deserve, every one of us deserve eternal separation from God in a place called hell. because of our sin. But can you imagine how devastated this man was when he said, listen, I'm going to sell not only you, but your wife and your children into slavery. You can imagine this man was crushed. He was devastated. He was distressed. He must have been very, very broken. He's about to lose everything, even his family. So in the second scene of this parable, the servant does the only thing he could do. He pleads for mercy. Look at verse 26. The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. The servant falls on his face before the king. He totally is shattered and hopeless and at the king's mercy. He's at the end of himself. You know, that's what we have to get to, the end of ourself to get saved, amen? To realize that we can do nothing, our only hope is in Jesus Christ. So he cries out to the King for mercy. Listen, he's doing what every saved sinner had to do, and that is, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. Martin Luther, writing about this passage, said these very profound words. I think it's very insightful. He said, Before the king drew him to account, he had no conscience, does not feel the debt. It would have gone right along, made more debt, and cared nothing about it. But now that the king reckons with him, he begins to feel the debt. So it is with us. The greater part does not concern itself about sin, but goes on securely, fears not the wrath of God. Such people cannot come to forgiveness of sin, for they do not come to realize they have sins. They say, indeed, with the mouth they have sinned, but if they were serious about it, they would speak far otherwise. This servant, too, says before the king, reckons with him, so much I owe by Lord, namely 10,000 talents, but he goes ahead and probably just laughs about it. But now that the reckoning is held and the Lord orders him, his wife and his children and everything to be so, now he feels it. And so, too, we feel in earnest when our sins are revealed in the heart, when the record of our debt is held before us, and then the laughter stops. There's none as unfortunate as I on the earth, we began to realize. Such knowledge makes us a real humble man. works contrition in our hearts so that no one can come to the forgiveness, so that one can come to the forgiveness of sins. What grace, what grace of God that God would call us to an accounting for our sin. Otherwise, we'd all go blindly to hell. So Jesus paints us a picture of the sinner's condition as helpless, and God's grace in calling sinners to account for their sins where the sinners pleased for mercy. But look with me now at the scene, we might call it scene three, at the king's amazing grace. The king's amazing grace. Look at verse 27, and this is so good, so rich. Then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion and loosed him and forgave the debt. Wow. The king responds to this servant the same way God responds to every sinner who cries out for mercy. He pardons him and God forgives him. But I want you to notice three things that the king did that helps us understand in verse 27 how we should forgive. So look at verse 27 again. You might be thinking, are you saying that we're supposed to forgive like the king? We're supposed to forgive even as God forgives? It says, I remind you, Ephesians 4 to 32, that says we're to forgive as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven us. So yes. And this verse gives us three things that the king did that helps us understand how to forgive. So look at him with me this morning. First, he had compassion. Then the Lord the servant was moved with compassion." Did you know the word compassion is the word most often used to describe the emotions of Jesus Christ in the New Testament? I remind you, Matthew 9, 36, it says, when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with what church? In Matthew 20, 34, it says Jesus had compassion on the men who were with Him. In Mark 1, 41, it says Jesus had compassion on the leper and healed him. In Mark 6, 34, Jesus had compassion on the people because they were like sheep without a shepherd. The father in the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15 is described as having compassion when he sees his son coming home. The word compassion literally means to have your heart go out to someone to empathize with them and take pity upon them. The king's heart. went out to this servant. He empathized with the servant's situation, his inability to pay this massive, unpayable debt. Then the king had pity on him. Folks, our God, thank God, is a God of great compassion. He's a God not only of great compassion, but great love, great grace, and great mercy. And listen, to forgive someone else like this is not something that we in this flesh would want to do. Why? Because our flesh makes us feel superior to that other person who has hurt us. And we say things to ourselves like, I would never ever do that. You ever said that before? I'd never do that. Or how could a Christian ever do that? You've heard that before. Our pride is often like the Pharisee who says, God, I thank Thee that I'm not as other men are. And, you know, it's so easy for us. Now, listen, folks, I'm not asking you this morning just to agree with what I'm saying. Take this to heart. This is where we are. It's so easy for us to lift ourself up, feel superior to other people, and think, I would never, ever do what they did. I'd never do that. But to have compassion and take pity on someone is to say to yourself, I'm really the same. I'm really no different than he or she is. I believe that's what it means in Galatians chapter 6 and verse 1 when it says, Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself, thyself, lest thou also be tempted. It says, in the spirit of meekness, consider who you are. Look at yourself. We're a sinner, just like they are, who has been forgiven an infinite debt. Forgiveness starts with compassion. But notice also, he forgave the debt. Now, that's big. What does it mean, forgave the debt? What does that actually mean? It means that the king absorbed, that's a big word, absorbed the debt himself. He had to pay for it himself. That's what forgiveness is. The debt didn't disappear. The debt was still there, but the king said, when he said, I'll forgive you, he's saying, I will absorb that debt. And forgiveness is when you pay the debt rather than making the person who wronged you and hurt you pay the debt. You say, how does that work? Let me give you a couple of illustrations. Let's say that you have a new cell phone, just for example. Brand new iPhone, maybe it's worth $800 or whatever else, and you're walking outside and somebody else's teenager or child runs by, knocks it out of your hand, it hits the cement and the front cracks. Now, at that moment, you're a little bit upset. And the question is, what are you gonna do? At that moment, you've got a choice to make. You can either expect this person whose child broke your phone to replace it or give you the money for a new phone, or either you can say, that's okay, I will fix it myself, I'll absorb the debt. Either way, somebody has to pay. Either the person who did the wrong or yourself. but somebody has to absorb that debt. Now, let's say we're not talking about material or monetary things, which is very often the case. It's not material, it's not monetary. Let's say somebody wronged you, gossiped about you, told a lie about you, said something about you that's not true. There's no monetary debt owed, but there's an emotional debt owed. You're experiencing emotional pain because of what they said about you or what they did to you. And I'd be honest, if you were honest here today, I'd say every one of us have experienced this at some point. So there's this emotional debt you feel that you are owed. Really, again, there's only one or two things you can do. The first thing you can do is you can make them pay the debt. And unfortunately, this is what we often do. You say, how do you do that, preacher? By trying to make them suffer the same way you suffered. You want them to hurt just like you hurt, so you get angry at them. You avoid them. You quit talking to them. You begin to gossip about them. You hope in your heart that they suffer in some way and feel the same pain that you're feeling. And again, we can't be little angels here this morning. All of us have done this. But here's the point. You want to hurt them. Why? Because when you inflict pain on somebody who hurts you, you say it makes you feel better. You're paying your emotional debt down by making them pay, by making them suffer. And I've seen so many husbands and wives who have done this to each other because they have been hurt by the other, they make the other person pay down that pain they've been caused. You say, does this work? Well, to a certain extent, it does. Slowly, you may feel less and less of the pain they caused you by seeing them suffer, but when you make that other person pay that debt down this way, it affects you. It changes you. Your unforgiveness begins to control you. Let me give you another illustration of this. This is an emotional debt. Let's say Debbie has counseled a lady whose father verbally abused her as a child, and she is never ever forgiven. her father. Even though he's asked her many times for forgiveness, she refuses to grant it to him, and as a result has carried this hurt, carried this pain for many, many years. So she doesn't talk to her father anymore. She avoids him. She does everything she can to make him hurt, to make him pay for the pain that he caused her. So because of the pain inflicted to her by her dad, she subconsciously starts stereotyping all men to be just like her dad. So later when she gets married, she brings this baggage into her marriage. And it affects her relationship with her husband. Why? In the back of her mind, she is still thinking that all men are like her father. Since she's never forgiven her dad, it controls her and even affects her in her current marriage. Now, the alternative to making them pay is that, even as we see in the story, you absorb the debt yourself, this emotional debt. Listen, when the king forgave the servant, the debt didn't go away into thin air. He had to absorb the debt. He had to pay the debt. How did God absorb our sin debt? God is holy. God is righteous. God is just. So the debt had to be paid. So what did God do? He sent His Son, Jesus Christ. Amen? As God incarnate, God in the flesh, to die on a cross for a man's sin, like this servant, that anyone who pleads to Him for mercy will be forgiven. Jesus absorbed the sin debt on the cross at Calvary. And to forgive as God forgives, now listen folks, to forgive even as God forgives, for Christ's sake, we must be willing to absorb the pain and hurt that other brothers and sisters inflict upon us. You can't do this by ignoring it. Listen, it's not gonna go away that way. You must willingly pay the debt down. You say, how'd I do that? It requires, now listen to what I'm saying, it requires that we voluntarily suffer through actively not remembering. Let me just say that again. It requires that we voluntarily suffer through actively not remembering. When you want to avoid that person, you don't. When you want to gossip and tell other people how bad they are, you don't do it. And it hurts you because you want to do it. When in your heart you start thinking about how much you would like to see them suffer, you refuse to let your mind think that way. When you start to rewind the tapes, you ever done this? Start rewinding the tapes in your heart and replay the pain and hurt they caused you. You start replaying those tapes in your mind, in your heart, and you see all that pain, all that suffering they caused you, you refuse to do it. Forgiveness requires voluntary suffering. How can you do this? You must continually, listen folks, the only way we can do that is we must continually remind ourselves of how much we have been forgiven. This is what God wants us to all understand in this parable. I love this quote by Martin Lloyd-Jones. He says, I say to the glory of God and utter humility that whenever I see myself before God and realize even something of what my blessed Lord has done for me, I'm ready to forgive anybody of anything. We must continually preach the gospel to ourselves so that the gospel would destroy our pride. It will remind us of how much We have been forgiven by God. Listen, it may take a few days or a few months or even longer to pay their debt down, but it will eventually go away, and then you're free of its control over you. You might say, but what if I don't, and this is a big thing that a lot of people say, what if I don't feel like it? You know what? If you waited till you felt like forgiving somebody, you would never do it. Because we're never going to feel like it. You can't go by that. You need to understand that forgiveness is an act of the will. What I'm saying is that according to the Bible, you must grant forgiveness even before you feel like it. When you willfully cut off the oxygen to your self-pity, and self-righteousness, and to self-centeredness, and to the anger you have, and grant forgiveness to the person who hurts you, you will eventually start to feel forgiveness. And listen, when you have forgiven the debt, canceled the debt, You can then do the other thing the king did for this servant, and God has done for every repentant sinner. You look back to that verse, it says he loosed him. Wow. The king released him from the obligation to repay the debt. A full pardon is granted, paid in full. The servant and his family would no longer be sold into slavery. They would be set free. This is what God does for every sinner who pleads for mercy. and trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. When God forgives, He says in Scripture, I will remember your sins, what? No more. I'll remember your sins no more. Not remember is an accounting term or phrase meaning to remove or expunge from the record, to cancel the debt. I won't remember them anymore. When God forgives, He says He will no longer hold our sins against us. So forgiveness is not a feeling. Forgiveness is a, listen to what I'm saying, forgiveness is a promise, a promise to not remember the sin. God doesn't say they'll forget them. God cannot forget. He's omniscient. But he says, I will not remember them. I'm canceling the debt against you. I love what J. Adams says in his book on forgiveness. He says, to not remember means I will not bring up these matters to you or others in the future. I will bury them and not exhume the bones to beat you over the head with them. I'll never use these sins against you again. Forgiveness promises not to bring up the offense to the offender, to others, or to yourself in the future. Let me just say that again because that's so important to understand. Forgiveness promises not to bring up the offense to the offender, listen, to others, or to yourself. True forgiveness releases, looses, releases the perpetrator and no longer uses their past sins against them. And as I said earlier, until you loose the one who hurt you, who sinned against you, you will not be loosed and free yourself. Do you remember the story of Joseph and his brothers? They hated him. Remember that? Sold him into slavery. Think, how could they do such a thing? Later in the story, in Egypt, he calls his brothers again before him, in Genesis chapter 50, and he just pours guilt all over them until they're devastated with guilt. He calls them to reckoning. And then he reveals himself to them. They're pleading for mercy. He shows compassion. He weeps. If you go back and read that, he literally weeps. He shows them mercy. in grace. He has compassion on them, He forgives them, and He looses or frees them. And that's how it is. Praise God in salvation. God has compassion on the sinner, and through the Holy Spirit shows the sinner their mountain of sin that's so big that we realize we could never ever pay it. And the sinner realizing their helplessness, pleads to God for mercy, and God forgives and looses the sinner from the bondage of their sin. And listen closely, God calls every Christian to forgive, I'm going to say it again, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven them. Again, I'll read to you Ephesians 4, 32, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God and Christ There are many questions that come up when you preach on forgiveness that you just can't answer in one sermon. I do want to answer just two real quick this morning before I close. The first one is this. What if you're dealing with a non-Christian? He's talking to brothers here, brothers and sisters, but what if you're dealing with a non-Christian? I remind you of what it says in Romans chapter 12 and verse 18. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. That doesn't just mean Christians. It means those who are not Christians too. Christians are commanded to seek peace and reconciliation with all men, not just Christians. However, non-Christians may not feel the same responsibility. They're not Christians. Amen. If so, you're to live as peaceably as you possibly can with Him. You're still gracious and kind and cordial. What about, here's the second question, what about all the little daily sins that are committed against me in my marriage or with my friends? All these little daily sins that happen all the time against me. What do I do about that? As it says in James chapter 5 and verse 20, our love should cover a multitude of sins. The more mature you are as a Christian, the less you'll be shaken by every little offense, every little sin that's sinned against you, whether it's your husband or wife or brother or sister in Christ, love covers a multitude of sins.