Well, they're a part of our church family, and so they'll be out on the patio afterwards. Holly, the kids will be here probably by the end of the service. So you can greet them and say hello to them and just encourage them in the Lord. Well, today we're going to continue our series in the parables. Jesus, what's the story? What's the story? And I love how Jesus taught in parables. And he would take a story and put a spiritual truth behind it. And they are very informative and wonderful. And Jesus is the greatest storyteller of all time. And we have the privilege of opening up God's Word every day of our lives freely in this country. to read more about what Jesus taught us and the truths of God's Word. And ultimately, every book of the Word of God was written by Jesus. He inspired the writers. He was the Divine Logos, the Word of God, that inspired every book that was written. So in essence, every book that was written is written by the Lord Himself. Today I want to talk about this, the parable of the unforgiving servant. The parable of the unforgiving servant. And if you know anything about forgiveness, you know that that is central to what it means to be a Christian. You cannot be a Christian if you have not experienced forgiveness. You can't. It's impossible. When you come to the cross, you experience the amazing forgiveness of Jesus Christ. That's what makes you a child of God. You are made, as we sung this morning, as white as snow. Why? You've been forgiven. You've been forgiven. And you can never fully understand the extent of God's forgiveness until you have probed the depths of your rebellion. Now, I'm a good person compared to some other people out in the world. No, you're not getting it. You can never fully understand the extent of God's forgiveness until you've probed the depth of your rebellion and sin against God every day. We fall short of God's standard. Every day we think a thought or do something that falls short of God's standard, even as believers. But that's what's so amazing about God's grace. It keeps being given to us every single day. And we need to understand, as we start this study, the difference between legal forgiveness and what I call relational forgiveness or fellowship forgiveness. Legal forgiveness is this, when you come to faith in Jesus Christ, all your sins, past, present, future, forgiven, paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ. So that means if I have an argument with my wife and I say something that I shouldn't, I've sinned against God and I jump in my car and I'm angry and I get into an accident that kills me, I never confessed that sin. I never said, Lord, I'm sorry for that sin. Do I still go to heaven? Yes, absolutely. Why? Because of the legal forgiveness of God. God forgives our sins, past, present, and future. Even the ones we cannot remember, God forgives us. That's what's so amazing about God's grace. We are legally forgiven. The word for legal forgiveness in God's Word is what? Justification. I remember the meaning of justification with this simple little phrase. Just as if I'd never sinned. Exactly. Before God, He looks at me as if I have never sinned. Why? Here's the good news, everyone. Because you have the righteousness of Christ, His Son, placed upon you. The word in theology is imputation. It's placed on you by God. You are imputed with the righteousness of God. Wow, all my sins. Now here's the other aspect of forgiveness. It's relational forgiveness or fellowship forgiveness, if you like. It's this, that as I am legally forgiven, I don't take advantage of that. I don't say to God, God, now that I'm forgiven and you've forgiven all my sins, I can sin as much as I want to. Paul uses the strongest negation in all the New Testament to answer that question, if we should do that. Hey, should we sin all the more, he asks in Romans, that grace may abound? No! May it never be! May it never be! We've experienced the amazing forgiveness of God. How can we still live in the sin that God's forgiveness was designed to free us from? You can't. can't. As a believer in Christ, you want to move away from that, and you are growing in this process of sanctification, becoming more and more like Christ every day. To be like Christ is easy, I confess. You sin, and sin, and sin, but less, and less, and less, right? That's a process of growth. Sinning less, and less, and less, as God grows you up. We still experience God's amazing forgiveness in that process, but our desire is, as the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin, that we say, Lord, in my relationship with you, I'm sorry. I should not have done that. That's that relational forgiveness. If we continue to live in sin as a believer in Christ, there's a question about whether or not we're truly saved, by the way. If we can continue to live in sin and not feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit, then the next question ought to be, am I really saved? Am I really truly forgiven? Now, every one of us sins, but right away, as children of God, we feel the loving discipline of God come into our lives to correct us and change us. If you're not sensing that, the question is whether or not you truly have a relationship with God. If my daughter went into my wallet and stole $20 out of my wallet, I saw her sneak up to my wall, take out the 20 and put it in her pocket and walk away, and I saw that, there would be a relational tension there. until she came and confessed. Now, she's still my daughter. I still love her. I don't have this bitterness and anger towards her as a follower of Christ. I still love her. But until she comes and says, Dad, I'm sorry. I was wrong. I shouldn't have taken that money out of your wallet. I'm sorry. Hey, you're forgiven. I love you. our relationship is restored. There's no longer that tension in the relationship. Same is true in your relationship with God. Keep short accounts. Make sure you're very sensitive to what God is convicting you of, and come before Him and say, Lord, I'm sorry. We're still a child of God. We don't lose our salvation every time we sin. That's a doctrine that's taught out there, that there comes a point when you lose your salvation, and then you have to gain it again, and then you can lose it again, and then you can gain it again. If you are truly saved, you will continue as God continues to grow you up. You know, the problem is so many of us carry around so much baggage in our lives. So much baggage, because we don't forgive like God. God has forgiven us everything. But then in turn, we don't forgive like that. So we carry around all this weight and baggage. Well, what are those baggages that we carry? What are the bags that we carry along with us? There are things like hatred, and unforgiveness, and bitterness, and anger. And the reality is, here's the amazing thing about these bags. They don't really hurt the other person. They ultimately hurt you. Who's carrying those bags? That woman is carrying those bags. That weight is on her. Too often we carry too much baggage and never really understand fully the blessings of doing life God's way. The blessings of letting go of the wrongs that have been committed against us. If you've ever had a wrong committed against you, please remain seated. Exactly. I use that form of technique often. Don't I? Please remain seated. Every one of us. If you've ever wronged someone, Please remain seated. All of us, right? All of us have. And how wrong is it for us to harbor bitterness and unforgiveness against someone who has wronged us when we have experienced the amazing forgiveness of God? I'd like you to understand today, the bottom line is this, forgiving others is a vital characteristic of a disciple of Christ who truly understands and is impacted by the awesome forgiveness that God has demonstrated to us. That every day you say, Lord, I can't believe it. I am forgiven. Can't understand it. I didn't deserve it. I'm forgiven. Totally forgiven. That that dominates your life. And then when someone wrongs you, there is this desire within you to say, Lord, I can't, I can't wait to forgive. Can't wait to show forgiveness like you have demonstrated to me. I'd like you to turn your Bibles to Matthew 18. Matthew 18. We're going to look at this amazing story. that Jesus gives to demonstrate this principle. Matthew 18, verse 21. Let me read this account. Ben Peter came up and said, Matthew 18, 21. I'd love to have your Bibles open. Page 823, did you share Bibles? Then Peter came up and said to him, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Great question. Well, I have a brother, a Christian brother, a friend of mine could be a biological brother. How often can that person wrong me and I still forgive him? At what point do I cut off the relationship? Jesus, then he said this, as many as seven times. Now that's a great question. Peter is saying, listen Lord, should I go as far as seven times? See the standard rabbinical teaching was, if you did three, that was really good. If you forgave someone three times, Peter goes, well what if I forgive seven? I'm a power forgiver Lord, isn't that good? If I forgive my brother seven times, I'm going way beyond the expectation. Jesus said to him, I do not say to you seven times, but 70 times seven, which all of you mathematicians out there, that's how much? 490. You know, that's good. We have some mathematicians out there. You know what? I believe there are three types of people in this world, those that are good at math and those that aren't. Three types of people, those that are good at... Okay. I do not say seven times, but seventy times seven. What is the Lord saying there? We're gonna get to it in a minute. Let me keep reading. 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. That's a huge debt. That's a debt that that servant could never ever repay. Millions of dollars in today's currency. This servant could never ever repay that. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had in payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, have patience with me. I will pay you everything. And out of pity for him, the master of the 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. That would be a hundred days wages. Not a massive debt, but not a little one either. Repayable. A hundred days wages. 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, 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, 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. Wow, that last verse is pretty intense, right? So will my Heavenly Father do to you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. That's pretty intense. That means forgiveness is important to God. The way I forgive, as Mel Svensson, is very important to Jesus Christ. That's very important. because we cannot fully understand God's forgiveness until we understand the debt that we owe, the depth of our rebellion against God. And you owed a debt, and I owed a debt that we could never ever repay. Who are the characters in this parable? Well, the king, of course, is the Lord. It's God Himself. He's the one that has forgiven this servant A huge debt. Who's the unforgiving servant? That's anyone who claims to have a relationship with God, but refuses to forgive others. That's really you and me. In those moments when we are holding bitterness, holding anger, saying, I can't believe he treated me like that. I can't believe she did that to me. I'm going to hold this bitterness and anger and hatred and unforgiveness in my heart. That's you and me. That's you and me. Who's the other character, the other servant? It's other people around us that we refuse to forgive, that wrong us. It's other people in our lives that do things to us, that we harbor bitterness against. When I look at this text, the first thing I see is what Peter asked. Hey, Lord, how many times do I forgive, seven times? No, no, Peter, you don't get it. 70 times seven, don't even keep count. The first principle is this, forgiving others is not about scorekeeping. It's not about scorekeeping, forgiving others. We don't get to a point in our lives when we say, I've forgiven enough. I'm not doing it anymore. I'm going to hold this bitterness. And like a cancer in our lives, if that cancer is not dealt with, we all know what happens, right? If you have a cancerous growth on your shoulder, that's not going to get any bigger. I'm sorry, smaller. That's not going to diminish any more than it is. It's going to keep growing. It's going to get bigger. It doesn't do any good to ignore it. It doesn't do any good to just say, OK, it's there, but I'm not going to do anything about it. If you know it's cancerous, it needs to be dealt with. And unforgiveness is like that. If you allow it in one relationship, soon you allow it in two, and three, and four. And you become this person that is wrapped up in bitterness, and anger, and hatred. It's not about scorekeeping. It's not about scorekeeping. As you approach this life, be a person that says, I will forgive others as Jesus has forgiven me. How much did he forgive me? Everything. How much do I want to obey God? With all that is within me. How much do I believe that God's plan is perfect? With all my heart, I believe God's plan is perfect. So for me to harbor bitterness only hurts myself. I was reading a bit about an article in the Reader's Digest. It was called, How Letting Go of Grudges Can Improve Your Health. It states that forgiveness is indeed divine, but not necessarily easy. And I'm not saying it's always easy. It's also very beneficial to physical and mental health, states the article. It quotes Frederick Luskin, PhD, author of Forgive for Good, in Harper Collins' book. He says this, people who show forgiveness demonstrate less depression, anger, stress, and show more hopefulness and tend to live longer lives. Why? Because they show more forgiveness. It benefits you. It blesses you. And today we need to acknowledge that we are people that say, you know what God, I'm amazed at the forgiveness that I have. So I'm not going to keep score, like Peter was thinking, up to seven times. Not going to do that. I'm going to consistently forgive. Here's the second principle. Forgiving others flows out of God's forgiveness of you. See, we've talked about this already, but if you really understand God's forgiveness, and I hope all of you do, I hope every day you realize that the greatest gift you were ever given was forgiveness. That you were totally forgiven. Given the free gift of eternal life because of that forgiveness. See, and what happens is this, God's love pours into your life and it fills you up. You are just amazed at God's unconditional agape love that fills up your life. And so it flows out to others in your mercy towards others. When you're wronged, it's okay. You know, we can deal with this. I forgive that person and I will now take steps to deal with this problem in a healthy way. Being a forgiving person does not mean that you become a doormat. It doesn't mean that you always allow people to walk all over you and not say a word. That's not what forgiveness is all about. Forgiveness is all about, I forgive you. I want to restore this relationship. Let's take steps to do that. And like the book of Romans says, as much as it depends on you, be at peace with everyone. What does that verse tell us? It tells us that there are times when you do everything you possibly can to be at peace with somebody, but they don't reciprocate. They still continue to wrong you. They still continue to do things that offend you. but you still continue to forgive. It doesn't mean the relationship is restored. It doesn't mean that you ignore boundaries that you can set up to make the relationship healthier. That's not what forgiveness is all about. Forgiveness is I will act in love towards that person. I will demonstrate mercy to that person. And that flows into a life of forgiveness. If we really understand God's love and mercy and forgiveness, it fills our lives and it flows out into our relationships so that we are merciful and forgiving. And we're not harboring this grudge in our lives. We're not allowing bitterness to wrap itself around our hearts like this evil weed. But like Hebrews says, I'm going to pull the root of bitterness out of my life. I'm not going to allow it to take a hold of my life. And I'm thankful that in a church, we get that. I mean, we get that general concept that we're a church that loves to love one another. I just love the ways in which you love people in this church. I hear stories, and not all of you hear them, of how people have come alongside others and helped them and demonstrated love, like you helped me when I went through my incident about a year and a half ago. And the love that we felt was amazing. That comes from the love of God. The love that says, I love you, brother or sister, because of the love that God has demonstrated in my life. And if there's a problem, I will forgive and seek to come to a solution. I define forgiveness as this, acting with compassion and love towards another person who has wronged you. Acting with love towards another person who's wronged you. Because of the love, mercy, and compassion that you've received from God. Because of the love and mercy and compassion you've received from God. Let me go over again what forgiveness is not. It's not forgetting what happened. We cannot physically forget what happened. That's not what it's about. People say, forgive and forget. What are they really saying? We know it's not possible to physically forget what happened. What that phrase is really saying is, act as if that never happened. Love that person as if it never happened. Again, not ignoring boundaries and steps that can be taken to make that relationship right, but act as if It never happened. Forgiveness is not condoning the wrong. It's not saying, I forgive you, therefore what you did is okay. No, that's not what forgiveness is all about. Forgiveness is not avoiding future changes. I don't want you to walk out of here and say, well, Mel told me to just take whatever people give me and not try to change anything, and I'll just keep getting walked on and taken advantage of. That's not what I'm saying. That's not what forgiveness is all about. There's the next thing. Forgiveness is not about removing all consequences. For example, I may get to a point where I say to my daughter, okay, you've forgiven for taking $20 out of my wallet, but that means you have a number of chores to do. There are a number of chores you have to do around the house in light of what you did. It doesn't mean avoiding all consequences. That's not what forgiveness is all about. My daughter understands. I love her. She's still my child. The relationship has been restored, but there are consequences for what you've done. Let me tell you what forgiveness is. It's releasing your right to get even. It's releasing your, and I put that word right in quotation marks. The world will say, you have the right to get even. Revenge is so sweet. Have you heard people say that? Well, it really isn't. It just keeps the cycle of hurt and anger and bitterness growing and going, and it's a negative thing, and it ultimately hurts you, and it puts you down to the level of that person that wronged you. You now are brought down to their level. Your testimony is now destroyed. Oh, that person calls himself, herself a Christian, and they do that? Unleashing your right to get even. Here's the second thing. Reacting to evil with good. Reacting to the evil with good. Instead of reacting with evil to the evil I've received, I'm going to be good. I'm going to demonstrate good. Jesus said, what good is it if you love those who love you? Even the heathen do that. Pray for those who persecute you. Even the heathen are nice to people or nice to them, but there ought to be something radically different in us as believers that the world says, wow, they went way beyond what I've ever seen before. They reacted with good to a person who did evil to them. Romans 12. says this, to the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For by so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Exactly. I remember when I lived in Chicago, I was really into the Bulls with Michael Jordan. Remember that? They won six championships. They beat up on the Los Angeles Lakers a number of times. And they just were world champions. And there were times when I'd miss a playoff game, but I'd tape it. and I record it. But then usually someone would say, hey, the Bulls won tonight. And I'd go home and watch the game. And was the intensity as much there? No in the end? No, right? You know, I'd see a bad pass by a Chicago Bull and I would say, oh, no problem. They end up winning anyway. A missed shot. They end up winning anyway. We as believers, we know the end. We know that we win. So every move we make, hey, I'll do it God's way, it ends up good anyway. I know the end result. And so therefore I am free to do what God calls me to do because I know what the end is. It's going to turn out okay. Overcome evil with good. Here's the next thing. What forgiveness is, is repeating the process as long as necessary. Repeating the process. Right, you've wronged me again. I'm gonna go in love, not in anger. I'm not gonna yell and scream. I'm gonna stay away from phrases like, you fool, you idiot, how could you do that to me? Stay away from those you phrases, that name calling. Go through the process again of love. This is how I felt. I felt hurt when you did this to me when we were at that party together, that fellowship together. You said this, that hurt me. I just wanna make it right. I wanna make it right. My heart is to forgive. Maybe there's something I've done that's caused tension. I want to make it right. Here's the next thing. Forgiveness is remembering how much the Lord has forgiven you. You're always motivated by how much God has forgiven you. So this is the deal. Love is the motivation, right? That's clear. Rather than speaking the truth in love, we're to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ. Our motivation is to speak the truth in love. That's always what it's all about. See, love without truth, That's hypocrisy. Love without truth? Hypocrisy. Truth without love? Brutality. There may have been people in your life that confronted you and they nailed you with the truth, but they did it without love. That was brutal. Oh, that was so harsh. It's hard for me to receive forgiveness. It's hard for me to have a relationship that's restored. So we always speak the truth in love. When you confront, when you deal with a wrong that's been suffered, always do it in love. My rule of thumb is, the more intense the problem, the more under control I speak. The more intense the response back to me, the more I wait before I respond. I don't compromise the truth. But the challenge is, as a believer in Christ, is to stay under control. To stay under control. Love is the motivation. You know what? There's so much I want to talk about. I'm going to continue this next week. Amen, church? Continue this next week. There's so much I want to give you. But I want to challenge you this week, be a church that says, I'm going to be a person who loves without hypocrisy. I want to find out how to forgive, how to forgive in such a way that restores relationships and allows me to be a believer that follows Christ. Amen, church? Amen. Let's pray together. Lord, this topic is too important to rush through. And Lord, we've had a good day worshiping you in communion and in song and taking the bread and the cup and hearing from Eric. And so much has happened, Lord, that we just thank you for what has happened today. But Lord, we love your word and we want to apply it to our lives. And Lord, today, we desire to do that. We love you, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.