SPEAKER_01 0:00

I've always been a foot in my mouth kind of person, and uh and as a result of that, I've needed a lot of people to forgive me, and that's that's kind of what we're gonna talk about today. But first, I want to show you a video that I stumbled across a couple months ago, and it's it's a video that was a just a moment six seconds long, something like that. Captured on a phone, candid moment, and I relate to this video more than I than words can express. And so with that said, watch this. And let me see what you have. And I'm like, no! And so it happened fast. If you didn't hear it, um, there's a mom, she sees her son running, she says, Let me see what you have, and he screams, a knife, and she goes, No, right? Any parents relate to that, to that video a little bit? Oh my gosh. Like, it's amazing how much time I've spent in my life with my four kids pulling things out of their hands that would would like kill them, or someone else. I have I have four, my youngest. I haven't told a lot of a lot of Eli stories yet, because we don't have a lot of Eli stories, but they're they're starting to come. Um, this is a picture of of my one-year-old Eli, and he's barely over one year old, just as cute as could be. This is a really cool picture, and here's why. Um my wife took this picture because when she walked out of the room that that she was in with Eli, he was not in his high chair. Um he was playing in the floor. And then ten seconds later, she walks in and he's in his high chair, and he's the one who put himself there. Eli is a terrifying, terrifying child because he climbs everything. He gets into everything. And my wife constantly takes pictures and posts on Facebook. Look where Eli is, look where Eli is. He gets on anything, and like barely over one, barely walk, but he can climb and get himself in that. Um, we have a craft table in our room, uh, in our in our living room. It's where Megan keeps all that stuff. He climbed up onto that. That that stool maybe weighs like seven ounces. It's a we got it at IKEA, very cheap, but he somehow used it as a ladder. I don't even understand how he did it. And uh two days ago, Megan walked into our living room. Sounds like we're not watching our children. We are, but there's four of them. When you have more children than eyes, you have to have grace for that. And uh she walks into the living room, and Eli is standing on top of that very same craft table holding two pairs of scissors. Um, by the way, we keep the scissors in a jar that has a lid, but you know, he figured that out. And so she walks in and there's this baby on a table, two pairs of scissors in hand, and she had the same reaction that that mom had in that video like, no, no, put it down. It's we don't know whether to be concerned or scared for our lives. We're not sure. Time will tell. Spent a lot of time as a dad trying to get things out of my kids' hands, trying to get them to drop things that would hurt them. And I often wonder how much God the Father relates to that very same principle. You know, God describes himself as a father very often in Scripture. He loves us. We are we're told that when we give our lives to Jesus, he adopts us as his own sons and daughters. It's not a metaphor. If you have put your life in Jesus' hands, you are part of the family of God. That means Jesus is your brother. That's kind of cool. That means that God's your dad. And I wonder how often God looks at us as our father and sees us holding on to things that we're not meant to hold on to. Things that if we keep if we keep holding on to them, they're gonna cause a lot of damage to either ourselves or the people around us. It's a little more nuanced than knives and scissors, though. It can be anger, deep disappointment, rejection, feelings of abandonment or betrayal. It's heartbreak. We're really, really good at holding on to that stuff, aren't we? It's amazing how much better we are at holding on to the bad than we are to the good. Science actually backs this up. Our brains remember with much more clarity the negative things that we experience than the positive. I mean, think about this. How many times have you had this experience in your life where you have a day that you might describe as a bad day? And the reason you might describe it as a bad day is because one bad thing happened to you. Now, in that same day, 35, 40, 50 good things may have happened, right? Maybe you started, you went through Chick-fil-A for breakfast. That's a good day. That's a good way to start a day, right? And that's good, and you get to work, you have a job, that's good. You live in America, that's a really good thing. That's a very blessed thing to live in this country. You're having all these good things happen, you have a family, whatever's going on, but then one bad thing happens, somebody says something, somebody does something, and that one bad thing now classifies your entire day as bad. We allow the negative to affect us far more than we should. We remember it with clarity. We hold on to it. Have you ever found yourself driving in your car, and out of nowhere you're like reliving some moment that happened years ago? And maybe you're even engaging with it, you're having like an imaginary conversation with the person, imagining what you should have said, what you should say, what you ought to say. Anyone ever do that, or is it just me, the pastor of your church? Okay, good. Good. I'm not alone. We're all messed up. We uh do not clap for being messed up. When I say that, I really want to make sure you know that. We should we are own it, but don't clap for it. That's why, by the way, if you're new to church, you're like you think church is full of hypocrites. It is. That's why we're here, right? Like we're recognizing that fact. So we we hold on to the negative, and God the Father is telling us, let it go. Drop it. You do not need to hold on to these things any longer. Now, thankfully, our faith has the solution for that. Our faith has the very solution, the only real solution to truly letting go and moving on with life, no matter what we've experienced, and it's forgiveness. And that's what we're gonna talk about today. We're gonna talk about God's version of forgiveness. In fact, the title of the message is a really boring title today. It's understanding biblical forgiveness. Because the forgiveness that Jesus teaches, the forgiveness that scripture shows us, it is not like the world's version of forgiveness at all. It's completely on its own level. We're in a series right now called The King and His Kingdom. We're studying our King Jesus and his teachings. Because he teaches us what his life is actually like. He teaches us what his kingdom is all about, what living life connected to him looks like. And if you study the teachings of Jesus for long, you find, you actually don't have to study it for very long to find that forgiveness is a really big deal to Jesus. He's passionate about it. And today we're going to look at a specific teaching that Jesus gives that shows us the intensity of God's forgiveness. It's Matthew chapter 18, verses 21 through 35. Then Peter came to him and asked, Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times? No, not seven times, Jesus replied, but seventy times seven. 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. In the process, one of his debtors was brought to him, who owed him millions of dollars he couldn't pay. So his master ordered that he be sold, along with his wife, his children, everything he owned to pay the debt. But the man fell down before his master and begged him, Please be patient with me, I will pay it all. And then his master was filled with pity for him. And he reel and he released him and forgave his debt. 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. 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, but his creditor wouldn't wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full. When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and they told him everything that had happened. And 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. Shouldn't you have mercy on your fellow servant just as I had mercy on you? Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt. That is what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart. Wow. All right. In other words, Jesus is saying, God's really serious about this. Pay attention. Forgiveness is a really, really big deal to God, and it should be a big deal to us. In large part because our entire relationship with God relies on it. And because it's the key to actually learning how to let go of the things we need to let go of. And what we're gonna do today is we're gonna analyze biblical forgiveness. We're gonna look at three things that it is and three things that it isn't. Because forgiveness is a tricky thing. It's kind of like love. Like everyone, everyone says they know what love is. If I ask someone, do you know what love is? They'll say, Yeah, absolutely, I know what love is. And then if you ask them to describe it, things get a little fuzzy. It's like, well, you know, love is like when you when you love someone. And you love them, you know, and they love you and you love them, and it's just you feel good, and it's it's it's more than a feeling, but it's also a feeling. Love's it's a hazy thing, and forgiveness is like that too. We all say that we get forgiveness, but do we? Forgiveness is very powerful if used properly, but it's also something that some people will try to take advantage of. It's also something that our enemy, Megan during Lord's Supper earlier, talked about the fact that we have an enemy, our enemy loves to distort the message of God. And our enemy will actually distort forgiveness and try to have us walk in in very unhealthy relationships with very unhealthy dynamics under the cover of some false idea of forgiveness. So we need to understand what biblical forgiveness is and what it's not. So let's start with what it is. Number one, biblical forgiveness is extravagant. Biblical forgiveness is extravagant. Jesus illustrates this so well in the story. Number one, Peter comes up to him and says, Hey, how often should I forgive my brother if he sins against me? Seven times? Peter thinks Jesus is gonna be like, Wow, Peter, dude, you just blew me away. Peter's always, he's always running his mouth. In fact, I read a theologian who said, we have a lot, we owe a lot to the fact that Peter ran his mouth so much, because so many of the things that Jesus taught are in direct response to Peter running his mouth. The Jewish tradition was that you should forgive someone three times. It was like a three strikes in your out rule. And so what Peter's doing right here is he's saying, Hey, I've kind of figured out, Jesus, that you really like forgiveness. I've I've picked up on that. And so I'm thinking like seven times. I took the normal number, I doubled it, I added one for a good measure. And so what do you think, Jesus, seven times, right? Am I right? And Jesus goes, Hey, why don't you take your number, multiply it by ten, and then like multiply that by itself. And Peter's trying to do math in his head, which is hard. And he's like, just seventy times seven. Not seven, seventy times seven. Jesus is being hyperbolic. And then he teaches this story, gives this parable, and the parable's hyperbolic as well. Your translation, depending on what translation you're reading, might say millions of dollars. Other translations will actually tell you what the specific amount was in the Greek language that this was written in. It's 10,000 talents. 10,000 talents. Now, talents don't really mean anything to us from a monetary perspective. That's why some translations will just say millions of dollars. And that does it justice, but also not quite, because millions is a little broad. Like how many millions? You know, 10 million dollars is a lot. 100 million dollars is a lot more. A billion is many millions. And so what are we talking about here? Well, in that culture at that time, it would take the average person who had a decent job about 20 years to earn one talent. That's how much a talent was. And so when Jesus says 10,000 talents, this would be in our economy the equivalent of 200,000 years' salary. That basically breaks down to 7.3 billion dollars. Okay? That's how much this guy owes. And the master, the king, he forgives all of that. Now there's this other person who owes thousands of dollars, and in the Greek language it actually says 100 denarii. Your translation might say 100 denarii. 100 denarii would be about $10,000 to $15,000. So he's forgiven seven billion, and he demands $15,000. There's a great divide between those numbers, and Jesus is doing this on purpose. He's illustrating some really important things for us when it comes to God's forgiveness. See, sin, sin by the way, just being not being all that we should be. Sin is more than just doing bad things. That's how we like to think about sin. It's more than that. There's a famous biblical writer who said that sin is more than just not being as bad as we could be. It's actually not being all that we should be. And we all sin. But sin can be, it can be vertical and it can be horizontal. In the sense that I can sin to God and I can also sin against other people. You see this in the story. There's horizontal sin that's that's emphasized, there's the debt that is owed between the two people, but then there's also the vertical, what's owed to the king. And what's owed to the king, notice, is much, much more. That's intentional. That's to illustrate something for us. See, if I sin against someone else, there's something between us now. And then I could go sin against a different person, and now there's something between me and this person, but that that has nothing to do with the other person that I sinned against earlier. The problem though is that when I sin against this person, I'm also sinning against God because that's God's son, that's God's daughter. Like if you go, if you go say something about someone or mess with someone that doesn't affect my life, I may not, I may not I might not even know about it. But if you say something against my son, my daughter, well, that's different, right? Those are my kids. Don't do that. Every single time we sin against someone, we're we're simultaneously sinning against God. Every single time. That's why David, in Psalm 51, verses 2 through 4, after committing a great sin, he wrote, Wash me clean from my guilt, purify me from my sin, for I recognize my rebellion, it haunts me day and night. Against you and you alone have I sinned. I have done what is evil in your sight, you will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just. When David says, Against you and you alone have I sinned, he's not saying that I'm not owning up to the fact that I've hurt other people. He's just recognizing that his sin directly affects God. And there's this understanding that we have that all sin is vertical. And that's kind of scary when you think about it. Because I've had a lot of horizontal sin in my life. Like a lot. And if now I'm learning that everything I've ever done against someone else, I've also offended God in that same sense, then I've got a pretty big debt. We are all multimillion dollar debtors when it comes to sin. We're all that first servant. We owe a tremendous debt more than we could ever pay.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Biblical forgiveness is extravagant. Praise God for that. You don't have to pay your debt.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Now, maybe you don't realize how big your debt is, or maybe you're overwhelmed by it right now, because it's pretty quiet in the room. But like, you don't have to pay your debt. It's been paid. You're forgiven. You're forgiven. Like, like there was a company, I think it was Chase or Citigroup, it was one of the an American financial institutions that recently pulled out of Canada. This was in the news a few weeks ago. And they tried to get into the credit market in Canada, hadn't worked, not sure why. And uh and they just decided, as they pulled out of the Canadian market, just to forgive all the debt. And so there are all these pictures on social media of people holding up their credit card statements, and these are like the luckiest people in the world because they've got statements and they've got $5,000, $10,000 of debt, and and Chase just said, I think it was Chase, just said, yeah, forget about it, forgive it. And they're like, woo! And we look at that and we're like, oh man, I wish that would happen to me. You know? That's happened to you. But to a far greater deal than you can imagine, God has forgiven you of everything. His forgiveness, biblical forgiveness is extravagant. It's extravagant. You owe nothing because of Jesus. Number two, biblical forgiveness is freedom. It's freedom. Notice in the story that if not for the forgiveness, this person would have been, would have been shipped off to jail. That's a weird concept to us, but that's actually a very, a very normal part of history. There was something called debtor's prison that up until the 19th century, people were thrown in prison all the time for debt. In fact, some of you may know this, but our state, Georgia, that's how we got our start. Georgia was an alternative to debtor's prison in England. That's how our whole state was conceived. England had a colony, the Carolinas, and the Carolinas were very productive as far as producing crops went. They wanted to form some protection around the Carolinas. They wanted another colony to the south, but they couldn't get anyone to move there, right? We're not offended by that, by the way. It's all good, like we live here now. But but they conceived of this idea. Well, what if we make that colony an alternative to debtor's prison when people are about to be shipped to prison for debt? We'll say, or you could you could move to America, to the colonies, and you could settle there and have a fresh start. It was a benefit to them because it lessened their load in the prisons and it helped them do what they wanted to do in the colonies. It was a benefit to the people because better to do that than go to prison. This is a very normal thing in most of human history, being thrown in jail for debt. We don't think about debt that same way. But we all know what it's like to be less than free because of debt. We all understand that if I didn't owe this, whether it's a financial amount or owe something to another person, I'd be free. I could go do other things, I could do what I want. It keeps us bound. And when it comes to the things that have been done against us with other people, it's the same thing. If we don't let go, if we don't forgive, then we carry a weight around with us that we're not meant to carry. It's interesting, in Africa, there's this ancient way of catching monkeys. It's really awesome, really simple. They have these jars. The jars are pretty heavy, and they're very, very wide at the bottom but narrow at the top. And all they do is they put a little trinket in the jar, and they they take the jar to a place where monkeys are, and someone will like shake it and make a noise. The monkeys take notice of that, and then they leave. And the jar is designed so that if your hand is like this, you can you can easily reach down into the bottom. But if you make a fist, you cannot get the hand out. And the monkeys won't let go. They'll go in, they'll reach, they'll grab it, and they will not let go. And so when someone comes to capture the monkey, it tries to run away, but the weight of the jar is too much and it will not let go. All it has to do is this, and it's free. But it refuses. And so often that's how we live our lives when it comes to the things that other people have done against us. We will not let go. And if we could, if we could just forgive it and say it's over, we're free, that weight is gone, it no longer haunts us, it no longer bothers us. But we struggle to let go. And in doing so, we we forfeit our freedom. Biblical forgiveness is freedom. So let go. Number three, biblical forgiveness is both given and received. It's both. It's received and it's given. You can't you can't choose which one of those you want. It's not a multiple choice test. You can't be like, I would like to receive forgiveness. I just don't want to give any. Or God, I would like to receive twice the forgiveness I give. It doesn't work that way. I mean, that story Jesus tells is pretty intense, right? When he says that that if you don't, if you don't forgive your brothers and sisters, this is what my heavenly Father will do to you? Cast out. This is language, by the way, that's almost always used about hell. It's not intended, by the way, to like scare you. But but understand that in heaven you will be surrounded by many people who you're either going to forgive now or you'll have to forgive then because they're there. And heaven is not for the bitter and the hard-hearted. See, when we hold on to unforgiveness, it becomes resentment, it becomes bitterness, it hardens our hearts, we become cynical, we become angry.

SPEAKER_00 20:25

We see this so often in Scripture. Luke chapter 11, verse 4.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Do you see the connection? This is Jesus praying what we call the Lord's Prayer. Colossians 3.13, make allowance for each other's faults and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. There's no option there. It's required. It's something that God has given us as a requirement. It's not like try your best to forgive other people. You know, God's forgiven you of everything you've ever done. So find it in your heart to forgive like a tenth of what's been done to you. No, no, no. He says, forgive as you're forgiven. Forgive because you're forgiven. And sometimes the order of that gets messed up, like do I receive forgiveness first, then give it? Do I give the forgiveness, then receive it? I don't really know. It's like walking. You just take one step at a time, you alternate. Doesn't really matter which step comes first. You forgive, you're forgiven, you forgive, you're forgiven. And the hard thing is, if you don't receive the forgiveness from God, how are you supposed to give it? You cannot give something you don't have. It's impossible. But if you actually receive the forgiveness of God, if you if you spend some time and reflect on all that He's forgiven you of, it's powerful. It's so powerful. I had a pastor ask us to do an exercise once. I was at a church interning and it was a pretty intense exercise. We had to write down everything that we could think of that we had done that wasn't good. That's a longer list than. You might think when you really start getting into that mindset, and then just tear the whole thing up and throw it away because it's gone. That's the forgiveness that you've received. The forgiveness that God has given you, it's not like forgiveness up to the point of the last week. It's not a fresh start either. It's like it's like someone deposits so much money in your bank account that you could never possibly spend it all. That's like the forgiveness that you receive. That's grace. When God forgave you for everything, it wasn't just everything you did up to the point when you first gave your life to Jesus. If you give your life to Jesus today, if you're here and you've yet to do that, but today you're like, I need this forgiveness. I desperately need it. I realize that. And you want to give your life to Jesus, get saved, become a Jesus follower, become a Christian, you're not forgiven of everything you've ever done up to today, and you receive a fresh start, and then you walk out of this place with a zero sum in your in your balance, so to speak. It's way more than that. You're forgiven of everything you ever have done, you're forgiven of everything you ever will do. Completely and totally. And if you really believe that you've been forgiven that much, shouldn't you be excited to give what you've been given? That's why we say this a lot, as Jesus followers, we should be really hard to offend. Really hard because we've been forgiven so much. Biblical forgiveness is extravagant, it's freedom, and it's both given and received. It's not a multiple choice. Now, that said, there's a few things that biblical forgiveness is not. And the reason I want us to talk about this is not to put a damper on forgiveness, it's because I don't want our enemy to take advantage of us using God's forgiveness as his cover. Does that make sense? And in my experience as a pastor, in my experience as a person, I have more experience in the latter than the former. Forgiveness is something that sometimes gets twisted and gets us a little out of step. So I want us to understand this. Number one, biblical forgiveness is not making an allowance for evil. Let me explain this. Some of us rob ourselves of the ability to actually forgive because we will not admit that we need to. Because when someone does something against us, we say, oh, that's just how they are. Oh, you know what? They they just had they had a bad day. Oh, I don't I don't think they really meant it. You know, they've just they've had a really rough year or decade, I don't know, life. And instead of actually just acknowledging what's been done to us for what it is, wrong, hurt, we just excuse it away. And we think in our minds that that's actually a mature way to handle it, but it's not. Because what's actually happening in those moments is is what's been done to us is penetrating deeper than we we would like to believe, but we're not addressing it. We're just making excuses for it. The only way that you actually have true biblical forgiveness is if you acknowledge the evil that's been done. And you just call it for what it is and forgive it. But if you make an excuse for it, you don't actually get to practice forgiveness. Understand this, and this is a good thing, by the way, not a bad thing. God never does that with us. God never says, Oh, that's just how I made them. You know? I know people who are like that, where they want to they want to use that phrase as an excuse to do whatever they want to be like a jerk. God does not make jerks. Like, that's not how he's like, I'm gonna wire this one to be a real pain in the neck, you know? Like, he doesn't do that. And so, but but we so often make that. I know people who will use that excuse. This is how I am. I'm passionate. Oh, you're a jerk. You know, biblical forgiveness means you acknowledge the evil that's been done, the wrong, the hurt, and then you forgive it. But if you don't acknowledge it, you can't forgive it. It's not making an excuse for wrongs, it's recognizing them for what they are and then calling them what they are and forgiving it and saying it's done, it's over. This person lied about me, betrayed me, and I forgive them for their betrayal. It's not you being over-dramatic, it's you addressing what's been done and forgiving it. Okay, it's not making allowances for evil. Number two, biblical forgiveness is not, it's not the absence of consequences. This gets really tricky sometimes. We see in Proverbs 3:12 that the Lord corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights. Hebrews 12, 7, as you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Whoever heard of a child that's never disciplined by its father? We have heard of those, right? And that's not a good thing. Discipline and love, they they they go hand in hand if done correctly. And biblical forgiveness mean does not mean that there's no consequence for what's been done. Some of us in the room, we've had people that have wronged us, and there might be a consequence that's necessary for that. On the flip side, many of us in the room, we've maybe wronged someone else, and there might be a consequence for that. We have to be able to accept that. And so, for example, if you're a parent and your child does something that's wrong, you you need to forgive that child. You have to. That's been asked of you. God, God commands it. But you might still need to discipline. If you're in a dating relationship and the person wrongs you and there's a betrayal of some kind, you need to forgive that person. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't maybe break up with them. If you're an employer and an employee does something that they shouldn't do and it's it's across a certain line, you've got to forgive that person. Even if what they did cost you money, even if what they did cost you something big, but that doesn't mean that there shouldn't be discipline. You might still have to let that person go or something like that. People will sometimes use forgiveness as an out. They don't want consequences whatsoever. And they'll say, Well, you're supposed to forgive me. But but we're not supposed to demand forgiveness from others, we're supposed to give it. You see the difference? There's nowhere in scripture that tells me I should demand forgiveness from the people around me. I'm supposed to give it freely, but not demand it from others. People will use that sometimes, and sometimes we've, let's be honest, we've all used that at some point because we don't want the consequence. Biblical forgiveness does not mean there's no consequence. Number three, and this is a really big one. Biblical forgiveness is not the restoration of trust. It's not the same thing. And I think this is one of those areas where we're practically speaking, we really get we get off as believers, trying to do our best, trying to be the church, trying to be forgiving, and and this is an area that our enemy uses to great advantage and it just messes us up. Love and trust are not the same thing. Love and trust are not the same thing. You are called by God to love everyone. You are never called by God to trust everyone. I heard a pastor say it this way: love is freely given, but trust is earned. And biblical forgiveness is not the immediate restoration of trust. Notice in this story, the king forgives the seven billion dollar debt, but he doesn't give the guy another seven billion dollars. Right? He does not say, Go, I forgive you, and by the way, here's more money. He forgives it completely, totally. He's not, he's not like when you really forgive someone, it doesn't mean that deep down inside you you hope they suffer a little bit, you know? Like I had a guy that made fun of my weight when I was in high school. I've always just had a little extra right here. It keeps me warm, it's good. And uh and he kind of poked fun at that because we were on the same sports team. And I'm just gonna be honest, for years I was like, man, I hope he gains a lot of weight when he gets older, you know? And uh and then he became a worship pastor and even got in better shape, and that never happened, and it made me a little mad. And I had to deal with that, you know. We bumped into each other like 10 years after high school. It's like, wow, you've spent the last 10 years in a gym. That's great, you know. I've been maintaining, you know, I've been maintaining. Sometimes we we say we forgive someone, but deep down inside it'd be like we want something, you know, kind of bad to happen. No, no, no, that's not biblical forgiveness. Biblical forgiveness is like you root for the person, you would be sad if they suffered, you're excited when they succeed. It's complete and it's total, right? But it doesn't mean instant trust.

SPEAKER_00 30:14

Forgiveness and reconciliation are two different things.

SPEAKER_01 30:18

Reconciliation requires repentance on the person who's committed the wrong. We actually see this, by the way, in the teachings of Jesus. Luke chapter 17, verse 3. He says, if another believer sins, rebuke that person. In other words, just call it out. Hey man, that wasn't cool. That can be a rebuke. And then if there is repentance, forgive. Even if that person wrongs you seven times a day and each time turns again and asks for forgiveness, you must forgive. But notice in this dynamic, the person recognizes the wrong they've done and they're asking. Now, Jesus is not saying that if someone doesn't ask for forgiveness, you don't have to give it. You know, you you need to give that. That's for your own benefit, right? You've got to let it go so you're not weighted down by it. But but restoration, reconciliation, that's a two-party thing. In other words, theologically, put it this way: Jesus forgave every human being ever. Past, present, future on the cross. Jesus' death on the cross signals the complete and total forgiveness for all mankind. But reconciliation with God only happens when we recognize our need for that forgiveness and receive it. It's like giving someone a gift that they never open. You gave it, but they didn't receive it. That's not the same thing as giving someone a gift and they unwrap it and they're like, Thank you so much, and you have a moment with that person. So Jesus forgave everyone on the cross, but we get reconciled with God when we receive his forgiveness. When we actually repent, which means to turn, we recognize our need for it, and we receive it. See, trust is a vital part of relationships. And I'm always saying this because some of us, some of us in the room, we have we've done something where trust has been eroded. And we want that person to forgive us, but in our minds, we think that that means they have to instantly restore us to the same place that we used to be on a trust level. That's that's not possible. That's not healthy. On the flip side, some of us in the room, we've had someone that's wronged us, and we're struggling with that, and we want to forgive them, but maybe we're tempted to think, well, if I forgive them, that means that we've got to be like best friends again. No. Think about it this way: if you had a dog that bit you, you might forgive the dog. You know, hey, it's a dog. It bit you, dogs bite. And they'll say you forgive the dog, and then the next day the dog bites you again, and you forgive the dog, and the next day the dog bites you again, you forgive the dog. If you're telling the story to someone, someone's gonna go, maybe you shouldn't have the dog. You know, like it's awesome that you forgave the dog over and over again, and it's cool. You got scars, those are cool, you know. You use them for stories, I guess. But like, maybe, maybe don't be around that dog or don't put your hand near its mouth. I don't know, that's just a thought.

SPEAKER_00 32:49

You gotta have trust to do that.

SPEAKER_01 32:53

Biblical forgiveness is not the immediate restoration of trust. Now, if you truly forgive someone, you should seek reconciliation. That should be the desire of your heart. That should be what you want. Like, I want that trust to be restored. I'm seeking that reconciliation. I'm gonna give I'm gonna give space for that, but then you have to be careful, you have to watch, and you have to recognize whether or not that person is in a place where the trust can be restored. And if that person isn't, just give them time. And if you're the one that's done the wrong and you're frustrated that you're not being instantly restored to that place of trust, just give that person time and then show them that you're faithful. Trust tends to build slowly. That's what that's what biblical forgiveness is not. Now, worship team, you guys can make your way out because I want to end with this, not with like the negative, but the positive. Let's go back to those three things. Number one, we'll go backwards. So I guess number three, whatever. Biblical forgiveness. It's it's both received and given. Some of us in the room today, you're here, you didn't know this, but you're here to receive forgiveness. You need to understand that everything you have ever done wrong, I don't care how intense it is, I don't care how dark it is, whatever. You might say, ah, you don't understand what I've done. No, no, God does. And it's not like, by the way, probably gonna shock him. We all have this tendency to like elevate our issues and like it's the worst it's ever been. You've never seen anything like this. Probably not. God's probably like, yeah, I've seen that before. That's pretty common. But even if you believe that you're someone that's just done more than the average person, you need to hear this. You are completely and totally forgiven if you give your life to Jesus Christ, because he paid the price. It's paid off. The life of Jesus, it's more than your sin. The life of Jesus, the body of Jesus on the cross, the blood of Jesus, it's worth more than your mistakes. It's just, it's more. That's why Jesus is so amazing. Like, he's the king of kings, he's the Lord of Lords, he's God, and he's just worth more than our stuff. So I don't care how much baggage you have, I don't care how many issues you have, your issues, they're not, they're not greater than him. And he was the price that was paid. You're forgiven if you give your life to Jesus. So give your life to Jesus and receive. I'm serious, receive complete and total forgiveness. Even if no one else on this earth forgives you, God does. And his opinion counts more. It just counts more. Some of us were here today because we need to give that forgiveness. Some of us have maybe been like hoarding the forgiveness of God a little bit. There's someone in our life, some maybe multiple people, and we just we don't want to forgive them. We don't think they deserve it. And we might be right. But Jesus does not give us that option. If we call ourselves Jesus followers, we don't we don't get to like special order from the Jesus menu. That's not how it works. You know, when you go through a drive-thru to a restaurant, you're like, I want what the chef has prepared, except I want it different. You know, I'll take that without tomatoes, because let's be honest, tomatoes are gross. They just overpower the food. Anyone agree with me? Anyone hate tomatoes on your food? Yes, people. Some of you guys like tomatoes and ranch dressing instead of blue cheese, and it's wrong. You're just wrong. But I forgive you completely and totally for your you don't you don't get this special order from God. It's just not how it works. I wish it did sometimes, but you don't get to go to God, hey, God, I want the blessings and and I want your love and I want your forgiveness, and and I just I don't want to do the forgiving part. You don't get to you don't get to mess with it. It is what it is. So you're here today to be reminded that you've got to forgive. Not just because it's a command from God, but also because it's it's for your benefit, because that second part, forgiveness is freedom. Forgiveness is freedom, let it go. Do not be the monkey with the hand in the cage, just let it go. But that's hard, right? Some of you are like, I let's be honest, some of us are going, I am very used to holding on to this. It's actually become my identity. I've held on to this for so long that I don't know if I can let it go without it changing the way I perceive myself. I'm a victim. This is my story. This is like my life. This has been done to me, and I've I've let this define me. No, no, no, no. You are the son, the daughter of God. That is what defines you. Let it go. It's freedom. Forgiveness is freedom. And maybe you need to call somebody up today and say, I forgive you. And use discernment on that. Because if what you're forgiving the person for was something they forgot about, that's gonna be an awkward conversation. If someone did something to you years ago, maybe it was small, but it hit you in a big way, just forgive them and and don't don't follow up. But if if there is a rift between you and someone else and it's a significant relationship, pray, discern, let the Holy Spirit guide you, and you might need to have that conversation. Forgiveness is freedom. And that first point, and this is huge, the forgiveness of God, biblical forgiveness, it is extravagant. It's extravagant. None of us realize how much debt we're actually in when it comes to the whole sin thing. It's way more than you think. Just know that. Like it's way, it's way worse than it is. You ever go into like a situation, maybe it's a doctor, or maybe you take your car into a shop and and you just have this sense, like it's gonna be worse than I think it is. You ever have that sense? Well, a lot of times in life, when you do that, it's not.

unknown 38:06

Right?

SPEAKER_01 38:06

You take the car in, like, no, it just needs this. Like, ooh, I thought it was a goner. You go into the doctor, you're like, I think it's something real serious. Like, actually, it's just it's this thing. I once went to the emergency room for something called indigestion. That was fun. Thought I had some major stomach issue, and they're like, oh, just there's this thing called Tums, and you take those, and that'll be a thousand dollars. I'm like, wow, okay. A lot of times it's not as bad as you think it is. When it comes to your sin, no, no, it's way worse. It's like way worse. You go to God and be like, hey, I imagine this is probably what I'd owe, and he'd be like, Well, your memory's a little fuzzy, but mine is crystal clear, it's worse than you think. But when the bad news is really bad, the good news is really good, and you've been forgiven of every single thing. It's extravagant, so receive it and then give it. Give it, let go, forgive. We're gonna wrap up with two people that are about to get baptized, and this is what they're experiencing. They're stepping into the full forgiveness of God. When they go into the water, it's symbolic of Jesus' death. When he went down into the grave, and when they rise up, that's symbolic of Jesus coming back up out of the grave. It's new life, and it's life that begins with forgiveness, it's the washing away of all of our sin. And so we're gonna pray. We're gonna baptize these two awesome people together. Stick around for that. This is really important. Jesus, thank you so much. Thank you so much for the forgiveness that you've given us, God. It is freedom, it is rich, it is extravagant. And Lord, I pray that we walk out of here with a greater appreciation for how much you've given us, for how much forgiveness. It's incredible, Lord. We love you. And Lord, we pray right now that you would flood our hearts with a desire to forgive. God, don't make us people that have to have our arms twisted to forgive, God, but make us people who cannot wait to display the love and the forgiveness that you've displayed to us. God, I pray that we walk out of this place eager to forgive whoever we come across. I pray that we become like a very weird group of people who look forward to getting cut off in traffic so we can forgive a little bit more. Help us be that consumed with forgiveness. We love you, Jesus. It's in your name we pray. Amen.