70x7 | Pastor Kenneth Cissell | Parables Series

Matthew chapter 18. And we're gonna start in verse 21. Verse 21. If you're there, say here. Cool, it's more than two of y'all, so we just gonna dive straight in. And in case you don't have your Bible, we have a Bible in the sky. So you can just follow along with today. I'm a preface. We are talking about everyone's favorite topic. And if you don't know what it is, well, by the end of today, I pray that you walk out of here stronger with what we're talking about today. 'Cause I believe this message can set you free. All right, so verse 21. It says, "Then Peter came to him and asked, "Lord, how often should I forgive someone "who sins against me? "Seven times?" Jesus replied, "No, not seven times, "but 70 times seven." Some of you, you're bad at math like me. You're like, all right, what's that? Round the two. Okay. Verse 23, this is where the parable starts. This is, "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 in "who owed him millions of dollars. "He couldn't pay, so his master ordered that he be sold, "along with his wife, his children, "and everything he owed to pay the debt. "But the man fell down before his master and begged him. "He said, 'Please be patient with me, "and I will pay it all.' "Then his master was filled with pity for him. "And he released him and forgave his debt. "But when the man left his king, "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. "He pleaded, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay it.' "But his creditor wouldn't wait. "He had the man arrested and put in prison "until the debt can be paid in full. "When some of the other servants saw this, "they were very upset. "They went to the king and told him everything "that had just happened. "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." In verse 35, "That's what my heavenly father "will do to you if you refuse to forgive "your brothers and sisters from your heart." Like I said before we read our passage, we're talking about everyone's favorite subject today. Forgiveness. How many of you are grateful in the room by a raise of hands that God has forgiven you of your sin? Come on. But how many of you, you don't have to raise your hand to this part, can agree that it's hard to extend forgiveness to people sometimes. And I pray that by the end of today, we get just as excited about extending forgiveness than we do talking about the forgiveness that's been given to us. For my friends in the room taking notes, the title of our message is 70 times seven. 70 times seven. So God, we invite you into this space tonight, or today, sorry. Lord, we thank you for what you've done. We thank you for how you forgive. And God, I pray, Lord, that today we would walk out of here

free and victorious in Jesus' name. Speak, Lord, your children are lessening. Since Jesus' name, I pray, everyone said amen, amen, amen. So it was about seven years ago, I had just moved to Fort Worth, and the men in the room can probably relate to this story. I just moved here, and there's a process that you have to go through. There's a decision that has to be made, and it's a really scary one, whenever you move to a new city. And what that is, it's finding a new barber. So I moved here, and I knew no one, and I met a guy, great person, really loved the Lord, served him, and everything. And he was like, hey, I heard you're looking for a barber. I'm a barber, and I'm like, oh my God, an answered prayer. I saw the Lord he heard, and he answered, let's go. I got a barber. So he said, just let me know when you're available, and I'll cut your hair. That should have been the first red flag that he had opened availability. And he said, whenever you're available, just let me know. I was like, okay, all right, cool. Anyways, so I go and I'm getting my hair cut, and I'm sitting in there, and he's talking, and he's like, man, like, bro, this looks great. Dude, this might be one of my best haircuts.

Man, man, this man, man, he's just gassing me up as he's cutting my hair, doing the edge, how many of you have ever gotten an edge up? That is scary, because if they take an inch off, So he's cut in my hair and then he finishes and then he tells me how much it was that should have been the second red flag. If someone offers you a $15 haircut in this economy run, so he cuts my hair, I pay and I'm like, man, I'm looking good. He also didn't have any mirrors in this place. (audience laughing) Third red flag I seem to ignore. And I get in my car and I did the thing that everyone does the moment you get hair work done. You sit there and you open that front camera and lo and behold, the worst haircut of my life. I mean, I looked hideous. My hairline was more crooked than traffic on I-35. Fade was all over the place. I was very upset at this individual that he let me walk out of his. I would have rather him just buzz it all off and say, we're gonna start from scratch. I tipped him too. Isn't that crazy? Anyways, all that being said, a couple of weeks past and he was like, hey, let me know when you want a haircut again. And I said, news flash, I don't.

I said that, honestly, you got some work to do and I'm not trying to be a test wrap for this. I have to look at least somewhat presentable. I can't wear a hat everywhere. And he said, oh man, my bad. I should have told you, I'm new to cutting hair. I've only cut it for like three months. And I'm like, you should have led in with that before I trusted you to cut my hair. Now, I was a little frustrated at this guy. I did tell people, man, don't go to him. He's gonna mess your hair up. And it's safe to say that I had unforgiveness towards him. Now, why do I share that story? Not to talk about a bad haircut, but because it's important to know that sometimes when people hurt us, it's because of the season of life that they're currently in. Sometimes when people mess things up for us, it's because they don't know any better. And we have to understand that we need to extend forgiveness the same way Christ has forgiven us. Now, it's very safe to assume in this room that everyone has gone through hurt at some point in your life that's led you here. For some of you, it could have been as small and funny as a bad haircut. For some of you, it could have been some serious pain. Could have been a family member that hurt you. Could have been an ex in a relationship

that really hurts your heart. Could have been a co-worker that talked about you behind your back. Could have been a friend that broke your trust. And you've said it's fine, but deep down, it still hurts. Forgiveness, just by thinking of the topping, it kind of makes you squirm and uncomfortable. And there's situations and names that immediately come to mind. And it's safe to say that forgiveness is easy to talk about until it's time to start forgiving people. And today, we're gonna walk through four steps. I'm not just how to talk about forgiveness, but how to forgive within our heart. So I hope you take your notes today. The first step is to stop keeping score. Stop keeping score. Keeping score can be exhausting, especially when you're losing. I was watching Texas A&M yesterday. Missouri kept score and I'm yelling at the team. Stop, stop keeping score. It is exhausting when things are heading in a bad way. You just keep keeping score. Oh, but this is what happens when we don't forgive. Oh, I forgave them once. I forgave them twice. Oh, this is a 10th time I'm forgiving them. And that is an exhausting pill to swallow. That is an exhausting mindset to have. That is why Jesus, when he said 70 times seven,

he's not saying, okay, at time 491, you can forgive them. What he's saying is it's not our job to keep track. If you count 490 times that you've forgiven someone and you say that's enough, there's bigger issues there. We are not supposed to keep track of how many times we forgive. We're supposed to release it freely. But forgiveness, it's important to note. Forgiveness isn't about keeping score. It's about losing count. Forgiveness isn't about how many times can I forgive this person? It's about saying, hey, I've forgiven you probably a couple times, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter because God has forgiven me so freely. At the end of the day, it's a pretty simple concept to talk about, but when it comes to hurt, there's a lot of emotions at play. There's a lot of hurt at play. There's a lot of opportunities for the enemy to say, hey, you remember when at play, which is why we need to be strong in the way that we forgive people. We don't need to ask God, God, I've already given them another chance. Do I really have to again? Or I've already been the bigger person. I really just want to crash out on this person right now. God, you don't know what they did. Newsflash, he does. And if he's forgiven them,

but love also keeps no record of wrongdoing. And it hurts to think that some of us have been keeping that record for years. We've been holding on to that hurt for years. We've been carrying that unforgiveness for the past 15 years, and we keep rehearsing the offense to keep the grudge alive, which only makes it harder to release. I heard it said like this from a pastor, holding on to forgiveness makes it more difficult for God to free you from the very thing that you're holding on to. At some point, we have to change our focus from what happened to us to what God has already done for us. Jesus tells this parable because he wants Peter to understand that the way we forgive people starts with understanding how God first forgave us. Our second step, remember what the king canceled. Remember what the king canceled. Let's break down our story really quick. A servant is brought before the king owing 10,000 talents and scripture tells us in the NLT, this equated to millions of dollars. I don't know about you, I don't have millions of dollars to pay back on a debt alone. And this man was facing a debt that it would have took roughly 200,000 years of working and saving to pay back. So there was no physical way this man could pay back this massive debt. But he goes to the king, he falls to his knees, and he starts begging, please be patient with me. I'll pay back everything knowing that it was impossible for him to pay back everything. He's asking more time for something that he physically could not do. Sound familiar? There is a debt that was on our lives that you and I could not physically pay off. There was a punishment out against our lives because of the sin that's filled our lives that we needed someone to step in and cancel out. This is why Jesus entered the picture. Jesus isn't a mascot of Christianity. Jesus is the reason we can gather in church. Jesus just isn't a cool person that we sing about. Jesus is the one who paid off the debt on our life. Jesus is the one that saved our soul. Jesus is the reason we can live forgiven. So what's stopping us for forgiving others? Because if Jesus came to earth for us in this room, that means he also came to earth for the people outside of this room. And the devil would love nothing more than Christians to walk around bitter, upset, and frustrated and tell the world it's okay to be mad. It's okay to be upset at them. No, Jesus said I came to give life and life abundantly, which means he came to give you freedom over the unforgiveness in your heart. We need to remember what Jesus did for us. We can't work hard enough to erase our sin. We can't give enough. We can't be a good person enough. We can't serve enough. We can't attend church. There's not a quota we have to meet to be a good person.

We literally could not do anything, which is why Jesus said, "Let me step in and be your savior." And in our story, the king looks at this man with compassion and canceled out the debt. You see, the servant asked for more time, but the king instead gave him freedom. Feel this in the room. A lot of you are saying, "When I'm ready, I'll forgive." When the time's right, then I'll let it go. But God is saying, "I brought you to church today. I'll let your car start. I'll let you find a parking lot to get in the room today, not so you can keep pushing this thing back, but so you can have freedom on your life this morning." That's what Jesus made possible for us. Colossians 2, it tells us that we were dead because of our sins. And because our sinful nature was not yet cut away, then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. This is the weight of what Jesus did for us. We were dead in our ways. This. to be accepted and forgiven by God in heaven. Understand, there was nothing that we could physically do for God to say, all right, they're good enough to get to heaven. We needed Jesus. I don't know who this is for in the room, but you cannot serve your way into heaven. You cannot be good enough to get into heaven. You need Jesus. I don't care what a TikTok theologian told you. Jesus is the only way to get to God. Jesus is the only way, why? Because he made it possible to be forgiven. And I'm stressing this a lot because we need to remember how bad we really had it until Jesus stepped in. We've been forgiven freely because of Jesus.

Before you focus on what somebody owes you, before you tell another person, man, guess what this person did to me? Remember the debt that God canceled for you. Step three, forgive the way that you've been forgiven. Forgive the way that you've been forgiven. Can I tell a personal story really quick? I was gonna tell it anyways. So the other day I was at this very expensive store, QT. And I'm pumping gas because it is crazy right now. Jesus send help, amen. So pumping gas and this guy walks up to me. And I'm not gonna make fun of him, but I could tell he's a little down on his luck. He might be homeless, I'm not sure. But he walks up to me and he asked for money. Now me, I usually don't hand out money, I'll buy food. Or if they have a, I'll be like, "Hey, I'll put some gas in your car, "but I don't hand out cash like that." So I look at him as I'm pumping. And he says, "Hey, can I have money?" And I'm like, "Hey, bro, no, I don't have any money to give you." He says, "Okay, broke, boy." (congregation laughing) Yeah, that response right there, that was in real time. And to make it better, I had a house fort worth T-shirt on. And I'm standing there wondering, "Should I use my broke, boy money "and shoot him with some gasoline?

(congregation laughing) "Or should I forgive?" In that moment, I had to come to understand, is little things like that, that show if you actually have forgiveness in your heart? It's not necessarily the big hurts. Yes, that will happen and those do happen, unfortunately as a result of this broken world. But the little things that happen throughout your day will show is my heart actually full of forgiveness. And in that moment, I chuckled and I looked at him, I said, "That makes two of us, I guess." (congregation laughing) Just kidding, oh, I didn't say that, umps. But we need to forgive the way we've been forgiven. As we continue in our story, we read that the other servant owed him about a hundred days' wages, which scripture tells us was thousands of dollars. That's a real debt. Yes, someone owing someone thousands of dollars, that's a lot of money to owe. And what Jesus is saying by putting that in the parable was that for us, what happened to us doesn't mean it's lesser or greater than. The betrayal was real, the words hurt, the damage mattered, the hurt is there. But now this man has a choice just like you and I have a choice every single day of our lives. In the story, he has to decide, will he extend the same mercy that he just received

a couple verses before? The same way that the king forgave the first servant, will that man extend mercy to this second servant that we read of in the passage? But unfortunately, he responds in a really bad way. Scripture tells us that he grabbed this man by the throat, beat him up, scolded him, threw him around. And the man then falls down and begs for mercy and he pleads out, be patient with me and I will pay it back. Now why is that so important to know? 'Cause if you look a couple verses before, servant one is on his knees pleading out to the king saying, be patient with me, I will pay it back. And now servant one is in a situation with servant two and servant two is crying out the same exact requests but refuses to give the mercy that he was just given. He received forgiveness, but his response to another person did not reflect it, which leads me to ask the room It's easy to say, "Ooh, I've been forgiven. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. I've been born again. Be the loudest worshiper. Be down here at this altar, jumping around. But the moment you leave in that parking lot, you're a different person." It's easy to go to small group and say all the right things, but at that small group, at the restaurant, are you treating the waiter or the waitress that got your order wrong with the same love that you just talked about? Does your life reflect forgiveness the way that it's actually been given to you? Ephesians 4, it tells us to put away bitterness, rage, anger, slander, and malice, and to

be kind and compassionate for giving one another as long as God forgave us in Christ. Right there in Ephesians, Paul gives us the reason we forgive. God has forgiven us in Christ. God's forgiveness should show up more and more than our testimony. It should show up in the way that we treat people. Even if they hurt us a second time, we should be quick to forgive. There's a worship song that I love. You've probably heard it. It's called "God I'm Just Grateful." It's an amazing song if you haven't heard it wherever you've been, but it's called "God I'm Just Grateful," but there's a part at the beginning of the bridge. I can't sing it like them, so I'm not going to sing it, but I'm going to tell you what it says at the beginning of the bridge. It says, "Hold on, I'm not going to sing. It says, and I'm lifting both of my hands because you gave me chants after chants after chants." How many of you, that's your testimony in here? I'm grateful because God has given me chants after chants. He's forgiven me time after time. He gave me a chance on Sunday night, and then he gave me a chance on Monday afternoon, and then he gave me a chance on Tuesday on the way home from work, and then he gave me the same chance three times on Wednesday because that was the day that I just decided to crash out every single part of the day. Then he gave me a chance on Thursday, and then he gave me a chance on Friday, and then he gave me a chance freely on Saturday, and then back to the next Sunday, he gave me two chances. He gave me chants after chants after chants, even though I prayed and said, "God, I'm sorry," and I still ran back to the sin. He gave me chants after chants after chants. Even though I said, "This is the last time I'm never doing this again." God gave me chants after chants after chants.

He met me in my lowest and gave me a chance. He met me in the good place and gave me a chance. He brought me into a new place. I messed that up, but then he gave me another chance, a chance after a chance after a chance. Get this across to you right now, a chance after a chance after a chance. You've been forgiven, but we want to put a limit on people that hurt us. We've been forgiven time after time after time after time. Which means that we need to continually forgive people that are hurting us in our lives. I wish there was a better way to say that. I'm not the perfect preacher, but I know this is something that I've experienced in my life, so it means a lot to me. Walking through things, losing people in my life, losing friends, I've had to have that constant state of forgiveness. It's funny, the list is acting up right now, which is funny, because we EQ this, but it keeps coming out. The story keeps coming to mind. Growing up, thank you God. I don't know if you know my last name, but it's the worst last name to have with the list, sizzle. Growing up all the time, I was the little chubby kid with the list that people would say, Kenneth Fiffle, I'd be like, hey, quit making fun of my last name, because it'd come out all the time and then I'd get nervous or uncomfortable or whatever it might be. I was the biggest kid in the school, but I would get bullied all the time. I'm not saying that, so you're like, oh, I heard some of you, hold on, don't, oh. But there is a lot of bitterness that grew in my heart towards other people. And as I started to live my life as an adult, started to work on different things in my life, I realized that unforgiveness was so deeply rooted in my life because of things that were said and done to me in middle school and high school, that here I am now as a late 20-year-old a couple years ago, still treating people with that same hurt and same defense. Why am I sharing that?

Because this is what unforgiveness will do. It'll grow a root in your soul. And the next thing you know, you're lashing out on people that had nothing to do with that offense. This is why we need to forgive. God's giving you chance after chance. And now it's your responsibility to do step number four. Release the debt from your heart. Release the debt from your heart. Jesus ends the parable with a serious warning. Says our heavenly Father expects us to forgive our brother or sister from the heart. And the servant who refused to extend mercy is now facing the king's judgment. Jesus is showing us how seriously God takes unforgiveness. Guys, hear me out. Forgiveness isn't just good advice. Forgiveness is an act of obedience unto God. And refusing to forgive like I shared with my story takes a toll on us. Unforgiveness puts you in the prison you want the person who hurts you to reside in. Unforgiveness allows people to live rent-free in our mind. Unforgiveness causes us to lash out in ways years down the road we need to forgive. Our first response shouldn't be to hold onto it. It should be to release forgiveness to those who may have hurt us.

Forgiveness doesn't mean that what they did was okay. Forgiveness doesn't mean that you automatically have to restore trust. And forgiveness also doesn't mean that you have to allow that back into your life. Sometimes we got to separate. Sometimes you got to cut the cord. Sometimes you got to say, "Hey, I do not need you in my life. "I forgive you, I love you, "but from a little bit of a distance." Releasing the hurt means that you're trusting God with what you cannot make right. So I'm gonna ask you this question. Who do you need to release today? What do you need to release back to God? Maybe it's more than one person. Today can be the day that you let go of maybe over 20 years of hurt in your life. You walked into church just expecting a service, but this could be a moment of freedom in your life if you release it unto God. I'm gonna bite you across the room to stand to your feet. So this is what we're going to do in the room. We're going to put some action to what we just talked about. And I'm going to ask the room, be honest. Go ahead and close your eyes and bow your head if you're in here. So let this be a moment between you and God. I'm gonna let you know what we're doing in your life. I'm gonna let you know what you're doing in your life.

I'm gonna let you know what you're doing in your life. I'm gonna let you know what you're doing in your life. I'm gonna let you know what you're doing in your life. I'm gonna let you know what you're doing in your life. Between you and God. Don't worry about person next to you. This is an opportunity for you and God to do some business together. If you're in here and you're carrying unforgiveness in your life and you've carried it maybe for a long time, maybe since childhood and you're ready to let it go and you're ready to release it back to God. I'm just asking you to do something. If that's you, will you stretch both hands, lift both hands. Come on, don't be afraid. Lift both hands. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Hands all over the room. Come on, a couple more moments. Don't be afraid. Maybe if you're unsure if you forgave them. Still, let this be a moment that you say, "Yeah, I'm releasing it." So what I'm gonna invite you to do, I want you to stretch your hands out as they're lifted.

Stretch them in the way that you'd be receiving something. Stretch them out like that. Like you're receiving a gift, palms facing the air. And I'm gonna invite you in this moment to just close both hands. Like you're holding onto something. Close both hands. And as you're doing that, I want you to think about what it is or who they are, that you're ready to release back unto God. Maybe it was something that was said to you that changed the way that you view your life. Maybe it was something spoken over you, something done to you. Maybe it was someone that really hurts you as the first time you really opened your heart up and they abandoned you, whatever it might be. But I want you to ball that up. And I want you to think about it. And what I'm going to invite you to do in this moment, if you're ready to release it and you're ready to live in forgiveness, repeat this prayer after me. Say, Jesus, you know what happened. Help me release this debt. Help me trust you with my healing. And today I forgive, and I'll say their name. If it's multiple people, say their names. Some of you, you haven't spoken that name in a long time, but today can be the day that you forgive them now in your heart. One more time, repeat after me, say, "And today I forgive," and I'll say their name. Come on, let this be the day that freedom sweeps across your mind and your heart. One more time, say, "And today on this day I choose to forgive," and I'll say their name. Thank you, God. Thank you, God. Thank you. Thank you, God. So, God, I pray over every single individual in this room who just decided to walk into freedom in their mind.

God, I thank you that you've given us the ability to forgive, because Jesus was sent to forgive us. God, I pray, Lord, that as we leave this room this morning, God, that our heart pops through and be set on, how can I think about what happened to me, but how can I forgive those who have been placed in front of me? God, I pray, Lord, that when the enemy comes and starts to try to get us back to that unforgiven mindset, God, that we would be reminded that because Jesus forgave us, we have the power to forgive others. God, I thank you for the victory that was won on the cross, and, God, right now, I pray that victory over my brothers and sisters in that room to know that they don't have to walk around dwelling on the past, but they can walk around knowing that Jesus came to earth for them. God, that you sent someone to pay the debt. God, let us walk around joyful because the battle's been won. God, let us walk around with the knowledge that you've given us chance after chance after chance so we can extend that same grace and mercy to those who come across our lives. And God, I pray in agreement with my friends in the room that today is the day of freedom and victory and forgiveness in their mind. And if you're grateful for forgiving God across the room, give them a shout of praise, victory, and an amen across the room. Go ahead and stay in that posture prayer, head bow's eyes closed if you're in here, and you to experience that first act of forgiveness that we talked about. And step into the category of saved and forgiven and give your life to Jesus and make him the Lord of your life. This is the reason you're in church today. So if that's you and you're ready to give your life to Jesus and serve him for the rest of your days, on the count of three, I want you to raise your hand. Hold, this is a moment of celebration. If that's you ready, one, two, three, lift your hand up. Come on, I see you in the balcony. Let's go across the room. Let's go. Come on, make some noise. Heaven's gaining souls today. This is the best part of every time that we gather across the room. Stretch both hands up to heaven alongside our brothers and sisters and repeat this for after me. Say, dear God, today I confess that I'm a sinner in need of a Savior and God from this moment on. I declare that Jesus is the Lord of my life. Thank you, God, that I'm forgiven. Thank you, God, that I'm saved and I'll never be the same in Jesus' name. Amen, come on, give God one last shout of praise across the room.

Hey, if you got saved, text saved to the number on the screen and before we dismiss, let's read our yearly declaration. Throw it on the screen and repeat after me. Say, I believe what God has spoken over my life. His Word will not return void. This year, this year. (upbeat rock music) God's going to do it. Come on, give a shout to God. Church, I love you. We'll see you next week. And like we say every time, the best is yet to come. See you next week.