Forgiveness - Impossible to Possible - Matthew S5E7

This is the final test! Huge THANK YOU to contribution partner! Hey, welcome to the Church of Love and To Be Tuned, thanks for visiting us! We're so pumped that you're with us, my name is Jay, this is Jacob, this is Jacob's first time with us at Church Online, in the chat, go on and welcome him, we're so pumped that you're with us. Yeah, and here at the church, we're a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus. When I say a movement, I mean a family, we're a family, I mean you, I mean us, and we're a movement for all people, and I'm thinking about the people that may be sitting beside you right now, as you're joining us at church, I'm also thinking about those people in your life that need hope, need community, who need Jesus. We are a movement for all people, so here's what I would love for you to do, right there in the chat, let us know who you are, let us know where you're joining us from, and then how about this, go on and let us know who's your one more, who's the person that you're praying for, because we're a movement for all people. That's right, Jay, and well, first off, can I just say thank you for welcoming me, I'm glad to be here, I'm glad to be here with everybody tuning in, and you just said it a second ago, we're a movement, right? The thing about movements, they move, and part of the way that we're moving here at the church is that we're just creating more opportunities for more people to experience the gospel, okay? That's right. So I just wanted to let you know that we're launching a new campus, or sorry, a new service time, right, on Thursdays at 522, and this is going to be at select campuses right here at Church Online, okay, and this is going to start on August 6th, okay? And so it's super simple what this means, this is just one more opportunity, okay? One more opportunity for you to invite your one more, one more opportunity for someone to hear about Jesus, and for them to really realize that there is hope, okay? And honestly, it's one more opportunity for you to jump in and serve, okay?

Because at this movement, it's not just something we watch, it's something we get to be a part of. Yeah, and Church Online family, this is us, this is one more opportunity, it's a brand new service, and here's what I want you to understand, there are serve staff right now in the chat, show them some love, there are serve staff that serve behind the scenes, this is your chance to come on out, get in the game, and make a difference. Let's go. Hey, the way that I think about it is maybe you've been tuning into the World Cup, right? Okay, well, USA in or out, I'm not bitter about it, we're gonna get through it, but think about it like this, think about it like this, it's one thing to watch the game, right? That's fun, but it's a whole nother thing to get in the game, to be out on the field, be somebody a part of it, and you can do that too, if you consider this home, we want you to get off of the sidelines and get in the game, start serving, okay? You can pray with somebody, welcome them in the chat, and if you wanna start serving, you can text the word serve to 44-1122, and we'll find a place for you. That's right. This is your chance. That's right. Get in the game. Well, hey, guys, we're walking through the Book of Matthew, people are showing up, we're getting ready to worship. Let's go. Let's go, man. Let's worship together. Well, good morning, Church of 1122, I'm so excited to be with you in the house of the Lord this morning. For the breath in our lungs, He is worthy of our praise. Please stand with me if you're able to lift His name. Because He is worthy. We lift our hands to the heavens.

We are His children. When the King is in the room, hear the sound of our devotion. Let it build a throne for you, let it build a throne for you. Let everything that has reign praise, praise. Let everything that has reign praise, praise. Let everything that has reign sing a new song to the Lord. Oh, let our praises roar and praise, praise. We praise the Lord. We've come to pour out of you, to wash our Saviour's feet. Every drop from every bottle, give compared to your glory. We refuse to bring an offering that doesn't cost us anything. Let everything that has reign praise, praise. Let everything that has reign praise, praise. Let everything that has reign sing a new song to the Lord. Oh, let our praises roar and praise, praise. We praise the Lord. Praise, we praise, we praise the Lord. Praise, praise, we praise the Lord. If it's kneeling in reverence or it's dancing with joy, we'll sing songs never ending. We love to bring you praise. If it's facedown before you or a victory shot, with our hands raised to heaven, we love to bring you praise. You're the God of salvation and you're the great I Am. You're the Alpha Omega. We love to bring you praise. Come on, sing it out. Sing praise, praise. Let everything that has reign praise, praise. Let everything that has reign praise, praise.

Let everything that has reign praise, praise. Let everything that has reign praise, praise. All our praise is in you. Praise, praise. We praise the Lord. Because He is worthy. We praise the Lord. Thank You, Jesus. We praise the Lord. You are worthy of our praise. Rumors of the Son of Man Stories of the Savior Holiness with human hands Treasure for the traitor No ear has heard, no eye has seen The image of the Father Until heaven came to live with me Rescue like no other, we say You are worthy You are worthy of Your name You are worthy You are worthy of Your name Jesus You did my speak, You made no sound You died for Your accusers And I shall be loathed to the ground You redefined my future, thank You Lord And on the day that You arose Darkness ran for cover For the King of kings has claimed His throne

And now until forever we say You are worthy You are worthy of Your name You are worthy You are worthy of Your name Jesus You're my offer, my maker, my blessing My savior, my refuge, my hiding place You're my helper, my healer, my blessing Redeemer, my answer, my saving grace You are my hope, You're my hope in the shadows My strength in the battle, my anchor for all my days And You stand by my side, You stood in my place Jesus, no other name Only Jesus, no other name You are worthy You are worthy of Your name You are worthy You are worthy of Your name You are worthy You are worthy of Your name You are worthy You are worthy of Your name My Jesus There's no one more worthy Come on, we sing it one more time You are worthy You are worthy of Your name You are worthy Yes, You are

Oh, You are worthy of Your name My Jesus My Jesus Come on church, let's sing this together If the darkness hides before the King Why should my heart fear the enemy He is defeated Yes, He is defeated If you spoke the universe to be, You can crush this mountain at my feet. My God is able, My God is able, I believe. I believe that You are my victory. The death of Jesus has crushed the enemy. The tomb is empty, anything is possible. For the God of the impossible, anything is possible. If my sin was nailed upon the tree, Then on death where is your victory? For it is finished, for it is finished. And if Christ has risen from the grave, I will trust in the power of His name. Nothing is greater, nothing is greater. I believe that You are my victory. The death of Jesus has crushed the enemy. The tomb is empty, anything is possible. And I believe that You are the risen King. The life of Jesus is changing everything. The tomb is empty, anything is possible. For the God of the impossible, anything is possible. Anything is possible for You. My King will reign forever. He's fighting every battle. There is no power like the risen Jesus. My King will reign forever.

He's fighting every battle. There is no power like the risen Jesus. My King will reign forever. He's fighting every battle. There is no power like the risen. My King, my King will reign forever. He's fighting every battle. There is no power like the risen Jesus. I believe that You are my victory. The death of Jesus has crushed the enemy. The tomb is empty, anything is possible. Oh, I believe that You are the risen King. The life of Jesus is changing everything. The tomb is empty, anything is possible. For the God of the impossible, anything is possible. For the God of the impossible, anything is possible. Come on and give Him praise this morning. Amen, let's pray together. Lord, we love You. God, we are grateful that You would show up in this place. place today, Lord, as we have gathered here to worship you, God, we are thankful for your presence, Lord. I pray for each and every one of us, any of our anxieties, our burdens, the weight that is on our shoulders, Lord, that we carried in here with us today. We pray that in the midst of your presence, it would fade away completely, God, that you would give us the strength to lay those things at your feet this morning. Lord, I thank you for everything that you're doing in the life of our church. God, I pray that you would be with us and open up our hearts and our minds to receive the word from you today. Lord, we love you. In your name, we pray. Amen and amen. Go ahead and have a seat, everybody. Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Church of 1122. We are a movement for all people

to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus. And part of all people is one more generation. And we are investing heavily in our students and our teenagers. And one of the things that we do to invest in one more generation is student camp. And student camp starts this week. This Thursday, we're starting with our middle schoolers. We're doing three weeks of camp because we're just trying to make space for one more student. And this summer, we're taking 2,300 students and leaders across three weeks of camp. And so we're super excited for all that God is going to do. We are going to be talking about first and best, that Jesus went first, that he is first, and that we are called to give our first and best in response. And we believe in the power of prayer. We believe that we can't do things on our own. And so we need you guys as the church to be praying for one more generation, to be praying for our teenagers. And I know, I've sat out there and heard people say, you should pray for this. And I forget. So I'm telling you, be better than I am. Set an alarm for Thursday to be praying for our sixth and seventh graders as they go off to the middle of nowhere in the middle of Florida. And we talk about Jesus for four straight days. And be praying for salvation. Be praying for students to understand how much God loves them and how that they can give their first and best to God. Something else that is going on in the life of our church this fall is Neighborhood Nights. Neighborhood Nights is going to be something that involves live worship. Pastor Joe will be going to all of our campuses and casting the vision for the next two years here at the Church of 1122. And so if you consider Church of 1122 home, or you just want to know what's coming up next in the life of the church, you need to be at Neighborhood Nights. For San Pablo, we're gonna be doing it on October 13th. October 13th. And this is a free event. However, you do need a ticket to come. And so you can text NEIGHBORHOOD to 44-1122. Text NEIGHBORHOOD to 44-1122 to get tickets to get all the information about Neighborhood Nights. You do not want to miss it. And last but not least, we try to do everything we can to make space for one more. And so we're—every year we're launching new campuses, and almost every semester we're launching new service times. And so the next service that's

going to be starting here on August 6th is the 522 service. That's not a.m., it's p.m. on Thursday nights. And if you've ever not been able to go on a Thursday because maybe you got a bunch of little kids like I do, and 722 is a little late, this is a great opportunity for you. And the whole reason that we're doing this is to open up space for one more person to hear the gospel. One more person to sit in one of these seats across all of our campuses, and to hear how much God loves them. Maybe it's your neighbor, maybe it's a family member, maybe it's the person you've been praying for for so long. And so we would love to encourage you to be a part of 522 when that starts next month. But for now, grab a pen, grab a Bible, grab something to ride on, and let's continue in worship. So we met in middle school, started dating some in high school. We went to church together at the same youth group. We dated for about four or five years. Got married, we kind of one foot in, one foot out, and then we just kind of went two feet into the world. Who we were hanging out with, church wasn't a thing. And we were only married for eight months before we became foster parents, so in those eight months I would say it was good. And then we took on something really heavy that, I mean, changed everything moving forward. It was just chaos. We had three kids, two and under, two very active court cases, case managers in and out of the house, guardian line-ups in and out of the house, foster care agency in and out of the house. We're trying for a baby, and so we're being told no, that we can't have a biological child, plus you're raising three kids. He was a homicide detective, which took a lot of time away, and then mentally he was gone. It was just like so much heavy, like there wasn't really good. That's when I was starting to become unfaithful to Kaylee, and then I found out probably a year after that she told me she was having an affair that had lasted probably about a year long. I just completely checked out, like it was like almost this like separate world that I was living outside of what was required of me in my home. I got attention. and here, I didn't need it here anymore. There was no like tension in the household,

but there were needs not being met between both of us. And at that point we started contemplating if this was right, like divorce was the answer. At that point, we thought adoption was like right around the corner. So I remember telling Jake, like, let's just ride this out. Having a foster parent, a home, divorce, probably would have removed the twins and put them who knows where. And she came to me one day and was like, hey, let's put the kids, the twins, into a Christmas production, just randomly. And so we did that. That kind of got us going back to church because we were forced to go to take the kids to a Christmas production that I had to be at every week. So we started going weekly. We would just show up next to each other, standing next to each other. Sometimes it was awkward. And I just remember like little by little, like personally feeling like God just forgave me. And then it became easy to forgive him. When we finally got into church for the relationship with God, I think that once you realized how many times he's forgiven us, that it made it much easier for me to forgive her. Because who am I to deny her for forgiveness when the Lord gives it to me every day?

Like I wasn't like questioning whether he forgave me. Like I legit felt like we were like quite just renewed. You know, God's timing is always perfect. So he started that healing process and the forgiveness process right before we went into the toughest battle for our twins. We moved to Jacksonville, Florida with a redeemed marriage. We moved here with the twins. One month from that, so in July of 2025, I got a positive pregnancy test after six years of unexplained infertility. 2026, our baby boy came and he's here and he's beautiful and he's precious. And then one month after that, on May 13th, the twins adoption was finalized and we were officially a family of five. I just took a week to go. I was holding the baby. The twins are in the living room and Jake just looked at me and he was like, he wouldn't be here and they wouldn't be here without forgiveness. God forgiving us, us forgiving each other. And we're just living in it. We're just sitting in it. And it was all in a plan that we could never have made ourselves. Ever. Woo! Well, church, good to be with you guys.

Grab a Bible if you've got one. If you don't, there's one in front of you in the seat and you're gonna wanna go to Matthew chapter 18. We are in week 32 of our study of the gospel of Matthew. And this chapter, Matthew 18, is probably one of the most practical and the most useful chapters in ministry that I've had in 30 years of doing ministry. And so we're gonna dive in. We're gonna pick it up at verse 21, but I wanna kind of back up, get a running start, give a little bit of context to what we're dealing with. And almost the entire part, chapter 18, is dealing with sin. And what do you do with sin? And so in verse seven through nine, what is going on is the question is, well, how do we handle sin in ourselves or temptation to sin in ourselves? And what Jesus says is when you're tempted to sin, you need to take extreme measures, like gouge out your eye, cut off your hand. The old Puritan John Owen said, you need to be killing sin or it will be killing you. And then when you go down to verse 10 through 14, Jesus is talking about how does God handle sin among his children? And Jesus kind of retells an abbreviated version of the prodigal son. And if you know that story, the son is a long way off and he's making a bunch of excuses.

He's trying to figure out how he's gonna work off things so that he can be accepted back by his father. And while he's still a long way off, the dad goes running to the son, humiliates himself, gets to his son, finds his son, reaches his son, wraps his son up, says it takes a cloak, puts it around his son, covers him, like in his righteousness, covers his son, puts sandals on his feet, puts a ring, the family ring, meaning, hey, you are adopted back. You're one of my kids. You're an heir, a co-heir, everything I've got, that's yours. That's how God treats his children. And then it goes on in verse 15 through 20 and it's, how do we handle? and they'll sin in the church. And Jesus kind of gives these three steps about how we're supposed to do that. And I would encourage you, Pastor Joby preached a message on October 27th, 2024. You can go back on the app or the website, look it up. It's week seven of run over by the grace train. It's that passage, you should deal with it. It is incredible, it's a great message for what happens when we sin in the church. And then you get to verse 21 and Peter's gonna ask a question to Jesus about what to do when somebody sins against you. Now, here's the thing.

I don't want this morning to be this. I don't want it to be theoretical. I don't want it to just be a concept or an idea. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to get in your mind. So you kind of tuck elbows in, don't like do this. But I need you to think of somebody who has sinned against you. Like a current situation, or maybe it's a past situation. It's just unresolved. Like you haven't settled this thing with them. And it's still kind of in there and it's still humming, all right? And I want you to hear what Jesus says and I want you to listen through that. And so in verse 21, says, then Peter came up and said to him, to Jesus, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times. Kind of hear him proud about that. Jesus said to him, I do not say to you seven times, but 77 times, or some versions say 70 times seven or 490 times. So Peter's question seems pretty straightforward, doesn't it? How many times do I forgive? Jesus goes 490 times. Good, we're done, let's pray. Forgive people. But when you hear Peter's question about forgiveness,

doesn't it raise a whole bunch of other questions for you about forgiveness? Or when Jesus says, no, don't just forgive seven times, forgive 490, forgive 77 times seven times, doesn't that open up all kinds of other questions for you? And then Jesus is gonna go on from here and he's gonna tell a parable to kind of dive deeper into what he means about forgiveness. And at least for me, that opens all kinds of other questions that I have about forgiveness. I mean, you have them, don't you? Like, I know it sounds silly to say, but what is forgiveness? Or what do you need forgiven from? Or can I forgive somebody if they don't even know they've done anything wrong? Can I forgive somebody if they don't ask to be forgiven? What if I don't feel like forgiving them? Like, what if I'm really still hurt? Or if I forgive them, is that like letting them off the hook? Is that a license for them to continue on? Do I have to accept them back into my life? There's all these kinds of questions, aren't there, that hum around forgiveness. And so we're gonna look at forgiveness today, one, because this is just where the text goes and I love it, our church, we just go where the Bible goes. The other thing that we're gonna, we're looking at this issue of forgiveness is because it is core, it's central to the Christian faith.

Everything rises and falls on it. Our relationship with God rises and falls on forgiveness. And forgiveness is unique to the Christian faith. There's not another world religion that has forgiveness at the core of it. Every other world religion says, you have to figure out how to earn your way back to God. You have to work it off, you have to pay it back. And Christianity is the exact opposite. And every bit of our relationships, horizontally and vertically, are affected by forgiveness. And it is one of the most misunderstood things about the Christian faith. And so Peter asked this question and then Jesus answers him and now Jesus is gonna tell a parable. And so he starts in verse 23. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to. Now, we have two kids, our son is 23 years old, he's about to get married this fall. He's engaged to a girl named Ashley, we love her. It's amazing, we got another daughter in our family. I just, I couldn't be more excited about this wedding. But we have to kind of teach Ashley what it means to be a Flint. You know what I'm saying? She hadn't been a Flint before. She doesn't know that you pass up 25 other parking spots in the sun to find the shady one. She,

She's got to figure out like road trips are not about the journey. They're about the destination. Come on guys, it's about how early do you get up? How much gas mileage can you get? How quick can you make the pit stop? Have you ever pulled off, like you pass somebody and then you pull off into the rest stop and you see them drive by? Ugh, it's so maddening. I mean, we have this thing in our family where if you're telling a story, you get to say, hey, this is my story. Right, you've ever been telling a story and your husband or your wife kind of like, hey, that's not quite how it went. And in our family, it's like, hey, when you want to tell the story, you can tell your story. But right now, this is my story. So she's got to figure that one out. And we have a very active family group chat. And it is all bragging. It's not humble bragging. It's just straight up, look what I did. Look what my kids did. Look how awesome the Flint's are. And you gotta, like, if you're gonna be a Flint, you gotta get in the family group chat. You can't mute the family group chat.

You gotta be active. You gotta be lobbying things in there. I mean, a couple weeks ago, my brother was like, hey, this is getting a little pathetic. We need to step up our game. And if you're gonna be a Flint, you gotta be up on SEC football and particularly Gator football at all times. No? Okay, I get it. I'll be the lone Gator up here. It's fine. This is what Jesus is saying. The kingdom of heaven is like, hey, if you're gonna live in the family of God, if you're gonna be a child of God, if you're gonna be a part of the kingdom of God, let me tell you how things are gonna be. The world can do things the way the world wants to do them. But let me tell you what it's like to live with God as your father. Here's what it means to be in the family of God. And so he says, therefore, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king, that's God, who wished to settle accounts with his servants, that's us. And when he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. And he said he could not pay. His master ordered him to be sold and his wife and children

and all he had in payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, have patience with me and I will pay you everything. Out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants. So the fellow servants, other people that we have a relationship with, that person you have in your mind, who owed him 100 denarii. Now we're gonna talk about these talents and denarii, but this second one is far less than the first. And he finds the one of his fellow servants who owed him 100 denarii and seizing him, he began to choke him saying, pay what you owe. So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him saying almost the exact same thing, have patience with me and I will pay you. He refused. 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 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 of his debt. So, here's the conclusion, verse 35. So, point, here it is. Also my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. So Peter asked this question, how often do I forgive? Jesus gives a pretty straightforward answer. You're supposed to forgive. And he tells this parable about forgiveness. But the question is, if I'm going to be forgiven, if I'm going to be a forgiving person, I have to know what forgiveness is. And in order to know what forgiveness is, you gotta know what you're being forgiven of. And we're not being forgiven of mistakes. We're not being forgiven of accidents. We're not being forgiven of mislips. We are being forgiven of sin, of sin. And the Bible has all kinds of ways that it describes sin. Most of the time, when we think about sin, the Bible describes it in this way, as rule-breaking or law-breaking, right? God says, don't do something, you do that thing, and you think, well, that's sin. That's one way the Bible describes it. The Bible also describes sin as trespasses, like that's going too far.

You shouldn't have gone, you're a creature, you're acting like a creator, you went too far, took things into your own hands. Scripture will talk about sin like treason, rebellion, war, idolatry, self-righteousness. Talk about effects of sin like death, captivity, slavery, bondage. But here in this parable, in this situation, Jesus describes sin in a very particular way. He says that sin and sin's effects are a debt owed. Do you see that? Peter asks, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? And then look at all the language, the money language that's in there. Says settle accounts twice, owed three times, 10,000 talents, 100 denarii. Payment or pay is used seven times in here. Sold and debt is used four times in this passage. And it isn't just in here, in this one place, but we see that sin is described as a debt in other places. Like when Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray in Matthew 6, 14, says when you pray, pray like this, and he gets to the part on forgiveness and he says, you pray, Father, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Maybe you learned the Lord's Prayer and you learned it as sin or as trespasses, but the actual word is the same word as in this parable. It's a debt owed.

Father, forgive me the debt I owe that my sin has created. And so sin creates this debt-debtor relationship that when I sin against you, I've created a debt that I owe you. Or when I sin against God, I've created a debt that I owe God. And you're like, okay, well, but how? I mean, how does my sin create a debt? So think about like idolatry, second commandment. Think about it. That what you're doing is you are saying, God, I'm gonna take from you your godness, your glory, the worship that is due to you, and I'm gonna give it to something else. And what we owe God in that sin is we owe God the worship that he is due and we took it from him and a debt is owed to him. Or what if I lie to you? Right, when I lie to you, I owe you the truth. And even more than that, when I lie to you, you don't get all of really who I am. Therefore, you can't have the relationship with me that you think you're having. And I owe you that. That I took trust from you when I lied to you. And I owe you that trust. Or if I steal, I mean, yeah, you might be able to be like, okay, you stole my truck. Truck's worth $6,000, you owe me $6,000. But if you've ever had somebody break into your home,

you know that it isn't just the amount of money of the things they took, right? They owe you safety and security. Or you take infidelity, adultery. And somebody cheats on you, you're like, you stood up front and you said, I will, they said, I will, and then they didn't. And what they owe you is fidelity. They owe you is faithfulness. The problem is we can't quantify our debt. Like, how do you put a price on sin like infidelity? How would I ever quantify that back to pay you back for that? Or how do you quantify how it affects everybody else? How it affects kids and family and friends? Or how about this? We don't even know all the times we have sinned in our life. So how would we ever quantify what we would pay back when we don't even know that we've done it? Or if we could quantify it, let's say we could, we can't repay it. Look, the debt that that servant owed the king, he says it's 10,000 talents. Do you know how much money that is? $10 billion, $200,000 years of working for $50,000 a year. What Jesus is saying is, listen, even if you could come up with your debt, you can't pay it back. You don't have $10 billion, sin is an unpayable debt. And sin isn't just a debt

that we can't pay back to somebody else, it's a debt we can't pay back to God. The psalmist says in Psalm 51, four, against you and you only, or against you and you first, God, have I sinned. So how am I gonna pay God back anything? God has everything. What am I gonna give him to make it up? And the scriptures say that the wages of sin is death. That if you die in your sin, what you will die with, what you will pay with, is your life. It's the only thing that would even come close to being able to describe the debt that's owed in that. And I know that's not like, wow, so glad we showed up at church this morning so you could just tell me how I'm gonna live eternally separated from God in a debt I could never count and never repay. But until we realize the depth of our sin, we will never understand how absolutely stunningly amazing God's forgiveness is. And so forgiveness is not cheap and it is not easy. It costs the king $10 billion. Scripture says without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. Forgiveness is not easy and it is not cheap. It's incredibly costly. And forgiveness is not fair. You know, fair is just getting what you deserve, right?

Fair is retribution. Fair is you wrong me so I ice you out until I think I've extracted enough out of you to pay me back. Forgiveness is not that. Forgiveness is not the way of the world. Today's culture is if you do something wrong, I hold a grudge against you. If you do something wrong, I like unload on you on social media or cancel culture. All that is is a form of retribution. That's not forgiveness. Forgiveness is not letting go. The king had to pay off the debt. That $10 billion came from the king. He didn't just let it go, he paid for it. And forgiveness is not, have you ever heard somebody say this, forgive and forget? Do you know that is nowhere in the Bible? It's not anywhere in the Bible. The closest we get it from is in Hebrews 12 and it says that God remembers our sin no more. And you're like, oh, okay, same thing, right? Nope, not at all. God isn't an absent-minded professor. He wasn't like, oh yeah, Adam, he's a black-hearted sinner. I forgot about that. He knows that full well forever. But God chooses to not remember,

not take this thing in the past, drag it up and make it an ever-present reality forever. What God has forgiven is done, paid for. He doesn't make you relive it over and over and over and over and over again. And forgiveness doesn't mean no consequences. And forgiveness does not necessarily mean reconciliation or restoration. You can forgive somebody and not go back into that abusive situation. You probably shouldn't go back in. And forgiveness is not a license to keep on sinning. If you say I'm forgiven so I can just keep on going, you missed the whole thing. So what is forgiveness? If sin is a debt owed, then forgiveness is a debt fully paid. Look at verse 27. Out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. The king makes full payment at his own expense for the debt that is owed to him. The king takes the crushing weight of the debt off of the servant and he shoulders it himself. The debt the servant is buried under, the king takes that and he himself becomes buried under that debt. That's what he's doing. A sin that is a debt owed, forgiveness is a debt fully paid. If you've been around 1122,

you've heard a couple of these Bible words used a lot. Propitiation. You know this, right? Propitiation is a payment that satisfies. Now think about that in light of sin as a debt owed. Forgiveness is a payment that fully, not partially, not a little bit, not just a little down payment on it. Forgiveness is a full payment that completely satisfies all of the debt caused by sin. Or to telestai, or Jesus is hanging on the cross. His last words, Father, it is finished. That word, the Greek word for that phrase, it is finished, is to telestai. It actually means paid in full. It's a financial term. They have records from traders that were people that traded goods and they were going across Northern Africa. Think of like Egypt about this time, 2000 years ago. And these guys were taking goods and they had to stop and pay taxes on their goods as they were trading them. They would stop at these tax depots. They found these documents and on the document is stamped telestai. Paid in full. The bill owed, the debt owed for crossing. For you to go on any further,

you've got to pay the debt and paid in full. Done. And here's how our sin is paid in full. It's only paid by Jesus. You and I don't forgive and it's like, well, I'm gonna do some, no. When we forgive, what we're saying is Jesus is the full payment for our sin. And the only way Jesus can be that and the only reason Jesus is the only one that can satisfy in that regard is because Jesus is fully God. Because Jesus is fully God. Yes, he's fully man, but he's fully God. And because he's fully God, he is of infinite value and infinite worth. And therefore, when he gives his life on the cross, it is payment of infinite value. It satisfies. And Jesus knew no sin. Jesus had no sin debt to pay for. That when he died on the cross, he wasn't paying for his own sin. So he gives his life of infinite value and he pays for another sin. He pays for your sin and for my sin. The only place you and I will find forgiveness is in Jesus Christ. The only way you and I will ever be able to give forgiveness is in Jesus Christ.

Here's my definition. I'm gonna put it up on the screen for you. Forgiveness is applying Christ's death on the cross as the full payment for sin's debt so that sinner, the sinner, no longer owes anything to the one sinned against. Forgiveness is applying. It's not feeling. I feel forgiven. That doesn't matter. It's applying, not your forgiveness, it's applying Jesus. It's applying Christ's death, his full payment as a complete, total satisfaction. So when you forgive somebody, what you're saying is I am applying Christ's death as full payment. When you go to God and you seek forgiveness, what you're saying is would you apply Christ's death as full payment for my life, for my sin? And so Peter asks his original question, what's the limit on forgiveness? Seven times? Like every day for a week I'm supposed to forgive and Jesus is like, no, no, no, no, you don't get it, do you? Seven times seven, 70 times seven. Seven is the number of perfection. So Peter's like, so do I forgive completely and Jesus is like, no, you don't forgive completely. You forgive completely upon completely.

You forgive fully, full, utterly, totally, total, you forgive. That's what forgiveness, the limit on forgiveness is the limit of the value of the life of Jesus. You wanna know how much you've been forgiven? It's not your sin, it's what is the value of the life of Jesus Christ. That's how much you've been forgiven. That forgiveness isn't limited by the size of our sin, it's actually limited by the size of the Savior. And what's the size of the Savior? Infinite, it's infinite. That's how much we've been forgiven. You're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, Adam, that's great. But I've heard there's like this thing called the unforgivable sin. And it comes from Jesus in Matthew 12, 31. Jesus says, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven, but the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. Here's what this is. It is a denial of the person and the work of God. That's what blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is. It's to deny that God is fully Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So you're denying the person of God. You're saying God is less God than he is. I don't really believe God is who he says he is. And I don't believe that the work of God, I don't believe that the Holy Spirit breathed the breath of life in me and created me in the image of God.

I don't believe that when I sinned, I was dead in my sins, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us while we were dead in our sins, God, the Holy Spirit made us alive. My word for that is regeneration, that God regenerates us, that the Holy Spirit grants us repentance and gives forgiveness. The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is to say, I don't believe God is who he says he is. I don't believe God does what he says he does. And what that means is that you and I, if we deny God's person and work, then we do not have forgiveness and we will die apart from him forever. Now, this question that kind of bubbles up in here for me is, so can I forgive somebody who doesn't confess or repent? Or can I forgive somebody that doesn't even know they've done anything wrong? You've been in that situation, haven't you? You're like, they know they've done something wrong. They won't admit it. Or you're like, they don't even know they've hurt me. Can I still forgive them? Years ago when my niece was really little, my niece and got a bunch of nieces and nephews, two of them, brother and sister. My niece, little sister of her older brother, one day she just lit into him and made him cry. Like just brought him, I mean, she was just brutal. Like she just lit him up.

And my sister-in-law like got down with her daughter and was like, hey, you need to say you're sorry to your older brother. And she's like, but I'm not. Well, she's honest, she's just ruthless. Like, I mean, can you forgive somebody that won't apologize? So he doesn't even know, doesn't think they've done anything wrong. And the answer is yes. Yes, you can. And then Jesus in Luke 23, 34 says, Father, he's hanging on the cross. Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. Father, apply the finished work of my life. They don't even have a clue that they're sinning against me right now. If someone doesn't think they've sinned or they don't admit that they've sinned, here's what you and I can do. We can remember how much God has forgiven us. That he's forgiven us far more than we even know. When we didn't know that we've sinned, God has forgiven us. And if sin is a debt, we can apply the finished work of Jesus as a full payment against that sin so that that person no longer owes me a single thing. And I can cancel their debt.

Listen, forgiveness and reconciliation are two completely different things. Forgiveness and restoration are two completely different things. I can apply Jesus's death as a full payment so that the other person doesn't owe me a single thing and not be restored in a relationship. That restoration takes two. You forgiving, you can forgive. You can apply that debt. And here's the thing. Maybe, just maybe, if you would forgive that person, if you would be so bold as to go to that person and say, hey, I'm not asking you to apologize. You may not even know you've done anything wrong. Let me just explain. And then I just want you to know. You're forgiven, you don't owe me a single thing, paid in full. Maybe that just might be the thing that brings them to understand their sin and they would confess and repent to you. Maybe it would be the thing that brought them to understand they've sinned against God and they would confess and repent to God. Maybe all they've ever only gotten in their life is grudges and retribution and payback and maybe for the first time you offer to them what God has offered to you and it brings them to their knees to repent to God

and they confess faith in Jesus because of it. Another question that comes up at the end of this for me is okay, if I don't forgive others, will God not forgive me? I mean, look at verse 33. King says, 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 debts. So also, my heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. Now listen, don't take the parable where it doesn't go, but what Jesus is giving is a warning and you and I need to pay attention to the warning and what he's saying is that being forgiven should have a transforming effect in our life. That those of us that have been forgiven, we should be forgiving types of people. And what you can know here is that we're not somehow like obligating God to us when we forgive somebody. That's not what this is about. It isn't like, well, if I forgive them, then God has to forgive me. The warning is true, but what you need to know is forgiveness is not earned. Forgiveness is not achieved. Like, it's not a work that we do. If I forgive you, then God is gonna forgive me this. That's not how it works with God. Forgiveness is received, not achieved. And that those of us that have been forgiven,

we should be forgiving people of all people. And so Jesus is saying, hey, hey, listen, if God has forgiven you, you go be forgiving to somebody else. Colossians 3.13 says this. Bear with one another. And if one of you has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. Forgiven people forgive. And here's the question, the last question I've got. Why does the king forgive? Why does he forgive him $10 billion? He doesn't forgive him because the guy is so forgivable. He doesn't forgive him because it's just a little minor offense. He doesn't forgive him because the guy worked off his debt to him. Look at what it says in verse 27. He does it out of pity. Pity, the word's fine, but it kind of doesn't have this, like I feel so bad for you. I pity you. What this word actually means is it's a word that means it comes from the guts or from your bowels. It's like I have compassion. It's a sense that like I look at something in the world and I don't think it should be that way. I'm mad that it's that way. There's a righteous anger in it.

There's a pain. There's an ache in your soul because this is the way it shouldn't be. And it's down in my guts that I got to make this right. And it says the king forgave his debt because he had that inside of him. This is not the way it's supposed to be. And it also says in verse 26 and verse 29 that the king forgives him because he has patience on him. You know that God is not slow to forgive, but he's patient, wishing that all would come to know Jesus. He's patient. And then it says in verse 33, you should have had mercy because I had mercy on you. You didn't get what you deserved. You deserved locked up, out, apart, separated, done, no freedom, bondage, slavery forever. You didn't get that. What you got was your debt paid. The reason the king forgives is it doesn't have anything to do with the other. The reason the king forgives is his character and his nature. His character of being compassionate, his character of being merciful, his character of being patient. Do you know what you call it when somebody does something for you, not because you did anything, but totally because they have chosen out of their character and nature to do something for you?

It's grace. It's grace. And the only place you will find grace is in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. It's the only place. Jesus' death is where you find grace to be forgiven. It's where you find the mercy of God. It's where you find the patience of God. It's where you find the compassion of God. It's where you find this sense of, this is not the way it's supposed to be and I'm making it right, character and nature of God. That's why the king forgives. So here's how I want us to close. I'm gonna read four Bible verses and I'm gonna ask you to do something. And don't just jump. I'm gonna read a Bible verse and then if it applies to you, I'm gonna ask you to stand and I'm asking you to stay standing. So here's the first one. 1 John 1, 8 through 9. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he, God, is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So if you are a Christian, if you have placed your faith,

I'm with you, I'm standing, I'm not standing because I'm preaching, I'm standing. Listen, if you're a follower of Jesus and you have sinned to confess and repent, confess and repent to God and you stand on his offering forgiveness, would you stand up right now and stay standing? I feel like I should sit down and then stand up. I'm with you. Ephesians 4, 32. Be kind to one another. Tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. If you need to forgive someone, if that name from that thing I told you, grab it, hold on to it, listen to the sermon through the lens of it. Do you need to forgive somebody? Stand up and stay standing right now. Some of us need to sit down and re-stand up. Matthew 5, 23 and 24 says this. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift before the altar and go first be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. So if you've sinned against somebody and you need to ask their forgiveness, stand and stay standing.

And then here's the last one. I love this verse. Acts 10, 43. To him, meaning Jesus, all the prophets bear witness. He's saying all of the Old Testament is pointing at Jesus and the thing they're pointing at Jesus is that everyone who believes in him, in Jesus, receives forgiveness of sin through his name. If you have never put your trust in Jesus as the full payment for your sin, that your sin debt is erased and you want to receive that full payment today, would you stand up, stay standing and here's what I want you. Would you raise your hand right now? Like raise it up high, bold. Come on, way up. Keep them up, come on. Keep them way up. Amen, let's go. Heavenly Father, you are our forgiveness. Jesus, thank you that you are the payment, the full payment that gets applied to our sin debt by grace through faith in you, Jesus. So Lord, forgive us our debts and may we be the type of people whose being forgiven would overflow and we would forgive our debtors.

God, may it crush temptation in our life, confession and repentance, crush it. May forgiveness found only in you, Jesus, honor and worship and glorify you. Lord, our running to you with our sin instead. running from you in our sin, may it may be so honoring and pleasing, may be an act of faith. May a church that doesn't hide and play games but stands in full transparency before you and one another that we're sinners in need of a great Savior. May it be a pleasing sound in your ear. We love you. Thank you Jesus for your work in your life, death, and resurrection. We pray it all in Jesus' name. Amen. So let's worship. We're gonna respond. We're gonna sing. We're gonna worship God for the forgiveness he's given. Maybe, maybe for you, you're still like, I want to forgive but that thing hurt. Maybe you need to come down here and wrestle that out with. Maybe you don't, you need to come down and use things you need to confess and repent to God. Maybe you need to come down and pray and then we're gonna bring our first and best because God gave us his first and best and fullest in Jesus Christ. Let's worship God as a forgiving God. See him there, the great I Am. A crown of thorns upon his head. The Father's heart displayed for us. Oh God, we thank you for a cross. Lifted up on Calvary's hill, we cursed your name. And even still, you bore our shame and paid the cost. Oh God, we thank you for the cross. Behold the Lamb, the story of redemption written on his hands. Jesus, you will reign forevermore. The victory is yours. We sing your praise in this hallelujah to your holy name. Jesus, you will reign forevermore. The victory is yours. Offer up this sacrifice for every sin. Our Savior died, the Lord alive. Can't be contained, our God has risen from the grave. Oh our God has risen from the grave.

Behold the Lamb, the story of redemption written on his hands. Jesus, you will reign forevermore. The victory is yours. We sing your praise in this hallelujah to your holy name. Jesus, you will reign forevermore. The victory is yours. If your death is done, we'll see your face bright as the sun. We'll bow before the King of Kings. Oh God, forever we will sing. Behold the Lamb, the story of redemption written on his hands. ♪ Jesus, You will reign forevermore ♪ ♪ The victory is Yours, behold the Lamb ♪ ♪ His glory of redemption is in His hands ♪ ♪ Jesus, You will reign forevermore ♪ ♪ The victory is Yours, we sing of You Lord ♪ ♪ You reign, in this hallelujah, sing Your holy name ♪ ♪ Jesus, You will reign forevermore ♪ ♪ The victory is Yours, You reign forevermore ♪ ♪ The victory is Yours, You reign forevermore ♪ ♪ The victory is Yours, You reign forevermore ♪ ♪ I believe that You are my victory ♪ ♪ The death of Jesus has crushed the enemy ♪ ♪ If the tomb is empty, anything is possible ♪ ♪ I believe that You are the prison key ♪ ♪ The life of Jesus is changing everything, yeah ♪ ♪ The tomb is empty, anything is possible ♪ ♪ For the God of the impossible, my King will reign forever ♪ ♪ My King will reign forever, He's fighting every battle ♪ ♪ There is no power like the risen Jesus ♪ ♪ My King will reign forever, He's fighting every battle ♪ ♪ There is no power like the risen Jesus ♪ Can you believe, come on.

♪ My King will reign forever, He's fighting every battle ♪ ♪ There is no power like the risen Jesus ♪ ♪ My King will reign forever, He's fighting every battle ♪ ♪ There is no power like the risen Jesus ♪ Come on, sing I believe it. ♪ I believe that You are my victory ♪ ♪ The death of Jesus has crushed the enemy, yeah ♪ ♪ The tomb is empty, anything is possible ♪ ♪ I believe that You are the risen King, yeah ♪ ♪ The life of Jesus is changing everything, yeah ♪ ♪ The tomb is empty, anything is possible, yes ♪ ♪ For the God of the impossible, anything, anything is possible ♪ ♪ Anything, anything is possible ♪ ♪ You're the God of the impossible ♪ Just in that service alone, we had over 200 people surrender their lives to Jesus across all our campuses. So this weekend we've had 274 people accept that forgiveness of Jesus, that everlasting, infinite forgiveness. And if that was you, we would love to walk with you. You can text SurrenderTo441122. And if God puts someone on your heart that you need to make things right with, we wanna challenge you to take that step, to send the text, make the phone call, set up the meeting, talk to that person and offer that forgiveness because it's been offered to us in Christ Jesus. We love you like crazy. We'll see you next weekend.

Be free. ♫ you