COUNTER CULTURE | Week 2 | Sermon

So, to kinda set up where I wanna go today, I was thinking through all of the terrible jobs that I've had

over the years, and I don't know if you've ever had a job you look back on, you're just like, man, that job was the worst. I am so thankful that that job is done. Well, hands down, I think probably the worst job that I've ever had was the the hardest job that I ever had. And the part that makes it the worst is that my dad is the one that set me up with the job. You know, like, thanks dad. Thanks for throwing me a solid. Right? I was 14 or 15 years old and he, you know, I was looking for a summer job and he got me a job with a family friend of ours that owned like an outdoor remodeling company. And so if you wanted to redo your backyard, this was the guy that you would call and they would come in and kinda overhaul everything. Well, he picked me up for the first day of work and kind of said, hey, just know I've never had somebody work for me for a summer that then comes back the next summer and works for me again. Right? He said, most people's biggest takeaway is that I should stay in school and make sure I have a job where I'm inside of the air conditioning. And so I was like, okay. That's good information to start. Right? Then he drops me off at the job site that I will be on for the entire summer.

We were building essentially a big, like massive redwood deck in this guy's backyard that was a huge downslope, and we had to build into all these different levels in the backyard so we could build up the deck and all this stuff. So literally, my first day on the job,

they had, I don't know, 50 trucks show up and drop off just ton after ton of dirt and gravel that we were gonna have to get into the backyard. But there was a bobcat,

so all we had to do was get in the bobcat and learn to like do the joystick thing. It felt kinda like a video game in real life. So I'm like, this isn't the worst. Right? Well, problem was is once we figured out how to get the little bucket lift working, we loaded up the first thing of dirt, drove around the backyard,

and realized the bobcat was too wide to actually make the turn around the house, and like, this thing was not gonna get into the backyard. So I called the owner back and I said, look, man, This guy's gotta get a new house. Like, it's not happening. No deck is going in back here. He's like, got a solution for you. He shows back up to the job site and out of the back of his truck, he pulls two wheelbarrows out and puts them on the ground. And I'm like, what am I supposed to do with that thing, bro? Like, where's the engine? You know, where's the little air conditioning thing that the bobcat had? And literally for the next four days,

me and this other dude wheelbarrow dirt and gravel into the backyard for eight hours a day, and I would learn that that would be the best day that I would have on this new job, right? There was one day we had to actually jackhammer with a 75 pound jackhammer

for like three straight days, this entire concrete pad out of the back. I don't know if you've ever jackhammered for that long, but you wake up the next day with parts of your body you didn't even know you had that are sore. And then because the thing is like vibrating so aggressively,

I woke up in the middle of the night and my fingers were literally locked in place. I couldn't move them. Like, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't move them. I had to like slowly press them together to get mobility back in my joints. Like, it was terrible.

Mostly what I did that summer is I would wait till people were like distracted, and then I would go find a place in the shade and try to take a nap until I got yelled at and had to work again. Like, I I was a terrible employee.

But all summer, I did this really difficult job, and at the end of the summer, the one part that was really cool is we got to see the completed project that we spent, you know, three or four months doing.

And I I don't have a picture of the actual one, right, because this was pre cell phone. I know it's crazy to think that there was an era before cell phones, but there was. We didn't take pictures of everything,

but I did find a picture on Google that looks really similar to the deck that we built, and I wanna show it to you. K? This is like literally the Redwood deck that we built. It was like a piece of art after everything was done. It was multiple levels, like it was incredible.

And there was kind of this deep sense of satisfaction getting to see the completion of your work and kind of seeing what your labor went to. And the interesting part being in a job like ministry,

we're in a seed sowing ministry. Right? We kind of throw seed out, but we don't always get to see where that seed goes and whether or not it gets harvested.

The Bible says that some people are sowing the seed. Some people come alongside and water it, and then other people harvest it. But in construction, the beautiful part is you get to see the fruit of your labor. Right? And I learned that summer a couple important lessons. The most important one was that for sure I was gonna stay in school and make sure that I had a job that was inside of the air conditioning. K? But secondarily,

the lesson that I learned is what I wanna talk to us about this morning, is that sometimes on the other side of really difficult things, really hard things can be a really beautiful thing and a really incredible thing,

and what Jesus is going to talk about today in week two of this counter cultural kingdom that he came to establish, is a really hard topic called forgiveness. But what I submit to us this morning is that maybe forgiveness

is a bit like working a construction job through the summer. Though it might seem like it's just difficult, if you don't give up in the middle of the hard, you might get to something on the other side of it that is more beautiful than you could ever realize.

See sometimes we forget in church, every time Jesus gives us a command and an instruction, it's connected to a why. There is a why to it. It's not just Jesus giving us a bunch of rules,

there is a connection to what's on the other side of it as to why he gives it to us. Here's what we're gonna see this morning as we look at this passage at the end of Matthew chapter 18. Jesus is going to encourage us to forgive people who've harmed us because forgiveness,

it will not it won't be easy, but it will be freeing. If you're taking notes, the big idea is that forgiveness isn't easy, but it is freeing. I don't wanna try to tell you that entering into forgiveness, letting go of the things that people have done to hurt us, is easy because it's not.

But what I will challenge us to think through this morning is to consider the possibility that maybe there's something on the other side of letting go of that hurt that is more beautiful and magnificent than you could ever possibly

imagine. Matthew chapter 18, the story begins in verse 21. It says, then Peter came to him, being Jesus, and asked, Lord, how often should I forgive somebody who sins against me? Here's his brilliant answer. Seven times? No. Not seven times, Jesus replied, but 70 times

seven. K? If you struggle with mass, 70 times seven, it's 1,200,000 times. Alright? That was a joke. Alright? Some of you will get that later.

Peter, the disciple who's one of Jesus' closest friends, kind of famous for putting his foot in his mouth, truthfully, I think is the guy that just says what we are often thinking, but we just aren't courageous enough to say. Peter has heard Jesus talking about this countercultural kingdom that he is establishing.

And he's picked up on the idea that what he's been taught by all the Jewish rabbis, Jesus has come to raise the standard. And Peter understood when it came to forgiveness,

all the Jewish rabbis had taught the principle of forgiving people three times. The culturally accepted idea of forgiveness was, hey, if somebody offends you, you have to forgive them, but the magic number is three. If they offend you four times, man, they're on their own. You can harbor a grudge against them.

Peter has at least connected the dots to understand that Jesus has come to set a new standard. So Peter is kind of logically thinking through what we will be tempted to think through as well. There has to be a logical end to how far we're willing to forgive, how much we're willing to forgive.

And so Peter, I think with, again, a decent amount of logic goes to Jesus and he goes, look, I've doubled what the Jewish rabbis have taught us. I I went to six times and then I even added one to it. How many times do I have to forgive somebody? Seven times, it seems like a great number.

And Jesus answers him with what we think is a math equation, but it has nothing to do with math. Jesus says the question of how much forgiveness do we have to extend, it's the wrong question to ask if you're really going to truly understand how God's kingdom works.

See, the question isn't how much forgiveness do we have to extend. The real question is is how much freedom do you want to experience? How much forgiveness do you want to extend to people so that you can experience breakthrough like you've never experienced before.

Jesus throws out potentially this crazy illogical path to freedom, where he says it's forgiveness to essentially an unlimited end. Not just seven times, but seven times 70 times, an unlimited amount.

You and I have to understand that one of the main ethics of the kingdom of God is that forgiveness will never be easy, but it is our path to freedom. But it's difficult to do. Look at this exact same story told in the gospel of Luke because we get a little bit of the disciples response that we don't see in Matthew.

It says in Luke 17, same story, it says, one day Jesus said to his disciples, there will always be temptations to sin, which all the people in the church said, amen. Right? Verse three says, so watch yourselves. If another believer sins, rebuke that person, 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. Not you should, not I highly encourage, not it is greatly recommended.

He says, if you are a follower of Jesus and somebody is willing to repent of their sin, you must, you have to, it is commanded of us to forgive. To which the apostles say to Jesus, show us how to increase our faith.

See, Jesus again talks about how we don't just pretend like something doesn't happen when somebody hurts us. Right? He says when somebody has sinned against you, he's calling it sin.

He's not saying that it was just a mistake, he's acknowledging it as sin. Right? We have to be willing to call a spade a spade. He says, if somebody has sinned, call it what it is. But if they repent, if they turn around, they change their mind, they come to you and they seek forgiveness,

you and I, as as followers of Jesus in this upside down kingdom, we are compelled through the Holy Spirit in this new life that we've been given, we must forgive them. Not just once, but up to seven times a day. I'm like, Jesus is talking about having toddlers. Right? Who else do need to forgive seven times a day?

To which the apostles respond the way that all of us should respond as well. In my own power, through my own ability, that is absolutely impossible, because I don't want to forgive. I don't feel like forgiving.

And yet, the disciples respond with, Jesus, you've got to increase our faith. What I wanna talk to us about this morning is the faith that it will take to forgive, because I think it's easy to hold a grudge. I I think it's it's easy to hold on to resentment, and it's easy to justify staying in that place,

but for those of us who have entrusted our lives to Jesus and are potentially trying to figure out what walking in real freedom looks like, you will have to push into faith that is willing to forgive. And the good news is is that Jesus does not give us a high bar to stand up to, to live up to,

and then say, good luck, figure it out on your own. See, this is the beauty that Jesus says, you and I, our own power and our own ability, we can't forgive people seven times a day. But what is impossible with man is possible

with God, and there is faith that is available to you and I that can help us forgive people who have deeply hurt us, so that we can get to the other side of it and walk in freedom. But I I wanna make sure before we go into the next part in Matthew 18 that Jesus kind of goes into, which is a a parable,

a story that he makes up to illustrate this powerful kingdom principle of forgiveness.

Before we go there, we have to lay the ground rules of what we're not talking about here.

Because you will be tempted to hear me say something that I'm not saying and that Jesus is not implying here when it comes to this idea of being people who forgive an unlimited amount of times. There is no amount of times where we ever stop forgiving,

but that doesn't mean a couple things. The first thing that we have to understand and all agree on, that forgiveness is not, is forgiveness is not the same as forgetting.

See, Jesus is not saying that you forget seven times a day what somebody did to you. He says you can forgive them seven times a day, but you do not forget what they've done,

Because you and I don't just become doormats for Jesus. We don't allow people to just walk all over us. We do not stay in abusive situations. We do not stay in toxic environments just because we've been compelled by our faith to forgive them, it is not the same thing as forgetting what has happened because what happened

is real, and it matters both to you and it matters to God. Sometimes we have to redefine friendships. We have to reset boundaries with people. K. If you go and read just before this story that we just read in Matthew 18, you'll see where Jesus addresses

this thing called church discipline to the disciples. He talks about how you and I settle conflicts inside the church, not outside the church, but inside the church. He says, when somebody offends you inside the church, here's how we deal with that. At first, we go and we confront them. We don't talk about them in prayer circles, we talk to them and we address what happened. Hey, this hurts. When you did this, you hurt my feelings. You have a conversation with them. You address it. You deal with it. And if they don't repent, you get somebody else from the community and you go with two of you and you address the situation.

And if then they're not willing to repent, you bring them in front of the entire church and you ask them to repent then, and if not, you kick them out of the church for a season. What Jesus is saying is that we have to deal with conflict. We can't pretend that it didn't happen because it did.

But forgetting and forgiving are not the same thing. You can forgive while setting new relational boundaries, but you have to step into forgiveness if you want to experience freedom. The second thing that we all have to agree on, that forgiveness is not, forgiveness is not fair.

I will not try to tell you that giving somebody, extending to somebody forgiveness that they haven't earned, that that is fair at all. It's not. It's not natural. It is not normal. It is not our default state, and these people who have hurt us, they don't deserve our forgiveness. It is not fair,

but where Jesus is going to go in this next part of the story, this parable, is he's going to set up the reality, this duality that all of us kind of exist with when it comes to this notion of fairness. See, if we're honest, every single one of us have had people that have hurt us, and when we are hurt, we cry for justice.

We cry for consequences, but when we are the ones doing the offending, when we are the ones who have hurt people, or we have offended a holy God, we don't cry for justice, we don't cry for consequences, we ask for grace, and mercy and understanding. And if we're honest,

all of us in this room are thankful that God, yes, he's just, but he doesn't deal with our sin fairly. God is not fair in how he deals with us when it comes to our shortcomings, because if he was fair,

he would wipe us out. We wouldn't have the opportunity to repent and change our ways and go through the process of becoming new, and we are thankful that God is not fair with us, well then why aren't we willing to realize that forgiving somebody else will never be fair,

but because God's not been fair with us, maybe we cannot be fair with other people. The last thing that we have to understand that forgiveness is not, forgiveness is not a feeling.

See, the problem is is you and I have grown up in this Western idea of how we are motivated and what we are supposed to be led by, and we've been told for a long time that that our feelings are ultimate. Our feelings are supreme. The problem when this is the ethic that we believe,

when it comes in conflict with Jesus going, no, you need to forgive people, we will be tempted to say, well, I don't feel like you. Jesus never asks whether you feel like forgiving them or not. The truth is if you wait to forgive somebody that has deeply hurt you until you feel like it, that day is never coming.

What the scriptures teach us is that your heart is above all things wicked, and don't trust it. It will lead you astray, but if you can use logic, you can walk not by sight and by faith, and you can make a decision,

you can take action and choose to forgive even when you don't feel like it. Here's the beauty of how God has wired us, is your feelings will eventually catch up to your actions and your decisions, but forgiveness, it's not a feeling. Forgiveness is a decision you make because you begin to consider maybe,

maybe Jesus knows how to deal with hurts and resentment better than we do. That is the groundwork that we have to start with. That's the foundation upon which we can now read this parable that Jesus is going to use to illustrate the power and the potential of us not just being forgiven, but us being forgiving

people. K. Go back with me to Matthew chapter 18, reading in verse 23,

Jesus again answering the question to Peter, how much do we have to forgive? He says, 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 owned to pay the debt. Okay? This is where Jesus goes into a parable. A parable is a story that is made up to illustrate a powerful kingdom principle in a practical applicable way.

He says, imagine the kingdom of God is like a master that has a bunch of servants and over the years, he has lent them money

and at some point, he wakes up and realizes, okay, I've gotta I've gotta kinda settle the accounts. I've gotta make sure the books are good. And he looks down and he realizes that there's one servant

that has accumulated a debt in first century money of a few million dollars. Say, theologians see, theologians tell us that in today's economy, this would be a debt of 6 to $7,000,000,000. 're like, does this do work for congress? Like, how do you get that kind of debt? Right? Like, how do you keep spending like that?

Imagine for a moment that you actually were tasked with, your job was, hey, here's a credit card with a $7,000,000,000 limit, max it out. Like that would be a fun

couple decades. Like how do you spend that much money? Right? Like it would take a long time to spend that amount of money. So you have to start to kind of think what the heck is Jesus talking about? Where is he going with this whole story of this this servant that has this crazy debt? See, the end of the parable will tell us that what Jesus is talking about has nothing to do with money. See, in this story, here's kind of the plot twist. The master in this story is actually God, and here's the ultimate plot twist, the debtor that owes 6 to $7,000,000,000,

it's you and me. He says, you and I are like a servant who has a 6 to $7,000,000,000 debt against our master, and the master knows that the cultural standard that he's allowed to implement is he can sell you,

your spouse, your kids, and everything you own into prison for the rest of your life, because that's what culture says he's allowed to do. See, what Jesus is setting up is the tension that we have to acknowledge if we're going to begin to entertain the conversation of how do we forgive other people.

We have to start with an understanding that is core to understanding Christianity. See, you and I, we're not good people that God makes a little bit better.

We make the mistake of thinking that it's good people or the best people that go to heaven, but that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says that every single one of us in this room, we are all fatally flawed humans,

that we don't even have the thing inside of us that would choose God if we could. Our natural disposition is to choose everything contrary to the goodness of God, yet in the middle of that brokenness,

God has made a way for us to be made whole, but the cultural standard is that by all accounts, he doesn't have to, and you and I need to have and start with a realization that the Bible is clear. Revelation 20 says that God is actually keeping a ledger of all of our sins.

He actually has a list of every time we've made a mistake, and that's not just in deed. It's in thought, it's in intent. The Bible goes so far to say that you and I will have to give an account for every single word that we've spoken, and that list before a holy God is insurmountable. It is an unbelievably

hammering debt that we owe our master in heaven. The picture that I get, if you've seen it online, you know when they talk about The US debt, if you've seen like the scrolling ticker, like every second it's going up by like thousands and thousands and millions of dollars, it's just constantly going,

just growing all the time. Do you know as a country, this year, it's mind blowing to think about, we are going to spend $1,200,000,000,000 with a T, servicing our debt. That's on interest on the debt that we owe as a country. And what Jesus is saying is that the debt that we owe to God spiritually

is a thousand times more than that. It is a crushing weight when you see it. It is a weight that should bring you to your knees in humility. You and I have to start with an understanding that we owe far, far more than we realized before God. And the mistake that we will be tempted to make is to think that

we can pay it back on our own. She will go, I'll get an extra job, I'll figure this out, I can do this on my own, but you can't do it. Look at the very next line of this story. Okay, this guy has a $6,000,000,000

debt, verse 26, he makes the fatal flaw that we will all make, but the man fell down before his master and begged him, please be patient with me and I will pay it all back. Just give me time.

I can make this right. I can be good enough. I can stop drinking. I can give up the pornography thing. I can get better. I will do this on my own. As if he could, in a culture where making 50¢ in a day would have been a lot of money. He thinks somehow he's going to pay back $7,000,000,000

He could work twenty thousand years and not even make a dent in it. Again, all of this is a parable. It's not a real story. It's Jesus talking about the reality of our condition as humans, that all of us are fatally flawed before God.

We can't pay it back. We aren't good people that God is making gooder. It's not good people that go to heaven, it's forgiven people. It's people that realize, yes, we owe God far more than we realize, and he could. He would be justified based on the ethics of the day to allow the weight of that to just crush us, but because he's a good father in heaven, it's not what he does. He doesn't leave us there. Look at the very next verse in the parable. Here's where Jesus starts to bring in the good news, the gospel. And he says, this, then his master was filled with pity for him and he released him and forgave

his debt. Jesus says that he owes him 6,000,000,000. He has zero ability to pay him back, but the master is so moved from his innermost beings. K? In the original language, that's what it means when he says he has pity on him. He's moved from a deep place inside of his soul to take action and do something,

But notice what he doesn't do. He doesn't just erase the debt. He doesn't just say, okay, I'll act like it was never there because if God is a God of justice, he can't just allow it to go unpaid for. See, the debt has to be paid. The score must be settled because if it's not, then God is not a God of justice.

So what does the master do? He reaches into his own pockets. He reaches into his own bank account. So the story implies that he actually pays the debt of the debtor with his own money. See, what Jesus is articulating is the message that is core to our faith, that when we forget it,

when we stop remembering how far off we all were from God before we met Jesus, we will be tempted to hold on to things like bitterness and unforgiveness, because we forgot the crushing weight of our own sin before God.

See, the gospel says that you and I, our best attempt to get to God is like filthy rags in the eyes of a holy God.

In our best attempt, it will leave us a far ways away from God, and God, he's the one that has to pursue us. He's the one that comes running after us, and he sees us in our brokenness, and as a just God, he has to pay the penalty for our sin. The Bible says that our sin comes with a consequence, and that consequence is death, And so either he has to allow us to die to pay the penalty, or there has to be a substitution.

And so God reached into the depths of his bank account, and he leveraged his greatest asset, that is his son Jesus, and two thousand years ago, Jesus became one of us. He became human. He lived the life we couldn't live. He died the death that we deserve, and on the cross, all of the wrath that God had stored up for you and I was poured out on his son, Jesus, and in that moment, the bible says that all we have to do is believe that Jesus is who he says that he is,

and our debt can be paid. And we can move from being debtors to God to being friends with God. And our debt can be settled. It can be paid for. Not just put away like it never existed, but completely

settled. The bank account brought back into the positive before God. See, this is what Colossians says that Jesus did for you and I. Colossians chapter two says that you and I were dead because of our sin, and because our sinful nature was not yet cut away, but then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all of our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us, and he took it away by nailing it to the cross. Why would Jesus start here with a conversation of how much do we have to forgive? Because the tension that we have to navigate as followers of Jesus

is understanding that we owe far more than we could ever pay back. We owe God far more than we realize, and simultaneously, we've been forgiven more than we deserve. And that tension should produce in us, yes, wholeness, yes, freedom,

but also a humility that would dare to never say, I would not be willing to forgive somebody else, because in light of how much I've been forgiven, man, I can extend forgiveness to the people that have offended me. I could never be more offended than how much I've offended God.

But the truth is, I think sometimes in Western Christian America, we've been sold a gospel that's like, man, you're pretty good on your own. That is not what the Bible says about you and I. It says our spiritual debt to God should crush us,

and in light of that, when we see how much we've been forgiven, the natural overflow should be to forgive other people, but that's not what this debtor does. K? This is where Jesus starts to kind of bring this thing full circle. He says in verse 28, but when that man, that man who was forgiven $7,000,000,000,

he left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars and he grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.

His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little bit more time. He said, be patient with me and I I will pay it back, but his creditor wouldn't wait. He had the man arrested, put him in prison until the debt could be paid in full, and when some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went out to the king and told him everything that had happened,

and the king called in the man who had forgiven and he said, you evil servant, I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn't you have mercy on your fellow servant, here it is, just as I had mercy on you. See, the guy that was forgiven $7,000,000,000

would have the audacity to turn around to a friend that owes him a few thousand dollars

and not extend forgiveness to him, the same forgiveness that he'd been given, And instead, he does honestly what I would do to a friend that owed me a few thousand dollars that hadn't paid me back over time, like, chokeslams him. I'm like, look, that that makes sense. Right? I've asked you two or three times, you haven't like, you owe me a few thousand bucks, bro. I'm gonna chokeslam you if you don't pay me back.

He says, in light of how much he had been forgiven, it makes no sense for him to not be willing to extend forgiveness to somebody else. Right? It's a picture of, if I gave you $10,000,000

and you could literally open up your Wells Fargo or Bank of America account, you could see in there, dollars 10,000,000 are sitting in your bank account. Your buddy that comes up to you after church is like, man, promise I'm gonna get you that $20 I owe you. You would go, man, don't worry about it, bro. I've got so much in the bank account, what is $20

What Jesus is saying is that here's how you can get to a place where you can forgive people to an unlimited level. You and I will have to remember what the cross cost God. How much it cost him to set us free and to have our debt paid for. See, if you can learn not to look at what people have done to us that is hurtful,

that is something that doesn't deserve forgiveness and you can instead fix your gaze on what Jesus did for you, then you can potentially learn to forgive, not according to what people deserve, but you can begin to forgive

according to what you've received. See, have to learn to forgive according to what we've received, not according to what people deserve. When you truly see what God did for you, what Jesus was willing to do for you and I, and we can remember that in light of that, and that Ezekiel 36 moment happens,

where we truly are born again, the heart of stone that we used to have has been removed and we've had a heart transplant with a heart of flesh, that heart's natural disposition should be forgiveness, should be to freely give what we've been given. See, Jesus says

that you and I are supposed to forgive the way that we've been forgiven, and this is the thing I think we miss so often in what Jesus talks about. Remember the Lord's prayer? Jesus' beautiful prayer. He says, this is how you're to pray, our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Remember how the end of that prayer goes? He says, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Father, forgive us like I forgive my boss who I still hate and cuss under my breath every day when I walk in the office. No. No. No. Don't forgive me like that. Forgive me better than that.

But why does God make this connection in so many different places in scriptures where our forgiveness is almost contingent on us understanding forgiving other people?

See, what he's not saying is that it's a works based faith and how you are forgiven is you have to forgive first. No, what he's talking about is when you're really born again, when you've really been transformed and you haven't just subscribed to cultural Christianity, then natural overflow should be forgiveness

because you understand how much you've been forgiven. I think sometimes we forget how grave our mistakes are, how grave our sin is in the eyes of a holy God. We have to learn to forgive, not according to what they deserve,

but according to what we've been given and what we've been forgiven of. Look at how Jesus closes this whole parable down. He says in verse 34,

then the angry king sent this man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt. Again, he reiterates this theme, that's what my heavenly father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.

Jesus tells this whole parable to set up what I think is the main point of this whole thing. What does walking around with unforgiveness ultimately look like for you and I? He says it's the equivalent of being thrown into a prison of your own choosing, of your own making, and being tortured for the rest of your life.

That's what holding onto unforgiveness will produce in us. Sure, you can refuse to let it go. You can hold onto it because it feels like it's all you've got left, but you have to understand at this point what you're doing is you are building back again the prison that Jesus has released you from.

You are creating a prison that you have the keys to get out of. You don't have to be in bondage any longer. You don't have to continue to live in torment, but what it's gonna force you and I to consider is releasing somebody from the thing that they've done to hurt us, and it's not easy, but it is our path to freedom.

See, what Jesus is talking about is different than reconciliation because reconciliation requires two people who are willing to do deep internal work. Don't have to reconcile with the person that hurt you. Oftentimes, reconciliation isn't possible because it's contingent on another person.

Right? For reconciliation to happen, that person has to go through a lot of major change. They've gotta see the situation the way you see it. They've got to, with humility, acknowledge that they've actually hurt you, and then they have to be willing to come to you and ask for forgiveness.

That requires a lot of them, but forgiveness, forgiveness requires nothing of them. Forgiveness, you and I own 100% of that action, and what Jesus is saying is that we don't forgive people to free them, we do it to free us. See, forgiveness may never free them, but it will always free you.

We consider, we step into forgiveness, not for them, but for us. The other thing that Jesus ties into this whole parable, where again, this is the more throat punchy part of this,

he connects the dots between our unwillingness to forgive people and the truth of whether or not we've really been forgiven, and we've really actually been born again. And we're not just a cultural Christian, but we are actually a born again Christian whose name has been written in the book of life, that at the end of our life, we will hear not, get away from me for I never knew you, but well done, my good and faithful servant. See, what Jesus says is sometimes our hearts,

they are the best indication. They are the the best way to examine who we really actually are. And maybe, maybe a heart that is unwilling to forgive, an unforgiving heart, actually reveals an unforgiving heart. And sometimes when we hold onto unforgiveness, it's revealing something much deeper

than just a resentment, and maybe what it's required of us to do

is to start and really invite Jesus into our life and do what John will say some 80 times in his gospel, to believe with every part of our being that Jesus is who he says that he is, to surrender our life to him, to invite him into our hearts, to set us free.

And then when we do that, we can begin to entertain, okay, how do I release these things that have been done to me? I say all of that this morning to say, I wonder what it is that you've been holding onto. I wonder the thing that you've been holding onto for years,

the spouse that stepped into infidelity on you and betrayed your trust in a way that you never thought possible. The parents that were supposed to live up to, like the agreed upon standard that parents are supposed to do with their kids, and they've traded all for a bottle or for a pill.

The business partner that stabs you in the back. The coworker that talks about you when you're not around and pretends to be your best friend when you're there. I don't know what your situation is, but here's what I do know, is that Jesus has come to set you free. There is freedom in Christ.

Forgiveness won't be easy, but it is what leads to freedom. A couple weeks ago, I went to our ministry on Friday night, it's called CR, Celebrate Recovery, an amazing ministry, and I was listening to a friend of mine teach on forgiveness,

and I knew what everybody in that room didn't know. I knew what the last five years of this guy's life had entailed. I knew what he was forced to forgive. Something that everybody in this room would agree is unforgivable.

Something that if we made a list right now of what are the things that people could do to you that you would never forgive, I would say this is probably on the top, top of the list. See, he learned a few years before that a really close trusted family friend had been sexually abusing his daughters for a long time.

They went through the process, they got him arrested, they did all the legal stuff. Again, Jesus is not saying we don't do that stuff. Consequences are real, yes and amen. They have to be stopped, all of that is real. But years into this process, this thing was now destroying my buddy from the inside out.

And he shared a story about how he literally was leading worship in a prison, and God impressed on his heart in front of all of these prisoners, if that guy was in this room right now, would you be standing up here singing about my goodness? The freedom that can be found in only Christ. The freedom that is available to all

people. And that is something that puts our faith to the test. Because naturally we'll never get there, But supernaturally, we can begin to go, look, I'll never agree that this is okay, and that's not what Jesus is asking us to do, but we have to get to a place where we are willing to forgive them, because if not,

it is us that will remain shackled. I only use my friend's story to say, I don't think there's anything that somebody could have done to us no matter how bad it is that is beyond our ability to forgive them. Ultimately, what we're doing when we release it, we are saying to God, we're saying to Jesus,

I trust that you are good. I trust that the Bible says that vengeance is yours, and you can take this thing that I can't carry any longer, and you can deal with it.

With the faith that I have, I release it to you, and I believe that God orchestrated a whole bunch of things to get some of you in this room this morning to hear this specific message. You're not here on accident. You are not here randomly. That the God of the universe who loves you

orchestrated all kinds of things to get you here so that you can walk out of here different than you walked in here. And what I wanna do this morning is to give everybody an opportunity to, with the faith that you have, plant a flag in the ground to say, I know forgiveness isn't just a one time thing, and it's a continual process, but today,

today I'm putting a stake in the ground that I'm going to choose to forgive that situation, that person, that issue that I've been holding onto. Maybe for you, the forgiveness that you need to extend is to yourself.

But I'm gonna ask everybody in this room right now with where you're seated, just close your eyes and bow your heads. And I wanna give people an opportunity in a room filled with faith, a room where the presence of the Holy Spirit is moving to actually respond to what God is doing in your heart.

And if you're here right now and you go, you know what? I know that I need to let go of this thing. I need to forgive whoever it is that hurt me,

whoever disappointed me. If that's you right now, I'm gonna ask you, with all the faith that you have, right in your seats, everybody's eyes are closed and heads are bowed, nobody's looking. This is a moment between you and God.

And I'm gonna ask you right now, with the faith that you have, to just raise your hand in the air and signal, God, I'm releasing this to you. If that's you right now, just throw your hand in the air. Don't be ashamed. There's hands going up all over this auditorium.

There's hands going up all over this place, which is signaling a heart saying, Jesus, I'm responding to your prompting. I'm trusting that you can take this thing that I can't carry. If that's you, just throw your hand in the air. Don't be ashamed. Amen.

You can put your hands down. Would everybody just pray a prayer like this in the quietness of your heart? Say, Jesus, right now, in the faith that I have, in light of how much you have forgiven me, father, I release this person. I release this thing to you. God, I give it to you. It's too big for me to carry.

It's too heavy for me to endure any longer. So right now, today, I give it back to you. I release this situation. I release this person to you. Father, would you fill that void with love, with grace, with compassion, with mercy? God, would you come into my heart and truly set me free.

It is in the mighty name of Jesus all God's people said, amen and amen. Hey, thanks for joining us for service online this weekend. Be sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on the Rock Point Church app for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.