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The End of Scorekeeping (Matthew 18) · Prodigal Hope

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to notice as we begin this morning this question that Peter comes up
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: to Jesus and asks him.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: And of course it would be Peter.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: This is so fitting of Peter to ask this question.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: He is always the guy in the gospel.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see you next time.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you have to remember also,
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: in the scene just before this verse,
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: in Matthew chapter number 18,
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus has been talking about interpersonal relationships, if you will.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: What do you do if your brother sins against you?
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you go to him and you try to restore him.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: You do whatever you can to forgive and to restore that relationship.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: And his insistence,
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus' insistence on forgiveness is actually a pillar of his teaching ministry.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: It was a staple of everything that he was about,
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: of everything that he taught and explained and communicated.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: So naturally, Peter,
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: one of Jesus' closest disciples,
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: wants to know, well, just how much forgiveness am I on the hook for?
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: How many times am I going to have to forgive Andrew, my brother?
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: How many times is enough?
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Seven?
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Seven?
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think this is a very human question.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: One of the most human questions maybe in the Gospels,
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: but because if your sibling does something to you, we are told to forgive, right?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Pass over their offense and release them from guilt.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Restore that relationship.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: One time, very good.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: But what if they keep doing it?
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: What if your sibling does the same thing again?
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: How am I supposed to respond then?
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: How many times do I keep doing the same thing?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: How many times do I keep forgiving them?
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Surely there's a limit, right Jesus?
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's Peter's question.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Surely there is a limit.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: According to some of the traditions of the rabbis in this first century,
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: a person who was wronged was only called to forgive the person
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: who wronged them three times.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: It was a three strikes and you're out sort of system.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: So after the fourth offense, you weren't on the hook for it anymore.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: You weren't obliged to forgive.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: So with that insight,
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Peter's approach to Jesus and his suggestion of seven times seems more than
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: a little generous.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is...
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, are you seven more than the rabbis seven times?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's enough, right, Jesus?
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: We know this is the number of God.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is the number of completion.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is the number of perfection.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Seven times has to be enough.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: If not even the best rabbis forgave their transgressors more than three times,
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: was a fisherman like Peter really required to do more than three,
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: more than seven times?
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: I find Peter's inquiry here so revealing precisely because I think this is just natural.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is normal.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is human nature.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: We often live,
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: even if we don't do this action,
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: like we actually have a book somewhere,
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: but maybe you do,
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: hopefully you don't,
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: but we have a mental list,
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: a mental log in our heads where we keep a strict record of all the wrongs
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: that have been done to us.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And we are very particular about that list and how accurately we are keeping that record.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: There's a mental tally.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: In our heads,
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  SPEAKER_00: in our hearts,
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: a ledger of all of the ways that we've been hurt,
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: that we've been offended,
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: that someone else has said something to us,
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: and we're making sure that that list, it stays with us.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: We're keeping it close to the chest, so to speak.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: And once they reach their limits, they're done.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Once we fill up their name enough times on that list, no, no more.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: We can cut them out.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm reminded, I think I've used this illustration before, but I'm going to use it again.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm reminded of this movie from the 1970s.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've heard of it.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's called The Out-of-Towners.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was a movie that I watched with my dad when I was a little bit younger.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: But it tells this comedic story of this guy named George Kellerman.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: And he's played by Jack Lemmon.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And he travels to New York City with his wife because he's interviewing for a job.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's a much better job, much better paying job.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: And they live in, I think they live in like Ohio or something.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: And they're traveling to the big city.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: And he's going to get a big, high profile job.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: But on this trip...
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Everything goes wrong.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: If something could go wrong on this trip, it does.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Flights get delayed,
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: the bags go missing,
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: hotel rooms, they run out of rooms, and then they get mugged in Central Park.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Everything just keeps going wrong and wrong and wrong.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: And along the way,
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: this little gag that's throughout the movie,
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: along the way,
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: every single time something goes wrong, George takes out this little notebook.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: He says, what's your name?
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Can I have your name?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he's putting down names of all the people that wronged him.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: The hotel clerks.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: The airline workers, even the robber, he wants his name in Central Park.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: He's keeping this very strict record of all of the people who has wronged him
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: on this trip that he thought that he deserved,
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: on this venture that he thought that he was owed.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Certain he is that one day he's going to have this list and he can,
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: when the accounts get settled,
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: he can finally get justice because all these people,
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: they're going to get what's coming for them.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's sort of the joke.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: But it's actually not too far from the truth.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think in a way, Peter is approaching Jesus with a similar sort of list.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, how many... Andrew, you have no idea Jesus was like living with Andrew.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: How many times do I have to forgive him?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: How many times do I have to forgive him for waking me up in the middle of the night?
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: How many times, Jesus, how many times...
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I imagine Jesus is,
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: this is just me picturing it in my head,
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: that Jesus is sort of smirking and he has that little twinkle in his eye
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: when he responds to Peter, how he responds.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because look at his response in verse 22.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, do we have to do it more than seven?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Seven times, right, Jesus?
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus answered and said, I do not say to you seven times, but 77 times.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: And actually,
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: this is an instance where I don't prefer what
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: the English Standard Version translators did.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you have a King James Version, it probably says 70 times 7.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Either way, the gist is the same.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: The point that Jesus is making is the same.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Forgiveness doesn't have a numerical figure attached to it,
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: whether it's 77 times or whether it's 490 times.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: The point is, stop keeping score, Peter.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's the point.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Stop keeping score.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Peter, I tell you what you're supposed to do,
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  SPEAKER_00: how you're supposed to respond is to forgive constantly.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he's conveying.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: In a way, you could think about it like this.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is taking the number of completion, seven,
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: and he's putting it to the tenth power and then he's multiplying it past counting.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: This is sort of like when you're on the playground and you want to one-up
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  SPEAKER_00: the person who's just offended you and you say,
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: well, yeah, well, infinity times infinity.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: And now you, who can argue with that?
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is sort of doing the same thing.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is beyond counting, Peter.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: It goes on and on and on.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: There is no limit, Jesus is telling Peter.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: There is no limit to the forgiveness that you are to show to those who wronged you.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: And this,
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  SPEAKER_00: I imagine,
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: is something that stunned Peter something fierce,
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: like a syntax error on a calculator that completely is breaking Peter's brain
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  SPEAKER_00: at this moment.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because now,
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: instead of giving a strict parameters and a set of guidelines so
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: that he can know how he's supposed to keep this record of wrongs
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: that he is keeping already,
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  SPEAKER_00: Jesus tells him, no, just toss out the record completely.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Don't keep your list neat and tidy.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: No, get rid of the list, Peter.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Throw out that ledger.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because life,
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is saying,
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: life can't be lived when you are constantly keeping tabs
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: on how much forgiveness you owe all those people around you.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's not life.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: There's no life there.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: All that does is create tense atmospheres of scorekeeping and tallying grievances.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of relationship can you have if all you're thinking
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: about is how someone else's forgiveness threshold is nearing up?
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: They're almost running out.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of intimacy can you share if you're focused on what you are owed?
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is why,
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: by the way, Paul,
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: when he's writing in 1 Corinthians 13,
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: remember what he says when he's describing love,
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: the so-called love chapter in 1 Corinthians 13?
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: What does he say?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Love doesn't keep a record of wrongs.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Love, true affection and affinity,
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: not just for each other,
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: but this is,
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: of course, a description of God's heart for us, doesn't keep a record of wrongs.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: We can say likewise.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Marriages,
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: let alone every single relationship,
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: can never be sustained if our approach to them is one of scorekeeping
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: and reciprocity.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: If that's the approach,
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: they're probably going to be on hard times in no long amount of time,
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: short amount of time.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what Jesus is conveying.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Seventy times seven.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's how much you are to forgive.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: And the hard part,
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think we could even say the impossible part of this is that scorekeeping comes
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: so naturally to us.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's just our default setting, our default mode.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Our sin nature,
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: we could say the old Adam that's inside of each of us,
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: loves to keep those lists, to keep a strict record of all of those wrongs.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's way easier, right?
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm speaking about myself, so don't worry, I'm calling myself out.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's easier, right?
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it's way more comfortable to hold a grudge than it is to release your wrongdoer
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: from guilt for the hurt that they caused you.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's way easier just to hold that.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's way easier just to hold on to that.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: But the problem is the problem with grudges,
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: by the way, is that you don't hold them as much as they are holding you.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's sort of the point.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Holding a grudge is almost like putting yourself in a prison.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: And this is not just like a spiritual thing or emotional thing.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, it's a physical thing.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: A couple of years ago, I don't remember how many.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: I should have wrote it down, but it was years ago.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: There was these researchers at a college in Michigan,
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: and they did this study on a group of willing research participants
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: where they would hook them up to health monitors.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: And they had them do two things.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: They were studying forgiveness, by the way, but they had them do two things.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: They hooked them up to these monitors and they had them rehearse moments
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: in their lives where they were deeply, deeply, deeply hurt.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: Go through it, walk through it, think about it, mull over it, stew on it.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then they would have some of them consider and imagine forgiving the person who hurt them.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: And all of those participants who were coddling that grudge,
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: who were mulling and stewing over all of the ways that they've been hurt,
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: it didn't just affect them emotionally.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Actually,
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: it elevated blood pressure,
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: it increased muscle tension, and it hurt their heart rates.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: And even when they stopped thinking about it,
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: so they went away, all of those levels stayed elevated.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, actually harboring those grudges wasn't just an emotional thing, like a hurt feeling.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: No, it was leaving physical marks on them.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is, Jesus knows, of course, all of these things.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: To forgive is an act of release.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's what it means, and it works both ways.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: You're Releasing the one that hurts you from guilt and justified retaliation,
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: and you're releasing yourself,
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: the one who's been hurt from being the keeper of this laundry list of all
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: of these hurts.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's a release that goes both ways.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: And to illustrate just how profound and powerful this act of forgiveness is
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: in everyday lives, let alone our eternities, Jesus tells the story.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Right after his statement, hey, Peter, not just seven times, but 70 times seven.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: And let me explain what I mean.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: He tells this story, verse number 23.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore,
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: with his servants.
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  SPEAKER_00: And when he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: And since he could not pay,
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: and payment to be made.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: So the servant fell on his knees,
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: imploring him, have patience with me and I will pay you everything.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus tells the story.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Once upon a time, we could say.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Once upon a time,
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: there was this king,
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: he says, and he was going to settle all of the accounts that he had in his realm.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: He had a bunch of lords in his court,
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: and all of these lords,
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: they had been given X amount of dollars to do some business for the king.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: And this was something that the king had put off for a while.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: He had not settled his books for a long time,
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: so now he has a bunch of books to reconcile and ledgers to audit for.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Gonna make sure that all of his business ventures and interests are up to snuff.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: And now he had the thrilling task of sitting down with his accountant and balancing
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: the checkbook, everyone's favorite pastime.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: And he starts with one of the bigger accounts that he had lended money to,
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: 10,000 talents, which doesn't mean much to us.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: What is a talent?
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if you do the math,
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: and it could change because of inflation,
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: but if you do it right now, this is roughly like 9 to 12 billion dollars.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: The point, of course, is not so much this dollar amount.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: The point is the impossibility of ever paying this back.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: This merchant, whoever he was, he had gotten in way over his head.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: He had racked up mountains and mountains of debt that he was never going to be able
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: to get out from under,
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: leaving us maybe, by the way, to question this guy's character.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Who is this?
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of shady stuff was he getting into that he was racking up this amount of debt?
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Literally, what it translates to is 60 million days worth of wages.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's what 10,000 pounds is.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I bet when the king saw this, he was saying the same thing.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: How in the world?
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Dude, what are you doing to rack up this amount of debt?
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: What are you doing?
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so when the ledger is read out loud in front of everyone,
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: it was clear that this merchant guy,
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: he was not only just up against a wall and cornered,
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: he had basically dug his own grave.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's essentially what's happening in this moment and now he's gonna have to face
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: the horrible consequences for all of those bad business deals and ventures
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: and decisions that he had made in the past as he watches as he
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: and his family are ripped apart,
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: sold into slavery and subjugated and exploited and the thought of this The thought
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: of this proves way too much for this guy, for this merchant.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: He breaks, as I think anyone would.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: And he falls to his knees and he starts begging.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: He starts pleading, please, please, king, have patience with me.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: Please, I beg you, oh king, I'll pay you back.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: I promise, I'm good for it.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right, I'm good for it, I'll pay you back.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Just please suffer with me a little bit longer.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: I just need more time, O king.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: That was a statement to him.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, all of those things are flatly untrue.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: He could never pay this back in a thousand lifetimes.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: He was saying something that wasn't actually true.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's just good sentiment.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: He wants to get out from under the weight of the consequences
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: that he had basically earned for himself.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: And yet for what it's worth,
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: The king hears this man's pleas.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: He was moved, as it says, to pity him.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: Despite how pathetic this guy looked,
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: groveling and sniveling and falling all over the place,
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: the king is deeply affected, verse number 27 again, and out of pity for this man.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: The master of that servant released him And forgave him the debt.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: Something stirred.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: In the king's heart,
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: when he saw this man in front of him,
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: and as it says,
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: out of pity,
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: that phrase is indicative of this overwhelming compassion that just is bubbling
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: and issuing out of the deepest parts of who you are.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Your insidest insides are moved to have compassion and care and,
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: yes, indeed, grace on this one who is in front of you.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: And in one fell swoop, Jesus says, the king gestures, And the man's debt is forgiven.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: It says, released and forgiven.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: All of those mountains of debt that he had racked up, it's totally gone.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: He's released from it.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: It is remitted from his account.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: It was like it had never happened.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: It is released.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: It is gone.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: It is canceled with a flick of the wrist.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: That guy is released from the weight and the horrible,
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: not the consequences, but the horrible weight of all that he had done.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: It was off of him.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, it's difficult to imagine the surge of emotion that this guy surely felt.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: He and his family were on the verge of a death sentence.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: All the kings considered what had been laid down on them was a death sentence
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: because of what they owed.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: But now, because of the king's judgment, Releasing him from that debt.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now he had his life back.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: He had the possibility of a future.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: He could start planning for tomorrow again.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's almost as if he had been resurrected, you could say.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Or at least it should have been.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because all of the incredible ways that we can think and read and study
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: and examine this part of the story, Jesus continues the story.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because this is where the meat of it is.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because all of those good feelings,
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: so to speak, they quickly dissolve when Jesus tells the rest of the story.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Verse number 28.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: But when that same servant,
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: the same sniveling,
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: begging guy who just got released from all of that debt,
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: when that same servant went out,
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: And seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, pay what you owe him.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: This merchant, who had gone out from under...
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: An unthinkable amount of debt.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: He ran into one of his own employees.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: So you imagine this guy's getting money from the king and
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: then he's employing other guys underneath him to help him out with some
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: of his business ventures and so on and so forth.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: And this guy,
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: this other guy,
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: he had owed him a fraction of amount,
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: a considerably less amount, roughly 100 days wages.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: So he's behind by, let's say, like three months.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Compared to what he owed the king, This was like a raindrop in the Atlantic Ocean.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: This was nothing.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was something, but it wasn't comparatively.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of being kind...
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: And compassionate and thinking about what he had just received and being inspired
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: to give of what he had just received and treating this fellow debtor
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: as he was treated.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: What does he do?
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: He proceeds to oppress him.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: And as it says, choke him.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: He's literally strangling him until he comes up with the amount of money so
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: that he can get back what he owed.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: This merchant guy He goes from begging for mercy to a bully in almost no time flat.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: And he isn't even stirred.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think one of the most callous things about this story that Jesus conveys is
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: that he isn't even moved when he hears the exact same plea for patience
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: that he just gave the king on this poor soul's mouth.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: Have patience with me, he says.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'll pay you.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'll pay you back.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: He's not moved.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: He's not moved.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: He's just cold and unfeeling.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: And instead of that,
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: as we saw with the king,
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: instead of that deep-seated compassion that led him to release the merchants,
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: this merchant, we could say, he refuses to even consider the man's pleas.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: He just basically stops his ears to him and he throws him in prison instead.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: What a sequence of events.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: And reading the story as Jesus has just told it, it is so easy to dislike this guy.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: He's one of those movie villains that you just love to hate that movie villain.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is easily this guy.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: You just love to hate him.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: How could he not put together how unjust he was acting?
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: How unjust in light of the forgiveness that he just received?
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't he see that refusing to forgive this guy is basically spitting on
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: the forgiveness that he just received?
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't see it.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't clicking.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because again, what is human nature?
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: We are scorekeepers.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: We love to understand and operate based on what we are owed.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: But some other merchants, they noticed how he was acting.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: And they felt compelled to tell the king what they saw.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 31.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 31.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: And they went and reported to their master all that had taken place.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: One of the few instances, I think we could say, where snitches don't get stitches.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: And the king, he's beside himself.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: He is just incensed when he hears this news.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 32.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then his master, the king, summoned him and said to him, You wicked servant.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you?
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: And in anger, his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus concludes his story with this.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: So also,
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: My heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: from your heart.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: This king calls this guy,
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: he calls him on the carpet for his actions,
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: going out and not demonstrating a forgiven heart when he's just been forgiven
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: and released.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: The king, you could say like this, the king gives this merchant exactly what he asked for.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he's doing to him.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: He's treating this guy exactly how he has demonstrated how he wants to be treated.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: He has demonstrated that he wants to live in a world where all
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: the accounts get settled to the letter of the law, except his.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: How he acted and how he lived, that's what he wanted.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because this guy, he couldn't stop keeping score.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: He couldn't put down that record of wrongs that he's been holding for so long.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: Even, he couldn't put it down,
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: even when he had just gotten out of the king's courtroom and all
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: of his wrongs had been erased.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: That record had been cleaned.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: In other words,
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: you could say it like this,
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: the king in Jesus' story is taking this guy at his own game and he's judging him by
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: the books.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus' closing statement is in effect the same thing, restated.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: If you insist on living by keeping scores,
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: don't be surprised when you enter eternity and you're judged by
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: the very same standard.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's all reminiscent, I think.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: Of a very familiar quote from C.S.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: Lewis' trenchant work, which is called Mere Christianity.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: He's talking, it's a series of lectures that he gave on the radio.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: Lewis, the creator of Narnia and all that, but he's talking about the Christian faith.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: And he says in one of his lectures,
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: he says this,
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: everyone,
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: he says, quote,
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea until,
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: until they have something to forgive.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: And isn't that so true?
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: I would say that all of us, all of us, I'll speak for myself, I want to believe in forgiveness.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: I want forgiveness.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: I know I need forgiveness.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: I want that.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: I need that.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: I want to believe that, especially when I'm the one who is on the receiving end of it.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: Forgiveness is a lovely idea, especially when I'm the one on the receiving end of it.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: But it's much harder, isn't it?
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's much harder to be in the position of dishing out forgiveness.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: We don't jump to give it.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because it means that as soon as we offer that word of forgiveness,
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: we're not in a position of power, perceived power anymore.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: We're not holding the cards.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: Forgive someone means to release your hold on these charges that you could have just
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: as easily pressed against the person who wronged you.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: You could have held it over their lives for a little bit longer.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: It means letting go of the justice that you think you are owed.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: And that feels incredibly like injustice to you.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: Forgiveness is a lovely idea until we have to give it.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, all of this doesn't mean that there aren't consequences.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: There's surely consequences for our actions.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: But forgiveness just means that you're not holding the past against the person who wronged you.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: And to be sure, that's hard.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe not just hard, but it might feel impossible.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: It might feel beyond your capacity to Which I think it is in some senses.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because none of us is eager to lay down those lists that we've been keeping for years.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: None of us is just eager and excited to relinquish our grip on the scales of justice
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: that we think that we deserve.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: People should get what they deserve, right?
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: Forgiving constantly as Jesus conveys to Peter here
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: in this moment feels just impossibly permissive.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's like you're being taken advantage of and you know it because you're doing it
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: because you're forgiving this person.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be treated like a doormat Jesus.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: How many times do I have to forgive?
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: But integral forgiveness.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: To the act of forgiving someone is absorbing the wrong that was done to you.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: And how can you do that?
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think you can only do that by believing that someone else paid for every injustice.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: By taking them all on himself, he absorbed it all.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: You could only forgive when you believe in that.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: To forgive your brother from the heart,
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: as Jesus tells us to do at the end of the story, that doesn't come from us.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't something that we can make up, because we wouldn't if it were up to us.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't something that we can muster up on our own.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: Seven years ago, it's hard to believe, 2019 was seven years ago, but it was.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: Seven years ago, Maybe you remember this story.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: Amber Geiger, she was an off-duty Dallas police officer.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: And she entered what she thought was her apartment after a long day at work, still in uniform.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: And she noticed when she opened the door that the door was cracked.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: She didn't have to unlock it.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: And there was an intruder inside.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: And instinctively, she pulled her firearm from her holster and she shot the intruder.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: And the man died later that night in the hospital.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: But of course the problem was, that wasn't her apartment.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: She had gone into the wrong room.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that intruder wasn't an intruder, he was in his home.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: She was the one out of place.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: Amber was out of place.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: And entered the wrong room on the wrong floor and she shot that man out of fear.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: The victim's name was Botham Jean.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: And Amber was later convicted.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: And at the sentencing hearing where she received 10 years in jail,
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: Botham's brother,
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: a man named Brant,
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: he gave one of the most powerful speeches I think I've ever heard.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: Still to this day, it's powerful.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: He's addressing her at this sentencing hearing, Brant is, and this is what he says.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: Quote, I forgive you.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I know if you go to God and ask him, he will forgive you.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: I personally want the best for you.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even want you to go to jail.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: I want the best for you.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because I know that's exactly what Botham would want you to do.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the best would be to give your life to Christ.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think giving your life to Christ would be the best thing that Botham would want you to do.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I love you as a person.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't wish anything bad on you.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: Needless to say, in that courtroom you could hear a pin drop.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone was silent at this stunning display of forgiveness and grace.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: Looking your brother's killer and saying,
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: I forgive you, I release you from all of that guilt stunned everyone.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I would hasten to say that no one in that courtroom thought
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: that he was just coming up with this, that Brant was coming up with this on his own.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: Who would come up with forgiving your brother's killer while they were still in the room?
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: No, that word of forgiveness comes from beyond.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: It came from beyond him.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: From outside of him.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: Just as it does for all of us.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's outside of us.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: We can't make this up on our own.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: A hallmark,
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: a hallmark of what it means to be a Christian and involved in
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: the Christian faith is this inclination that should stir up within us to forgive us.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: Colossians 3.13, what does Paul say?
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: This is how we are to be known as the church.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 4.32, what does Paul say?
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: Very familiar verse.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: Be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: Christians,
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: believers,
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: believers,
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: Have this otherworldly definition about them where we can forgive, yes,
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: not because we are operating according to our list and our scorekeeping,
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: but because we know who already paid the score.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: You see, our forgiveness of others doesn't come from us.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's always downstream of God's forgiveness of us.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: Always.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: Always.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: The king,
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: when he forgives that merchant at the beginning of the story,
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: is an echo of God's forgiveness of us because just like the king,
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: God in Christ forgives you and me.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: Not because we're sorry enough,
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: not because we promised to pay it back,
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: not because we've said the right things, not because we've deserved it.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, we deserve the opposite of it.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: No, he forgives, why?
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: Out of pity.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: It comes from his heart.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: That same word, by the way, we don't have time to go there.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: That same word is used constantly throughout the book of Matthew.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: And especially, I'll just, I'll try and remember right now.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's in Mark chapter 1, verse 41.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it says that out of pity, out of compassion, Jesus did what?
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: He reached out and touched the leper and cleansed him.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: Out of this bubbling sense of compassion and grace and love,
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: he touched that leper and healed him,
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: which is a sermon in and of itself, by the way, for what Jesus has come to do.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: Out of compassion, he's forgiving us.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: Out of compassion,
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: he's seeing the sorry state we're in because of sin and all of the mountainous debts
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: of sin that we keep racking up because we keep promising God,
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'll change,
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'll do better tomorrow, and then we run out and hasten and do the same thing again.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: We're just racking up debt and racking up debt, sin debt, that we'll never be able to pay.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: We can never pay it off.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: Not in a million lifetimes.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: We can't do it on our own.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, and yet...
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: Out of the abundance of compassion in the heart of God.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: What does he do?
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: He freely forgives.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's the words.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: The words, I'll read the verse for you really quick.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's Isaiah 55, 7.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to these words.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'll read verse 6.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: Seek the Lord, Isaiah 55, 6 says.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: Seek the Lord while he may be found.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: Call upon him while he is near.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: Let him return to the Lord that he may have compassion on him and to our God
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: for he will abundantly pardon us.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: Translated, for he will freely forgive.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: The effect of this verse is that he's multiplying pardon,
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: he's multiplying forgiveness,
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: and he's multiplying and multiplying, and he's forgiving completely.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's the word that God gives us through Jesus,
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: that you are forgiven totally, just like the man in Jesus' story.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't given a payment plan.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't given a list.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't given a mortgage.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: This forgiveness wasn't a mortgage that he had to pay off over time.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: No, his debt is cleared.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's what God has done for you.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't give you a payment plan,
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: hoping that you earn it off and you can pay it off by doing all of the right things.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: No, how does he forgive?
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: How does he freely forgive?
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know what Paul tells us?
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: Colossians 2.14,
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: by canceling the record of debt,
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: That stood against us, this he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: That record of wrongs that we have always been keeping, Jesus went to the cross for it.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, we can think about it like this.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: God threw the book at himself.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: He ate the loss.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: He ate the loss.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: He felt the brunt of the justice that you and I deserved.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: He became accountable for all of the things that we did and all of the things that we owed.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: He became accountable for them.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: He took all of the punishment for all of the sins that we deserved and he canceled
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: that debt, the debt that we racked up by absorbing it in himself.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he did for us on the cross.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he was doing there.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: God, now we know this.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: As it says in Psalm 103,
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: God doesn't deal with us according to our sins,
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: nor does he repay us according to our iniquities.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because is God just, is he just loose and willy-nilly?
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: No, he can treat us that way.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't deal with us according to our sins.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because every sin and every iniquity was put on him, on his son Jesus.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 53, the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: So all the things that we were owed, he got.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: All the things that we deserved, he paid for.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: All of the things that we have done wrong, he paid the price for.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: And the good news here this morning,
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: for every scorekeeper in this room, your account has been settled.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's been paid in full by the king.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: His forgiveness of you and has risen you to a new life.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: So that list that you're keeping in your heart,
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: that record of wrongs that you're harboring, my friend, let it die.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because in Christ it already has.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's been crucified with him.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: And the only book that truly matters, if you believe in Jesus, it has your name on it.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: Written in red, stamped, forgiven.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's the book of life,
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: which all of our little books of records of wrongs,
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: they pale in comparison to that list.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's the one that matters, my friends.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: Our calling card as believers is forgive as we've been forgiven,
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: not because we are so holy and righteous and pious, because we remember, we know.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: We know how much we have been released from.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because we keep the cross in front of our eyes.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: And we see the price for all of our unforgiving hearts.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_00: We see the price that was paid for all of our unjust deeds.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_00: We see the price that he felt because of all the ways that we acted selfishly and sinfully.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because of all the ways that we treated our neighbors with such disgust and such disdain.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: We see it.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: The bleeding face of the mighty Savior, Jesus.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: Forgive as you've been forgiven because the gospel is true.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_00: You've been released from an eternity of debt that you could never pay.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: And it's gone, it's off of you because of Christ.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: Praise Jesus.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: He is our forgiver.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.