WEBVTT 00:00:00.060 --> 00:00:07.200 I'm going to invite you this morning to turn to Matthew 18 is where we're going to be, and I'm going to set the framework to what we're about to discuss this 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:11.060 morning in Philippians chapter three and verse 13. 00:00:11.180 --> 00:00:13.200 It has been a verse that's sort of set. 00:00:13.260 --> 00:00:20.280 The tone and the theme of what we are accomplishing in this series together, and that is recognizing that God 00:00:20.280 --> 00:00:27.500 has given his life for us for a purpose we have worth as people, and it's attributed to us because of Christ's life being 00:00:27.500 --> 00:00:28.940 laid down for us. 00:00:29.600 --> 00:00:31.420 And God has called us to something in him. 00:00:31.520 --> 00:00:35.300 God has designed you for a unique and intentional purpose in this world. 00:00:35.300 --> 00:00:37.800 There's not a person on this world, not a person in this room. 00:00:37.860 --> 00:00:38.490 That is an accident. 00:00:38.940 --> 00:00:42.360 God knew how you would exist when you would exist. 00:00:43.020 --> 00:00:46.900 And he tells us in Psalm 139, he has intricately created you. 00:00:48.420 --> 00:00:51.220 And Paul writes about this in Philippians chapter three. 00:00:51.260 --> 00:00:53.300 In his relationship with God, he says this. 00:00:53.300 --> 00:00:57.260 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself have having taken hold of it. 00:00:58.420 --> 00:01:04.709 But one thing I do forget what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. 00:01:05.740 --> 00:01:07.410 See, there is no future in your past. 00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:10.220 God has called us forward in our relationship with him. 00:01:10.820 --> 00:01:18.120 We recognize that in our walk with the Lord in this world, there are things in life that bring us to stopping points that stunt us 00:01:18.120 --> 00:01:22.100 in our growth and relationship with God, and we've discussed some of those things together. 00:01:22.320 --> 00:01:27.130 The first that we looked at a few weeks ago was the idea of pain, as we talked about the persecuted church. 00:01:27.820 --> 00:01:29.860 Then we addressed your modeling career, right. 00:01:29.860 --> 00:01:30.630 That was really significant. 00:01:31.480 --> 00:01:35.900 And then temptation and how it affects our relationship with God. 00:01:35.900 --> 00:01:41.590 And today we're going to we're going to talk about something as significant as these other topics that we've addressed together. 00:01:41.940 --> 00:01:45.240 I'm going to build that framework as to why we're discussing it together. 00:01:45.660 --> 00:01:52.940 But in John chapter 13 and verse 34, Jesus, and when he's in the upper room with his disciples, he begins to teach them some of the most significant 00:01:53.160 --> 00:01:56.040 lessons as it relates to their relationship with God. 00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:04.160 Jesus spends just a few hours of his life with the most intimate relationships that he has built on in this world with his 00:02:04.160 --> 00:02:04.660 disciples. 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:12.820 And he says something very interesting in John 13 and verse 34, he says this A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another, as I 00:02:12.820 --> 00:02:15.240 have loved you, that you also love one another. 00:02:15.240 --> 00:02:19.080 And by this others will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. 00:02:20.320 --> 00:02:26.180 When Jesus calls this a new commandment, the idea of love isn't something new to Scripture. 00:02:26.860 --> 00:02:28.420 In fact, God is love. 00:02:28.480 --> 00:02:34.000 The Bible tells us in first John, and the very reason that God is love, I think is the reason why we exist as people. 00:02:34.220 --> 00:02:41.420 Because the attitude of love is always about giving itself away, and God and His glory created us as people in order to lavish his love 00:02:41.420 --> 00:02:47.880 upon us, in creating us, to then reflect his glory by loving him in return, by responding to his love. 00:02:47.880 --> 00:02:51.260 The Bible tells us we first we love him because he first loved us. 00:02:52.640 --> 00:02:59.700 So the commandment of loving one another isn't a new commandment, but what Jesus is attributing to this commandment is that we love one another as 00:02:59.880 --> 00:03:00.880 he has loved us. 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:06.800 See, what makes this commandment new is the demonstration of Christ's love that's been displayed to us in this world. 00:03:07.640 --> 00:03:12.980 That Jesus, humbling himself becomes the form of a man, takes up sin and dies for us on a cross. 00:03:14.120 --> 00:03:21.340 There is no extent in which he would go that his love could be lavished on those he has created in his image, and 00:03:21.380 --> 00:03:28.580 Jesus and his new commandment now creating his church, that he says, the gates of hell will not prevail against it, the way that he wants us 00:03:28.580 --> 00:03:31.560 to distinguish our mark as being represented. 00:03:31.650 --> 00:03:38.820 Representatives of him in this world is seen through the way that we love, and the extent of that love is demonstrated in 00:03:38.820 --> 00:03:40.340 the way that Christ loves us. 00:03:41.480 --> 00:03:45.720 A new commandment I given to you, that you love one another as I have loved you. 00:03:45.880 --> 00:03:51.020 That is what makes this commandment new, is the demonstration of the love in which Jesus has shown us. 00:03:52.440 --> 00:03:57.660 And in fact, in Ephesians chapter two and verse four and five, in describing what Christ has done, it says this. 00:03:57.900 --> 00:04:05.040 But God being rich in mercy because of the great love which he which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, 00:04:05.760 --> 00:04:07.640 made us alive together with Christ. 00:04:07.640 --> 00:04:09.220 By grace you have been saved. 00:04:11.060 --> 00:04:15.200 What Paul's acknowledging in Ephesians chapter two is that the extent is of his love. 00:04:15.220 --> 00:04:19.920 It's this the greatness of his love is demonstrated in what Jesus has done. 00:04:21.740 --> 00:04:22.440 Jesus's love. 00:04:24.260 --> 00:04:25.000 Is a forgiving love. 00:04:27.220 --> 00:04:29.140 In fact, that's what we're going to talk about this morning. 00:04:30.680 --> 00:04:31.760 In order to move forward. 00:04:31.760 --> 00:04:39.700 As Paul says in Philippians chapter three and verse 13, as people in God's image, we've got to learn to be forgiving 00:04:39.700 --> 00:04:40.300 people. 00:04:42.100 --> 00:04:47.640 There's two ways in which I want to talk about forgiveness this morning as it relates to our lives. 00:04:47.740 --> 00:04:49.010 The first is being forgiven. 00:04:50.500 --> 00:04:54.180 And the second is forgiving in itself. 00:04:55.360 --> 00:05:02.840 When I say a word like that, my tendency inside is just to kind of say it with the most tender 00:05:02.840 --> 00:05:06.330 care that I can think of when the word forgiveness is expressed. 00:05:06.500 --> 00:05:09.720 Because to say to us this morning that we need to be a forgiving people. 00:05:10.380 --> 00:05:12.720 I also recognize that it's not always easy. 00:05:14.520 --> 00:05:21.800 And by making a statement like that, sometimes within our hearts, immediately there are objections or fears that are raised because there are things that we've encountered 00:05:21.800 --> 00:05:26.940 in life, that there are areas that are just difficult to forgive in. 00:05:28.260 --> 00:05:35.260 You know, when Peter begins to recognize what Jesus is accomplishing in this world, he noted that God's people are a forgiving 00:05:35.260 --> 00:05:35.500 people. 00:05:36.140 --> 00:05:43.360 And in Matthew chapter 18, where you are this morning in verse 21, when Peter starts to recognize this, he's one of those guys that 00:05:43.360 --> 00:05:44.500 likes to think out loud. 00:05:44.500 --> 00:05:51.100 I don't know if that's you or someone you can think of, but you know the guy that always just they can't just sit and think and process it through their mind. 00:05:51.100 --> 00:05:54.270 They've got to talk it out before they quite get to the idea. 00:05:54.500 --> 00:05:55.620 That's Peter, right? 00:05:55.700 --> 00:05:56.920 I think that's me a lot of times. 00:05:56.980 --> 00:06:03.880 But it's Peter in this passage and in Matthew chapter 18, sitting with the Lord and beginning to recognize that God's people are a forgiving people. 00:06:04.020 --> 00:06:11.160 He says in verse 21, Then Peter came and said to him, talking about Jesus, Lord, how often shall my brother 00:06:11.340 --> 00:06:11.920 sin against me? 00:06:11.980 --> 00:06:14.180 And I forgive him up to seven times. 00:06:15.900 --> 00:06:20.200 And Jesus said to him, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to 70 times seven. 00:06:22.240 --> 00:06:25.060 Jesus then goes on to talk about a story from here. 00:06:25.060 --> 00:06:32.120 But what Peter is doing in this passage is actually pretty remarkable in what he's recognized, what Christ has done and what he means 00:06:32.120 --> 00:06:32.960 to this world. 00:06:33.420 --> 00:06:40.480 I mean, Jesus has walked with Peter, and Peter has walked with Jesus since Jesus has called Peter from fishing and through his 00:06:40.600 --> 00:06:45.020 brother Andrew and he's begun to recognize in Jesus's life what Jesus has modeled. 00:06:45.500 --> 00:06:50.230 Because Jesus has gone through this world and repeatedly told people, your sins have been forgiven. 00:06:52.220 --> 00:06:53.280 God's people are forgiving people. 00:06:55.080 --> 00:06:57.020 And so Peter just asked the question of Jesus. 00:06:57.080 --> 00:06:59.690 Well, Jesus, if we're a forgiving people, how many times should we forgive? 00:07:00.320 --> 00:07:07.440 And when Peter asked Jesus, should we forgive seven times this would have been considered in the community, remarkably gracious and forgiving, 00:07:07.440 --> 00:07:14.500 because what's taught during Peter's time is that in order to forgive people, what you're required to do as a person is to forgive someone's offenses three times. 00:07:15.560 --> 00:07:18.300 So Peter's like, I'm going to double that and add a little cherry on top, right. 00:07:18.940 --> 00:07:19.860 What about seven times? 00:07:20.120 --> 00:07:20.280 Jesus. 00:07:20.340 --> 00:07:21.200 What do you think about that? 00:07:21.500 --> 00:07:24.000 Are not are not the most spiritual disciple that you have? 00:07:26.100 --> 00:07:33.160 And Jesus then makes a shocking statement, and then he goes on a little further in the next verse, and he begins to share a parable or a story that 00:07:33.160 --> 00:07:34.160 relates to his statement. 00:07:34.160 --> 00:07:35.700 He says, no, no, no, Peter, it's not seven times. 00:07:37.340 --> 00:07:38.420 It's 70 times seven. 00:07:39.940 --> 00:07:41.360 And what Jesus is saying here. 00:07:41.380 --> 00:07:48.220 Look, the number is so large, Peter, that you're not even going to be able to keep track of it because God's people are a forgiving people. 00:07:49.880 --> 00:07:51.670 And Jesus then goes on to tell a parable. 00:07:51.860 --> 00:07:55.590 And I just want us to, as we read this parable together, keep this thought in mind. 00:07:55.800 --> 00:08:03.220 Jesus often taught in parables, and the point of a parable is to teach one central truth. 00:08:03.760 --> 00:08:03.880 Okay. 00:08:04.920 --> 00:08:10.840 Now, there are certain parables within Scripture that Jesus, after he teaches them, gives a few reasons why he teaches the parable. 00:08:10.840 --> 00:08:12.060 He'll list more than one reason. 00:08:13.380 --> 00:08:20.420 But traditionally, when the Hebrew language, when the individuals during Jesus's time would teach a parable, it was so that one central truth 00:08:20.420 --> 00:08:20.980 would come across. 00:08:22.080 --> 00:08:24.320 Now I'm going to tell you what I think that is, and we dive into this together. 00:08:24.760 --> 00:08:31.200 But I think the main point is this that God's people forgive people because forgiven people forgive people, right? 00:08:31.980 --> 00:08:36.100 If you want it simplified, forgiven people, forgive people. 00:08:36.299 --> 00:08:37.700 That's Jesus's story. 00:08:37.720 --> 00:08:44.820 And when Jesus is saying this to Peter, it's to recognize in Peter's life, Peter, without my forgiveness, you wouldn't 00:08:44.820 --> 00:08:46.540 be anywhere as a person. 00:08:47.420 --> 00:08:52.760 It's Jesus's forgiveness on us that gives us worth, purpose, meaning, and identity in him. 00:08:53.500 --> 00:08:54.560 It's what sets you free. 00:08:56.440 --> 00:08:58.370 God's people are a forgiving people. 00:08:59.540 --> 00:09:01.840 One of the reasons I want to break that down for us this morning. 00:09:01.860 --> 00:09:09.240 Just centralizing the theme in our minds is because I'm going to talk some of the specifics of this parable, but throughout the idea of this parable, it's important 00:09:09.240 --> 00:09:14.090 and pertinent that we understand what the main idea is, because this is what happens in the danger of parables. 00:09:15.660 --> 00:09:22.600 Sometimes people read into parables things that were never intended to be understood in a parable, and you can get some whacked out beliefs that way. 00:09:23.760 --> 00:09:26.720 Because the purpose of them are to create for us one central truth. 00:09:26.820 --> 00:09:31.720 But I'm going to talk about some of the specifics of this parable and break it out as it relates to us in Scripture. 00:09:33.440 --> 00:09:40.540 And I think one of the most important things, in order for us to be a forgiven people, in order to forgive people, is that we 00:09:40.540 --> 00:09:44.960 begin the journey by recognizing we must receive forgiveness. 00:09:45.030 --> 00:09:46.900 And so Jesus starts his story. 00:09:46.960 --> 00:09:47.100 It says this. 00:09:47.420 --> 00:09:52.440 Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 00:09:53.740 --> 00:09:58.500 And when he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. 00:09:59.660 --> 00:10:06.760 And since he could not pay his master, since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and his children, all 00:10:06.760 --> 00:10:09.200 that he had, and payment to be made. 00:10:10.340 --> 00:10:10.440 So? 00:10:10.600 --> 00:10:13.440 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, have patience with me. 00:10:13.720 --> 00:10:14.980 I will pay you everything. 00:10:15.520 --> 00:10:21.680 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. 00:10:23.120 --> 00:10:27.680 Now, when Jesus begins to share this story, he starts to with an idea of shocking us. 00:10:27.840 --> 00:10:30.840 He starts with this number of talents that this servant owes him. 00:10:32.360 --> 00:10:39.680 If you read any commentaries as it relates to our way that we currently have currency today, or the way that we make payments today, the 00:10:39.680 --> 00:10:45.300 amount the servant owed, it's estimated somewhere around $6 billion, right? 00:10:45.320 --> 00:10:47.060 Now, I looked this up just for fun. 00:10:47.060 --> 00:10:50.820 What's the probability of being able to pay back $6 billion? 00:10:51.200 --> 00:10:57.420 Okay, if you're an American citizen, be encouraged because you have seven times more likelihood of being able to pay this back. 00:10:58.900 --> 00:11:06.480 But the idea of even being a millionaire in America, you have less than a 1% chance of becoming a millionaire today. 00:11:07.620 --> 00:11:15.060 In order to be a billionaire, you have 1 in 1,000,000 chance of having $1 billion. 00:11:15.840 --> 00:11:16.720 Now 6 billion? 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:17.220 I don't even know. 00:11:18.840 --> 00:11:23.500 But the point is that Jesus is shocking Peter with this story to get his attention. 00:11:24.800 --> 00:11:27.940 I mean, look at the significant debt this individual owes. 00:11:29.180 --> 00:11:32.500 This guy owes owes his master $6 billion. 00:11:32.840 --> 00:11:36.660 And now just think for a minute of the unreasonable attitude of this servant. 00:11:37.360 --> 00:11:37.900 Like, I got this. 00:11:38.080 --> 00:11:39.200 I can pay you back, right? 00:11:39.660 --> 00:11:42.900 Like, what gives me the inclination that you could ever pay this back? 00:11:42.980 --> 00:11:44.300 I've given you 6 million so far. 00:11:44.560 --> 00:11:45.050 You have zero. 00:11:45.920 --> 00:11:51.220 Now, why am I to imagine today that you would go out and have the money to even be able to return this, let alone live? 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:54.510 It's the unlikelihood. 00:11:55.600 --> 00:11:56.480 You get the point right? 00:11:58.460 --> 00:12:01.610 This servant needs forgiven. 00:12:02.260 --> 00:12:05.170 And he is completely in debt. 00:12:06.400 --> 00:12:13.610 Now you're going to recognize as we go throughout the story, the attitude of the servant isn't one that's thankful for the forgiveness that he receives. 00:12:13.860 --> 00:12:19.380 In the end, you're going to see that this is a guy that really all he wants is to get off the hook so he can continue to do whatever he wants to do with his life. 00:12:19.720 --> 00:12:26.600 There is no gratitude for the forgiveness, leading us to believe that his heart really wasn't transformed by the forgiveness, or he hadn't really received it. 00:12:27.080 --> 00:12:28.970 He just took it to get off the hook and was gone. 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:37.320 One of the ways you can recognize it within this text of Scripture is seen by the way this individual never approached 00:12:37.320 --> 00:12:37.880 his master. 00:12:38.200 --> 00:12:39.900 I mean, his tendency was to continue to avoid. 00:12:39.980 --> 00:12:40.450 Let's not confront. 00:12:40.700 --> 00:12:41.600 Let's not worry about it. 00:12:41.860 --> 00:12:42.700 I'll just work on it. 00:12:42.980 --> 00:12:50.240 He never went to his master and asked for the forgiveness until he realized his life was on the line, or he was going to lose what was precious to 00:12:50.240 --> 00:12:51.640 him and what was important to him. 00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:56.340 And so then he said what he needed to say just to get out of that moment. 00:12:56.940 --> 00:12:59.060 Right. 00:12:59.380 --> 00:12:59.990 See this servant. 00:13:01.560 --> 00:13:04.510 In order to receive forgiveness, the battle within his heart is pried. 00:13:07.520 --> 00:13:14.740 Pride prohibits him from seeing how tremendous his need is when it comes to receiving 00:13:14.740 --> 00:13:14.900 forgiveness. 00:13:17.380 --> 00:13:20.360 I mean, it can be that way with our relationship to Jesus. 00:13:21.780 --> 00:13:28.820 So sometimes we like to think when we come to Christ, we've got to offer everything to impress him with how great we are to prove that we can 00:13:28.820 --> 00:13:36.160 pay our debt, never recognizing that the whole point of Jesus's death, or never acknowledging the whole point of Jesus's 00:13:36.160 --> 00:13:40.980 death, is to pay that price for you because you owe a debt for what you could never pay. 00:13:42.930 --> 00:13:50.200 And pride keeps the heart from seeking the grace and forgiveness in which God 00:13:50.200 --> 00:13:51.590 has already provided. 00:13:53.560 --> 00:13:55.720 The second, though, is you think about forgiveness. 00:13:55.960 --> 00:13:55.980 This. 00:13:56.100 --> 00:14:03.260 This doesn't necessarily relate specifically to this text, but number two, I would say the reason we are not willing 00:14:03.260 --> 00:14:10.500 to seek forgiveness is because as people oftentimes were too broken and broken people often 00:14:10.500 --> 00:14:12.220 don't feel worthy to receive forgiveness. 00:14:14.180 --> 00:14:21.640 You know, one of the things I love about the Book of Psalms is I feel like that book is especially written for people who struggle in an attitude of brokenness that may 00:14:21.640 --> 00:14:23.720 not feel even worthy to receive forgiveness. 00:14:24.040 --> 00:14:27.400 And the Psalms repeatedly acknowledge a need for Christ. 00:14:27.600 --> 00:14:34.900 In Psalm 34 and verse 18, it says this the Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. 00:14:37.220 --> 00:14:44.240 In either case, whether it becomes the brokenness of not feeling worthy to receive forgiveness or the pride, not willing to confess 00:14:44.240 --> 00:14:49.640 a need for forgiveness, I think the solution in both circumstances comes down to the same thought. 00:14:49.640 --> 00:14:55.520 And I would say it like this forgiveness isn't something you achieve, it's something you receive. 00:15:00.080 --> 00:15:02.820 Forgiveness isn't something you achieve, it's something you receive. 00:15:05.180 --> 00:15:10.260 Servant of pride to even think that you could earn $6 billion. 00:15:11.760 --> 00:15:15.300 It's absurd. 00:15:16.140 --> 00:15:17.235 Servant in despair. 00:15:19.990 --> 00:15:23.250 Feeling unworthy to receive the grace of God. 00:15:27.650 --> 00:15:28.090 We're also acknowledging. 00:15:31.180 --> 00:15:34.520 Something more about our lives than what Jesus is saying to us. 00:15:34.830 --> 00:15:35.680 Let me just say it like this. 00:15:38.990 --> 00:15:39.440 In your life. 00:15:39.650 --> 00:15:41.010 Sometimes you may feel unworthy. 00:15:43.470 --> 00:15:44.990 But Jesus says differently. 00:15:47.330 --> 00:15:50.890 Maybe you have wronged him and maybe you have sinned. 00:15:53.130 --> 00:15:59.410 But Jesus has enough love and care and concern for you. 00:16:00.710 --> 00:16:01.970 That he dies for you in that. 00:16:04.530 --> 00:16:08.170 You're preaching a message to yourself that Christ hasn't preached to you. 00:16:08.170 --> 00:16:09.750 Right. 00:16:10.510 --> 00:16:11.210 It's true. 00:16:11.250 --> 00:16:11.810 It's true. 00:16:11.810 --> 00:16:12.270 We sin. 00:16:14.510 --> 00:16:14.510 Right? 00:16:14.510 --> 00:16:21.610 I think the solution for both the servant of pride and the servant and despair is the same, right? 00:16:21.770 --> 00:16:23.470 Forgiveness isn't something you achieve. 00:16:23.510 --> 00:16:24.370 It's something you receive. 00:16:24.730 --> 00:16:24.850 But. 00:16:25.010 --> 00:16:26.310 But here's the beauty of what forgiveness brings. 00:16:26.850 --> 00:16:32.680 There is both humility in it, and there's identity in it. 00:16:34.090 --> 00:16:37.960 And for us to really understand what forgiveness is and to receive forgiveness, I think that's important. 00:16:40.090 --> 00:16:43.650 That there is humility to recognize just how much I need forgiven. 00:16:45.470 --> 00:16:47.830 I mean, a $6 billion debt is pretty big. 00:16:49.270 --> 00:16:52.850 There is humility to recognize how much I need to receive forgiveness. 00:16:54.410 --> 00:17:01.450 But there's also an identity I take in the forgiveness in which I receive in Christ, and those that wrestle with 00:17:01.450 --> 00:17:03.740 the brokenness of needing forgiveness. 00:17:04.829 --> 00:17:12.359 The encouragement is to shape yourself in the identity of which Christ brings you, because of the forgiveness that he has offered to you. 00:17:13.290 --> 00:17:16.599 Like I said, I think the Psalms are full of that imagery. 00:17:16.869 --> 00:17:22.770 For us, Psalm 51 is David's Psalm of repentance, which, by the way, this is in the connection group notes for you. 00:17:22.790 --> 00:17:29.270 If you want to study this week, Psalm 103 is the important Psalm that acknowledges what Jesus does with our sin. 00:17:29.270 --> 00:17:32.510 It tells us it separated as far as the east is from the west. 00:17:33.790 --> 00:17:35.250 Psalm 139 knowing what? 00:17:35.830 --> 00:17:39.170 What will be his people, knowing that we'll be born in sin. 00:17:39.470 --> 00:17:46.510 It talks about the beauty of us being created in God's image, and how God intricately cares for every 00:17:46.510 --> 00:17:49.150 one of us, no matter where we are. 00:17:51.710 --> 00:17:54.590 forgiveness isn't something that you achieve. 00:17:54.590 --> 00:17:56.030 It's something you receive. 00:17:56.270 --> 00:18:00.010 And in receiving it, there is both humility and recognizing our need for it. 00:18:00.030 --> 00:18:04.130 And a new identity that's shaped in Christ because of what Jesus has done for us. 00:18:08.670 --> 00:18:12.660 There's a story that Jesus tells in Luke chapter seven. 00:18:12.810 --> 00:18:15.650 It's a story that Luke tells about Jesus in Luke chapter seven. 00:18:17.430 --> 00:18:19.950 And there's a lady present before Christ. 00:18:20.210 --> 00:18:25.110 And the Bible tells us that she's just overcome with the goodness of Christ. 00:18:26.270 --> 00:18:30.050 And Jesus says in Luke seven and verse 48 of this chapter, her sins are forgiven. 00:18:30.910 --> 00:18:35.790 But this lady just would not stop caring and loving for Jesus. 00:18:36.070 --> 00:18:43.070 It tells us in this passage that she even washes her feet with her hair and her tears are what she's 00:18:43.350 --> 00:18:44.090 using to do it. 00:18:44.270 --> 00:18:45.950 She's just thankful for Christ. 00:18:46.550 --> 00:18:54.010 And when you read the story, you get this feeling that this is a lady who has been beat up in life, who 00:18:54.170 --> 00:19:00.530 feels worthless in life, who may not have an identity or the identity that she does have. 00:19:01.590 --> 00:19:05.170 She sees no value in it because it just continues to lower her. 00:19:06.150 --> 00:19:11.850 But now Christ comes into her life and forgives her and elevates her. 00:19:11.890 --> 00:19:16.670 And she finds meaning and worth and purpose in who she is. 00:19:17.730 --> 00:19:20.490 And it tells us in the Bible which, by the way, don't ever do this to me. 00:19:20.510 --> 00:19:28.070 But she comes before Jesus and she just weeps over his feet and washes her feet with her hair, which culturally makes sense then, but does 00:19:28.150 --> 00:19:29.110 not today. 00:19:29.110 --> 00:19:29.490 Right? 00:19:30.010 --> 00:19:31.050 Don't touch my feet. 00:19:32.650 --> 00:19:34.610 But this is what Jesus says in Luke chapter seven. 00:19:36.330 --> 00:19:36.930 Therefore I tell you. 00:19:38.450 --> 00:19:39.880 Her sins, which are many, are forgiven. 00:19:41.570 --> 00:19:42.170 For she loved much. 00:19:43.670 --> 00:19:44.790 But he is forgiven little. 00:19:46.610 --> 00:19:48.910 Loves little. 00:19:49.510 --> 00:19:53.250 So I think Jesus is also teaching us through this statement, just the thought of what the servant is. 00:19:53.310 --> 00:20:00.450 In Matthew chapter 18, because his response when he walks away from this forgiveness is one that just displays he 00:20:00.550 --> 00:20:01.550 didn't understand what happened. 00:20:03.450 --> 00:20:09.360 But when you come to Christ in the humility of brokenness and you realize there is a debt you cannot pay. 00:20:11.230 --> 00:20:12.630 And you find the humility of that. 00:20:12.630 --> 00:20:19.790 But at the same time you meet a Jesus who loves you, who identifies with you himself by becoming flesh, but elevates 00:20:19.790 --> 00:20:21.820 you and lifts you up in him. 00:20:23.810 --> 00:20:25.400 There's beauty in that moment. 00:20:26.090 --> 00:20:32.530 And you're just learning from this passage that God's people are a forgiven people because forgiven people forgive people. 00:20:34.970 --> 00:20:42.910 And the more we recognize how much our need is for Jesus, rather than criticizing others, we empathize with them because 00:20:42.910 --> 00:20:46.680 had you not encountered Christ, you would be in the very same shoes there. 00:20:46.710 --> 00:20:53.750 And in fact, sometimes, if not all the time, when you walk out of your building of worship on Sunday 00:20:53.750 --> 00:20:57.680 mornings, the temptation immediately begins, right? 00:20:58.130 --> 00:20:59.590 Maybe even now, who knows? 00:21:01.570 --> 00:21:03.050 We struggle in our sin. 00:21:04.880 --> 00:21:12.830 You know the sorrows of the church when we don't understand what forgiveness is, that we come in on Sunday singing praise of God's grace, and 00:21:12.830 --> 00:21:16.300 we walk out the doors looking for vengeance and justice. 00:21:16.590 --> 00:21:18.430 Right? 00:21:20.330 --> 00:21:26.230 I've heard it said that Christians that don't understand forgiveness are people that don't understand the forgiveness in which Jesus came. 00:21:26.750 --> 00:21:33.950 When you come to when you when you come to accept Christ by not forgiving, you burn the very bridge that you yourself 00:21:33.950 --> 00:21:35.130 had to cross the cross. 00:21:39.430 --> 00:21:40.670 Matthew's story goes on. 00:21:43.250 --> 00:21:44.510 But when the same servant went out. 00:21:46.370 --> 00:21:53.150 He found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, pay what you owe. 00:21:54.230 --> 00:21:58.550 So his servant fell down and pleaded with him, have patience with me, and I will pay you. 00:21:59.930 --> 00:22:04.150 And he refused, and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. 00:22:04.670 --> 00:22:11.410 And 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. 00:22:18.290 --> 00:22:18.690 Forgiveness. 00:22:21.030 --> 00:22:24.590 Forgiveness is something that this servant lacked after he left his master. 00:22:24.990 --> 00:22:32.000 The story is now telling us that he goes out into the world, and he begins to attack the very thing 00:22:32.590 --> 00:22:35.230 that he himself just found forgiveness in. 00:22:37.150 --> 00:22:41.730 And if you were just to write the definition of a hypocrite, it would be the story of this man being lived out now. 00:22:43.690 --> 00:22:45.600 And he had a debt he could not pay. 00:22:45.610 --> 00:22:49.030 He now encounters a servant that owes him money, who has a debt he could not pay. 00:22:49.050 --> 00:22:49.990 And rather than grace. 00:22:51.710 --> 00:22:54.650 He brings his wrath. 00:22:55.910 --> 00:23:00.450 Now the counter picture of this is this individual owed about today the equivalent of $12,000. 00:23:02.550 --> 00:23:06.870 And drop in the bucket in comparison to 6 billion, right? 00:23:07.550 --> 00:23:14.610 You know, one of the things that I recognize from the servant is he's walking out as he made a conscious choice after being forgiven 00:23:14.610 --> 00:23:16.070 that he would not forgive. 00:23:18.890 --> 00:23:21.550 The Bible, I think, acknowledges for us as people, forgiveness. 00:23:21.930 --> 00:23:23.230 Forgiveness isn't easy. 00:23:25.030 --> 00:23:32.150 In fact, in Ephesians chapter four and verse three, it tells us, make every effort to preserve the bond of peace with one another. 00:23:33.790 --> 00:23:35.000 The unity of spirit. 00:23:36.790 --> 00:23:42.230 The Bible tells us that because it's not our natural tendency, right? 00:23:44.050 --> 00:23:45.550 Maybe even the last few days. 00:23:45.610 --> 00:23:46.730 You paid attention to the news. 00:23:49.610 --> 00:23:51.570 You've seen some atrocities that took place in France. 00:23:54.550 --> 00:23:58.370 And I think there's a place where countries are allowed to seek justice and protect its people. 00:23:58.370 --> 00:24:00.600 I think God gives us the opportunity to do that. 00:24:04.570 --> 00:24:05.880 But you know what the Bible tells us as people? 00:24:08.510 --> 00:24:09.930 Pray for those who persecute you. 00:24:11.350 --> 00:24:12.240 Bless and do not curse. 00:24:14.670 --> 00:24:19.050 I think you have the right to protect yourselves. 00:24:19.550 --> 00:24:25.190 But God doesn't call us to spew hate, right? 00:24:25.350 --> 00:24:26.270 Forgiven people forgive people. 00:24:28.670 --> 00:24:29.720 Hearts need transformed. 00:24:32.270 --> 00:24:34.050 And we desire for God to work. 00:24:35.730 --> 00:24:39.920 Make every effort to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. 00:24:41.630 --> 00:24:42.530 Forgiveness isn't easy. 00:24:44.890 --> 00:24:47.250 But the servant went out and he made a choice. 00:24:49.730 --> 00:24:55.080 So the truth is, when it comes to forgiveness, forgiveness is a choice. 00:24:57.950 --> 00:25:01.250 I don't want to discredit that there isn't something emotional that we need to work through. 00:25:01.270 --> 00:25:08.290 I think forgiveness is attached to our emotions because when God calls us to forgive, if there's been a 00:25:08.290 --> 00:25:15.370 wrong within our lives, there there's always that emotional tie to the experience that we have, and we need to work through 00:25:15.430 --> 00:25:15.650 those emotions. 00:25:18.510 --> 00:25:23.690 But forgiveness always starts with a choice. 00:25:25.270 --> 00:25:30.630 I've heard it said once that bitterness, vengeance, unforgiveness. 00:25:30.630 --> 00:25:31.230 It's like this. 00:25:31.450 --> 00:25:35.550 That you're drinking the poison, expecting someone else to die. 00:25:38.510 --> 00:25:45.750 The reality is when within our hearts we carry an attitude of unforgiveness in our minds we 00:25:45.750 --> 00:25:52.990 think to ourselves all the things that we could do to the individual, which we're frustrated at, but they themselves may never, never 00:25:52.990 --> 00:25:54.710 even know that we're angry with them. 00:25:56.330 --> 00:26:01.850 In fact, Warren Wiersbe said this some of the most miserable people I've met are those who do not forgive. 00:26:02.770 --> 00:26:09.850 They live only to imagine ways to punish people they have wronged, only to discover the only person they have 00:26:09.850 --> 00:26:12.020 truly punished was theirself. 00:26:16.010 --> 00:26:17.670 Forgiveness starts with a choice. 00:26:19.210 --> 00:26:26.670 I think sometimes as people, we bucket forgiveness because in our mind, we have a preconceived idea of what forgiveness is that necessarily 00:26:26.670 --> 00:26:27.170 isn't accurate. 00:26:30.910 --> 00:26:33.590 Forgiveness does not mean forgiving or forgetting. 00:26:33.690 --> 00:26:34.050 Excuse me? 00:26:34.050 --> 00:26:34.890 Forgiveness does mean forgiving. 00:26:35.210 --> 00:26:36.590 Forgiveness does not mean forgetting. 00:26:38.350 --> 00:26:45.040 In fact, I think sometimes forgetting, forgetting would not be helpful in certain situations. 00:26:47.130 --> 00:26:54.270 for example, if you have someone within your life that struggles with addiction and you care about them, I know within our family and our past, 00:26:54.270 --> 00:26:58.160 we had some similar situation like that where we invited them into our home. 00:26:58.590 --> 00:27:04.630 They took from us, they went out and pawned it, ended it back up on the streets, and we brought them back into the house. 00:27:04.730 --> 00:27:05.290 We forgave them. 00:27:05.290 --> 00:27:10.260 We allowed them to come back when they when they were ready to go through the process of trying to overcome this addiction again. 00:27:10.810 --> 00:27:15.610 But there's something we didn't forget that they took, right? 00:27:15.710 --> 00:27:22.870 And so because we cared about them rather rather than tempt them again, we took the possessions in which helped them to go 00:27:22.870 --> 00:27:24.050 towards that addiction again. 00:27:24.050 --> 00:27:25.400 And we hit our valuables. 00:27:25.630 --> 00:27:27.590 We kept our valuables away from them. 00:27:28.410 --> 00:27:33.130 Forgiveness doesn't mean forgetting, and in fact, it may be helpful not to forget. 00:27:33.270 --> 00:27:37.250 Forgiveness doesn't mean you have to be best friends, right? 00:27:37.630 --> 00:27:41.260 In fact, just because you forgive someone doesn't mean you have to call them BFF the next day. 00:27:42.550 --> 00:27:47.350 So the reality is when you forgive, sometimes there are scars and there are emotional healing that needs to take place there. 00:27:48.790 --> 00:27:51.510 And just to pretend like someone's your best friend at that moment. 00:27:53.030 --> 00:27:55.880 Is to ignore some of the pain that you're working through yourselves. 00:27:58.430 --> 00:28:03.790 Forgiveness doesn't mean you let yourself get abused, right? 00:28:03.930 --> 00:28:09.070 I mean, if you're in a situation where someone is beating you up and you're like, well, I guess I got to forgive him. 00:28:09.110 --> 00:28:09.450 No. 00:28:09.730 --> 00:28:10.310 Get away. 00:28:11.370 --> 00:28:12.490 I mean, you can forgive him from a distance. 00:28:12.730 --> 00:28:13.720 It's important that you be safe. 00:28:16.510 --> 00:28:21.070 But forgiveness doesn't mean that you're continually putting yourself in abuse. 00:28:21.150 --> 00:28:21.350 Forgiveness. 00:28:21.470 --> 00:28:24.270 Forgiveness doesn't mean you can't confront the problem. 00:28:26.250 --> 00:28:27.430 When someone wrongs you. 00:28:27.430 --> 00:28:33.810 I think one of the most healing things you can do is just say, hey, this happened between us and I care about our relationship. 00:28:34.010 --> 00:28:36.690 The whole point of forgiveness is about reconciliation. 00:28:39.710 --> 00:28:44.590 And so when someone's wronged you, forgiveness doesn't also mean that you use what they've done wrong to beat them over the head with right? 00:28:45.630 --> 00:28:46.910 Like, you've done me wrong. 00:28:46.950 --> 00:28:54.990 And so now I'm going to just show you that you owe me and I forgive, right? 00:28:55.770 --> 00:28:56.050 Forgiveness. 00:28:58.570 --> 00:29:03.130 Means releasing someone from responsibility to the account in which they owe. 00:29:06.450 --> 00:29:08.220 Forgiveness is what allows us to move past. 00:29:10.850 --> 00:29:12.960 Forgiveness from the Lord. 00:29:14.350 --> 00:29:21.370 Allows us to move past our separation from him and to enjoy him forgiving other people. 00:29:23.450 --> 00:29:29.870 It allows us to move past being the person that has to bring the vengeance, right? 00:29:31.450 --> 00:29:38.810 And what you find is that when you make it your responsibility to carry out the vengeance, you're 00:29:38.810 --> 00:29:41.950 the person that often finds themselves in jail. 00:29:43.990 --> 00:29:44.590 Spiritually speaking. 00:29:46.550 --> 00:29:48.370 In fact, that's the way Jesus ends his story. 00:29:50.210 --> 00:29:52.620 I'm going to read just verse 32 for time, but it says this. 00:29:52.870 --> 00:29:59.870 Then his master summoned him and said to him, look, you wicked servant, I 00:29:59.870 --> 00:30:03.660 forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 00:30:05.730 --> 00:30:06.770 You didn't get it. 00:30:08.670 --> 00:30:10.510 What kind of bad servant is that? 00:30:12.550 --> 00:30:16.070 You didn't get just how much I forgave you. 00:30:18.530 --> 00:30:20.330 And the servant finds himself in jail. 00:30:22.650 --> 00:30:24.290 And the truth isn't the matter. 00:30:24.690 --> 00:30:26.970 When we in our hearts hold on to unforgiveness. 00:30:29.530 --> 00:30:31.580 The bitterness takes root. 00:30:34.130 --> 00:30:39.030 And in that bitterness, we find ourselves placing our own selves in a prison or jail. 00:30:41.610 --> 00:30:49.090 And you ever been in that place of unforgiveness where when that person walks in the room, you're like, oh, that person walks in the room and 00:30:49.090 --> 00:30:56.370 all of a sudden your mind goes from, I'm not necessarily honoring Jesus or loving people, but all you can think about is just how 00:30:56.370 --> 00:30:58.420 much frustration you have towards that person. 00:31:00.150 --> 00:31:07.880 I mean, it is isolated you from living the way that God desires you to live, because it's trapped you in the bitterness and unforgiveness of what you carry. 00:31:10.270 --> 00:31:12.350 Let's acknowledge the reality of it. 00:31:13.230 --> 00:31:14.480 Forgiveness is a choice. 00:31:15.890 --> 00:31:18.270 But there is the emotion that you continue to wrestle with. 00:31:19.750 --> 00:31:28.410 There are the scars that lay on your heart that every 00:31:28.410 --> 00:31:28.410 time you experience it, you make the choice to forgive. 00:31:28.410 --> 00:31:31.670 The servant didn't understand what forgiveness was about. 00:31:31.690 --> 00:31:34.290 And I would say what Jesus is communicating here is a little deeper than that. 00:31:34.690 --> 00:31:37.460 This servant doesn't understand what the gospel is about. 00:31:39.010 --> 00:31:40.390 In fact, in our lives. 00:31:40.390 --> 00:31:44.960 I could go a little further when we choose not to forgive, maybe we could ask the question. 00:31:45.030 --> 00:31:48.950 Do I really understand what the whole point of the gospel is? 00:31:50.750 --> 00:31:52.290 This guy and the story didn't really want forgiveness. 00:31:52.930 --> 00:31:55.880 All he was interested in is just to get off the hook. 00:31:58.590 --> 00:32:04.720 I was, I remember in college, right when I first came to know the Lord, I went on a retreat with high school students. 00:32:04.830 --> 00:32:11.910 I was helping out this retreat where you got no sleep and you ate really bad food, and kids had a super fun time, and then you went back and recovered for a 00:32:11.910 --> 00:32:18.510 couple of days, and, we were playing this game, and this game had so much rules to it. 00:32:18.590 --> 00:32:24.810 I'm just thinking, yeah, it'd be fun, but there's so much freedom in this game with all these rules that kids are just going to run out and cheat and do what they want. 00:32:25.130 --> 00:32:28.870 So I asked the person leading and I just said, what are you going to do to prevent kids from cheating? 00:32:29.850 --> 00:32:32.450 And he looks back and says, nothing. 00:32:32.510 --> 00:32:34.340 And I said, well, how in the world are we going to enjoy this game? 00:32:34.850 --> 00:32:38.930 And he just said, he just looked up and he said, listen, guys, you can go out and cheat if you want. 00:32:40.010 --> 00:32:47.150 But any rule I make, or any justice I say about these rules, is not going to be anything in comparison to the justice of God. 00:32:47.750 --> 00:32:51.370 So fear God and go enjoy yourselves, right? 00:32:51.470 --> 00:32:52.370 That was his statement. 00:32:53.190 --> 00:32:56.690 And when he says that, all of a sudden I'm sitting there and just thinking, huh? 00:32:56.750 --> 00:33:02.110 You know, it made so much practical sense to spiritual life. 00:33:02.370 --> 00:33:03.850 Like, I'm not God. 00:33:05.590 --> 00:33:10.970 Do you do you know the way that Jesus encouraged the persecuted church or the Bible encourages the persecuted church? 00:33:12.910 --> 00:33:14.870 Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. 00:33:18.750 --> 00:33:18.970 Pray for those who persecute you. 00:33:18.970 --> 00:33:20.970 Romans chapter 12, verse 17 and 21. 00:33:21.010 --> 00:33:21.950 You want to read it later this week? 00:33:22.050 --> 00:33:22.490 Check it out. 00:33:24.470 --> 00:33:29.120 But what the Bible is saying is, listen, your shoulders aren't big enough to carry the justice of this world has coming. 00:33:30.450 --> 00:33:36.680 So let it go and let me take control, because I promise whatever God wants to do is going to be better than you harboring it in yourself. 00:33:38.310 --> 00:33:38.750 God's got this. 00:33:40.470 --> 00:33:44.370 And the truth of the matter is, at that point, forgiveness becomes an area of trust in your life. 00:33:46.950 --> 00:33:48.530 I'm not going to hold on to it. 00:33:51.130 --> 00:33:55.230 Oh Lord, am I going to move past you and let you take care of it, knowing that you really care for me? 00:33:56.790 --> 00:33:59.010 Do you know how you know Jesus really cares for you? 00:34:01.010 --> 00:34:02.550 He's forgiven your $6 billion. 00:34:06.830 --> 00:34:08.250 Jesus meets you in your need. 00:34:10.810 --> 00:34:11.429 Matthew six. 00:34:11.969 --> 00:34:16.830 I'm going to just share this passage in a story and call it good for today. 00:34:17.050 --> 00:34:20.330 But I was reading through the Lord's Prayer this week. 00:34:23.070 --> 00:34:25.070 Our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be your name. 00:34:25.070 --> 00:34:26.610 Your kingdom come, your will be done right. 00:34:28.750 --> 00:34:31.750 Looking for God's kingdom but desiring to accomplish his will. 00:34:32.929 --> 00:34:36.650 In verse 11 it says something pretty interesting, I think, and it ties into verse 12. 00:34:36.830 --> 00:34:43.870 But he says this give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven 00:34:43.969 --> 00:34:44.210 our debtors. 00:34:46.469 --> 00:34:51.989 So the focus of this prayer is living for the kingdom and accomplishing accomplishing his will for the day. 00:34:53.469 --> 00:34:56.800 And the detail of this prayer, he says, give us our daily bread and forgive us our debt. 00:34:56.850 --> 00:34:59.610 You know, I used to look at these just two thoughts exclusive to one another. 00:34:59.870 --> 00:35:03.130 We need we need stuff and we need to forgive, you know? 00:35:03.190 --> 00:35:10.310 But I think what Jesus is teaching us in this prayer is how this holistically helps you as an individual to live out the will of God for the kingdom of God in this world. 00:35:12.240 --> 00:35:13.290 See, give us this day. 00:35:13.350 --> 00:35:15.650 Our daily bread isn't just saying, everybody gets to eat bread. 00:35:15.710 --> 00:35:19.330 But this prayer, what it's literally saying to us is what we need for today. 00:35:19.490 --> 00:35:21.490 God be there to meet that need. 00:35:22.670 --> 00:35:26.190 But at the same time, Lord, I want to enjoy you where I am. 00:35:26.210 --> 00:35:29.580 So if there's anything that's separated me relationally from you, help me to do that. 00:35:29.610 --> 00:35:36.630 God, if there's anything in the past where someone's wronged me and I'm holding on to that, God help me to forgive and forgive 00:35:36.630 --> 00:35:42.030 me and my sins with you as I forgive those who I have wronged or I forgive those who have wronged me. 00:35:42.030 --> 00:35:43.970 Excuse me. 00:35:44.410 --> 00:35:51.270 And so the prayer of Matthew six, the Lord's Prayer is literally, God help me in this moment to let go of everything. 00:35:51.290 --> 00:35:55.580 I don't need to be concerned and worried about so I can live for the kingdom for which I am called to live. 00:35:59.570 --> 00:36:00.650 When I was. 00:36:02.610 --> 00:36:03.610 In elementary school. 00:36:04.650 --> 00:36:12.910 I grew up in the home of a single mom and she worked full time, went to school full time, and my aunt, similar 00:36:12.910 --> 00:36:13.350 thing. 00:36:13.670 --> 00:36:15.750 Single mom going to school full time. 00:36:16.890 --> 00:36:21.610 And so they would, in between school sessions, trade off kids. 00:36:21.970 --> 00:36:29.010 So I'd go with my aunt and my aunt's kids would come with my mom, and they worked through school together that way, sharing and my aunt, my mom lived 00:36:29.010 --> 00:36:33.330 out in the country in a not not wealthy area at all. 00:36:33.510 --> 00:36:37.320 My aunt the same thing, only she was in the city and we would call where she lived the ghetto. 00:36:37.990 --> 00:36:38.110 Right? 00:36:39.170 --> 00:36:45.410 And so I would go to the ghetto and I would visit her and she would watch me. 00:36:45.410 --> 00:36:49.610 And at one point she was in this particular apartment that has a tremendous reputation in the city in which I'm from. 00:36:49.950 --> 00:36:52.390 If you guys are from the area, you'll know it's called Markham Terrace. 00:36:52.750 --> 00:36:53.790 Right. 00:36:54.070 --> 00:36:55.890 And it's in Huntington, West Virginia. 00:36:56.210 --> 00:36:59.490 So there's only like two people that know that, but so it's called Markham Terrace. 00:36:59.610 --> 00:37:02.650 And so I remember I went to this area and one day I go out to play. 00:37:02.690 --> 00:37:03.390 It's my first time there. 00:37:03.910 --> 00:37:05.210 And I didn't know this about this area. 00:37:05.250 --> 00:37:07.530 But the new kids get initiated, right? 00:37:08.150 --> 00:37:11.170 And here I am, a new kid, elementary school. 00:37:12.070 --> 00:37:16.910 I get taken from the front porch of my aunt's house by knifepoint. 00:37:18.930 --> 00:37:21.170 These older teenage kids hold a knife to my throat. 00:37:21.870 --> 00:37:23.540 Tell me if I tell anyone they're going to kill me. 00:37:24.510 --> 00:37:26.010 If I try to escape, they're going to kill me. 00:37:26.650 --> 00:37:29.890 But their intentions are to use me to go from house to house to this area. 00:37:30.410 --> 00:37:32.170 I'm going to rob these homes for them. 00:37:32.230 --> 00:37:37.330 One of them's going to stay in the front door, in the back door, and I'm going to rob these homes for them and give this to the kids. 00:37:37.490 --> 00:37:37.970 And they decide. 00:37:38.690 --> 00:37:39.150 They decide. 00:37:39.150 --> 00:37:40.390 I'm just nervous out of my mind. 00:37:41.450 --> 00:37:48.470 And they decide that to find out how good I am, the first thing I'm going to have me do is to rob this child who's driving by on a 00:37:48.470 --> 00:37:54.070 bike, as he's passing by and this kid's playing in front of his house. 00:37:54.550 --> 00:37:56.290 So I go up and I do it. 00:37:56.470 --> 00:37:57.300 I rob this kid of his bike. 00:37:58.490 --> 00:37:59.520 but I use it as my getaway. 00:38:00.590 --> 00:38:06.190 They're thinking I'm just going to bring it to him, and I just book it out of there, I am safe, praise God, you know? 00:38:06.310 --> 00:38:07.130 But here's the thing. 00:38:07.150 --> 00:38:11.540 When I go back into the home I am, I am scared beyond my mind just to tell somebody. 00:38:12.790 --> 00:38:15.480 Because these kids told me if I say anything, they're going to kill me. 00:38:15.570 --> 00:38:19.860 And I'm afraid if they if they don't do something to me, they may do something to my aunt, they may do something to my mom. 00:38:19.930 --> 00:38:21.320 So I just I just keep it to myself. 00:38:21.670 --> 00:38:25.570 Well, I go home nervous the whole night, staying up all night because I know the next day. 00:38:25.570 --> 00:38:26.430 Guess where mom's going to take me. 00:38:27.730 --> 00:38:29.390 Back, right? 00:38:29.510 --> 00:38:36.750 And a few days go by, I managed not to go outside, and I ended up back outside again because my aunt probably got tired of an elementary kid driving her nuts in the house, and she puts me back outside. 00:38:37.330 --> 00:38:38.670 And I still haven't told anybody because I'm scared. 00:38:38.710 --> 00:38:42.120 So I'm just out there for my life, and the next thing I find myself in is a gang fight. 00:38:43.890 --> 00:38:46.140 And I am just nervous out of my mind. 00:38:46.170 --> 00:38:48.270 I don't even know what to do with myself. 00:38:48.630 --> 00:38:52.190 And I'm just I'm scared as a kid just hearing those things. 00:38:52.330 --> 00:38:53.170 You don't know how to process it. 00:38:53.250 --> 00:38:54.610 You don't know where the safe place is. 00:38:54.970 --> 00:38:57.450 And I was literally putting myself in a jail. 00:38:57.450 --> 00:38:58.170 I didn't know what to do. 00:38:58.170 --> 00:39:00.600 And I remember I remember the last day that I was in a gang fight. 00:39:00.870 --> 00:39:03.130 My mom, finds out about this. 00:39:03.130 --> 00:39:04.890 The whole neighborhood actually finds out about this because I. 00:39:05.310 --> 00:39:11.010 I won, and the kid I fought, was crying so loud, but this gang wouldn't let me go. 00:39:11.910 --> 00:39:14.910 That the neighbors come out to the screaming of this kids. 00:39:15.030 --> 00:39:16.670 I'm trying to just preserve my own life. 00:39:16.710 --> 00:39:18.730 And fighting this child as a as a young child myself. 00:39:20.030 --> 00:39:23.980 And my mom finds out about it, and she just tells me on the ride home. 00:39:24.190 --> 00:39:25.450 Listen, you don't have to go back there. 00:39:25.530 --> 00:39:25.880 I'm just thinking. 00:39:26.330 --> 00:39:26.950 Thank you. 00:39:27.770 --> 00:39:28.270 God. 00:39:29.030 --> 00:39:29.690 Thank you God. 00:39:30.110 --> 00:39:37.050 Finally I feel safe and that whole time just wrestling within my heart, just not knowing who to trust, what to do, just depending on myself. 00:39:40.090 --> 00:39:41.360 On the side note of that. 00:39:43.170 --> 00:39:45.100 This summer I took my kids swimming a few times. 00:39:47.430 --> 00:39:49.810 Safe environment, right? 00:39:50.010 --> 00:39:51.370 I sent him on the side of the pool. 00:39:53.270 --> 00:39:55.450 He jumps from the pool and I catch him. 00:39:55.470 --> 00:39:56.100 He's all nervous. 00:39:56.190 --> 00:39:57.170 I've got to talk him into it. 00:39:57.210 --> 00:39:58.450 We do it a few times, do it a few times. 00:39:58.990 --> 00:40:04.850 By the end of the summer, after going to the pool, he finally now runs up to the edge of the pool and he just jumps in by himself and he. 00:40:05.070 --> 00:40:06.510 And he gets back up and jumps again. 00:40:06.510 --> 00:40:08.130 Jumps one of those times where it drives you so crazy. 00:40:08.230 --> 00:40:09.290 He's like, watch me, dad, watch me dad. 00:40:09.290 --> 00:40:10.990 Like I've seen the 700 times. 00:40:10.990 --> 00:40:12.310 How many times can someone look at a cannonball? 00:40:12.790 --> 00:40:15.000 But he's just living in that freedom and loving the moment. 00:40:15.010 --> 00:40:17.290 And a part of you as a parent are just so thankful for that freedom. 00:40:20.780 --> 00:40:23.620 I think forgiveness works like that for us. 00:40:25.930 --> 00:40:27.230 There is a place in our lives. 00:40:27.470 --> 00:40:28.710 Sometimes we are afraid. 00:40:31.050 --> 00:40:32.340 We don't know what to trust. 00:40:32.470 --> 00:40:36.290 We don't want to lay it down before God thinking that what he has is better. 00:40:36.370 --> 00:40:38.390 We just don't know what to do with it. 00:40:40.190 --> 00:40:41.710 And we've put ourselves in jail. 00:40:44.610 --> 00:40:51.870 But what God desires in providing you that safe environment is to see the freedom of a child just jumping, saying, watch me, God, 00:40:52.170 --> 00:40:53.950 watch me, God, watch me. 00:40:58.110 --> 00:41:05.130 That freedom he gives you for you to enjoy, because his hand is far bigger than the burden that you bear through the vengeance that you want 00:41:05.130 --> 00:41:05.560 to carry. 00:41:09.470 --> 00:41:10.230 Forgiveness. 00:41:12.470 --> 00:41:13.590 It helps you to let go. 00:41:15.650 --> 00:41:18.670 To move past and to trust. 00:41:20.650 --> 00:41:21.310 It's not easy. 00:41:22.650 --> 00:41:27.880 I know it's not easy because emotionally there are things that rest in it, but it is a choice. 00:41:30.290 --> 00:41:36.850 And the thing that helps us get through that is to look at the servant and say, God, this hurts me. 00:41:37.870 --> 00:41:41.070 But Lord, I'm looking at how much you've forgiven me. 00:41:42.770 --> 00:41:45.000 And you've given me that identity in you. 00:41:46.320 --> 00:41:50.420 And just as you've cared for me that way, I'm going to trust you with this.