The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant

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You guys can have a seat. There’s two reasons. Today’s parable is gonna be really hard for us. I’m just gonna be honest, right out the gate. The first reason 📍 is we live in a society that finds it far too easy to get offended and far too hard to give forgiveness, which is the worst combination to have. I know I’m not really breaking any news here, but we are easily offended.

One of my favorite books of the past decade, Carl r Truman, he wrote The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. He argues We are easily offended because the West has transitioned from a culture of dignity to a culture of victimhood. In other words, we get social credit when we are offended by others.

Outrage is the quickest route for fame, money, and online success. And so it’s never ending. If you just step into the social media world, offense is the currency, but the only thing worse than an offendable society is an unforgivable one. And there’s example after example. In our culture, we are far less forgiving than we used to be.

Recently a lady went viral at a Phillies game for stealing the home run ball from the kid. Did you guys see that? Now, initially I was upset with a lady, let the kid have the ball. But then you see social media rallied to not only docs her, where people know where she lives, but also to get her fired from her job.

Uh, we love a good revenge story here in America, far more than a reconciliation one. There’s something wrong with us if we find joy in seeing someone else suffer because they did. That was them in their worst moment capture for the whole world to see. See, we are in a cultural moment that finds this parable of forgiveness, not just difficult.

I think we as Christians can acknowledge that, but it’s downright silly to apply because everything around us tells us forgiveness. That’s weakness. That’s not wisdom. And even if you are here today and you believe forgiveness is wise, it is beautiful. It is what God has called us to. It’s still hard 📍 because unforgiveness is easy to spot in others, but hard to spot in ourselves.

And that truth hit me square in the mouth literally a few months ago when I was at the dentist, uh, growing up. We never went to the dentist. Anybody else? The only time, no. You guys are all wonderful, happy, smiling people. Great. I’m feeling great about my life. The only time we went to the dentist was when we went to Mexico.

’cause it, it is like, you know, a quarter of the price. I’m not lying. Our dental insurance plan growing up was quote, I can do all things through Christ. It gives me strength. Amen. So just like pray that God forgives you, the anointing oil that is your dental plan. Well, about six years ago I finally went in and I’m telling you, this dentist shamed me for an hour straight.

I left so offended. I didn’t come back for five years. I knew I had issues and I had a whole timeline of what they had. They said I needed to fix, but I was so offended I wasn’t gonna go back. But last year I was forced to go back because of a toothache. And, uh, he remembered me and I was like, at first thinking, wow, like, I’m so special.

He remembers me. And then I realized they have data and they have like these things that says this person was last year. So he came in and was like, how come you’ve been gone for so long? What’s wrong with you? And I was so proud of myself. In fact, I text my wife right after I did this. I looked at him straight in the face and said, if you didn’t shame me so much, I would’ve been back here sooner.

Right? He said, fair point. Then he went on to shame me for another hour after that. But this guy has the best insurance around, so we keep going back. So anyways, this year, again, this, this dentist this time offended me so much. I vowed I’m never going back, but yet again. A toothache, same area, was starting to become unbearable.

And I blame my mother because she didn’t take care of me when I grew up. So I told Jordan she never watches the podcast. We’re fine. I told my wife, I said, until the pain outweighs the shame, I’m not going. And so she didn’t wait for that day, that night she booked the appointment and told me to show up at this address at 8:00 AM I pulled up and went, oh no, this is the worst day ever.

So go in. What is the first thing the doc says? Wow, this is bad. That’s funny, guys. That’s, um, four hours later on the chair. ’cause I couldn’t stop bleeding. I realized, I know, I, I feel like none of you wanna talk to me after this. Like, this guy probably has the worst breath. You’re gonna be like staring at my teeth after, just whatever.

Okay. Four hours on the chair. Later I realized I have a dental problem because I have a forgiveness problem. I was so offended by him. I was willing to choose my own suffering over my own healing. And that’s what we all do, isn’t it? We let a fence rot underneath the surface that eventually leads to incredible pain, and we’ll stay in that pain rather than step into healing.

And we stay stuck in pain because again, unforgiveness is easy to spot in others, but hard to spot in ourselves. If I were to have a raise of hands, don’t do this. But if I were to ask for a raise of hands, if you guys were good at forgiveness, I would argue most of you would raise your hands high. And I know that because you filled out the survey and you said you were good at forgiveness.

You just wait. You don’t know. But at the same time, if I were to ask for a raise of hands and ask, if you were good at patience, most of you would not raise your hands. And yet, in the biblical text, time and time again, forgiveness and patience go together. So we may all think we’re good at forgiveness and bad at patience.

That actually means we’re bad at forgiveness. Peter starts by asking how patient he should be. Look at verse 21 again, then Peter, one of the biggest disciples, right, approached him and asked, Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me as many as seven times? Now, we all love Peter.

He’s a hothead. He never quite gets it. He thinks he’s catching on to the teachings of grace because in the tradition of the rabbis in the first century, it was customary to offer forgiveness up to three times. Once it was the fourth that person was done. And so Peter’s like, I get you now. Let’s like double it up and then some, let’s like two and a half this.

So seven times is that how much I should forgive someone? And Jesus blows everyone’s mind with this answer. I tell you, not as many as seven. Jesus replied. But 70 times seven. Now this doesn’t mean you’re supposed to get out an Excel doc and document every time you’ve forgiven that one person until you hit 4 91 and then you are good.

This is a phrase meeting infinity. Anybody else have kids that think they can count to infinity? Right? Like my kids are like, I can count to infinity. I’m like, then start. They’re like, well, you know, I’m kind of busy today. I’m like, yeah, exactly. But infinity means just forever and ever. Jesus is giving this answer, not for us to, okay, when is this?

The last time he’s saying, we’re always forgiving, and Jesus goes on, because that’s a lot to take in. He goes on to tell us a story about a forgiving master and an unforgiving servant, and it’s tied yet again to patience. Verse 23. For this reason, the kingdom of heaven could be compared to a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.

When he began to settle accounts, one who owed 10,000 talents was brought. Before him, since he did not have the money to pay it back. His master commanded that he, his wife, his children and everything he had be sold to pay the debt. Now, this was very common. This is how slavery occurred here in this day because, uh, slavery was more about you paying a debt.

And so a lot of people were enslaved because of what they had to pay in the future. Uh, but also notice this phrase, 10,000 talents. Uh, this, of course, we don’t measure things by talents. We think, oh, I’m talented. I could throw a baseball. It’s n that, not that kind of talent. One commentator put it as to describe the debt equals 164,000 lifetimes to repay.

One other commentator modern day said not even Elon Musk could pay off this debt. That’s how massive this debt is. Again, kind of like the infinity phrase that Jesus used to set up this parable. It’s something that’s unpayable. It’s not even the lottery can get you out. It’s not even the best stock market options can set you free.

You are forever in debt. Now look at verse 26 at this. The servant fell face down before him and said, be patient with me and I will pay you everything. This man is asking for forgiveness by asking for patience. Do you see that? Patience. Here is this compound word in the Greek. It’s macro. Theo. Macro means long, big.

Theo means suffering. Boiling point. It’s to have long suffering. In other words, it’s to feel pain, but not have you melt down over it. It means in the midst of being disturbed, you stay calm, cool, and connected. And let me point this out again. If we’re bad at patience, we’re bad at forgiving. One way to define patience, one of my favorite commentators says, patience is quote, bearing injuries without bitterness.

Bearing injuries without bitterness. How many of us are good at that? Bitterness is nothing to be messed with. What is bitterness? Bitterness is a hurt that over time forms into hate because we rehash an offense rather than release the offense. I’m gonna say that one more time. Bitterness is a hurt that forms into hate when we rehash an offense, rather than release the offense.

James, he’s the half brother of Jesus. He calls bitterness demonic. The writer of Hebrews calls it poisonous. Look at this next verse. Hebrews 1215, look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble. You corrupting many.

There’s a lot here. So he is saying, first of all, it’s a poisonous root, which means bitterness happens underneath the surface. You can’t even see the damage because it’s at the root level. It also troubles you. You find that interesting. Bitterness gives this lie. If you’re bitter, you’ll feel better. No, no, no.

It just introduces chaos. James says, it troubles you. You are no longer living with peace. And then he goes on to say, and it corrupts many. Bitterness I have seen in church life, it corrupts an entire group or an entire church. It’s contagious. It’s an infection, and it’s something we can’t just play around with.

It will destroy your life, and that’s the first reason I believe you and I should practice forgiveness. Write this down. 📍 You must practice forgiveness for the sake of your own heart. Bitterness hardens your heart, and then it will hijack your life. In my years of ministry, I’ve seen bitterness take more people out than anything else.

Bar none. Absolutely. Dave Loomis. He has a great message on this topic. He’s a pastor at Reality Church in San Francisco. He outlines six steps of what he calls the 📍 spiral of unforgiveness. Six steps that I have seen happen time and time again, and my prayer this week is that at our church, we would just say enough’s enough.

Number one is unforgiveness. This is really simple, and it starts small. An offense is happening and you leave it unprocessed or you minimize it. You think to yourself, I’m just not gonna forgive this person. What I have seen is often we unfor forgive. We’re we’re walking in unforgiveness, and that person doesn’t even know that he offended you.

So then it festers. When you hold onto that unforgiveness, it turns into anger. You get a shorter temper around them, they annoy you. What used to be cute is now just the worst. And I, I know it’s called marriage, right? But they just annoy you. And here’s what breaks my heart. You’ll start to see, they begin to distance themselves from you, or you begin to distance yourself from them.

I just need time. You say that leads to bitterness. Bitterness means you withdraw and you lose your peace. It feels like a rot in your bones. You feel disdain for the person. But here’s what’s hard about our cultural moment. The world will tell you you’re just taking care of yourself. You need boundaries.

You do, you boo bitterness is good for you, but is it you really know bitterness has taken root because you’re tempted to slander or you begin to slander. The infection spreads to the tongue. You disguise it with Christianese. We need to pray for this person. Let me tell you what’s going on. You tell people, I’m here, I, I just want to care for them, but let me warn you about this guy.

Oh, I haven’t talked to ’em, but just trust me. And it’s gossiping and, and you want to just damage their reputation. And then it leads to resentment. You begin to wish their for their downfall. Uh, you record every mistake, every hiccup, you judge them and you judge those who hang out with them. Oh, I thought you were a better character.

Why are you hanging out with that guy? And then it leads to vengeance. By the time you get to vengeance, you don’t even want to just get even, you almost forgot the original offense by now though. You just want to humiliate and punish this person. And here’s what’s terrifying. ’cause neuroscience backs this up.

Revenge is addicting and it literally leads to sickness. I actually think there’s a possibility. Some of us in this room are sick. Our bodies are giving signals, and the root of it is because of bitterness. This, this spiral is a poison in a prison. But there’s only one way out, and it’s forgiveness. So for your own sake, let’s be selfish here.

For your own sake, you need to forgive. ’cause if you don’t, it will determine the course of your life. Ronald er, in a wonderful read, I read, read every year called Sacred Fire. He puts it this way, quote, 📍 all of us will get hurt. That is a given. However, how we handle that hurt, either with bitterness or forgiveness, will color the rest of our lives and determine what kind of person we are going to be.

How many of us have met a beautiful saint in their eighties and nineties and they’re just so pleasant to be around? That’s a person who’s figured out forgiveness. How many of us know beautiful old saints that aren’t so beautiful and they’re bitter and angry at the world? They didn’t take this warning well enough.

So now the next obvious question is, how do we forgive? Okay, I wanna forgive. I wanna protect my heart. I wanna live a healthy life. Notice how the master does it here in verse 27. Then the master of that servant had compassion, released him and forgave him The loan. Timothy Keller, pastor in New York City is really helpful here.

He talks about the 📍 four part pattern of forgiveness that we see in this text. Number one, you see it a couple verses earlier, is to tell the truth. So if someone has offended you, you need to first go to them and just tell them the offense. Don’t minimize it. Just talk about the reality. Say, Hey, this debt was owed here.

Here’s the reality, here’s the pain. But then the world would tell you, now get even. No. Number two, have compassion rehumanize that person. I think it’s really important for us to focus on our commonalities rather than our differences. We need to have pity. Some translations say in this text, what this means.

What’s been helpful for me is always remembering, okay, some people are genuinely wicked, but some people are also just foolish. They did this because of their own upbringing, or they just didn’t even know. Or even if, and I’ve gotten to the point, even if they meant evil, God meant it for good. So I can still forgive them, but have compassion.

Think about their upbringing. Think about their set of circumstances they’re having in their life that may be led to them doing the thing that has offended or hurt you. Number three is to cancel the debt. This means you absorb the pain you don’t seek to get even. How do you absorb the pain? You let it go.

Dallas Willard, a philosopher from USC. Uh, he says, getting even is a tremendous burden and it’s a great relief to let it go. And that’s number four. Let it go. Release. Let them go. I love in one Corinthians 13, love keeps no record of wrongs. A lot of us, we get hysterical because we get historical and we just keep remembering every little problem.

Don’t hold their, don’t hold that offense for years to come. Some of us, were broken in our marriages because we keep holding something that the man or the woman did 10 years ago. Let it go. And I believe this decision of release is a decision before. It’s an emotion. So forgive for the sake of your own heart.

It’s wise, it’s useful. There’s medical science to back it up. Even non-believers do this, by the way. Therapists in the world will say, yes, you need to forgive because you’ll feel better if you don’t, it will destroy your life. But Jesus, of course, takes it a step further. Look at verse 28. That servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred Ari, a hundred Ari, and, and this time would be like a couple, you know, a couple hundred bucks or a thousand dollars.

It’s not much, especially by comparison. He grabbed him, started choking him, and said, pay what you owe. Now this should shock us. Remember the Ebenezer Scrooge, you know, story, and all of a sudden you think he would go up and be like, you owe me a thousand. Just kidding. Here’s some money. You’re good. Right?

No, he still stays bitter, even though he was just forgiven of so much, and he’s looking at all these minute details. Verse 29 at this, his fellow servant fell down and began begging him, does this sound familiar? Be patient with me and I will pay you back. This should have been an alarm for the guy. Oh, I was just here.

I understand your pain. It’s not what he does. Verse 30, but he wasn’t willing, said he went and threw him into prison until he can pay back what was owed. When the other servants saw what had taken place, they were deeply distressed and went and reported to their master everything that had happened. This is beautiful.

This is community accountability. This is one reason we believe in the membership of the local church membership November 15th. By the way, make sure you sign up if you haven’t already. We believe in community accountability. It keeps each other safe from the root of bitterness that will destroy your life.

Verse 32, then after he had summoned him, his master said to him, you wicked servant. I forgave all that debt because you begged me. Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you? And because he was angry, his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he could pay everything that was owed.

A lot of commentators, as I read this week, were saying the master can be the one. God is the one who can punish us, of course, for our sins, but also we just punish ourselves. That unforgiveness winds up just. Torturing us. It’s our bitterness that makes our own prison. But notice the last phrase. So also, my Heavenly Father will do to you unless every one of you forgives his brother or sister.

From your heart. From your heart, not just for your heart. From your heart. Write this down. 📍 You must practice forgiveness from the depths of your own heart. I’m actually really guilty of this. I, I’ve been preaching throughout my years. I think mainly I’ve been telling people forgive because it’s an act of wellness.

It’s for your own heart. Bitterness is like holding a blade and looking at the person and hoping they feel the pain. It’s only hurting you and it’s a great motivator. I think it can get some of us moving. We need to forgive, let go of the blade. But at some point in maturity, we need to shift from forgiveness being an act of wellness, to it being an act of worship.

Every parable so far, what has it always been? Love God and love your neighbor. Forgiveness is how we love our neighbor. I forgive not just for my own sake, but for their sake. See, forgiving for your heart is driven by wellness and relief and that’s okay, but forgiving from your heart, which is what Jesus is pushing us towards, is driven by worship and reconciliation and moving beyond four to from takes a lot of time, especially if it was a large offense.

I think it’s helpful for us to think about wounds. You know, like emotional wounds, similar to physical wounds. It takes a long time to heal. The worst, the wound it is, right? If I tweak my ankle on a run by the next day, I’ll be fine. If something worse happens right to an ACL, it’s not like you could just run the next day.

We, there’s different ways, there’s different measurements of being hurt. And even forgiving for your heart takes time. Dallas Willard puts it this way, 📍 the mark of forgiveness is not that you no longer hurt. It is that you are no longer preoccupied with the hurt. And in my experience, this never happens after just praying one time, God, I forgive him.

Especially if it’s a big wound. It takes time, but you still forgive them even before you feel it. In the past few years, God has shaped me so much through this long process of forgiveness. I have learned to be, uh, vague, uh, because you guys know everybody in my life. So it just becomes this list. So I’m gonna be as vague as possible.

This happened in the last decade, okay? But a while back, I was deeply hurt by someone that was really close to me that I looked up to. And every morning when I’d wake up, you can ask my wife. Don’t. That’s weird. But you could, I I’d feel the bitterness, like there’s a line. Just wait. Hey, we need to talk to you.

Uh. I would feel bitterness and hurt in my body. Um, I actually wound up gaining a lot of weight because of it and, and I wanted to forget and move on. Um, but like any major wound ignoring it or putting just a small bandaid over, it doesn’t make it any better. In fact, it makes it worse. Kinda like the dental thing, get it done, right?

So for that first year, I wanted to forgive this person for the sake of my own heart. And I think that was a holy ambition. I just wanted to be happy again. I wanted to have joy again. I wanted to be present with my kids and not preoccupied with this person, and I hated it. Every morning I wake up, this person’s face was in my head.

I’m like, I don’t want this person’s face in my head. You know what I’m saying? I have a beautiful face right there that you’re gonna go in line and talk to later. Right? So for me, I didn’t want bitterness to define me because if it began to define me, I knew it would devour me. And a lot of pastors leave ministry because of that, of bitterness.

And I didn’t want to be that statistic. And so eventually I was set free every morning, every night, midday, I put it on my reminders. I said, Lord, I forgive this person. Lord, I forgive this person. Lord, I forgive this person. And one day I realized I forgot to pray it because I was no longer preoccupied.

And I thought my work was done. And then God, you know him, we accidentally ran into him in a room and I was like, oh no, there’s no way out. You know, at this time it’s awkward. We’re here. Okay, how you doing? And I found it really hard to talk to them. And I was bothered by that. ’cause I thought I was healed.

I don’t, I’m not mad at this person anymore. But it was still awkward. And that’s when my spiritual director began to introduce me to this idea. You need to not just forgive for your heart, you need to forgive from your heart. And so what I began to do is pray for this person’s wellbeing. I began every day to pray for this person’s success in life.

Even if it meant that I couldn’t be as successful. A few months went by and I ran into them again, and I was like, all right, Lord. But when I tell you, in all honesty, I had a wave of love come over me, and I couldn’t wait, not just to say hi to this person, but to hug them. My joy was already back. But in that moment, I realized my love for them was back as well.

But guys, that took time and it took practice. Now I still have boundaries with this person. Let me be very clear here. Boundaries without bitterness are beautiful. Okay, verse 15 through 20, just before, this is all about church discipline or we would call church restoration, and it actually is about setting boundaries.

If there’s a person who’s unrepentant, you tried between you and them, and then you brought a couple people and then you brought it to the church and they’re still unrepentant, you’re supposed to say, okay, I have a boundary. Now you’re not just gonna come and, and, and bring all of this in my life anymore, but I think we need to be very careful as we set boundaries.

I’m constantly checking my heart. If I’m too stubborn with my boundaries, I’m asking mentors in my life. ’cause I know I’m, I am too self-deceived when it comes to these topics. I’m asking mentors and godly counsel, is this boundary still healthy? Is it still wise for me to set up these parameters or am I beginning to get bitter again?

Am I beginning to be hateful again? I don’t want that. But I also know I’m on a mission in life and I’m going a certain direction if this person is just there for my sabotage. There is a time where you say, I love you, but we need some separation. Anybody with me? Yes. We’re thinking about Thanksgiving coming up.

You know what I’m saying? Right? We need to do this. But all along the way, even as I set about those boundaries, I still pray for them and I root for them, and I want what’s best for them. ’cause that’s the Jesus way. This is the invitation he’s bringing us on. See, the Jesus way isn’t just to forgive for your heart or even from your heart.

Write this down. You must practice receiving Christ’s forgiveness to your own heart. Why do we think the servant was silly throwing another servant in jail for a couple thousand dollars? Because he was forgiven of billions. Makes no sense. Are, are you kidding me? Man, you were forgiven of a debt. It would’ve taken you 164,000 lives to pay and you’re mad at this guy for $164.

That makes zero sense. And the same can be said for you and for me. If only you and I knew how much was wiped away at the cross of Jesus. Our debt was infinity, but we’ve been forgiven for eternity. So of course we forgive. That’s the good news. We talk about a witness practice. That’s one of the most powerful practices we can enact friends in Christ.

And I need you to hear this. You are forgiven. I have some more. Uh, I have some friends in a different denomination. And he says that he puts hours at his church every week. It’s called, I forget what he calls it, it’s a forgiveness hour or something like that. And I’m like, that sounds so cool. But I don’t know if it’s Baptist enough for us to do this.

But he says, I, I invite people, it doesn’t matter from, you know, 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM on Wednesdays. Come in and my only job is for you to confess your sin. And I look at you with love and say, and Christ has forgiven you and he loves you still. That’s our job. You know, that past that brings you shame. Maybe you still haven’t even told your spouse about, Jesus has watched it as wide as snow.

Isaiah says, your sins that have destroyed your relationships or even your own body, you bear the scars of your foolishness. Jesus has separated them from you as far as the east is from the west. The Psalms say. The moments you wish you could undo, the words you wish you could take back. Jesus died on the cross and says, it is finished.

It is paid in full John 1930. And when we start to realize how much we’re forgiven, of course we forgive. Lemme put it another way. Some of you keep asking God to forgive what he’s already forgotten. If you haven’t already, go to the form by Jesus podcast. On YouTube and watch Ryan’s interview. He does a Chris Farley impression that is beyond impressive.

But at the end he talks about, I’m not even gonna give it away, but that is the crescendo. Friends. We keep bringing up things that were so, oh, I’m so sorry. Jesus. I did that. I see that was my best Chris father. It was terrible. But Jesus says, what are you talking about? I’ve forgotten it. Why do you keep bringing it up that was paid in full?

Some of us are miserable because we’re living like the debt is still due. Hear me? Jesus has paid it in full. If you’ve put your faith and trust in him. What I love about my Jesus is he doesn’t forgive reluctantly, he forgives, rejoicing. You are not condemned. You’re clean, you’re not disqualified. You’re redeemed, you’re not forgotten.

You’re forgiven. But again, that’s only if you’ve put your faith and trust in the finished work of Christ. Have you done that? It’s possible. Some of you are still today trying to pay your debts on your own power, and I’m here to tell you it’s probably even more than 164 lifetimes. You can’t do it. My prayer this week is that all of our eyes would be open, number one to the cost.

Our sin is infinite. It cannot be repaid by our own power. But that’s why number two, I’ve been praying that our eyes would be open to the cross. Your sin is paid in full if you put your trust in him. But also, my prayer is that our eyes would be open to the caution Jesus warns us with here. That last line is terrifying.

Father will do to you unless every one of you forgives his brother or sister from your heart. Jesus, after telling us how to pray in Matthew six 15 says, but if you don’t forgive others, you father will not forgive your offenses. Did he mean that? ’cause that’s terrifying. What does that mean? That’s, that’s not because forgiveness earns salvation, but hear me?

Because unforgiveness exposes a heart that has actually not truly received God’s grace. Because when you truly know you’ve been given forgiven of 164,000 lifetimes, it’s beyond easy to forgive $164. So I just wanna caution you, beware of unforgiveness. It will cost you everything. And so this week in your groups, we want you to practice forgiveness.

We want you to practice forgiveness for your own heart. We’re gonna lead you in that, that practice from your heart. We want you to start loving your enemies and to your heart friends, none of this works if you haven’t received forgiveness yourself. And so I would argue if you’ve done life long enough and you’re in groups, and if you’re doing groups right, there’s some stuff you need to forgive each other for.

’cause that’s called being human. That’s called rubbing each other the wrong way. That’s life. Hear me? That’s life. Quit running away from it. Quit being bitter. Quit being passive aggressive. Let’s just deal with it. That’s life. And that requires time and community. Because lastly, forgiveness is a mystery, and it’s a mastery.

It’s a mystery. First and foremost, forgiveness, both receiving to yourself, but also extending to others is a gift from God. When you begin to forgive, you’ll start to see really God at work in your life. When you realize it’s impossible to earn your salvation, it is a mystery. It is a gift, is what that means.

It’s a gift from God that it was just gifted to you through Christ Jesus, but also it’s a mastery. What do we mean by that? So it’s a gift. It’s a mystery from God. It’s, it’s unbelievable what he does. I don’t know how he does it, but it’s also a mastery. It takes practice and practice takes time. We never graduate, by the way, telling ourselves how we’ve been forgiven.

Some of us need to develop a new routine to say, okay, in Christ, I am forgiven in Christ, I am redeemed. The old is gone, the new has come. If the enemy reminds you of your past, you need to remind him of his future, right? We are walking in that kind of forgiveness. But man, it takes time and it takes intentionality.

And we wanna be the kind of church that says, we’re here for you. Let’s do this together. So can you imagine this week we can’t take pictures like we do with the Halloween outreach? Look at what we did. Maybe if you guys take a picture like handshaking again, you know, and like they forgave each other. I don’t, let’s not do that.

But imagine this week if we actually forgave the people in this room, I know we need it. ’cause we always do, but we can do it. ’cause how much he has forgiven us. Let’s stand to respond