Dear God, you brought us to this Sabbath day.
We're reminded that we get to be in your army,
that we get to serve you each and every day,
that you are chasing after us, that we can love
you because you have first loved us. Be with
us as we open up your word this morning. In your
name we pray. Amen. Let me do that one more time.
So several years ago, I read a book. This is
the book here. It's called Unbroken. And as I
read this book, it told the incredible story
of someone who I actually hadn't heard of until
I read this book. His name is Louis Barini. He
was born in New York but raised in California.
At a young age, he was kind of gotten out of
trouble. And so his older brother convinced him
to start running, to join the track team. And
he became a very quick... And for a time, he
was the fastest miler in California. He never
quite broke the four -minute mile in the 1930s.
And then he was so fast, he was so well -known,
that he was going to try out for the Olympic
team in 1936. Anybody happen to remember where
the Olympics were in 1936? It was in Germany.
It was in Berlin. It was famous for Jesse Owens
winning. So many medals. And Louis, although
the mile was his best distance, the United States
had some much faster people in that category.
So he tried out for the 5 ,000 meter, the 5K,
5 ,000 meter race. And he made the team. He was
able to make the team. And so he made it to Germany.
He competed in those Olympics. Do you think he
won? No, he didn't. He did not win. He came in
eighth, but he was the fastest American in that
race, and he was kind of well -known because
as the race went on, he finished the last lap.
He set the record for the fastest lap on the...
on that very end of the race. He was way behind,
and he passed a bunch of people and came in eighth.
And he's like, okay, the next Olympics, that's
going to be my time to shine, because he was
only about 19 years old. He's like, in 1940,
those Olympics are going to be in Tokyo. That's
where I'm going to shine, and I'm going to win
some medals. Of course, we know those Olympics
never happened because of World War II. And soon,
Louis found himself as a... A bombardier on a
B -24 flying missions over the Pacific Ocean.
They were shot up. The plane was shot up. They
survived. But there was one mission where they
weren't going to bomb anybody, but they were
going to look for somebody who they thought maybe
had crash -landed. They were looking for a life
raft. And as they were making that journey out
over the wide, vast, open ocean, something happened
to their plane. It didn't get shot down. It just
stopped working. And they ended up crash landing
in the middle of the ocean. And Louie and two
other people, so three people, were able to make
it into two small life rafts. And that's when
another deal began because they were in those
life rafts for 47 days. You know, they had just
minimal water. They were able to catch some rain,
catch some fish. grab some birds, fight off sharks,
get strafed by the Japanese, dive in the water
with the sharks there. 47 days. Two of them survived
for that 47 days until they made it to an island.
Unfortunately, that island was held by the Japanese.
So then those two were prisoners of war for the
next two years, and they were beaten and tortured.
and starved, and forced to work in mines as they
were taken back to Japan. And it was just not
a pleasant situation at all. And finally, the
end of the war came, and Louis was able to make
it back home. He went back home. He was picked
on, especially because he was this famous Olympian.
And so they particularly tortured and abused
him. He made it back home. He met a woman that
he married, and they became husband and wife.
But he was upset because he'd gone through all
this. Because for two years, he'd been tortured
and beaten. Soon he found himself with PTSD.
They probably didn't call it that back then.
And he was in depression. He was becoming an
alcoholic. And his wife was ready to walk out
the door. I'm tired of this. I'm done with this.
And he was upset because of what he had been
through. You ever get upset because of what you
live through, because of what you go through,
because of the circumstances that you find yourself
in? Sometimes it's easy to get upset, and it
seems as if our society today, oftentimes we
look for reasons to be upset. We go searching
out things that we can be angry about, people
that we can be upset with because of how we're
treated, because of what somebody says. And this
whole idea of online communication. People go
online just to find people to argue with that
they don't even know. And that anonymity of the
internet allows them to be extra cruel and pick
on other people about things that normally you
wouldn't argue about. You wouldn't care if somebody
else said something else. But it seems as if
in our society, people are out. to get someone
else. They're looking for some opportunity to
accuse someone of something or to hurt somebody
because of something or to sue somebody else.
Oh, I bought a coffee and I spilled it on myself
and I got burned because the coffee was hot.
Well, let me sue the fast food restaurant or
whatever it is. What did Jesus say? How are we
supposed to act when others sometimes treat us
in the wrong way. Let's go to the gospel of Matthew.
We're going to start in chapter 5. We're eventually
going to end in chapter 18. But Matthew 5 has
what we refer to as the Sermon on the Mount.
And Jesus says some things about how we treat
other people. Start in verse 39. Verse 38 says,
you've heard an eye for an eye and a tooth for
a tooth. That's what you've heard. But Jesus
says, but I tell you, Not to resist an evil person,
but whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn
the other to him also. This is where we get the
idea of turn the other cheek. If somebody demands
you to do something, once your coat, we'll give
them your overcoat as well. And it goes on down
to verse 43, and it says, You have heard that
it was said, You shall love your neighbor and
hate your enemy. That's what some people want
to say. But Jesus said, but I say to you, love
your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Do good
to those who hate you. And pray for those who
spitefully use you and persecute you, that you
may be sons and daughters of your Father in heaven.
No, we're not supposed to hate our enemies. We're
supposed to love. Even our enemies, even those
who are doing us wrong, we're supposed to pray
for and we're supposed to care about because
they are also people of God. And as we read the
words of Jesus, we begin to realize that the
kingdom of God is different than the world. And
that if we are followers of God, we should respond
differently to circumstances we find ourselves
in. We can't do that on our own, but we can only
respond differently by the grace of God. When
we're cut off in traffic, how do we respond with
the grace of God? When someone gives you that
look, oh, you know that look I'm talking about.
When someone takes credit for your idea at the
workplace, how do we respond in those different
situations? Too often, we feel... That we are
a victim. We feel that we are persecuted. That
other people are after us. That other people
are trying to get us. The teacher doesn't like
me. The boss doesn't appreciate me. I am being
persecuted. There are people in the world being
persecuted. But I hate to break it to you if
this is the case. You are probably not one of
those people that are really... being persecuted.
Because if you may or may not be able to see
that, but the blue countries on that map, that's
where Christianity is restricted. It's really
hard to be a Christian. The green areas on that
map, that's where people are outright evil towards
Christians, and people are imprisoned or beaten
or killed. There's a story in the mission story
this week about a, actually it was last week,
a young girl named Tanya. who her dad came home.
This is in Zimbabwe. Her dad is a professional
rugby player, so was often gone on the weekend.
And he looked under something on the table, and
he found something new. It was a baptismal certificate.
Tanya had been baptized the previous Sabbath
while her father was out of town, and her father
came home and found that. A totally different
animist religion tore up the baptismal certificate.
If you go to that church again, I'm going to
beat you. And so he tried to make sure that he
would be home on Saturday mornings. Because if
he was gone, he knew that she would go, her grandmother,
to church. And Tanya began praying, God, help
me to be able to go to church. I miss going to
church, but if I go, I'm going to be beaten.
Help me to be able to go. And it was several
months later, her dad was home on Sabbath morning,
and her mom said, why don't you go? talk to your
dad and tell him that you're going to go to church
today. And she was a little nervous, but she
went in and said, Dad, I'm going to church today.
And he said, okay. That was that. After months
of being threatened to be beaten, now she is
able to go to church each week. And now her prayer
has changed. No longer is she praying that she'll
be able to go to church, but she's praying that
maybe my dad will come with me. to church at
some time in the future. So there are people
in the world being persecuted, faith for their
life, but probably none of us are in that category.
Let's turn back over to Proverbs. We're going
to come back to Matthew, but turn to Proverbs
because even the Old Testament, this book of
wisdom in Proverbs contains an idea, Proverbs
19 and verse 11 is what we're going to read.
It says the discretion of a man makes him slow
to anger. Slow to anger. And his glory is to
overlook a transgression. To overlook a transgression.
When somebody says something or does something,
that doesn't mean we pretend it doesn't happen.
But no, we choose. That's not something we do
on our own. By the grace of God, we choose to
overlook that. We choose to go past that. We
don't let what someone else does to us determine
how I'm going to live my life and walk my life
as a child of God. Let's turn over to Matthew
18. This is where our scripture reading was from,
where Peter comes to Jesus and he says in verse
21, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against
me? And I forgive him. Up to seven times? God,
that's pretty good, right? If I forgive somebody
seven times, is that a good number? A good biblical
number? In verse 22, Jesus said to him, I do
not say to you up to seven times, but no, up
to 70 times seven. Now, in my math, that tells
me that's about 490 times. That's what my calculator
would tell me. But I don't think Jesus is saying
we need to have a checkbox. You know, 478, 479,
490. Okay, 491, sorry. That's the limit. I'm
not forgiving you anymore. I think what this
is saying is that it's supposed to be an ongoing
thing. That when people speak ill to us, that
we are supposed to respond in a different way.
than the world does. And then it goes on in verse
23, and Jesus tells a parable. We're continuing
our parable series that we've been preaching
through, and this parable is in response to this
question that Peter asked, how many times do
I have to forgive somebody? In verse 23, it says,
therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a certain
king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.
All right, bring in the books. Let's see what
people owe me. How much have I loaned out? How
much have people paid back? What do people still
owe me? In verse 24, when he begun to settle
accounts, one was brought to him who owed him
10 ,000 talents. That is a huge amount of money.
That is millions and millions and perhaps billions
of dollars. Now a talent is a certain weight,
200 and some pounds of silver or gold. And so
if you add this up, it's basically beyond calculation,
beyond comprehension. And so again, I think the
point of this is that this is unpayable. The
tax revenue for one year in the province of Galilee
was about 300 talents. 300 was the tax revenue
for that. And so this is a huge amount that could
really in no way ever be repaid by a single person.
Notice verse 25. It goes on and says, But as
he was not able to pay, obviously, his master
commanded that he be sold with his wife and children
and all that he had and that payment be made.
Now this was not going to repay the debt. but
it would be a common practice in ancient days
and really up to a couple hundred years ago.
People could be thrown into debtor's prison.
You're not going to get your money back, but
it's punitive. There's some punishment. And if
you're selling somebody into slavery, you'll
get a few coins at least, but it's not going
to pay it back. But then verse 26, the servant
fell down before the king. I want you to notice
the words here. Pay attention to these words.
Master, have patience with me, and I will pay
you all. Lock those words in. We're going to
talk about those again in a few minutes. Master,
have patience with me, and I will pay you all.
Note those words. But for now, just notice that
this servant apparently has a very wrong view
of himself. He thought some way, I'm going to
pay this back. No, he wasn't. There was no way
for him to do that. He had a wrong understanding
of who he was and what his capability was. And
if we move this to the spiritual realm, we can
remember and recognize each one of us has a debt.
You know, the Bible says the wages of sin is
death. We have all fallen short of God's We have
all messed up, and that is a debt that we cannot
repay. We can't make that right. We have sinned.
We are falling short of God's glory. And the
wages of sin is death. We have offended God.
We are debtors. We can never say, God, I'm going
to make this right. Because we have earned that
wage of sin. We have earned that picture of death.
And this man had a wrong... picture of himself.
He thought that he could make it right. He thought
that he could repay that huge amount. But notice
what happened in verse 27. There's a picture
of grace. Then the master of that servant was
moved with compassion, released him, and forgave
him the debt. That's a picture of grace right
now. He had something that he could not repay,
and this king, this master, released him of this
debt, forgave him of that debt. And isn't that
what God does with us? He says, if we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to do what?
To forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
That is what God does. How would we respond?
How do we respond when a debt is relieved, when
a burden is lifted? You know, if a church is
paying off a mortgage, and when that day comes
that that last mortgage payment is made, you
ever been to a celebration like that? They actually
light a fire in the church to burn that little
mortgage note because they want it wiped out.
and gone forever. In the church building, there's
fire because they have paid off that mortgage,
that debt is released. If a family pays off a
home, there's a celebration because the debt
that hangs over them is relieved. How does this
guy respond when this huge debt is paid off?
It's not a response of joy. It's not a response
of celebration. But we're going to see it's a
response of anger, of hatred. And sometimes that's
the response that we exhibit as we interact with
others. Notice verse 28. It says, but that servant,
right after the master of the servant forgave
him the debt, but that servant went out and found
one of his fellow servants. He went out looking
for somebody. It didn't just come up. He went
out looking. for trouble, looking for something
else, and he found this man who owed him a little
bit. Does it ever seem like sometimes the people
around us, or maybe we, do we go out looking
for trouble? Do we go out looking to find the
wrong in somebody else? Do we go out looking
to find somebody that is offending us? Do we
look for the worst in each other, at least from
time to time? went out looking and he found one
of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred
denarii. A hundred denarii. Now what is that?
That's not 10 ,000 talents. Now in the Bible,
a denarii is the equivalent to like one day's
wage. If you went and did work for one day, you
would expect to receive in payment one denarii.
That was what you would earn from your labor.
So that would be enough to buy your food. to
pay for your house, your clothes, support your
family, whatever that was, for one denarii. So
this is 100. So that's what, three, four months
of labor? So don't tell me, but just think, how
much do you make in three to four months? That's
what this debt would approximately be. So a pretty
big amount, but not impossible with tight budgeting.
with maybe doing a little extra work, doing some
overtime, taking another shift, making some good
investments. It's a big amount, but it's not
impossible. And what did this guy do? It says,
the second part of the verse, owed him 100 denarii,
and he laid hands on him and took him by the
throat, saying, pay me what you owe. That's not
the way to get your money back. To go and choke
somebody out? He's not looking for finances.
He's looking for a fight. He's not looking for
a resolution. He's looking for some kind of reaction
here. This isn't the way to go about it. Even
though it was a big amount, this wasn't the way
to try to get this back. Now, notice the next
verse, verse 29. So his fellow servant... fell
down at his feet and begged him, saying, let's
think, have you heard these words before? Have
patience with me, and I will pay you all. That's
the exact same thing that servant number one
had said to the master, the exact same words,
and now this other servant with a much smaller
debt is saying, you know, this is one I could
pay you back. Just give me a little time. Have
patience. Wait for it, and I'm going to make
this right. But that's not what he did. Verse
30, and he would not, but went out and threw
him into prison until he should pay the debt.
He's not going to pay the debt in prison. So
when his fellow servants saw what he had done,
the other people around, they were very grieved.
They were upset by this. They did not like the
way that this went down. They did not like that
this man did not respond to the grace that he
had received. He did not respond in a positive
way by sharing grace with someone else. And they
went and told the master, they went and told
the leader all that had been done. Do you think
the master was happy about that? No, he was not.
Then the master, after he had called him, said
to him, you wicked servant. I forgave you all
that debt because you begged me. Should you also
not have had compassion on your fellow servant
just as I had pity on you? You received forgiveness.
Shouldn't you pass that forgiveness on to somebody
else? Should you not have had compassion just
as I had compassion on you? You threw him into
prison, torturers. He could pray this back because
he was angry. And then verse 35, it says, So
my heavenly Father also will do to you if each
of you from his heart does not forgive his brother
his trespasses. This is the main idea of this
whole parable. Peter said, How often do I need
to forgive? Seventy times seven. Jesus says,
We need to forgive. those who have wronged us.
We need to forgive those who trespass against
us. You know, it's very closely to the Lord's
Prayer. We talked about that a couple weeks ago.
What's that one line? It says, forgive us our
debts as we forgive our debtors. Forgive us as
we forgive our debtors. And if you look at the
verse immediately after the Lord's Prayer, The
very next verse in Matthew 6, verse 14, immediately
after the Lord's prayer, it says, For if you
forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father
will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive
men their trespasses, neither will your Father
forgive your trespasses. Have mercy. That's pretty
clear right there. We need to forgive as we have
been forgiven. Because we are forgiven, we need
to forgive. If we haven't truly accepted and
recognized God's grace, if we aren't willing
to pass that grace to somebody else. We haven't
accepted God's forgiveness truly if we aren't
willing to forgive somebody else. So as we look
at this story, we can see, first of all, we need
to have a correct view of ourselves. That first
servant thought he could pay it back. I'm going
to pay it all back. No, we can't. We are desperately
in need of a Savior. We can see that we need
to, as we look at others, we need to not look
for the wrong that they have done, but look for
the goodness that God has placed in them. And
then when we are wrong, we can respond with grace.
We need to forgive because we are forgiven. And
we can say, sure, that makes sense, Pastor Greg.
That makes sense when somebody cuts me off in
traffic. Sure, I'll forgive them. That makes
sense, you know, if somebody teases me or laughs
at me. But what about the real issues? What about
those things that I deserve to be upset about?
What are those things that I deserve to get some
sort of revenge or some sort of justice? that
rudeness or that abuse or that disloyalty or
that rejection or that unfaithfulness. And I
will say that God wants us to be safe. God wants
us to be in places where we are protected and
our family, but we can also still continue to
treat people the way that God would treat people.
What were the words of Jesus about persecution?
We read it in Matthew 5. He said, turn the other
cheek. He said, pray for your enemies. Pray for
those who persecute you. Those are beautiful
words, Jesus. But what about the actions of Jesus?
What did Jesus do? Well, we can remember night
in Jerusalem outside the walls when Jesus had
every right to be offended. He had every right
to bring whatever judgment down that he could
because that crowd came to him as he was praying
in a garden. Jesus was praying. And the mob came
and they arrested him and they grabbed him and
they dragged him away. They hit him in the face
when he had done nothing, when he had said nothing
offensive. They pulled out his beard. made no
threats to anybody. They spit in his face, and
he had done nothing wrong. You know, there's
an old gospel song that says he could have called
10 ,000 angels. If he was there on that night,
he could have called 10 ,000 angels to destroy
the world and set him free. He could have called
10 ,000 angels. Anybody know the next line? but
he died alone for you and for me. He could have
called, he could have smote them, he could have
destroyed them, but instead he said, Father,
forgive them, for they don't know what they're
doing. Father, forgive them, for they don't know
what they're doing. In 1 Peter 2, we've got just
another verse or two here. 1 Peter 2, notice
what it says. In verse 21, it says Christ suffered
for us, leaving us an example. Then it says who,
when he was reviled, did not revile in return.
When he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed
himself to him who judges righteously. Jesus
didn't strike back. Jesus didn't fight back.
Jesus allowed God to take that place of judgment.
Jesus allowed God to do all that. Now, there's
a saying that psychologists and pastors have
maybe noted. You've probably heard it. It says,
hurt people, hurt people. If somebody's been
hurt at some point in their life, they are more
likely to pass that on to somebody else, to pass
that pain and suffering. Hurt people, hurt people.
And in the sinful world, there's a lot of people
that have been hurt. And perhaps the flip side.
of that saying is that forgiven people forgive
people. And we, you and I, have been forgiven.
So we can forgive, not because somebody doesn't
deserve something, not because we like how we
were treated, but we can forgive because we were
forgiven. Have you recognized that you're someone
who makes mistakes? Have you recognized that
you're someone who daily is in need of a Savior?
Have you accepted God's grace today? Are you
willing to forgive because you are forgiven?
Louis Zamperini came back after being tortured,
after being beaten. He met a young lady who became
his wife. He became an alcoholic, depressed.
And as I'm reading this book, this book had everything
that I like to read about. This guy was a runner.
I like running. This guy was in the Olympics.
I love the Olympics. And next year, there's the
Winter Olympics coming up. You're going to hear
lots of stories about the Olympics. This guy
was in World War II. I like reading about World
War II. It's fascinating to see that historical
part. Survived in a life raft for 47 days. I
like reading about survival stories and nature
stories and man versus nature and all that. But
when the war was over, there's still this much
of this book left. He's home from the war, and
there's this much, you know, 50 pages. What in
the world is happening? I didn't know how this
story ended. His wife was ready to leave him
because of his abuse, because of his alcoholism,
because of his depression. But before she left
him, she went down the street in Los Angeles,
somewhere across town, and went to a big tent.
And there was a young preacher in that tent named
Billy Graham. He was talking about the love of
Jesus and the grace of Jesus. And as she went
to that meeting, That revival meeting with Billy
Graham, she gave her heart to Jesus. And she
said, you know what? I'm going to stay with this
guy. And she went home and she began to encourage
Louie. Louie, you come with me. You need to come
to this meeting. And finally, probably to make
her stop, what's the word? I don't want to say
nagging, but that's the one that popped into
my head. To stop this discussion, he went. And
as he was listening to Billy Graham talk about
Jesus, he gave his heart to Jesus and surrendered
all of that anger and that depression and that
alcoholism and that abuse that he had tied up
in his heart. And he recognized that the power
of Jesus, that Jesus died for his sins, the power
of Jesus forgives him and that he needs to forgive
because he was. And so as he interacted with
Billy Graham, Billy Graham helped him to kind
of start a ministry and to go and speak, especially
to young people, about living their life for
Jesus. And it was in about 1950, five years after
World War II ended, that Louis went back to Japan.
And he went to a prison where those guards were
serving now as prisoners. Those guards who had
tortured him, who had starved him, who had beaten
him, who had mocked him, they were now in prison
for war crimes. And he went before them and he
talked to them. And he told them about Jesus
and gave them Bibles. And he said, I forgive
you because Jesus has forgiven me. And he said
that some of them even accepted Jesus in that
moment. An incredible story of someone who...
through so much, but because of Jesus was willing
to forgive those who wronged him. We can remember
that we can forgive because you are forgiven.
Is there somebody that you need to forgive this
week? Is there grace that you need to accept
that Jesus is pouring out, but you haven't truly
accepted it? It's my prayer that you'll open
your heart to Jesus to accept his grace and to
share it. with somebody else. Let's bow our heads
for prayer. Dear God, forgive us. We're sorry.
We know we have messed up. We know we fall short
of the glory of God. Forgive us for those words
that we have spoken, for that distraction that
we have had which has turned our eyes away from
you. Forgive us for those interactions which
did not bring glory to your name this week. Lord,
help us to accept that grace, but not just accept
it, Help us to share it, to pass it on to somebody
else, to forgive because we are forgiven. In
your name we pray.