Hey all, Pastor John here. Thanks for tuning
in to the weekly sermon podcast. We pray this
message encourages you, strengthens your faith,
and helps you to take your next step with Jesus.
If this content blesses you and you'd like to
be a part of helping us continue to bring the
gospel to life, we'd love for you to consider
supporting the ministry of Village. Your generosity
makes it possible for us to keep creating and
sharing resources like this podcast. You can
give safely and easily by visiting sacvillage
.org slash give or by heading to our website
at sacvillage .org. Thanks again for listening.
Now let's dive into this week's message. Amen.
Well, for the sake of time and for the sake of,
well, you guys' lunch plans, we're going to fly.
You guys ready to fly? Let's go. All right, here
we go. Have you ever noticed how quickly some
small relational things can turn into big things
in your life? It usually starts with something
fairly minor, like a comment someone makes that
comes off a little sharp. Or maybe it's a text
message that seemed cold in tone. You're trying
to read it and you're like, did they really mean
it this way or did they say it this way, right?
Or maybe you get a look. You guys ever gotten
a look from someone and you're like, I'm pretty
sure they hate my guts, right? I can't be for
sure, but I'm pretty sure, right? And then suddenly
there's this tension. What's wrong? What's going
on between us? Like it was just a look, right?
But I'm sure it's something, right? Or maybe
it's in the morning at home and someone's trying
to get out the door and kids are moving slow
and one of you is stressed and the other one
is frustrated, right? And before you know it,
there's friction in the relationship over something.
And then 10 minutes later, it doesn't even matter.
And if we're honest, most relational damage doesn't
come from one massive blowout moment, but it
comes from unaddressed moments stacking up over
time. Little irritations or unspoken offenses,
they never get dealt with, and it's death by
a thousand paper cuts. And over time, relationship
erodes away, and as we talked about last week,
over time, our gospel witness is compromised.
This is exactly why the New Testament gives us
so many one another commands. God didn't form
his people to live in isolation or avoidance
or to have quiet resentment in their heart. He
formed the church to be a place where grace flows
freely between people. Where we live the gospel
out in confession and forgiveness when we sin
against each other. And where we remind one another
of the forgiveness we already have in Christ
Jesus when we sin against God. And so today,
the title of today's sermon is The Grace Cycle.
The Grace Cycle. Confess to one another and forgive
one another. And it says four points. It's clothe,
confess, forgive, and pray. Those are going to
be the four points today. Confess to one another,
forgive one another. And the big idea that I
want us all to see today is this. Because Christ
has graciously forgiven us, we must humbly confess
our sins to one another and extend the same grace
-filled forgiveness so that we can experience
real healing together. We're going to walk through
those four movements today in two scriptures.
We'll be back and forth between Colossians chapter
3 and James chapter 5. So if you want to have
your Bibles open, you can put your fingers in
two different places there. Colossians 3 and
James chapter 5. So let's jump in with Colossians
chapter 3. If you're taking notes, the first
point, clothe yourself. Paul writes in Colossians
chapter 3, verse 12. Therefore, as God's chosen
ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion,
kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
Therefore, as God's chosen ones, holy and dearly
loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility,
gentleness, and patience. Paul uses the language
of put on. It's clothing language. One version
says clothe yourself. It's like something you
intentionally choose to wear, which means it
doesn't happen automatically, does it? It doesn't
happen automatically. You don't wake up accidentally
compassionate. Or you don't drift aimlessly into
patience or humility, do you? You must put it
on. Think about how your mornings work. Nobody
walks out of the house without deciding first
what they're going to wear, right? Hopefully,
right? And even if you don't care what you wear,
there's still a decision involved, right? Some
of you guys lay out your clothes the night before,
folded, laid out. You spend an hour or so before
you go to bed figuring out the coordination between
the hat, the belt, the... No? Nope. Yeah, yeah.
Some of you grab whatever is clean, right? You
hope something is clean. Some of you don't grab
whatever is clean, right? Yep. And some of you,
whenever you walk out the door, that is between
you and the Lord because we don't know what's
going on. But nobody just appears dressed, do
they? And Paul is saying, in the same way you
choose your clothes, You are called to choose
your posture toward other people. And what happens
if you don't? Well, if you don't choose your
posture towards other people, then you walk into
your day spiritually and emotionally undressed.
And then the first moment of friction, when it
hits, what happens? You're immediately reactive,
short, irritated. Defensive. You guys ever felt
that? And what Paul is showing us is the way
we relate to one another starts long before the
conflict ever comes. It starts with what we've
put on. And notice how he grounds it. He starts
it with, as God's chosen ones, holy and dearly
loved. And that's identity language. We've been
in a whole season where our theme this year is
identity. That's identity language. This is who
you are now in Christ. That's what Paul's saying.
This is who you are now in Christ, so now live
it out. Well, how? Well, what have you put on?
What did you put on today? Did you put on compassion,
kindness, humility, gentleness, patience? Because
these are the exact qualities that make confession
and forgiveness even possible. So I'll say it
this way. A harsh heart will never confess and
a proud heart will never forgive. You must prepare
your heart. I drive home and one of the features
of where I live is I get an hour's drive from
the time I leave the church till I get home.
I call it a feature. Some of you guys would not
call it a feature, I'm sure. But I call it a
feature. I get an hour's drive home, which means
I get to turn on some tunes. I get to listen
to a podcast. I get to listen to an audio book.
That's two hours every time I come down the hill.
It's awesome. But I was starting to notice when
we first moved out there about five years ago
that I would get in the car, I would listen to
some music. Maybe I'd turn on a podcast of modern
events, like current events, news podcast or
something, or a political podcast, right? And
I'd be driving along, and I'd start off like,
hey, this sounds exciting. This is interesting.
I want to hear it. And by the end of it, my heart
would be all in turmoil and twisted up, and I'd
be like, why are things the way they are, right?
Just running people off the road, you know? It's
narrow roads up there, too, so you can do that
pretty easy. And I would get home and my heart
would be all in turmoil. I'd be thinking about
all these things. I'd walk in and guess who was
there waiting for me? My wife and my kids. Hey,
it's so good to have you home. And I'm like,
right? And I'm not even mad at them. I'm in a
whole different space altogether. They have no
idea what just happened in the last hour and
where my mind was at and what I was trying to
mull over or how I was trying to figure out.
How do people even think this way, right? And
then I walk into the house and they're there
and they're like excited to see me. I'm excited
to see them in one sense, but I'm also all tore
up inside and not ready for that moment. And
so a couple of years into it, yes, it took me
a couple of years. It usually takes me a couple
of years for anything. But a couple of years
into it, I realized I needed to start making
preparations before I got home. I had to prepare
myself because there are people there who I can
be present with, who I can see how they're doing.
I can be considerate and love them in a way that
I can't do with my current arrangement. And so
on the road there, as I get off Black Oak Mine
and I make a left -hand turn onto 193 on the
left -hand side, there's a big red sign that
says Christmas Tree Farm. And the moment I see
that sign, I turn off everything. If I'm heading
home, I turn it all off because I need the next
10, 15 minutes. to begin to put on all the things
necessary to walk into that house to the people
that I'm responsible to care for and love and
lay my life down for. And I had to learn that.
I had to learn to prepare my heart for those
situations. For me, that's what it looked like
to put these things on. And if we want to live
in the grace cycle, we want to experience healing,
which is the ultimate of the grace cycle, then
we have to begin By clothing ourselves. We began
by clothing ourselves with compassion and kindness
and humility and gentleness. And it starts before
the moment we need it. What would it look like
for you in the morning or before you enter into
a circumstance to say, God, help me put on compassion.
Jesus, help me walk in humility. Holy Spirit,
give me patience with the people I'm about to
see. It's my prayer every day, all the time.
And then at the end of the day, to reflect back
and say, man, where did I live it out? Where
did I come up short? For family discipleship,
maybe it looks something like having a simple
check -in at dinner at the end of the day. Hey,
family, where did we see kindness today? And
where did we need more patience? How can we prepare
to put that on before we leave the house, not
after we need it? In church, you might find that
there's someone who's hard for you to deal with,
not theoretical, an actual person. What would
it look like to intentionally put compassion
on toward them this week? Not just here, not
just when we get together and we collide once
a week, but what would it mean to put compassion
on and begin to reach out to them, to encourage
them, to pray for them? You know, what's really
hard to coexist is resentment and prayer. You
usually give up one for the other. So you lean
into prayer and you begin to see resentment fall.
You lean into resentment. You're probably not
praying much. But we want to put that on, compassion,
kindness, gentleness toward one another. And
the reality is the grace cycle doesn't just show
up in conflict unless you put it on before. And
now, once this foundation is in place, let's
take that grace cycle to number two. And this
one is a little bit uncomfortable, but it's absolutely
necessary for us to experience the healing that
comes from this. Number two, confess your sins
to one another. Confess to one another. James
chapter five, verse 16 says, therefore confess
your sins to one another and pray for one another.
And I think you and I, if we're honest for a
second, this one is one of those commands where
we all agree with it in theory, right? That sounds
like a great idea for you to do when you're wrong,
right? I love that. But in practice, most of
us don't mind confessing in general, right? We're
like, of course, I'm a sinner like everyone else,
right? We all are. But we don't like confessing
specifically, do we? And certainly not to another
person. Joby Martin, pastor over at 1122 in Florida,
he says, you ever notice that people don't sin
anymore? We just struggle. I'm struggling with
this. I'm struggling with that. The struggle
allows for the inner tug of war to take place
that plays out in our actions. Our actions are
also, if someone watches you, you're like, wow,
you're really struggling, aren't you? Yeah, it's
struggle. It's in the name, right? And then Joby
Martin, he ends more or less, my wife kind of
paraphrases for me, but he more or less says,
stop struggling, start confessing. Stop struggling.
Start confessing. Well, what was he getting at?
Because the word confess in James literally means
to openly acknowledge, to say the same thing.
In the context of James, it means to agree with
God about what is true. That's what confess means.
Not to soften it, not to spin it or manage how
it sounds. You know, we're also really good at
giving our sins pet names, aren't we? Right?
I'm just hangry. Take away the hang. You're just
angry. We give them little pet sounds, little
cute pet names, but to confess is to say, this
is what I did. God says it's sin, and I come
into agreement with his assessment. This is what
I did. God says it's sin. I come into agreement
with his assessment. This is confession. And
the Bible says to do that with one another. This
is what I've done. I know God says it's not right.
It violates his law, his commands. And so I'm
coming into agreement with what God says. To
one another. And the reality is the Christian
life was never meant to be a private, internal
-only experience. A lot of us think, man, I'll
just do that here. Just me and JC in my heart.
Little confessions all the time, right? We good,
but just chaos and relationship all around you,
right? You ever notice how sin feels smaller
in your head? And then once you say it out loud,
you're like, ooh, that is bad, isn't it? Like
I was minimizing it, I was justifying it, and
then when I had to say it with my own lips, it
was like, ooh, that doesn't sound too good. Yeah,
I don't know if I like that. Because confession
turns the light on in a dark room. Confession
turns the light on in a dark room. Nothing new
was added to the room, it was always there, but
everything became clear, right? We have a large,
A German shepherd dog named Cody. And Cody likes
to sleep in our room at night. And we turn off
the lights and it's pitch black. We live up in
the country. And so if the moon's not out, it's
pitch black. If the moon's out, it's blazing
like the sun through our window. But most nights,
there's no moon. It's pitch black. And if anyone
needs to get up to use the restroom, you know
what we have to do? We get out of bed and we
go like this. And then you kick the dog. Oh,
sorry, Cody. And then you step really big to
try to get over him and hope you don't fall,
right? Well, what happens if I turn the light
on, right? He's still in the same spot, right?
But it becomes clear to me. It becomes obvious
to me. Confession pulls sin out of hiding and
brings it into the light of grace. Confession
is, we might think of it as a, oh my gosh, no.
And that's especially true if you're in a culture
or you're in a church environment where judgment
always follows confession. If I confess, it's
always met with judgment. It's always met with
the side eye. It's always met with the whispers
in the gospel. I can understand why confession
might be a bad thing, but biblically, confession
is not a bad thing. Like, I love, we were talking
about repentance last night, and confession is
a part of this repentance. And Anthony was talking
about how, man, repentance is not a bad thing.
It's a grace. It's amazing. We view it poorly,
right? Because we think, oh my gosh, it's going
to expose us. But it's so wonderful. He's the
example of the prodigal, right? The prodigal
who's away from the father and in the pig slop,
right? And it says he came to his senses. That's
what repentance is and confession as a part of
that. It's just coming to your senses and going,
why did I ever choose this crap? Can you say
that? You can say that? Okay, good. Why did I
ever choose this in my life? What was I thinking?
This isn't life. This isn't living, slopping
for pigs here in the pig pen. You came to your
senses. That's repentance. That's confession
through the act of confession that's turning
away and saying, I now agree, man. It's way better
to be with the Father. It's way better to be
in his house. I agree with him. Confession requires
humility. It requires coming to that place and
going, I'm in the pig pen right now. And there
is something more. And I agree with it. God says
it's so. Because everything in us wants to oppose
it. We all want to justify, yeah, I said that,
but it was because of you. Or I wouldn't have
reacted that way if they didn't dot, dot, dot.
Or we're all sinners, right, after all. And that's
our pride, protecting itself. That's all that
is. That's our pride, protecting itself. But
humility says, no qualifiers, no defense, no
spin. I need to own this. And I need to agree
with God about this thing. This matters more
than we think because without confession, relationships
never heal. They just develop scar tissue. things
get buried under a thick, protective layer of
defense, defensiveness. And that creates distance,
relationally. But there is a promise attached
with this passage in James that we confess our
sins one to another. We call them what they are
and agree with God about them. We confess them
and we pray for one another. Why? So that we
may be healed. relational, restorative healing
is on the other side of confession. If we avoid
confession, we may also be avoiding the very
thing God wants to use to restore us. And so
here's a question for you. Where are you hiding
right now? Where are you hiding right now? What's
underneath the surface in the dark that you need
to flip the light on? Call it what it is and
begin to agree with God about it. What would
it look like today to bring that into the light
with the person you've sinned against to confess
your sin? Because grace will flow where honesty
lives. Grace is there. Where honesty and humility
live. And once confession happens, well, then
we move to this next step. And back to Colossians
chapter three. Number three, forgive one another.
Colossians 3 .13 says, bearing with one another
and forgiving one another, if anyone has a grievance
against another, just as the Lord has forgiven
you, you are also to forgive. This verse is packed
with a lot, but we'll start with the opening
phrase, bearing with one another. Bearing with
one another simply means learning to live with
each other's differences. Learning to live with
each other's differences. You see, friends, not
everything is a sin. Not everything is a transgression
or offense. Some things are just people being
different. Different personalities, different
preferences, different ways of seeing the world.
Some of you guys are structured people, right?
Everything has to be in a line, all the ducks
in a row, every I dotted and T crossed, right?
You're structured people. And some of you guys
are spontaneous slash irresponsible. I can only
say that because that's me. And there is prayer
time coming in a little bit, so we'll deal with
that in a minute. Right? Some of you guys are
direct. You want to have a conversation, it just
comes out unfiltered. Right? And some of you
are a little passive aggressive. You like to
leave little breadcrumbs and hope. Aggressive,
aggressive. You like to leave a little breadcrumb
for someone to track down and figure this thing
out, right? All on your own. Some of you are
early. Some of you are on your way when you're
still getting dressed in your living room. Not
your living room. Your bedroom. Don't get dressed
in your living room. That's weird. Hey, it's
your living room. Do whatever you want. Get dressed.
That's not the point, though, right? See, if
we're not careful, we can end up just trying
to move on. If we're not careful, we can end
up treating differences like they're offenses.
But Paul says, some things you don't need to
confront, you don't need to confess, you don't
need to forgive, you just need to bear with each
other. The author and pastor Paul David Tripp,
he talks about this. He says, not every relational
tension requires forgiveness. Just a side note,
just because it doesn't require forgiveness or
repentance doesn't mean that an apology wouldn't
be in order. But not every tension requires forgiveness.
Because not every tension in life is caused by
sins and confession and forgiveness are for sin
or sins. What the Bible calls a sin. But a lot
of the time what we experience is just human
limitations or weakness or differences. You forgot
to do something that you said you were going
to do because you got distracted. You misunderstood
a text message. because you were tired, or you
say something true, but you say it in a direct
way, without any of the social pleasantries or
decorum, and someone takes it the wrong way.
That's not sin. That's called being human. And
all of us, last I checked, are human, right?
We don't need to address it or talk it out. We
extend grace. We absorb it. We let it go. We
move on. It also means not getting offended on
someone else's behalf. It means bearing with
one another. But then Paul shifts and says, and
forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance.
And now we're talking about something different.
Now we're talking about actual sin. Something
the scripture would call wrong. Harsh words or
rash words. Gossip or... selfishness, a genuine
sinful injury. And in those moments, we're not
called to just bear with, we're called to forgive.
So you hear that and you go, oh, here's when
they really hurt me. What am I supposed to do?
What does the word say? When are they really
hurt me? Not just be human, but they really hurt
me. Oh yeah, just being human, that's bear with.
Really hurt? That's forgive. And Paul uses this
powerful word for forgive. It really just means
graciously cancel a debt. In other words, when
someone sins against you, they owe you something.
When someone was a human, being a human, they
don't owe you anything. But when someone sins
against you, they do owe you something. And forgiveness
says, I'm choosing to release the debt, to absorb
the cost, the impact, instead of holding it against
you and over you. Why would we do that? Why would
we ever do that? Paul says next, because just
as the Lord has forgiven, That's the anchor.
That's the tether of this whole teaching. Because
when you look at what Christ has forgiven you
or how he has forgiven you, it changes how you
hold on to what others owe you, even legitimately
owe you. Jesus didn't minimize your sin. Jesus
didn't ignore it. He didn't say, it's no big
deal. He absorbed the cost of yours and my sin
in his death. Colossians 2 says he canceled the
record of debt that stood against us. Amen? Hallelujah?
Not by pretending it wasn't there, not rose -colored
glasses towards us, but by paying for it at the
cross. And so now we forgive from what we have
received. Forgiveness doesn't mean pretending
it didn't hurt. It doesn't mean that there aren't
boundaries that need to be set. It doesn't mean
that trust is instantly rebelled because there's
another factor which is forgiveness is not the
same as reconciliation. Reconciliation requires
two people. But forgiveness is something you
can do before God regardless of where the other
person stands on the issue. And so there's a
vertical step before there's ever a horizontal
step. You start by entrusting it to God. God,
you see this. You know the pain. You know the
cost. You've paid for all the sins of mankind.
You know what was done here, and I release this
to you. You are judge. I am not. And then, If
there is confession of wrongdoing by the one
who sinned, forgiveness can be introduced as
a relational transaction that leads to reconciliation.
I forgive you. Not halfway, no strings attached.
Freely forgive you. Some of you, you're carrying
something right now. Some of you are holding
on to a debt. And it's costing you. You may not
be able to quantify the cost, but unforgiveness
doesn't just keep them in prison. It also puts
you in prison with them. But forgiveness breaks
down the doors. And it's not because they earned
it. It's not because they said the right thing.
It's because Christ gave it to you freely. And
so here's a question. Where do you need to bear
with someone? And where do you need to forgive?
Don't confuse the two. Some things you just need
to absorb and let go. Other things you entrust
to God and then you stand eager and ready and
waiting to release the other person from their
debt when confession happens so that reconciliation
can happen. This is how the grace cycle moves
forward. We clothe ourselves with compassion.
We confess humbly and we forgive freely just
as we were forgiven in Christ. And when that
happens, well, the dial turns to number four.
Experience healing. Back to James chapter 5,
16. Confess your sins to one another and pray
for one another so that you may be healed. And
don't miss this. Not just confess, not just forgive
and move on, but confess, forgive, and then pray.
Why? Because God brings healing through it. The
word healed carries the idea of restored, made
whole again, at oneness, where we get the idea
of atonement. At oneness, which means God doesn't
just want to deal with our offenses. He wants
to restore what was actually damaged by our offenses.
And the way he often does this is through prayer
with one another. Not just private prayer, but
shared prayer. I'm with you in this. Let's bring
this to God together. And the best place to start,
if it's possible, is with the person involved.
Pray with them. Church people, we can get a little
squirrely, right? We can use prayer as a way
of spreading the news, right? Come pray with
me, and you come pray with me, and let's just
pray about this issue, and then pretty soon we've
told the whole church through our prayer requests,
right? No, the idea of prayer is to bring healing
to the relationship. So we take the step of praying
with one another, and whatever way will bring
healing, to what is broken, what is damaged.
And God meets us in that space. He begins to
restore what was broken. And this is not about
individuals. It's not just about what we do individually,
but it's also about who we are becoming as a
church, what kind of church we are, what kind
of gathered up, called out ones we are. Do we
become a church where people hide and where everything
looks fine on the surface, but the moment you
get underneath, there's all kinds of distance
and tension and all kinds of silent treatment
or whatever's going on, like all kinds of things
under the surface? Or are we becoming a church
where it's safe to be honest and humble, where
we can expose and say, I'm struggling with this,
I have done this, and God does call it this,
and I want to turn and agree with him. Will you
pray with me? And this doesn't become a drama.
Can we be that church? Could we be those people?
Instead of judgment, grace upon grace upon grace
is met in that moment. The kind of community
the New Testament envisioned for the church.
So after confession, after forgiveness, don't
move on too quickly. Pray. Pray, God, would you
heal what was damaged here? Pray, would you restore
trust? Pray, would you bring peace where there
was tension? Pray, would you bring grace to this
situation? And in your family, again, it might
look like a rhythm of... Just taking a moment
at least once a week and sitting down as a family
and going, hey, do we need to clear the air?
As parents, it might mean that we step into the
role of the first confessor. It's hard when you're
a parent and you kind of feel like you're on
your high horse, but you step down, you stoop
down and you say, I was wrong. I did this. God
says this about it. I was wrong. And I'm agreeing
with him. My son, Kaya, or Gabe, or Nate, I've
had to do it with all of them. Will you pray
for me? I need your faith to move forward with
this. But we might build into our rhythm weekly
as a family. Hey, we're doing a check -in. I'm
going to lead the way. I'm going to confess,
or I'm going to offer forgiveness, or I'm going
to model that with my spouse right in front of
you, or whatever it is. that might create those
moments of discipleship where you're modeling
the gospel right in front of your family. If
you're in a disciple group, what if this wasn't
rare? What if this was normal? What if it's just
normal? Hey, I did this, God calls it that, and
I want to agree with him. Will you pray for me?
That's just the way it is, that it doesn't end
up becoming drama. When we live in the grace
cycle, healing follows. And that leads us to
kind of this question underneath as we wrap it
up. Where does this power come to live this way
in this life? And if we're honest, it's not natural.
It doesn't come natural to us to confess humbly
or forgive or to seek healing through prayer.
That's not where we naturally go. That goes against
everything in us. And that's where the gospel
comes in and shines bright and meets us there.
Because the gospel, well, you see this, if this
message today is just landing on you as, great,
I'm going to try harder to be more honest and
I'm going to try to be more forgiving. You're
going to walk out of here either discouraged
or pretending. This kind of life does not come
from willpower. It comes from the gospel of Jesus
Christ. Everything we've talked about today,
Jesus has already done perfectly. And not in
some general sense, but specifically in how he
dealt with our sins. Romans chapter five in verse
eight says, while we were still sinners, Christ
what? Christ died for us. He didn't wait till
you had it all cleaned up. He began to move toward
you in your sin. And Colossians 2 says that he
canceled the record of debt that stood against
us. Every sin, every failure, every moment we
chose ourselves over God, ignored? No. Excused?
No. Paid for. Absorbed at the cross. And even
at the cross in Luke chapter 23, what is Jesus
praying while he's on the cross? Father, forgive
them. That's the kind of forgiveness we've received,
which means you are not starting from empty.
You are starting from grace. You don't confess
to earn forgiveness. You confess because you've
already been forgiven. Debt canceled, free, redeemed.
You don't forgive others to prove something.
You forgive because something has been given
to you. Someone has forgiven you more. I want
to read Matthew chapter 18 really quick. I threw
this in at the last minute, so it's not in my
print here, but I'm going to turn over there
and I'm just going to read it really quick before
I just move on with what I have written. And
I just want to lay it out there. God's word doing
God's work in God's people. Amen. Then Peter
approached him. This is Jesus in chapter 18,
verse 21 of Matthew. Then Peter approached him
and asked, Lord, how many times must I forgive
my brother or sister when they sin against me?
As many as seven times? I tell you, not as many
as seven times. And Peter's probably going, that's
what I thought. Three times, right? But 70 times
seven. For this reason, the kingdom of heaven
can be compared to a king who wanted to settle
accounts with his servants. When he began to
settle accounts, one who owed him 10 ,000 talents,
10 ,000 talents, sidebar, 20 years salary. 20
years salary. So get that in your mind. 20 years
salary. One servant owed the king 20 years salary
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
that he had be sold to pay the debt. At this,
the servant fell face down before him and said,
be patient with me and I will pay you everything.
Then the master of the servant had compassion
on him and released him and forgave him the loan.
20 -year salary. That servant went out and found
one of his fellow servants who owed him 100 denarii,
100 denarii, one day's pay. One day's pay. I
need my reading glasses. Went out and found the
one. 100 denarii. He grabbed him, the other servant
grabbed the servant that owed him one day's pay,
grabbed him and started choking him and said,
pay what you owe. And at this, his fellow servant
fell down and began to beg him, be patient with
me and I will pay you back. But he wasn't willing.
Instead, he went and threw him into prison until
he could pay 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. And then after he had summoned
him, his master said to him, you wicked servant,
I forgave you all that debt because you begged
me. Shouldn't you 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. So also my heavenly father will
do to you unless every one of you forgives his
brother or sister from your heart. I don't have
time to go verse by verse through that. But do
you get the sense that God takes forgiveness
seriously? especially if you've received it from
him. In Christ, you are already secure. In Christ,
your debt is paid. You are already loved more
than you can imagine. You are already forgiven
more than you dare dream. And so you're now free
to release others. Not because it's easy, but
because it's already been done for you. And if
you're here today and you've never actually received
the forgiveness of God, this is where it begins.
Not a try -harder sermon, but a surrender message.
It begins by admitting, I need grace. It's the
only way to deal with all of my sin. And it moves
to believing that Jesus died to cancel the debt
I owed and rose from the grave to prove it and
to show that he is the life I've always needed.
And receiving. Receive the forgiveness and new
life you could never earn on your own. And for
those of you who are in Christ, this is your
invitation. Remember the gospel again and live
like it toward others. Step into the grace you've
already been given. Confess humbly. Forgive freely.
The cross has already made it all possible for
you. I just remind us that the credibility of
the church's witness is tied directly to how
we treat one another. And this is one of the
clearest ways the world sees the gospel lived
out. Do we look like the cross? Do we look like
the place where our debt was absorbed by Christ?
Or do we look like everyone else? Keeping records,
holding things over one another. And so here's
what I want to invite us into. In a few minutes,
we're going to receive communion. And the early
church had a practice. That stems from their
understanding of Paul's instruction and understanding
of what communion meant and the unity around
it. And it begins with something like this question.
Is there something you need to confess? Is there
some way you've been living in dark, hidden,
where you haven't agreed with God yet on something
and you need to begin to agree with God that
his word is true and what he says about something
is true and then bring yourself into alignment
with that truth, walking out of here free. Remember,
this is not a bad thing. This is God's grace
at restoration. This is through repentance and
faith that you can be healed. He's inviting you
to confess freely. Maybe for some of you, there's
a conversation you've been avoiding or a sin
that you've been minimizing. Something that needs
to come into the light or someone that you need
to forgive or a debt that you're still holding
over someone. A moment that you keep replaying
over and over and over and over again in your
head. Or maybe you need relational healing through
prayer. Maybe it's for you. Maybe it's for you
and someone else and you've gone through the
process of confess and forgive but you want to
receive prayer. My wife, her father, sinned greatly
against her. In many ways, we don't have time
to get into it. He's passed on now. He sinned
greatly against my wife. And toward the back
half of his life, the last year or so, she had
an opportunity to again be in contact with him
as he was going through a suffering time in the
hospital. because of a lot of life choices he
had made. And he opened the door for that, only
to find out it was another transgression, an
attempt to manipulate her for money and other
things. And then he decided one day that he was
going to light up a cigarette while he had his
oxygen on. And yeah, you can imagine that wasn't
a good... good experience there. But shortly
after that, he passed away. And so some of you,
I know, we're talking about relational strife
or things that they're not even present now.
You can't go to them and deal with it. They're
gone. And my wife had to reconcile with the reality
that she could not reconcile with him, first
off, because he didn't want it. He never confessed.
He never repented. He never leaned in. And so
reconciliation wasn't even possible. But when
my wife realized, it's like, where's my wife?
There she is. When my wife realized that and
came to the awareness that forgiveness was possible,
that she could entrust it to God, she could be
free. She could walk forward, not with hate in
her heart, or not with a, you owe me something,
but what actually became a tenderhearted sorrow
that he would live in such a way before his God
and creator. And so for some of you, it is, maybe
the prayer is, yeah, they're gone and I can't.
deal with them, but I can go before the Lord
and trust it to him. And I want to do that today.
I haven't done it, but I want to do it today.
I want healing that comes through laying it before
the Lord and trusting him and praying together
with a brother or sister. And so the band's going
to lead us in a song. We're going to receive
communion after that, but we're going to just
respond now.