WEBVTT 00:00:34.179 --> 00:00:37.079 Good morning. Good morning. We're in a teaching 00:00:37.079 --> 00:00:39.219 series this month that's focused on forgiveness. 00:00:40.259 --> 00:00:42.960 We have a sister church in Manila, Philippines 00:00:42.960 --> 00:00:45.619 that a number of our people in moving to the 00:00:45.619 --> 00:00:47.840 Philippines have gone to. And I just got a text 00:00:47.840 --> 00:00:49.560 this morning from one of the sisters that are 00:00:49.560 --> 00:00:51.780 there. It's like, hey, look, we're in the same 00:00:51.780 --> 00:00:55.280 series on forgiveness over there. So maybe it's 00:00:55.280 --> 00:00:57.359 an indication that we all have a lot to forgive, 00:00:57.460 --> 00:00:59.619 or maybe this is really the core of what the 00:00:59.619 --> 00:01:02.299 gospel is. It's about forgiveness. What does 00:01:02.299 --> 00:01:03.960 it look like to receive it and to give it back? 00:01:04.230 --> 00:01:06.829 This morning, after I launched it last week, 00:01:06.870 --> 00:01:11.069 we have a guest speaker that many of you will 00:01:11.069 --> 00:01:14.109 recognize. And before I call him up here, let 00:01:14.109 --> 00:01:16.489 me just tell a little bit about him. So Dr. Craig 00:01:16.489 --> 00:01:20.510 and his wife, Rebecca, have been in pastoral 00:01:20.510 --> 00:01:22.829 work as well as other ministry where they're 00:01:22.829 --> 00:01:24.930 helping to equip leaders within churches across 00:01:24.930 --> 00:01:28.670 the Southeast Asia region. And they spend, Dr. 00:01:28.849 --> 00:01:32.150 Craig spends a number of his months here in Bangkok. 00:01:32.370 --> 00:01:34.849 And so this church is kind of like his home church 00:01:34.849 --> 00:01:38.629 away from home. And he came and he preached for 00:01:38.629 --> 00:01:41.790 us in February. And so he's going to help take 00:01:41.790 --> 00:01:43.790 the pulpit for the next two weeks. And then I'll 00:01:43.790 --> 00:01:46.310 close it off at the end of the month. Good morning. 00:01:46.849 --> 00:01:51.349 It is certainly good to be back with you. And 00:01:51.349 --> 00:01:54.049 thank you for giving me the privilege to share 00:01:54.049 --> 00:01:58.260 God's word with you this morning. Now this morning 00:01:58.260 --> 00:02:02.359 we are in a series, a continued series of forgiveness, 00:02:02.519 --> 00:02:05.280 and we're calling it the oxygen of the kingdom. 00:02:05.799 --> 00:02:09.819 And if you remember last week, Phil had you breathe 00:02:09.819 --> 00:02:12.500 in and hold your breath, and at first you were 00:02:12.500 --> 00:02:14.099 comfortable with that, but then all of a sudden 00:02:14.099 --> 00:02:16.280 the carbon dioxide started building in your lungs, 00:02:16.379 --> 00:02:18.539 and then you just felt like you had to breathe 00:02:18.539 --> 00:02:22.460 it out. And the importance of forgiveness in 00:02:22.460 --> 00:02:25.759 our lives is absolutely crucial to our growth 00:02:25.759 --> 00:02:29.280 in Christ. And so one thing you might not know 00:02:29.280 --> 00:02:33.159 about me is that I have, I'm a scuba instructor. 00:02:33.960 --> 00:02:36.460 And so one of the things that we have to teach 00:02:36.460 --> 00:02:37.900 our students when they're learning to scuba, 00:02:37.939 --> 00:02:39.199 do we have any scuba divers in here? Would you 00:02:39.199 --> 00:02:42.490 raise your hand? Wow, we got a few. And one of 00:02:42.490 --> 00:02:44.590 the things you have to experience when you're 00:02:44.590 --> 00:02:46.310 learning how to scuba dive is an out -of -air 00:02:46.310 --> 00:02:48.509 experience where your instructor turns off your 00:02:48.509 --> 00:02:51.169 air for a moment and where you feel what it feels 00:02:51.169 --> 00:02:55.050 like to not have any air and then where she turns 00:02:55.050 --> 00:02:58.569 it back on so that all of a sudden you get to 00:02:58.569 --> 00:03:00.750 experience, okay, you know, I get to breathe 00:03:00.750 --> 00:03:04.650 and I don't have to go be with Jesus. But what 00:03:04.650 --> 00:03:06.610 I want to share with you this morning is that 00:03:06.610 --> 00:03:09.580 I'm going to give you a little bit of a... of 00:03:09.580 --> 00:03:12.539 an out -of -air experience. I'm going to turn 00:03:12.539 --> 00:03:15.379 off your air, okay? I'm going to turn off the 00:03:15.379 --> 00:03:19.740 oxygen, and I'm going to show you a passage that's 00:03:19.740 --> 00:03:21.680 pretty difficult in the Scriptures, and then 00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:24.419 I'm going to turn it back on. But in order to 00:03:24.419 --> 00:03:27.240 turn off that air, I'm going to share with you 00:03:27.240 --> 00:03:31.039 something about myself. And so, because as I 00:03:31.039 --> 00:03:32.879 was thinking about forgiveness, and I was thinking 00:03:32.879 --> 00:03:36.759 about when people wrong us, I started thinking 00:03:36.759 --> 00:03:40.740 about the hard work of forgiveness. And I started 00:03:40.740 --> 00:03:46.000 thinking about the fact that I'm a sinner. And 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:48.960 that I'm a sinner that's saved by grace. And 00:03:48.960 --> 00:03:51.080 rather than come up here and tell you a story 00:03:51.080 --> 00:03:54.919 of someone who wronged me and that I forgave 00:03:54.919 --> 00:03:57.620 them, I thought maybe I would just tell you a 00:03:57.620 --> 00:04:00.939 story about someone that I wronged who had to 00:04:00.939 --> 00:04:04.500 forgive me. And so you can see that I have a 00:04:04.500 --> 00:04:06.599 doctorate by my name, and I will tell you that 00:04:06.599 --> 00:04:10.680 I am educated beyond my intelligence. But I will 00:04:10.680 --> 00:04:12.520 also tell you that I have some other letters 00:04:12.520 --> 00:04:16.740 after my name, and they're not PhD, but rather 00:04:16.740 --> 00:04:24.600 OCD, and ADHD, and PTSD. I have all three of 00:04:24.600 --> 00:04:26.879 those disorders. And so I'm going to share with 00:04:26.879 --> 00:04:29.639 you and be open and honest with you that my life 00:04:29.639 --> 00:04:32.540 has been a life of extreme downs and extreme 00:04:32.540 --> 00:04:35.480 ups. You know, I mean, my wife has almost died 00:04:35.480 --> 00:04:37.540 on me three times, and I'm thankful that she's 00:04:37.540 --> 00:04:40.720 here. You know, I will tell you that my triplets, 00:04:40.860 --> 00:04:44.480 you know, they're doing great now. There was 00:04:44.480 --> 00:04:47.379 a moment where I had PTSD because of a still 00:04:47.379 --> 00:04:49.180 where I've had to go to counseling and yet I 00:04:49.180 --> 00:04:53.439 did not know that I had OCD or ADHD or PTSD until 00:04:53.439 --> 00:04:55.480 about seven years ago when all of a sudden I 00:04:55.480 --> 00:04:57.360 was talking with a Christian counselor and they 00:04:57.360 --> 00:05:00.120 started sharing with me some things and some 00:05:00.120 --> 00:05:02.660 observations that they noticed in me and they 00:05:02.660 --> 00:05:04.620 started asking me some questions and I'm like, 00:05:04.660 --> 00:05:12.100 oh, wow. And I was diagnosed with those Ds. And 00:05:12.100 --> 00:05:14.819 in being diagnosed, I went through a lot of counseling 00:05:14.819 --> 00:05:18.699 and had to overcome a lot. But what I recognized 00:05:18.699 --> 00:05:23.160 was is there were some things that, and I don't 00:05:23.160 --> 00:05:25.399 want to blame it on the OCD or blame it on the 00:05:25.399 --> 00:05:28.720 PTSD, but there were some things that because 00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:31.439 of those disorders that I have that affected 00:05:31.439 --> 00:05:38.300 other people's lives. And ways that I sinned 00:05:38.300 --> 00:05:43.730 against others. in ways that hurt them. And one 00:05:43.730 --> 00:05:46.790 of those people was one of those triplets that 00:05:46.790 --> 00:05:49.689 God healed, my son. You see, I've got three daughters 00:05:49.689 --> 00:05:53.050 and I've got one son. And my daughters never 00:05:53.050 --> 00:05:55.410 had to be hard on any of them because I never 00:05:55.410 --> 00:05:57.069 had to ask them to do their homework. I never 00:05:57.069 --> 00:05:59.310 had to ask them to do their chores. I never had 00:05:59.310 --> 00:06:01.009 to ask them to do anything. They just did it. 00:06:01.329 --> 00:06:03.470 And I realized not all girls are that way, but 00:06:03.470 --> 00:06:06.430 my daughters are. And so they were super easy. 00:06:07.129 --> 00:06:10.170 But my son, on the other hand, I always had to 00:06:10.170 --> 00:06:11.870 ask him if he did his homework. Yeah, I don't 00:06:11.870 --> 00:06:13.930 have any homework, Dad. And I'm like, you know 00:06:13.930 --> 00:06:16.089 what? They got this app from the school that 00:06:16.089 --> 00:06:17.610 says that you haven't turned in your last 10 00:06:17.610 --> 00:06:21.550 assignments. And I became to the point where 00:06:21.550 --> 00:06:24.670 I started really overcoaching him. And rather 00:06:24.670 --> 00:06:31.069 than trusting God and letting God do what he 00:06:31.069 --> 00:06:34.550 was going to do in my son, instead, I allowed 00:06:34.550 --> 00:06:39.920 my obsessive compulsive. I allowed my post -traumatic 00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:42.860 stress nature to all of a sudden, you know, just 00:06:42.860 --> 00:06:48.160 overcoach him in an overly intense way. And it 00:06:48.160 --> 00:06:50.839 really affected him. Now, the interesting thing 00:06:50.839 --> 00:06:54.079 is, is he's a great kid. He has the sweetest 00:06:54.079 --> 00:06:57.779 heart. And he came into his own. I mean, he's 00:06:57.779 --> 00:07:00.920 19 years old now. And he's a responsible kid. 00:07:00.959 --> 00:07:02.519 I was always concerned that he was going to be 00:07:02.519 --> 00:07:04.480 irresponsible, that he wasn't going to be able 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:05.819 to have a family because he wouldn't be able 00:07:05.819 --> 00:07:08.040 to take care of them. And the reality is, is 00:07:08.040 --> 00:07:09.360 I think he was just like every other teenage 00:07:09.360 --> 00:07:14.920 boy. Now my son's 19 and I worry he's over -responsible. 00:07:15.399 --> 00:07:19.500 You know, he's married at 19. He's got a full 00:07:19.500 --> 00:07:22.350 -time job. He's a full -time student. He's a 00:07:22.350 --> 00:07:24.290 full -time job working with special needs students. 00:07:24.449 --> 00:07:27.509 He's a full -time student studying to become 00:07:27.509 --> 00:07:30.970 a teacher. And not only is he married, but he 00:07:30.970 --> 00:07:33.889 also has two puppies. And so you want to talk 00:07:33.889 --> 00:07:36.490 about responsibility. This kid's 19 years old 00:07:36.490 --> 00:07:38.449 and he's got all these responsibilities. And 00:07:38.449 --> 00:07:41.600 you might say, see? You did a good job. Well, 00:07:41.740 --> 00:07:44.259 no, God did a good job by his mercy and grace, 00:07:44.360 --> 00:07:47.480 but the reality is that when we had some discussions, 00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:50.240 there were things in which I deeply hurt him 00:07:50.240 --> 00:07:59.019 because of my sin. And I had to ask for his forgiveness. 00:08:00.620 --> 00:08:05.459 And so forgiveness is hard. Because not only 00:08:05.459 --> 00:08:07.459 did I have to ask for his forgiveness, but I 00:08:07.459 --> 00:08:10.699 had to forgive myself. How many of you dads know 00:08:10.699 --> 00:08:13.019 what it feels like? And I bet you you do, because 00:08:13.019 --> 00:08:14.779 I bet you there's a number of dads in here that 00:08:14.779 --> 00:08:17.439 maybe were hard on one or two or all of your 00:08:17.439 --> 00:08:21.160 children. And it still haunts you because you 00:08:21.160 --> 00:08:23.860 think, I could have been there more for them 00:08:23.860 --> 00:08:26.480 emotionally. I could have been less hard on them. 00:08:26.860 --> 00:08:29.180 And you have these regrets and you can't go back 00:08:29.180 --> 00:08:32.440 in time. You can't go back in time. You can't 00:08:32.440 --> 00:08:34.840 undo it. All you can go is forward into the future. 00:08:34.919 --> 00:08:39.899 All you can do is apologize and allow the Holy 00:08:39.899 --> 00:08:44.679 Spirit to transform you for the future. But you 00:08:44.679 --> 00:08:46.840 can't go back and you can't undo what's been 00:08:46.840 --> 00:08:51.659 done. And so we're going to talk about the hard 00:08:51.659 --> 00:08:55.019 work of forgiveness this morning. And as we turn 00:08:55.019 --> 00:08:58.029 off the air, As we turn off the air, because 00:08:58.029 --> 00:09:00.649 right now you're breathing in 21 % oxygen, you're 00:09:00.649 --> 00:09:04.990 breathing in 79 % nitrogen, and imagine that 00:09:04.990 --> 00:09:07.129 you're underwater with a regulator in your mouth 00:09:07.129 --> 00:09:08.950 and all of a sudden your instructor turns off 00:09:08.950 --> 00:09:10.769 your air and all of a sudden you breathe in three 00:09:10.769 --> 00:09:14.590 breaths and then it just stops. And you start 00:09:14.590 --> 00:09:16.370 to panic a little bit and then your instructor 00:09:16.370 --> 00:09:18.450 turns that air back on. I'm going to turn the 00:09:18.450 --> 00:09:21.669 air back on, but we need to talk about why it's 00:09:21.669 --> 00:09:24.549 so hard to forgive. And the reason why it's so 00:09:24.549 --> 00:09:27.820 hard to forgive According to the passage that 00:09:27.820 --> 00:09:29.919 we're going to be looking at today in Luke chapter 00:09:29.919 --> 00:09:35.500 17, it is so hard to forgive because the church 00:09:35.500 --> 00:09:38.580 itself is not made up of natural friends. It's 00:09:38.580 --> 00:09:43.299 made up of actually natural enemies. You see, 00:09:43.360 --> 00:09:45.659 inside the church, and the church is made up 00:09:45.659 --> 00:09:47.740 of families, and the church is made up of marriages, 00:09:47.919 --> 00:09:51.080 and the church is made up of people that oftentimes 00:09:51.080 --> 00:09:55.830 somehow wind up together. and wonder how they 00:09:55.830 --> 00:09:58.610 ever did. And so I'm going to read you this quote. 00:09:58.649 --> 00:10:00.889 And I think that one of the things I love about 00:10:00.889 --> 00:10:05.230 ECB is that ECB has people from over 70 countries. 00:10:05.830 --> 00:10:08.669 And I think this quote is actually very appropriate 00:10:08.669 --> 00:10:12.529 to this congregation. And I think this is one 00:10:12.529 --> 00:10:14.909 of the best congregations that I've ever had 00:10:14.909 --> 00:10:18.529 the privilege to be a part of. But there's a 00:10:18.529 --> 00:10:21.429 commentator that I love named D .A. Carson, and 00:10:21.429 --> 00:10:23.350 he says this. He says, the reason there are so 00:10:23.350 --> 00:10:25.690 many exhortations in the New Testament for Christians 00:10:25.690 --> 00:10:28.210 to love other Christians is because the church 00:10:28.210 --> 00:10:31.330 itself is not made up of natural friends. It's 00:10:31.330 --> 00:10:34.330 made up of natural enemies. What binds us together 00:10:34.330 --> 00:10:38.570 is not common education, common race, common 00:10:38.570 --> 00:10:42.190 income levels, common politics, common nationality, 00:10:42.230 --> 00:10:45.049 common accents, common jobs, or anything else 00:10:45.049 --> 00:10:48.990 of that sort. Christians come together not because 00:10:48.990 --> 00:10:51.470 they form a natural collocation, but because 00:10:51.470 --> 00:10:55.870 they have all been saved by Jesus Christ and 00:10:55.870 --> 00:11:00.809 they owe him a common allegiance. In this light, 00:11:00.889 --> 00:11:04.389 we are a band of natural enemies who love one 00:11:04.389 --> 00:11:08.090 another for Jesus' sake. That is the only reason 00:11:08.090 --> 00:11:11.169 why John 13, 34 through 35 makes sense when... 00:11:11.399 --> 00:11:13.840 Jesus says, a new command I give you, love one 00:11:13.840 --> 00:11:16.379 another as I have loved you. Christian love will 00:11:16.379 --> 00:11:19.539 stand out and bear witness to Jesus because it 00:11:19.539 --> 00:11:24.279 is a display, for Jesus' sake, of mutual love 00:11:24.279 --> 00:11:30.539 among social incompatibles. You know, we're not 00:11:30.539 --> 00:11:32.259 here because we all have the same interests. 00:11:32.759 --> 00:11:34.340 We're not here because we're all from the same 00:11:34.340 --> 00:11:36.240 country. We're not here because we all speak 00:11:36.240 --> 00:11:39.559 the same language. We are here because of Jesus 00:11:39.559 --> 00:11:42.799 Christ and because we have all been forgiven. 00:11:45.799 --> 00:11:48.399 And as we think of what have we been forgiven 00:11:48.399 --> 00:11:51.830 from, Because sometimes we think we're pretty 00:11:51.830 --> 00:11:54.370 good people and oftentimes what happens is that 00:11:54.370 --> 00:11:56.610 we think, well, I didn't do this and I didn't 00:11:56.610 --> 00:11:59.090 do that and we live the Christian life and all 00:11:59.090 --> 00:12:00.590 of a sudden we think we're doing better and better 00:12:00.590 --> 00:12:02.950 and better but the cross just gets smaller and 00:12:02.950 --> 00:12:05.169 smaller and smaller but the reality is is the 00:12:05.169 --> 00:12:08.750 more that we see how sinful we are and the more 00:12:08.750 --> 00:12:11.370 we see how much we need a Savior, the bigger 00:12:11.370 --> 00:12:15.809 the cross gets and actually that's what God wants 00:12:15.809 --> 00:12:21.159 for us is to see the grace of our Lord Jesus 00:12:21.159 --> 00:12:24.299 Christ, to be rooted in the grace of our Lord 00:12:24.299 --> 00:12:29.379 Jesus Christ. And so we understand that in today's 00:12:29.379 --> 00:12:32.740 message from Luke 17, verses 1 through 10, that 00:12:32.740 --> 00:12:34.940 Jesus is going to teach us something about forgiveness. 00:12:35.120 --> 00:12:36.840 He's going to teach us why forgiveness is so 00:12:36.840 --> 00:12:39.279 difficult and why we need it. He's going to teach 00:12:39.279 --> 00:12:43.279 us what it looks like to forgive, and he's going 00:12:43.279 --> 00:12:47.059 to teach us how we can get the faith. we need 00:12:47.059 --> 00:12:49.659 to overcome our inability to fully forgive. And 00:12:49.659 --> 00:12:51.659 he's actually going to show us that we actually 00:12:51.659 --> 00:12:53.700 already have the faith, we just need to tap into 00:12:53.700 --> 00:12:57.440 it. And so here's the question. The first question 00:12:57.440 --> 00:12:59.700 that we're going to ask, and that is that we're 00:12:59.700 --> 00:13:01.659 going to ask Jesus to answer, is why is forgiveness 00:13:01.659 --> 00:13:04.740 so difficult and why do we need it? Now, just 00:13:04.740 --> 00:13:06.899 stick with me for a second as the oxygen is getting 00:13:06.899 --> 00:13:09.759 turned off, as the air is getting turned off, 00:13:09.899 --> 00:13:14.980 and as you might start to panic, because sin 00:13:14.980 --> 00:13:18.139 is serious. And sometimes I think that we don't 00:13:18.139 --> 00:13:20.840 think about that in the church. Now, we know 00:13:20.840 --> 00:13:23.820 that it's true. We know that it's true, but sometimes 00:13:23.820 --> 00:13:28.240 we just kind of brush our sin underneath a rug 00:13:28.240 --> 00:13:31.059 or we brush someone else's sin underneath a rug 00:13:31.059 --> 00:13:34.139 and we tend not to think about what someone else 00:13:34.139 --> 00:13:36.340 has maybe done to us because there are serious 00:13:36.340 --> 00:13:38.700 sins that have been committed against some people 00:13:38.700 --> 00:13:43.379 in this room. Serious sins. And you might... 00:13:43.769 --> 00:13:45.570 Not even want to think about it because you just 00:13:45.570 --> 00:13:48.350 don't want to bring up those memories because 00:13:48.350 --> 00:13:50.830 you don't want to feel the pain of what someone 00:13:50.830 --> 00:13:53.309 caused you. Or there may be serious sin that 00:13:53.309 --> 00:13:55.110 some of you have committed in this room like 00:13:55.110 --> 00:13:59.110 I just shared with you. Where you are so hard 00:13:59.110 --> 00:14:01.169 on your children or you are so disrespectful 00:14:01.169 --> 00:14:06.230 to your parents. And you just think, you know 00:14:06.230 --> 00:14:07.789 what, I don't even want to think about that. 00:14:09.110 --> 00:14:12.230 And yet in order to really understand and to 00:14:12.230 --> 00:14:15.240 learn, about forgiveness, we have to understand 00:14:15.240 --> 00:14:19.519 about the seriousness of our sin. Now, in Luke 00:14:19.519 --> 00:14:22.299 17, verse 1, Jesus said to his disciples, things 00:14:22.299 --> 00:14:24.879 that cause people to stumble or things that cause 00:14:24.879 --> 00:14:29.259 people to sin are bound to come. But woe to anyone 00:14:29.259 --> 00:14:33.139 through whom they come. So when you think about 00:14:33.139 --> 00:14:35.740 that, woe to anyone through whom they come, what 00:14:35.740 --> 00:14:39.259 Jesus is helping us to see is that whether we're 00:14:39.259 --> 00:14:41.080 the perpetrator, whether we're the ones who have 00:14:41.080 --> 00:14:43.860 caused others to sin, or whether someone else 00:14:43.860 --> 00:14:48.899 has caused us to sin, and by the way, a lack 00:14:48.899 --> 00:14:54.220 of forgiveness is a sin, that woe to anyone through 00:14:54.220 --> 00:14:57.539 whom they come, and here's what it says would 00:14:57.539 --> 00:15:00.820 be better to happen. It says it would be better 00:15:00.820 --> 00:15:03.539 for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone 00:15:03.539 --> 00:15:05.379 tied around their neck. You know what a millstone 00:15:05.379 --> 00:15:09.740 is? It was a big stone that was used for grinding 00:15:09.740 --> 00:15:14.120 up grains. And so it had a hole in the middle. 00:15:14.120 --> 00:15:18.360 It was on a spindle. And ox would turn it around 00:15:18.360 --> 00:15:20.840 in a circle to grind the grain. And it was very, 00:15:20.879 --> 00:15:24.360 very heavy. And Jesus said it would be better 00:15:24.360 --> 00:15:27.279 for them to be thrown into the sea. into the 00:15:27.279 --> 00:15:30.440 ocean with a millstone tied around their neck 00:15:30.440 --> 00:15:33.679 than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. 00:15:33.919 --> 00:15:35.759 Now, who are the little ones? Well, you know, 00:15:35.759 --> 00:15:37.899 there's some interpretation right there, but 00:15:37.899 --> 00:15:40.419 actually most commentators agree that the little 00:15:40.419 --> 00:15:44.240 ones are basically anyone who's a child of God. 00:15:46.980 --> 00:15:51.039 It would be better for that person who caused 00:15:51.039 --> 00:15:53.259 one of those little children of God, whether 00:15:53.259 --> 00:15:55.840 they're... five years old or whether they're 00:15:55.840 --> 00:15:58.399 50 years old or whether they're 80 years old, 00:15:58.500 --> 00:16:00.940 it'd be better for the person who caused them 00:16:00.940 --> 00:16:04.980 to stumble to have a millstone tied around their 00:16:04.980 --> 00:16:08.440 neck and to be thrown into the ocean. And they 00:16:08.440 --> 00:16:10.159 wouldn't have a regulator in their mouth. They 00:16:10.159 --> 00:16:14.460 wouldn't have a scuba tank. It would be absolutely 00:16:14.460 --> 00:16:17.600 one of the most terrifying pictures that you 00:16:17.600 --> 00:16:22.500 could imagine not being able to breathe. Now, 00:16:23.640 --> 00:16:27.500 Let's turn the air back on. And as we turn the 00:16:27.500 --> 00:16:29.360 air back on, I want you to be able to breathe 00:16:29.360 --> 00:16:34.620 because God doesn't want you to experience that 00:16:34.620 --> 00:16:38.360 kind of wrath. Instead, what does Jesus do? Well, 00:16:38.379 --> 00:16:40.379 Jesus comes to the earth and he dies on the cross 00:16:40.379 --> 00:16:43.379 for our sins in order to relieve us from our 00:16:43.379 --> 00:16:45.820 sin, in order to relieve us from our guilt, in 00:16:45.820 --> 00:16:47.860 order to relieve us from the punishment of our 00:16:47.860 --> 00:16:54.110 sins. And rather than... putting extreme, intense 00:16:54.110 --> 00:16:58.149 anger accompanied by a deep desire for vengeance 00:16:58.149 --> 00:17:01.850 or punishment. Instead, he poured out his wrath 00:17:01.850 --> 00:17:06.369 on Jesus Christ so that his wrath wouldn't have 00:17:06.369 --> 00:17:11.549 to be poured out on us. And so, here's a question 00:17:11.549 --> 00:17:14.029 for you. Why is it that when someone sins against 00:17:14.029 --> 00:17:20.539 us, do we want to exercise wrath against them 00:17:20.539 --> 00:17:23.059 when God himself has not exercised his wrath 00:17:23.059 --> 00:17:25.599 against us, but rather poured out his wrath on 00:17:25.599 --> 00:17:30.460 Jesus Christ. Now, maybe you're a parent this 00:17:30.460 --> 00:17:32.220 morning and you're thinking, boy, when my, I 00:17:32.220 --> 00:17:35.279 got, you know, I got three kids and sometimes 00:17:35.279 --> 00:17:40.900 they just make me so angry. And you find yourself 00:17:40.900 --> 00:17:43.640 not proud of the fact that, you know, when you're 00:17:43.640 --> 00:17:45.539 dealing with your kids, when they're being disrespectful, 00:17:45.839 --> 00:17:48.720 you're dealing with your kids that you feel like, 00:17:48.720 --> 00:17:50.900 like, the fruit of the Spirit just goes out the 00:17:50.900 --> 00:17:52.440 window, and that you're not loving, you're not 00:17:52.440 --> 00:17:54.400 joyful, you're not peaceful, you're not patient, 00:17:54.500 --> 00:17:56.500 you're not kind, you're not gentle, you're not 00:17:56.500 --> 00:18:00.640 good, you're not self -controlled, and you feel 00:18:00.640 --> 00:18:03.660 like me. And rather than responding in the way 00:18:03.660 --> 00:18:05.880 that Jesus would respond, instead, it's like 00:18:05.880 --> 00:18:07.720 you just want, you know, you want to take it 00:18:07.720 --> 00:18:09.799 into your own hands, and rather than trusting 00:18:09.799 --> 00:18:13.099 in God, you want to just exercise wrath on those 00:18:13.099 --> 00:18:15.099 little rats, I mean, those little children that 00:18:15.099 --> 00:18:21.130 you have. It's easy to step into that. It's easy 00:18:21.130 --> 00:18:25.690 to step into wanting to dole out wrath when someone 00:18:25.690 --> 00:18:32.049 does something that causes you to stumble, that 00:18:32.049 --> 00:18:37.910 causes you to sin, that causes you to hurt. I 00:18:37.910 --> 00:18:39.430 mean, I can tell you, even with little things, 00:18:39.589 --> 00:18:43.339 when I got here on Monday, And I've been here 00:18:43.339 --> 00:18:46.339 many times, but I was in another country. I came 00:18:46.339 --> 00:18:48.480 here on Monday. All of a sudden, I'm in immigration 00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:52.859 line. And there's all these wonderful immigration 00:18:52.859 --> 00:18:54.900 booths, and they've got the immigration officers, 00:18:55.079 --> 00:18:58.380 and every line has people lined up in them. And 00:18:58.380 --> 00:19:00.299 some lines only have four people. Some lines 00:19:00.299 --> 00:19:03.140 have eight people. Well, there's this one line 00:19:03.140 --> 00:19:05.480 that has like 30 people, and there's one guy, 00:19:05.599 --> 00:19:08.460 and he's clogging the whole little roped off. 00:19:08.890 --> 00:19:10.789 area where everyone's standing in line because 00:19:10.789 --> 00:19:13.089 he's waiting for this one line and I thought 00:19:13.089 --> 00:19:15.269 you know I'm going to just very nicely say you 00:19:15.269 --> 00:19:19.529 know sir there's many lines if you can go to 00:19:19.529 --> 00:19:21.829 any of them and I said that I said you can go 00:19:21.829 --> 00:19:23.690 to any of the lines you know you don't have to 00:19:23.690 --> 00:19:25.609 just wait right there because he was just clogging 00:19:25.609 --> 00:19:28.490 the whole line and and he goes he just looks 00:19:28.490 --> 00:19:33.109 at me goes what does it matter and I'm like whoa 00:19:33.109 --> 00:19:36.450 you know now I'm a dude all right when you shove 00:19:36.450 --> 00:19:40.329 me My natural testosterone inside of me wants 00:19:40.329 --> 00:19:43.869 to shove you back. And I wanted to say something 00:19:43.869 --> 00:19:46.950 really nasty to him. I want to tell him why it 00:19:46.950 --> 00:19:49.069 matters and tell him that he's inconveniencing 00:19:49.069 --> 00:19:51.150 everyone and tell him that he doesn't have to 00:19:51.150 --> 00:19:53.490 be so arrogant, you know, that he can just be 00:19:53.490 --> 00:19:56.029 humble enough to just, you know, go to one of 00:19:56.029 --> 00:19:58.650 the lines or let everyone through. But instead, 00:19:58.789 --> 00:20:02.230 I had to preach this sermon this week. And so... 00:20:02.960 --> 00:20:04.740 And I didn't want to have to ask his forgiveness, 00:20:04.839 --> 00:20:08.700 and so I'm thinking, okay, what do I do? So I 00:20:08.700 --> 00:20:12.220 just said, sir, I said, I understand. I said, 00:20:12.359 --> 00:20:15.279 you know, we've all, you know, it's been a long 00:20:15.279 --> 00:20:17.900 flight. And I just said, would you mind if I 00:20:17.900 --> 00:20:21.119 go to that line over there? And he scowled at 00:20:21.119 --> 00:20:24.160 me, and he stepped aside. And I walked there, 00:20:24.200 --> 00:20:26.200 and then everyone walked behind me and lined 00:20:26.200 --> 00:20:29.619 up along the lines. But, you know, there's many 00:20:29.619 --> 00:20:32.539 times when I haven't responded that way. There's 00:20:32.539 --> 00:20:34.119 many times when I would have taken an offense 00:20:34.119 --> 00:20:35.960 like that and I would have returned to that offense 00:20:35.960 --> 00:20:39.220 with an offense. I would have taken some even 00:20:39.220 --> 00:20:42.220 slight little evil and I would have given back 00:20:42.220 --> 00:20:44.559 not just a slight little evil but a lot more 00:20:44.559 --> 00:20:48.900 evil and would have come on him with a way that 00:20:48.900 --> 00:20:52.599 would have been un -Christ -like and that would 00:20:52.599 --> 00:20:55.119 have demanded that I ask his forgiveness. And 00:20:55.119 --> 00:20:56.900 there have been times when I have had to go and 00:20:56.900 --> 00:20:59.759 ask someone's forgiveness. But you see, wrath 00:20:59.759 --> 00:21:02.420 is an extreme, intense anger, often accompanied 00:21:02.420 --> 00:21:04.579 by a deep desire for vengeance or punishment. 00:21:04.579 --> 00:21:08.460 And sometimes we want to pour out our wrath on 00:21:08.460 --> 00:21:12.339 others, even though Jesus has chosen not to pour 00:21:12.339 --> 00:21:16.160 out his wrath on us, but rather allow God's wrath 00:21:16.160 --> 00:21:20.779 to be poured out on himself. And so I heard Tim 00:21:20.779 --> 00:21:23.039 Keller preaching once, and he talked about wrath. 00:21:23.240 --> 00:21:26.160 And he said, you know, it's an old English word. 00:21:26.779 --> 00:21:28.759 And there's two words that actually have the 00:21:28.759 --> 00:21:33.339 same root and actually have a link together. 00:21:33.460 --> 00:21:36.559 And one of those words is the word wreath. Now, 00:21:36.559 --> 00:21:38.259 who knows what a wreath is in here? Raise your 00:21:38.259 --> 00:21:40.160 hand if you know what a wreath is. You know, 00:21:40.200 --> 00:21:41.759 at Christmas time, have you ever seen when you 00:21:41.759 --> 00:21:44.440 take, like, you know, pine branches and you put 00:21:44.440 --> 00:21:46.099 them together and you make, you know, you twist 00:21:46.099 --> 00:21:48.539 them and you make them into a Christmas wreath? 00:21:49.700 --> 00:21:53.039 Or think about the wreath of thorns that was 00:21:53.039 --> 00:21:57.890 twisted and put together. and shoved on top of 00:21:57.890 --> 00:22:02.390 Jesus' head in order to make fun of him for being 00:22:02.390 --> 00:22:05.970 the king of the Jews. That's what a wreath is. 00:22:06.890 --> 00:22:09.289 And wreath and wrath have some similarities because 00:22:09.289 --> 00:22:13.029 when we allow anger or when we allow wrath to 00:22:13.029 --> 00:22:16.009 control our lives, it's like we become twisted. 00:22:17.730 --> 00:22:19.890 And it might just be that we're twisted for the 00:22:19.890 --> 00:22:22.769 moment. We're twisted into a shape that we weren't 00:22:22.769 --> 00:22:28.710 meant to be twisted in. And we allow ourselves, 00:22:28.970 --> 00:22:31.710 if we allow ourselves to be twisted long enough, 00:22:31.930 --> 00:22:35.210 well, you know what? We tend to stay that way. 00:22:35.970 --> 00:22:38.470 Now, unlike, I remember when I was in elementary 00:22:38.470 --> 00:22:40.710 school, kids used to turn their eyelids inside 00:22:40.710 --> 00:22:42.910 out. I don't know if they still do that or not. 00:22:43.410 --> 00:22:46.210 But you remember what your mom said? Don't do 00:22:46.210 --> 00:22:50.029 that. They'll stay that way. Well, the problem 00:22:50.029 --> 00:22:52.410 is, is that when we allow ourselves to become 00:22:52.410 --> 00:22:57.430 twisted by anger, it really does. Make us stay 00:22:57.430 --> 00:23:00.490 that way. And that's not the way that we're supposed 00:23:00.490 --> 00:23:03.890 to be staying. The fruit of the Spirit is not 00:23:03.890 --> 00:23:09.829 anger. It's peace. The fruit of the Spirit is 00:23:09.829 --> 00:23:16.230 not wrath. It's peace. And so God doesn't want 00:23:16.230 --> 00:23:20.130 us to be twisted by anger. That's why the Bible 00:23:20.130 --> 00:23:23.069 says leave room for God's wrath because God's 00:23:23.069 --> 00:23:27.119 holy. You know, He's perfect. We're not. So we 00:23:27.119 --> 00:23:30.680 should not become twisted because his wrath would 00:23:30.680 --> 00:23:34.599 be perfect, but our wrath is never perfect. Now 00:23:34.599 --> 00:23:36.920 let's look at another word, wraith. Does anyone 00:23:36.920 --> 00:23:39.680 know what a wraith is? Anyone remember that word 00:23:39.680 --> 00:23:41.259 from the Lord of the Rings? Anyone see those 00:23:41.259 --> 00:23:44.660 movies? You know, and was it Nazgul or something 00:23:44.660 --> 00:23:47.319 like that, the wraith? You know, but a wraith 00:23:47.319 --> 00:23:49.480 is an old English word and it basically is a 00:23:49.480 --> 00:23:54.240 word for ghost. Now, when you think about a ghost, 00:23:54.259 --> 00:23:59.200 according to legends, A ghost is a person who 00:23:59.200 --> 00:24:02.539 dies, and because some wrong has been done to 00:24:02.539 --> 00:24:05.859 them, rather than going on, they stay where they 00:24:05.859 --> 00:24:09.500 died. They stay where it was that a wrong happened 00:24:09.500 --> 00:24:12.640 to them, and they haunt that place. They haunt 00:24:12.640 --> 00:24:14.839 that place, and they stay there reliving the 00:24:14.839 --> 00:24:19.940 past. And when we allow wrath to control us, 00:24:20.019 --> 00:24:22.980 when we, rather than forgive, think that we need 00:24:22.980 --> 00:24:25.180 to pour out our wrath on others, what happens 00:24:25.180 --> 00:24:30.559 is that that person who's wronged us tends to 00:24:30.559 --> 00:24:34.079 live rent -free in our minds. That person who's 00:24:34.079 --> 00:24:38.799 wronged us tends to constantly remind us of how 00:24:38.799 --> 00:24:40.720 they've hurt us in the past so that they just 00:24:40.720 --> 00:24:43.500 sit there reliving the past within our minds 00:24:43.500 --> 00:24:47.289 and within our hearts. And God says, I don't 00:24:47.289 --> 00:24:52.170 want you to live that way. I don't want you to 00:24:52.170 --> 00:24:54.210 live with an angry heart. I want you to have 00:24:54.210 --> 00:24:58.789 the fruit of the Spirit. And so we need to forgive 00:24:58.789 --> 00:25:01.549 for our own good and for the good of others. 00:25:02.369 --> 00:25:06.140 So now we turn the air back on. And we say, how 00:25:06.140 --> 00:25:08.140 do we do that? How do we forgive for our own 00:25:08.140 --> 00:25:09.779 good and for the good of others? Because God 00:25:09.779 --> 00:25:11.799 never asks us to do something because he just 00:25:11.799 --> 00:25:14.900 wants to put his thumb on us. He never asks us 00:25:14.900 --> 00:25:18.579 to do something because he just wants to see 00:25:18.579 --> 00:25:22.099 us suffer. He asks us to do what he asks us to 00:25:22.099 --> 00:25:24.539 do because he always has our best interests in 00:25:24.539 --> 00:25:28.579 mind. And he has others' best interests in mind 00:25:28.579 --> 00:25:31.240 as well. And forgiveness is in the best interest 00:25:31.240 --> 00:25:33.660 of ourselves and the best interest of others. 00:25:34.269 --> 00:25:38.950 Let me explain. You see, the second question 00:25:38.950 --> 00:25:41.349 says, what does it look like to forgive? And 00:25:41.349 --> 00:25:44.410 as we ask this text what it looks like to forgive, 00:25:44.509 --> 00:25:52.910 to let go of that wrath, we see that Jesus asks 00:25:52.910 --> 00:25:56.130 us to do something interesting with that. To 00:25:56.130 --> 00:25:59.829 rather than taking our anger and putting it on 00:25:59.829 --> 00:26:04.529 someone else, and hurting them for hurting us, 00:26:04.710 --> 00:26:10.430 he calls us to absorb their wrong inwardly into 00:26:10.430 --> 00:26:12.289 ourselves. And let's talk about what that means 00:26:12.289 --> 00:26:15.769 from what Jesus teaches today. You see, Jesus 00:26:15.769 --> 00:26:18.390 says this. He says, so watch yourselves. Look 00:26:18.390 --> 00:26:21.410 at Luke 17, verses, the first part of three. 00:26:21.569 --> 00:26:24.289 He says, so watch yourselves. Now, it's interesting 00:26:24.289 --> 00:26:26.650 because when he talks about sin and he talks 00:26:26.650 --> 00:26:28.890 about taking a millstone and putting it around 00:26:28.890 --> 00:26:30.609 this person's neck and throwing them into the 00:26:30.609 --> 00:26:34.809 ocean, he says, instead of saying, okay, you 00:26:34.809 --> 00:26:36.910 know, that person right there, yep, they deserve 00:26:36.910 --> 00:26:41.029 it. He says, no, watch yourself. He says, because 00:26:41.029 --> 00:26:44.549 the reality is, is I deserve to have a millstone 00:26:44.549 --> 00:26:46.549 tied around my neck and to be thrown into the 00:26:46.549 --> 00:26:50.410 ocean. You deserve to have a millstone tied around 00:26:50.410 --> 00:26:52.720 your neck and to be thrown in the ocean. And 00:26:52.720 --> 00:26:55.720 so we need to watch ourselves. We need to watch 00:26:55.720 --> 00:27:00.019 ourselves because we're forgiven people. And 00:27:00.019 --> 00:27:02.119 so if we're forgiven people, then why is it that 00:27:02.119 --> 00:27:04.539 we have such a difficult time forgiving others? 00:27:05.779 --> 00:27:10.099 Now, there's an author by the name of Miroslav 00:27:10.099 --> 00:27:14.420 Volf and he, in his book Exclusion and Embrace, 00:27:14.460 --> 00:27:16.619 he gives a famous quote and he says, forgiveness 00:27:16.619 --> 00:27:19.880 flounders because I exclude the enemy, I exclude 00:27:19.880 --> 00:27:23.779 my enemy, from the community of humans while 00:27:23.779 --> 00:27:27.180 at the same moment excluding myself from the 00:27:27.180 --> 00:27:30.079 community of sinners. You see, when someone does 00:27:30.079 --> 00:27:32.079 something wrong to us, what we want to do is 00:27:32.079 --> 00:27:36.900 we want to exclude, we want to exclude that person 00:27:36.900 --> 00:27:40.819 from the community of humans. We want to say, 00:27:40.859 --> 00:27:43.819 you know what, that person, they're not even 00:27:43.819 --> 00:27:45.200 like, we don't even want to give them respect 00:27:45.200 --> 00:27:48.390 of being created in the image of God. We want 00:27:48.390 --> 00:27:50.450 to say, you know, that God created man in his 00:27:50.450 --> 00:27:53.150 image, God created women in his image, but not 00:27:53.150 --> 00:27:58.650 that one. Not that one. While at the same time, 00:27:58.650 --> 00:28:00.890 we're excluding ourselves from the community 00:28:00.890 --> 00:28:04.769 of sinners. You know, one thing I love about 00:28:04.769 --> 00:28:07.170 the church is that the church is not a country 00:28:07.170 --> 00:28:10.630 club for saints. It's a hospital for sinners. 00:28:14.690 --> 00:28:18.410 And when we begin to understand that, Even when 00:28:18.410 --> 00:28:21.690 someone has wronged us or even maybe we even 00:28:21.690 --> 00:28:24.230 exclude ourselves from the community of humans 00:28:24.230 --> 00:28:25.930 because maybe there's something that you've done 00:28:25.930 --> 00:28:30.089 that you're finding yourself difficult to forgive 00:28:30.089 --> 00:28:34.069 yourself. Or someone's done something to you 00:28:34.069 --> 00:28:39.490 and you feel like, you know what? I just, I'm 00:28:39.490 --> 00:28:42.890 just struggling here. To understand this is to 00:28:42.890 --> 00:28:45.519 understand something very important. And that 00:28:45.519 --> 00:28:48.119 is that we have to identify with the one who 00:28:48.119 --> 00:28:51.299 has wronged me. We have to identify with the 00:28:51.299 --> 00:28:53.079 one who has wronged me. And that's why we have 00:28:53.079 --> 00:28:55.680 to watch ourselves. It means that we realize 00:28:55.680 --> 00:28:58.099 that that person has sinned against me, but in 00:28:58.099 --> 00:28:59.880 the same way that person sinned against me, I've 00:28:59.880 --> 00:29:02.960 sinned against other people. And maybe not in 00:29:02.960 --> 00:29:05.140 the same way, maybe in different ways, but I've 00:29:05.140 --> 00:29:09.680 sinned against other people. And so do I really 00:29:09.680 --> 00:29:13.099 want to have what I want that person to experience? 00:29:14.220 --> 00:29:17.799 put upon me? Do I want that person that I want 00:29:17.799 --> 00:29:19.680 to be punished, do I want to have that same punishment 00:29:19.680 --> 00:29:22.299 put towards me? Because, by the way, when someone 00:29:22.299 --> 00:29:25.319 sins against you, the only way that a punishment 00:29:25.319 --> 00:29:29.299 can be paid, the only way that the debt can be 00:29:29.299 --> 00:29:31.299 paid, and by the way, in the Lord's Prayer it 00:29:31.299 --> 00:29:33.299 says, forgive us our debts as we forgive our 00:29:33.299 --> 00:29:36.440 debtors, or forgive us our sins as we forgive 00:29:36.440 --> 00:29:39.440 those who have sinned against us, and a debt 00:29:39.440 --> 00:29:42.450 is a sin. Because there's something that's owed. 00:29:42.569 --> 00:29:46.529 And what's owed is pain. I'm going to explain 00:29:46.529 --> 00:29:48.769 that later on. But when someone sins against 00:29:48.769 --> 00:29:51.230 you, the only way to repay that debt is for pain 00:29:51.230 --> 00:29:54.269 and suffering to happen. And that's why we want 00:29:54.269 --> 00:29:57.170 that person to experience the same hurt that 00:29:57.170 --> 00:29:58.910 they experienced us. So if someone hurts us, 00:29:59.009 --> 00:30:01.730 we say, ah, you know what? We feel like angry 00:30:01.730 --> 00:30:04.329 against them. But then we see maybe they embarrassed 00:30:04.329 --> 00:30:06.849 us. And then we see them get embarrassed and 00:30:06.849 --> 00:30:08.509 we're like, okay, now they're embarrassed, now 00:30:08.509 --> 00:30:10.569 they lost face, okay, now I can forgive them. 00:30:11.410 --> 00:30:15.509 But that's not how forgiveness works. You see, 00:30:15.549 --> 00:30:17.990 if we identify with the one who has wronged us, 00:30:18.049 --> 00:30:20.710 we realize that all have sinned and keep on falling 00:30:20.710 --> 00:30:22.849 short of the glory of God. That not only have 00:30:22.849 --> 00:30:24.670 they sinned, but I've sinned as well, that we've 00:30:24.670 --> 00:30:29.369 all sinned. But the second is, is that we have 00:30:29.369 --> 00:30:32.410 to inwardly pay the debt of the one who has sinned 00:30:32.410 --> 00:30:36.410 against me. Now Jesus is going to call us to 00:30:36.410 --> 00:30:38.190 this, to watch ourselves. He's going to call 00:30:38.190 --> 00:30:41.049 us to inwardly pay the debt of the one who has 00:30:41.049 --> 00:30:42.930 sinned against me. Now what does that mean? What 00:30:42.930 --> 00:30:45.690 that means is that somebody has to experience 00:30:45.690 --> 00:30:51.710 pain and suffering. Now if I yell at that person 00:30:51.710 --> 00:30:54.029 or I embarrass that person or I make them lose 00:30:54.029 --> 00:30:58.549 face or I do something in retaliation or maybe 00:30:58.549 --> 00:31:00.170 I don't even do something in retaliation but 00:31:00.170 --> 00:31:03.880 they get sick and they get... something even 00:31:03.880 --> 00:31:05.680 worse happened to them and I say, okay, now I 00:31:05.680 --> 00:31:09.420 can forgive them? Because we think the debt has 00:31:09.420 --> 00:31:13.539 been paid? But if we are willing to inwardly 00:31:13.539 --> 00:31:15.500 pay that debt, if we're actually willing to forgive 00:31:15.500 --> 00:31:17.339 people, if we're willing to say, you know what, 00:31:17.460 --> 00:31:19.960 I should yell at that person, I should yell at 00:31:19.960 --> 00:31:21.819 my kids, but I'm not going to yell at my kids, 00:31:22.220 --> 00:31:25.819 what happens is, is inside we're the ones who 00:31:25.819 --> 00:31:31.579 experience the pain. If someone embarrasses us 00:31:31.579 --> 00:31:34.130 and we choose not to, embarrass them in return, 00:31:34.369 --> 00:31:37.529 then we're the ones who experience the pain. 00:31:39.470 --> 00:31:41.609 Now I'm going to explain this a little bit later, 00:31:41.690 --> 00:31:44.289 but I want you to understand that every single 00:31:44.289 --> 00:31:48.210 time that someone sins, that's called the debt, 00:31:48.349 --> 00:31:51.250 and that the only way to repay that debt is through 00:31:51.250 --> 00:31:54.930 pain and suffering. And you're saying, well, 00:31:54.970 --> 00:31:59.410 man, this is not good. But we're going to see 00:31:59.410 --> 00:32:01.329 our answer and we're going to see how refreshing 00:32:01.930 --> 00:32:04.490 forgiveness truly is and why it is the oxygen 00:32:04.490 --> 00:32:09.509 of the kingdom. You see, I'm staying at Zach 00:32:09.509 --> 00:32:13.089 and Megan's house, Pastor Zach, and they have 00:32:13.089 --> 00:32:15.750 a lovely house and they have a really fancy coffee 00:32:15.750 --> 00:32:19.869 machine, espresso machine. And I know that it's 00:32:19.869 --> 00:32:22.049 kind of Zach's pride and joy and he gave me these 00:32:22.049 --> 00:32:24.230 instructions and he sent me like a video on how 00:32:24.230 --> 00:32:26.470 to use it and everything. I haven't used it yet 00:32:26.470 --> 00:32:30.039 because I'm afraid of breaking it. Because I 00:32:30.039 --> 00:32:31.920 think if I break that thing, I don't want to 00:32:31.920 --> 00:32:35.119 have to afford to pay for it. Because if it breaks, 00:32:35.180 --> 00:32:38.920 someone's got to absorb the debt. But you know, 00:32:38.980 --> 00:32:41.339 I know Zach well enough, and Zach and Megan, 00:32:41.400 --> 00:32:43.380 they love Jesus, and so I know that if I break 00:32:43.380 --> 00:32:45.859 their espresso machine, they're not going to 00:32:45.859 --> 00:32:48.700 make me pay for it. They're going to absorb that 00:32:48.700 --> 00:32:51.940 debt. And I don't want them to have to absorb 00:32:51.940 --> 00:32:54.200 that debt, so I don't want to break their espresso 00:32:54.200 --> 00:32:58.380 machine. But yet at the same time, I know that 00:32:58.380 --> 00:33:02.160 Zach wants me to use that espresso machine. I 00:33:02.160 --> 00:33:04.039 think it's called an espresso machine, not an 00:33:04.039 --> 00:33:07.880 expresso machine, but that's how much I know 00:33:07.880 --> 00:33:10.799 about espresso. But it's something where I know 00:33:10.799 --> 00:33:13.619 he wants me to use it. So now I'm in this conundrum, 00:33:13.660 --> 00:33:16.579 and that's the conundrum, that's the paradox 00:33:16.579 --> 00:33:19.920 that we have in this church, is that all of a 00:33:19.920 --> 00:33:21.500 sudden we don't want to hurt someone, and we 00:33:21.500 --> 00:33:23.440 don't want someone to hurt us, so we just exclude 00:33:23.440 --> 00:33:27.680 ourselves. And we're not part of a life group 00:33:27.680 --> 00:33:30.140 or we're not part of a place where we're part 00:33:30.140 --> 00:33:33.359 of a community where we can rub shoulders with 00:33:33.359 --> 00:33:35.279 one another and be open with one another because 00:33:35.279 --> 00:33:37.000 the church should be the safest place in the 00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:39.059 world. And so we just kind of go, well, we'll 00:33:39.059 --> 00:33:42.740 come to church, but then we'll just kind of stay 00:33:42.740 --> 00:33:45.440 at a distance. But that's not the way that God 00:33:45.440 --> 00:33:49.579 wants it either. But what God tells us and Jesus 00:33:49.579 --> 00:33:51.759 tells us in his passages is there are going to 00:33:51.759 --> 00:33:55.240 be times when people sin against us. inside of 00:33:55.240 --> 00:33:57.519 the church and also outside of the church and 00:33:57.519 --> 00:34:00.480 we can't just isolate ourselves. We can't withdraw 00:34:00.480 --> 00:34:03.900 ourselves because part of being the church is 00:34:03.900 --> 00:34:05.799 bearing one another's burdens. Part of being 00:34:05.799 --> 00:34:07.759 the church is loving one another. Part of being 00:34:07.759 --> 00:34:09.619 the church is being together even when we don't 00:34:09.619 --> 00:34:15.320 have anything in common except for Jesus. And 00:34:15.320 --> 00:34:17.800 so when things do happen because all ascend and 00:34:17.800 --> 00:34:21.159 fall short of the glory of God and keep on falling 00:34:21.159 --> 00:34:22.739 short of the glory of God because that's what 00:34:22.739 --> 00:34:25.219 it says in the Greek, We have to be willing, 00:34:25.340 --> 00:34:28.619 if we're going to forgive, to inwardly pay the 00:34:28.619 --> 00:34:32.440 debt of the one who has sinned against us. And 00:34:32.440 --> 00:34:35.239 I'm going to prove that to you in a few moments. 00:34:36.199 --> 00:34:39.239 But we also have to then, and only then, once 00:34:39.239 --> 00:34:42.000 we've been willing to inwardly pay that debt, 00:34:42.099 --> 00:34:45.960 initiate seeking the highest good of the one 00:34:45.960 --> 00:34:49.260 who has sinned against us. And that means that 00:34:49.260 --> 00:34:51.599 now that we've dealt with ourselves, now that 00:34:51.599 --> 00:34:54.280 we have forgiven that person and we've absorbed 00:34:54.280 --> 00:34:56.380 the debt and we've said, okay, rather than yelling 00:34:56.380 --> 00:34:59.659 at them, instead I'm going to realize that I 00:34:59.659 --> 00:35:02.840 am a sinner and that I have wronged others and 00:35:02.840 --> 00:35:04.920 in the same way that I have wronged others and 00:35:04.920 --> 00:35:06.619 would like for them to forgive me, I'm going 00:35:06.619 --> 00:35:08.679 to forgive this person and even though it makes 00:35:08.679 --> 00:35:11.440 me hurt because they embarrassed me and I haven't 00:35:11.440 --> 00:35:13.440 had a chance to embarrass them, so therefore 00:35:13.440 --> 00:35:16.300 I'm still hurting, I'm going to absorb that debt. 00:35:18.280 --> 00:35:22.059 And what happens is, is that we wind up and end 00:35:22.059 --> 00:35:26.579 up being able to finally seek their highest good. 00:35:27.139 --> 00:35:29.460 What does the Bible say? Love your enemies and 00:35:29.460 --> 00:35:33.199 pray for those who persecute you. It says don't 00:35:33.199 --> 00:35:36.639 return evil for evil, but rather repay evil with 00:35:36.639 --> 00:35:41.880 what? With good. Love those. Love your enemies. 00:35:41.960 --> 00:35:45.860 Pray for those who persecute you. And so Jesus 00:35:45.860 --> 00:35:48.639 says, If your brother or sister sins against 00:35:48.639 --> 00:35:52.320 you, rebuke them. Now, what does that word rebuke 00:35:52.320 --> 00:35:53.960 mean? It doesn't mean that you just yell at them. 00:35:54.440 --> 00:35:57.159 What it means is, is once you have watched yourself, 00:35:57.420 --> 00:36:00.840 once you have been aware of your own sin and 00:36:00.840 --> 00:36:03.699 that you've identified with them and said, you 00:36:03.699 --> 00:36:05.599 know what, I'm a sinner as well and I do things 00:36:05.599 --> 00:36:08.079 and I make mistakes. Once you have been willing 00:36:08.079 --> 00:36:11.420 to absorb internally, you've been willing to 00:36:11.420 --> 00:36:15.949 pay that pain, that suffering. for them on their 00:36:15.949 --> 00:36:18.309 behalf, then you can seek their highest good 00:36:18.309 --> 00:36:21.949 by going and talking with them. Now I will tell 00:36:21.949 --> 00:36:24.369 you one thing that never works. What never works 00:36:24.369 --> 00:36:27.469 is to go and yell at someone. Because when you 00:36:27.469 --> 00:36:29.010 yell at someone, what are they going to do? They're 00:36:29.010 --> 00:36:31.170 going to say, hey, you're yelling at me. I'm 00:36:31.170 --> 00:36:33.889 not listening to a word you say. Because you 00:36:33.889 --> 00:36:38.809 don't love me. You're yelling at me. But when 00:36:38.809 --> 00:36:42.510 we go to that person because we have forgiven 00:36:42.510 --> 00:36:45.909 them, now when we tell them, what they have done 00:36:45.909 --> 00:36:48.610 to sin against us, we have a much greater chance 00:36:48.610 --> 00:36:51.949 that they're going to receive that with a spirit 00:36:51.949 --> 00:36:54.849 of love and that the Holy Spirit actually might 00:36:54.849 --> 00:36:59.050 transform them and might bring healing to their 00:36:59.050 --> 00:37:01.929 lives if they're a believer and might allow them 00:37:01.929 --> 00:37:03.769 to become more like Christ or may, if they're 00:37:03.769 --> 00:37:07.630 not a believer, allow them to see the beauty 00:37:07.630 --> 00:37:11.269 of what it is to experience the forgiveness of 00:37:11.269 --> 00:37:15.150 Jesus Christ and actually trust Him. You see, 00:37:15.230 --> 00:37:18.849 it says, and if they repent, forgive them. If 00:37:18.849 --> 00:37:20.550 they repent, forgive them. You know what, I'm 00:37:20.550 --> 00:37:23.989 sorry. I don't want to do that. And you say, 00:37:24.030 --> 00:37:26.570 but you know what? They said that and they said 00:37:26.570 --> 00:37:29.070 that, you know, yesterday and the day before 00:37:29.070 --> 00:37:30.670 that and the day before that. They don't really 00:37:30.670 --> 00:37:34.010 repent. Their repentance isn't sincere. That's 00:37:34.010 --> 00:37:36.690 not our job. Our job is not to judge whether 00:37:36.690 --> 00:37:39.440 a person's repentance is sincere or not. Because 00:37:39.440 --> 00:37:41.820 it says, even if, Jesus said, even if they sin 00:37:41.820 --> 00:37:44.579 against you seven times a day and seven times 00:37:44.579 --> 00:37:48.059 come back to you saying, I repent, you must forgive 00:37:48.059 --> 00:37:54.199 them. Why? Because you want to seek their highest 00:37:54.199 --> 00:37:56.360 good, but you also realize that it's in your 00:37:56.360 --> 00:38:00.300 highest good not to be chained up by the bondage 00:38:00.300 --> 00:38:03.199 of bitterness. And we're going to talk about 00:38:03.199 --> 00:38:06.559 next week, God setting us free from the bondage 00:38:06.559 --> 00:38:10.010 of bitterness. But what we understand is that 00:38:10.010 --> 00:38:12.289 we have to be truthful with ourselves in our 00:38:12.289 --> 00:38:16.110 own sin situation. And we have to realize how 00:38:16.110 --> 00:38:18.710 much we've been forgiven by Christ before we 00:38:18.710 --> 00:38:21.489 can be truthful with others. But in the same 00:38:21.489 --> 00:38:24.539 way, we... Once we forgive someone, if it's a 00:38:24.539 --> 00:38:26.760 serious sin, we need to go talk with that person 00:38:26.760 --> 00:38:28.820 once we've gotten to that place. It would also 00:38:28.820 --> 00:38:31.079 be not good to not talk with that person because 00:38:31.079 --> 00:38:33.320 if you knew that that person was heading towards 00:38:33.320 --> 00:38:35.739 their death and towards their destruction, if 00:38:35.739 --> 00:38:41.079 you knew that that person was going to experience 00:38:41.079 --> 00:38:46.260 some kind of extreme pain because of their sin, 00:38:46.380 --> 00:38:49.619 isn't it our responsibility to warn them of that? 00:38:53.599 --> 00:38:55.860 Now, here's a third question. How do we get the 00:38:55.860 --> 00:38:59.139 faith we need to forgive? Well, the truth is, 00:38:59.139 --> 00:39:03.360 is that we already have it. You see, you might 00:39:03.360 --> 00:39:06.000 not know that you have it, but you have it. And 00:39:06.000 --> 00:39:08.159 so we already have the faith that we need to 00:39:08.159 --> 00:39:11.900 forgive. And in Luke 17, verse 5, the apostles 00:39:11.900 --> 00:39:14.219 said to the Lord, they said, increase our faith. 00:39:14.380 --> 00:39:16.539 If you want us to forgive people, even when they 00:39:16.539 --> 00:39:18.659 keep asking for our forgiveness, even though 00:39:18.659 --> 00:39:21.840 they're not changing, then you're going to have 00:39:21.840 --> 00:39:23.840 to increase our faith. And what Jesus is saying 00:39:23.840 --> 00:39:27.119 is, you know what? You already have what you 00:39:27.119 --> 00:39:29.400 need. You already have the amount of faith that 00:39:29.400 --> 00:39:32.380 you need. to do what I'm asking you to do. And 00:39:32.380 --> 00:39:34.579 that's why Jesus says to his disciples, if you 00:39:34.579 --> 00:39:36.860 have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can 00:39:36.860 --> 00:39:39.719 say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted 00:39:39.719 --> 00:39:45.440 in the sea and it will obey you. Now, he tells 00:39:45.440 --> 00:39:48.679 a parable because all of these passages, we read 00:39:48.679 --> 00:39:50.400 them and we go, what does that have to do? The 00:39:50.400 --> 00:39:53.000 millstone around someone's neck have to do with 00:39:53.000 --> 00:39:55.280 forgiveness, have to do with this next parable. 00:39:55.460 --> 00:39:57.659 And let me share with you how this next parable 00:39:57.659 --> 00:40:01.199 ties in. It says, suppose one of you, Jesus says, 00:40:01.300 --> 00:40:03.900 has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. 00:40:04.360 --> 00:40:07.260 Will he say to the servant when he comes in from 00:40:07.260 --> 00:40:10.800 the field, come along now and sit down to eat? 00:40:13.380 --> 00:40:16.460 Won't he rather say, prepare my supper, get yourself 00:40:16.460 --> 00:40:19.280 ready and wait on me while I eat and drink. After 00:40:19.280 --> 00:40:22.860 that, you may eat and drink. Will he thank the 00:40:22.860 --> 00:40:24.980 servant because he did what he was told to do? 00:40:27.119 --> 00:40:29.840 So you also, when you have done everything you 00:40:29.840 --> 00:40:32.139 were told to do, should say, we are unworthy 00:40:32.139 --> 00:40:38.719 servants. We have only done our duty. So here 00:40:38.719 --> 00:40:40.719 we have this situation where Jesus gives this 00:40:40.719 --> 00:40:43.039 parable and he gives this parable of a servant. 00:40:43.519 --> 00:40:48.650 And the servant, you know. He says, this is normal. 00:40:48.809 --> 00:40:50.409 Now, we can't think of it like we think about 00:40:50.409 --> 00:40:52.829 it in our culture because in this culture, a 00:40:52.829 --> 00:40:55.190 servant was someone who borrowed some money from 00:40:55.190 --> 00:40:57.130 someone and they said, you know what? In order 00:40:57.130 --> 00:40:59.889 to pay back this money, I will serve you for 00:40:59.889 --> 00:41:02.349 X amount of years until the debt is paid. And 00:41:02.349 --> 00:41:04.849 all of a sudden, here they are and they're trying 00:41:04.849 --> 00:41:08.889 to pay this debt. But what we learn from this 00:41:08.889 --> 00:41:13.210 is our problem. You see, our problem with forgiveness 00:41:13.210 --> 00:41:17.079 is this. is we are servants who are acting like 00:41:17.079 --> 00:41:21.880 we are owners. We are servants who are acting 00:41:21.880 --> 00:41:24.079 like we are owners. And what I could say is we 00:41:24.079 --> 00:41:31.280 are sinners acting like we are God. And so the 00:41:31.280 --> 00:41:35.039 solution is to see the ultimate owner. This is 00:41:35.039 --> 00:41:37.320 what Jesus is trying to help us to understand. 00:41:37.360 --> 00:41:40.599 If we're really going to deal with the hard aspects 00:41:40.599 --> 00:41:42.500 of forgiveness and if we're really going to find 00:41:42.500 --> 00:41:44.059 success in forgiveness, if we're going to have 00:41:44.059 --> 00:41:49.199 the faith to have forgiveness be one of the predominant 00:41:49.199 --> 00:41:52.699 characteristics in our lives, we have to see 00:41:52.699 --> 00:41:54.760 that our solution is to see that the ultimate 00:41:54.760 --> 00:41:58.039 owner, Jesus Christ, willfully became a suffering 00:41:58.039 --> 00:42:03.250 servant to forgive our sins. That he was willing 00:42:03.250 --> 00:42:09.369 to absorb the pain of our sin in order to seek 00:42:09.369 --> 00:42:11.869 our highest good so that we could be forgiven 00:42:11.869 --> 00:42:14.869 and spend the rest of eternity, the rest of forever, 00:42:15.030 --> 00:42:21.489 forever with him. You see, the faith to forgive 00:42:21.489 --> 00:42:24.989 comes by looking to Jesus and his substitutionary 00:42:24.989 --> 00:42:31.570 suffering for our sins. Now, there's a passage, 00:42:31.630 --> 00:42:33.630 I don't have it on the screen, but it's 2 Corinthians 00:42:33.630 --> 00:42:41.170 5, 21. And it says, for our sake, God, the Father, 00:42:41.329 --> 00:42:46.829 made Him, made Jesus Christ, His Son, sin on 00:42:46.829 --> 00:42:50.429 our behalf in order that we might become the 00:42:50.429 --> 00:42:53.949 righteousness of God. So for our sake, He made 00:42:53.949 --> 00:42:56.789 Him to be sin who knew no sin so that we might 00:42:56.789 --> 00:43:00.559 become the righteousness of God. What does that 00:43:00.559 --> 00:43:03.559 mean? They call it the great exchange. That when 00:43:03.559 --> 00:43:05.739 we trust Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, 00:43:05.800 --> 00:43:08.539 when we see who he is and we see the beauty of 00:43:08.539 --> 00:43:10.659 the Savior, even if it's with the faith of a 00:43:10.659 --> 00:43:13.059 mustard seed, even when we just barely can see 00:43:13.059 --> 00:43:15.760 it, but we trust Jesus, what happens is that 00:43:15.760 --> 00:43:18.579 we take all of our sins and we place our sins 00:43:18.579 --> 00:43:21.920 on Jesus when he died on the cross 2 ,000 years 00:43:21.920 --> 00:43:24.039 ago. And he pays for every single one of them, 00:43:24.079 --> 00:43:26.820 your past sins, your present sins, and your future 00:43:26.820 --> 00:43:29.699 sins. Every single sin you've ever committed, 00:43:29.760 --> 00:43:31.639 Jesus paid for on the cross if you're trusting 00:43:31.639 --> 00:43:36.079 in him. But what the passage also says in 2 Corinthians 00:43:36.079 --> 00:43:39.219 5 .21 is that he gives to you all of his righteousness. 00:43:41.679 --> 00:43:44.840 Meaning, every time he said yes to God and said 00:43:44.840 --> 00:43:47.619 no to sin in his life on earth when he was 100 00:43:47.619 --> 00:43:52.679 % God and 100 % man, he took all of that righteousness 00:43:52.679 --> 00:43:55.909 and he puts it on you. And he covers you in his 00:43:55.909 --> 00:43:57.829 righteousness so that when God looks at you, 00:43:57.869 --> 00:44:01.670 rather than seeing your awful sin, he chooses 00:44:01.670 --> 00:44:08.730 instead to see his perfect son. That's amazing 00:44:08.730 --> 00:44:13.369 grace found in Jesus. That's what we should be 00:44:13.369 --> 00:44:15.489 rooted in. Not rooted in bitterness, but rooted 00:44:15.489 --> 00:44:18.670 in... The forgiveness that has come to us through 00:44:18.670 --> 00:44:20.949 Jesus Christ, that not only did he bear our sins, 00:44:21.050 --> 00:44:23.409 but he also gave to us his righteousness so that 00:44:23.409 --> 00:44:25.710 when God looks at us, instead of seeing our sin, 00:44:25.769 --> 00:44:33.510 he sees his perfect son. And that's rooted in 00:44:33.510 --> 00:44:35.889 the substitutionary suffering of Jesus because 00:44:35.889 --> 00:44:38.929 somebody had to pay the debt of our sin and the 00:44:38.929 --> 00:44:41.909 only way to pay it was with pain. The only way 00:44:41.909 --> 00:44:43.889 to pay it was with suffering, but rather than 00:44:43.889 --> 00:44:47.010 making us suffer, Instead, Jesus chose to suffer 00:44:47.010 --> 00:44:52.730 for us. There's a wonderful word in the Greek. 00:44:52.889 --> 00:44:56.789 It's the word tetelestai. It's the last word 00:44:56.789 --> 00:45:00.309 that Jesus ever spoke before he was crucified. 00:45:01.110 --> 00:45:04.710 And when Jesus was hanging on the cross, before 00:45:04.710 --> 00:45:07.849 he breathed his last breath, the last word he 00:45:07.849 --> 00:45:10.550 said, and then he died for your sins and for 00:45:10.550 --> 00:45:16.860 my sins, was tetelestai. which is packed with 00:45:16.860 --> 00:45:19.920 meaning. It means it is finished. It is paid 00:45:19.920 --> 00:45:25.019 in full. Jesus said, I paid for your sin in full. 00:45:25.139 --> 00:45:28.719 I took on my body through my pain, through my 00:45:28.719 --> 00:45:30.880 suffering, the pain and the suffering that you 00:45:30.880 --> 00:45:34.119 deserve because I wanted your highest good, which 00:45:34.119 --> 00:45:38.480 was to be with me forever rather than for my 00:45:38.480 --> 00:45:43.630 wrath to be poured out on you. I absorbed your 00:45:43.630 --> 00:45:46.409 wrath and I'm absorbing it and I'm paying it 00:45:46.409 --> 00:45:51.869 in full. That's the love of Jesus Christ. That's 00:45:51.869 --> 00:45:56.369 what Jesus has done for us. And so if you wonder 00:45:56.369 --> 00:45:59.050 how you can forgive someone who's done something 00:45:59.050 --> 00:46:02.710 atrocious to you, something horrible to you, 00:46:02.789 --> 00:46:06.590 you did something horrible to God. You sinned 00:46:06.590 --> 00:46:08.530 against him and yet he was willing to absorb 00:46:08.530 --> 00:46:14.230 your pain in order. for your highest good, to 00:46:14.230 --> 00:46:17.570 forgive you so that you could be with him. Even 00:46:17.570 --> 00:46:19.449 if the person is not a believer, then you say, 00:46:19.510 --> 00:46:21.329 how could I ever forgive that person? Well, you 00:46:21.329 --> 00:46:24.130 can forgive that person because you can not pray 00:46:24.130 --> 00:46:28.610 that they would rot in hell, but you can love 00:46:28.610 --> 00:46:30.789 your enemy and pray for those who persecute you 00:46:30.789 --> 00:46:33.369 and you can pray that God would actually save 00:46:33.369 --> 00:46:37.349 them through the same gracious Savior that he 00:46:37.349 --> 00:46:39.969 saved you through and that he saved me through. 00:46:42.510 --> 00:46:47.530 No wonder they call him a savior. This is the 00:46:47.530 --> 00:46:50.550 key to forgiveness. This is the kind of faith 00:46:50.550 --> 00:46:53.409 that we need to have. And if you're here this 00:46:53.409 --> 00:46:56.550 morning and you can't forgive yourself because 00:46:56.550 --> 00:46:59.090 maybe you had a son that you were too hard on, 00:46:59.150 --> 00:47:01.469 or maybe you're a mother right now and you're 00:47:01.469 --> 00:47:07.730 just too hard on your kids, or maybe you did 00:47:07.730 --> 00:47:11.380 something that you just can't take back, And 00:47:11.380 --> 00:47:13.400 maybe the person that you offended won't forgive 00:47:13.400 --> 00:47:18.300 you. You can forgive yourself because you are 00:47:18.300 --> 00:47:24.139 forgiven. Jesus paid it in full. He didn't pay 00:47:24.139 --> 00:47:26.099 it in part. He didn't ask you to make partial 00:47:26.099 --> 00:47:28.380 payments. He didn't say you can pay over time. 00:47:28.539 --> 00:47:32.719 He said, I paid it and I paid it in full. Let's 00:47:32.719 --> 00:47:36.889 pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you now 00:47:36.889 --> 00:47:39.789 and we thank you so much for the beautiful, beautiful 00:47:39.789 --> 00:47:45.570 person of your son, your eternal son, Jesus Christ, 00:47:45.829 --> 00:47:50.769 who was forsaken upon the cross so that we could 00:47:50.769 --> 00:47:55.889 be forgiven. Who absorbed our pain so that we 00:47:55.889 --> 00:47:58.829 would not have to experience eternal suffering. 00:48:00.889 --> 00:48:03.949 We have been forgiven greatly and those who have 00:48:03.949 --> 00:48:08.840 been forgiven greatly, can forgive greatly. So 00:48:08.840 --> 00:48:11.579 thank you for giving us the faith. Help us to 00:48:11.579 --> 00:48:16.079 see, help us to look at the person of Jesus. 00:48:16.179 --> 00:48:18.380 And we pray that as we look at what Jesus has 00:48:18.380 --> 00:48:22.860 done for us, that your Holy Spirit would transform 00:48:22.860 --> 00:48:27.099 us from glory to glory to glory as we recognize 00:48:27.099 --> 00:48:30.769 who we are in Jesus. And as we recognize that 00:48:30.769 --> 00:48:33.929 you have been so gracious to us, so merciful 00:48:33.929 --> 00:48:36.869 to us, to withhold from us what we deserve, to 00:48:36.869 --> 00:48:40.349 give to us what we don't deserve. And instead 00:48:40.349 --> 00:48:44.210 of choosing to look at our sin, you look at your 00:48:44.210 --> 00:48:46.289 perfect son and you say, it's just as if we've 00:48:46.289 --> 00:48:49.409 never sinned and just as if we've always obeyed. 00:48:50.269 --> 00:48:55.050 Help us to be more like Jesus as we have trust 00:48:55.050 --> 00:48:58.019 and faith. in what He has already done for us. 00:48:58.079 --> 00:49:06.860 And we ask this in His powerful name. Amen. Thank 00:49:06.860 --> 00:49:09.780 you for tuning in to the ECB Sermon Podcast. 00:49:10.460 --> 00:49:14.079 Whether near or far, if you are looking for community 00:49:14.079 --> 00:49:18.000 or are in need of prayer, we welcome you to engage 00:49:18.000 --> 00:49:22.840 by sending us an email to office at ecb .asia. 00:49:23.639 --> 00:49:26.460 If God is calling you to support our ministries, 00:49:26.480 --> 00:49:29.179 you will find giving options on our website. 00:49:30.039 --> 00:49:33.420 And remember to join us next week. God bless 00:49:33.420 --> 00:49:33.659 you.