22nd March 2026 - Brendan Hurley

So let's pray. Let's ask God for help as we dig

into His Word now. Heavenly Father, we thank

you that you speak to us. We thank you that you

love us. We thank you that you forgive us. Please

help us, Father, to know the magnitude of your

forgiveness, to rejoice in it, to celebrate it,

to marvel at it. And please, as we do, Father,

would you make us forgiving people. who forgive

those who sin against us. And we ask this in

Jesus' name. Amen. Well, before coming to Northern

Hope, I worked at five other churches. And two

out of the five churches I worked in, I actually

ended up working for narcissistic, spiritually

abusive pastors. Two out of five. I think that's

a pretty good track record, isn't it? Certainly

can pick them. You know, for a while there, I

had to work through a bunch of things. I had

to work through a fear of cafes because I constantly

got brought into cafes by these pastors and just

told the most horrific, horrible things. I had

to get over a whole bunch of gaslighting. I had

to get over misreadings of scripture that they

had taught me and use scripture in a wrong way.

There was a whole bunch of things that it left

me hurting. It left me confused. It was horrible.

And I know it wasn't just me. I know there are

other people who'd been hurt by these two separate

men. And sadly, I know some in this room have

been hurt by people like that. It's a horrible,

horrible thing. But such stories as these raise

an important question. And it may not be the

question you think. Here's the question. When

someone sins against someone else, who's in spiritual

danger? When someone sins against someone else,

who's in spiritual danger? Especially, you know,

when it's serious sin, you know, if you, you

know, put sugar in someone's coffee rather than,

salt rather than sugar, you know, you can get

over that one. But when you've been really hurt

by someone, who's in spiritual danger? And I'd

want to say it's actually the abuser and the

victim. Both are in spiritual danger. See, the

abuser can have a conscience that becomes rock

hard. Their heart's far from God. This is how

the conscience works. No, it's not there. Okay.

Don't worry. Oh, there it is. Cool. Here's how

the conscience works. No, it's back to that one.

All right. We're a well -oiled machine. This

is how your conscience works. Your conscience

is like a circle with a triangle in it. And every

time you sin, you go, ow! Like, can you see how

that triangle would be pointy and jarring? And

if it moves, every time you sin, it moves and

you go, oh, that hurts. But what happens when

you sin again and again and again and again and

you never repent and you never... It smooths

out and you don't feel it anymore. That's what

happens. when you consistently sin again and

again and again. It means your heart ends up

far from God, your conscience becomes calloused

and rock hard. We don't feel our guilt anymore.

There's a huge spiritual danger when we keep

sinning and abusing people. But there's a huge

danger when you're the victim. Because what happens

when you're the victim? Especially if you've

been hurt by other Christians, It's easy to give

up on God. It's easy to give up on Christianity.

It's easy to become bitter and unforgiving, isn't

it? See, that's the power of sin. It can make

your conscience calloused. It can make you feel

guilty. As the writer Plutarch says, guilt is

an ulcer in the flesh, a remorse that never ceases

to wound. I mean, that's a horrible thing to

go through as well. but also it can leave you

to an unforgiving heart, a bitter spiritual decay

within. See, whether you've got a callous conscience,

whether you struggle with guilt for the things

you've done, whether you're unforgiving, these

are all different traps, they're all different

types of spiritual danger. And they can make

our lives miserable, but if unchecked, they can

actually erode our faith in a horrible and serious

way. So how do we escape these traps? Well, that's

what I hope to show you as we look at this parable

and at forgive us our debts as we forgive those

who indebted to us. And the big thing we're going

to see today is this. Pray for God's pardon so

that sin won't ensnare your heart. It's one thing

you take away from today. Pray for God's pardon.

so that sin won't ensnare your heart. Whether

it's through hard -heartedness, whether it's

through guilt, whether it's through bitterness,

we don't want our hearts to be ensnared. And

as we look at this parable, we're going to see

three things which help us, guard us against

the traps of sin. Three things. We have a massive

debt, God cancelled our debt, and we must forgive

debts. We have a massive debt. God cancelled

our debt. We must forgive debts. So let's have

a look at the first one. We have a massive debt.

Now, often this is hard for us to see. And the

Lord's Prayer helps open our eyes to it. It assumes

that we have a debt. And Matthew 18, 21 to 25

makes it explicit. We've got this guy, he's got...

Well, let me just read it. Matthew 18, 21 to

25. Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, Lord,

how many times shall I forgive my brother or

sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?

Jesus answered, I tell you not seven times, but

77 times. This is a callback to Genesis 4 and

Lamech there, because he wants to seek vengeance

77 times. And then he says, therefore the king

of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle

accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement,

a man who owed him 10 ,000 bags of gold was brought

to him. And since he was not able to pay, the

master ordered that he and his wife and his children

and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

I mean, what this guy owes is phenomenal. If

you were to do rough calculations, it would be

$10 billion in our money today. This is a massive

debt, a debt he could never pay back. And in

the world of the parable, this is borrowed money.

He's borrowed it, he's invested it poorly. He

now has this debt that he can't get out of. He's

dug himself into a massive hole. And we know

in the context here that this debt is a metaphor

for sin. We've taken from God and we can't pay

him back. My grandad used to be the state accountant

at Coles back in New South Wales and he told

me once about a guy who crashed his car into

one of the Coles stores. And he crashed the car

and it hit some pillars and it actually made

like a big chunk of the store collapse and all

the stock, the store was hugely damaged. And

this guy had no insurance. He had a debt so massive

that he could never repay it. He had his wages

garnished just a little bit each week to try

and pay this debt that he was never going to

pay off. It was crippling for his life. Now,

it's more serious for us, isn't it? If we don't

pay God our debt back, well, we're facing his

judgment forever. This is a debt we need to clear.

But you might be thinking, oh yeah, but we can

do that, can't we? Well, if you think that, just

go through this exercise. I want you to calculate

all the wrongs that you did last year. It might

take a while. Just think, all the sins, all the

wrongs you did, the lies, the lusts, the selfishness,

all the things. If doing good deeds could make

up for it, and I'm not saying that they can,

But if they could, how long would you need to

cover just last year? Pretty long time, wouldn't

you? And here's the problem. Every time we're

trying to pay that debt off, if that's even possible,

we're actually adding to the debt, aren't we?

I mean, just the last year, I think, yeah, I

probably sinned more than I did good things.

Like, I'm actually, my debt's growing, not shrinking.

The longer I live, I'm just making it worse.

Can you see how serious things are? You and I

have sinned so much, it's an unimaginable debt

that we have before God. A debt that is literally

gonna ruin us. It's dire and there is nothing

we can do. We're just making it worse. And if

you're a Christian, it's important to stop and

regularly feel the weight of that debt. When

does grace stop becoming so amazing? It's when

we lose sight of how great our debt is. So it's

good to search your heart. When you sin, to not

just avoid it or ignore it or to numb your conscience

over it, but to feel the weight of it, that is

a good thing to do. But if you're here and your

sin feels small and insignificant, that is danger

science. Perhaps your conscience is actually

getting calloused. Maybe it needs recalibration.

I mean... We're in serious spiritual danger if

we're so used to sinning that it doesn't bother

us anymore. See, our conscience is meant to be

like a fire alarm. It warns of danger. It's bad

if it's not working. It's bad if it does it all

the time, and we need to recalibrate it then

too, but it's bad if it's not working at all.

So pray for God to open your eyes if you've got

a conscience that's not working. Because it's

there warning you. It's giving you a little bit

of pain to warn you about the future pain that

you'll face if you are cut off from God for eternity.

So that's what our consciences do. We have a

massive debt. But what do we do about it? If

we're just adding to it, what are we meant to

do with this? Well, thankfully there is an escape.

God is willing to forgive our sin debt. Here's

the next thing we see. God cancelled our debt.

Look with me at verses 26 to 27. At this, the

servant fell on his knees before him. Oh, be

patient with me, he begged, and I'll pay back

everything. Yeah, right. $10 billion worth? Keep

dreaming. The servant's master, took pity on

him, cancelled the debt and let him go. What

an amazing thing to do. He just forgives it.

He cancels that enormous debt. Think back to

that guy my grandpa told me about. Imagine the

CEO of Coles ringing up that guy and saying,

hey mate, I know you've got this huge debt, you

know, it's... I think it was over half a million

dollars. I just wanted to say we've decided to

write it off. It's all forgiven. Don't you reckon

that fella would have a spring in his step? He'd

probably use the money to go buy some insurance.

I don't know. But he'd be stoked, wouldn't he?

That's what God does for me. That's what God

does for you if you trust the Lord Jesus All

your sin has been completely eradicated and cleared

Now in the parable, it's pretty easy the King

just says yeah, no worries mate It's cancelled.

He just speaks. I mean, yeah, he's got to wear

the debt, but he just speaks and it's done But

for God In our world, it's different, isn't it?

He's just and good. He can't just sweep the debt

under the rug, can he? When it's a sin debt,

it's different. It must be paid. And if not by

us, then it will be paid by him. That's how he

cancels it. He has to wear the cost of that debt.

How is our debt paid for by God? It's cancelled

by the cross. That's what we see at the cross.

The full judgment of God rains down on Jesus.

And he experiences the loss, the pain of our

debt so that we don't have to. Reminds me of

a story about Nicholas II. He was the last Tsar,

the last King of Russia. in the early 1900s.

And Nicholas used to do the whole undercover

boss thing. He'd wander into the military barracks

dressed as an officer but not dressed as the

King of Russia. And one night he saw the light

on in the paymaster's tent. And he found the

paymaster fast asleep. And he came over to wake

him and there he saw a revolver a small pile

of money and some papers. And he looked closely

at the papers and he saw a list of gambling debts

and a suicide note. The debt was massive, totalling

thousands of ruples. The paymaster had racked

up a huge gambling debt and then used the army

funds to pay the debt. And he spent the night

trying to find a way to pay the army back. But

it was nowhere near enough, and on one of the

papers he'd written, who can pay so great a debt?

And do you know what Nicholas did? He did something

remarkable. Under the question, who can pay so

great a debt? He signed his name. Nicholas, Tsar

of Russia. The paymaster woke up, saw the signature,

compared it with other ones he had and went,

oh, it actually really is his. And he could rest

easy because the King of Russia had paid his

debt for him. And it wasn't just some prank,

it actually came through the next day. That's

like what Jesus did for us. He bore our debt.

He paid it himself. That's the objective truth

of every Christian. And subjectively, it is such

a comfort, especially if you're haunted by a

guilty conscience. The trick is to feel what's

real, to apply the truths of the cross to our

heart. How do you do that, Brendan? It's learning

to say, I'll take God at His word. You know,

there are times where we go, oh, I mean, I've

sinned so badly and I said I wouldn't anymore

and I've done it again and I've done it worse

this time. And if, oh, there's no way God's gonna

forgive me. I mean, like, do you know how bad

I am? And in those moments, we need to remind

ourselves. I need to take God at his word. He

says, my debt is forgiven. It's forgiven. My

debt is paid in full. My guilt is gone. Every

time guilt rears its ugly head, we need to reapply

the balm of the gospel to our hearts. And if

you do that, not only will the guilt go away,

But it's so liberating and freeing, you end up

filled with joy. You're conscious of how forgiven

and loved and cleansed you are. It makes all

your other problems feel smaller and changes

your perspective, because hey, eternal ruin has

been taken out of my life. I think I'll be okay

with all the other stuff. You go from feeling

eaten alive inside to walking on cloud nine.

It changes everything when you feel forgiven

like that So if you're a Christian keep reapplying

the balm of the gospel every day to your heart

That's what we do when we pray when we confess

our sins to God We're confessing the things we've

done wrong. We're feeling the weight of our massive

debt But we're reminding ourselves that God has

cancelled it completely through the cross. And

if you're not a Christian, can I encourage you,

ask Jesus for forgiveness? Why wouldn't you want

what I've just talked about in your life? Nothing

else frees people from guilt. Why would Jesus

die if there were some other way? No, this is

the only way. Come to him, ask for forgiveness.

But God's forgiveness doesn't just deal with

our sin debt and our guilt and make us more joyful.

It actually moves us to be more forgiving as

well. Here's the third thing we see. We must

forgive debts. We must forgive debts. Forgiven

people become forgiving people. Look at verses

28 to 35. But when that servant went out, he

found one of his fellow servants who owed him

a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began

to choke him. Pay back what you owe me, he demanded.

His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged

him. Be patient with me and I'll pay it back."

But he refused. Instead, he went off and had

the man thrown into prison and tell he could

pay the debt. When the other servants saw that

what had happened, they were outraged and went

and told their master everything that had happened.

Then the master called the servant in. You wicked

servant, he said. I cancelled all that debt of

yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you

have had mercy on your fellow servant just as

I had on you? In anger his master handed him

over to the jailers to be tortured until he should

pay back all he owed. And this is how my heavenly

father will treat each of you unless you forgive

your brother or sister from your heart. Now we've

got to remember here that this 100 denarii is

not nothing. The other guy owed 10 billion but

this is not nothing. This is three months wages.

This is $20 ,000 in our terms. But compared with

the massive debt, it's nothing, isn't it? Receiving

such compassion from the King should have made

this guy compassionate. If you're a Les Miserables

fan, it's pronounced Les Miserables, but if you're

a Les Miserables fan, you know what I'm talking

about, Jean Valjean, the guy who, he stole a

loaf of bread, he was put in prison, he had a

horrible life for years and years and years,

and then he finally gets out, he goes, no one

will give him work, he goes to a bishop's house

and he steals the candlestick holders, the silver

candlestick holders of the bishop. He's caught

up with by the police. And do you know what the

police, they grab him, they bring him back to

the bishop and say, He's stolen from you. And

actually the bishop says, no, these were a gift.

Actually, I think he stole something else and

then the bishop said, you know, the candlestick

holders, these are a gift as well. Anyway, the

bishop was a really good guy and he was so compassionate

to Jean Valjean. And when that happened, it changed

Jean Valjean's life. He became a compassionate

person. That's what compassion does when we receive

it properly. See, what's so wicked here is that

this guy wouldn't show mercy after being given

such immense mercy. It's not that the king is

unforgiving. The king withdraws his forgiveness

because he's going, this guy hasn't understood

my forgiveness. It hasn't gripped his heart.

It hasn't changed him. This is not a tit for

tat quid pro quo kind of thing. And it's not

like that with us. God, you know, God only forgives

us if we forgive others. As if somehow we're

earning our forgiveness by forgiving others.

No. This is saying that God's forgiveness takes

root in someone's heart, in their life, when

they become more forgiving of others. If you

believe and receive God's forgiveness, it will

produce fruit in your life. Actually, you can

do the most amazing things when you experience

God's forgiveness. Corrie Tanboon, her family

hid from the Nazis. She was Jewish and her family

was Jewish. They hid from the Nazis during World

War II. Sadly, her family got ratted out and

the ones who survived were put in concentration

camps. They were tortured and abused there. Eventually,

Corey's sister died. But Corey survived. She

went around Europe after World War II preaching

about God's forgiveness and her experience. Until

one meeting she spoke at, she was approached

by a man. He was one of the guards at the concentration

camp where she was imprisoned. He didn't remember

her, but she remembered him. And he came up to

her and said, I've become a Christian. I know

that God has forgiven me for the cruel things

I did there in that concentration camp. But I'd

like to hear it from your lips as well. Will

you forgive me? Here's what Corey Tamboon says.

I stood there, I whose sins had again and again

been forgiven, and I could not forgive. Betsy,

that's her sister, had died in that place. Could

he erase her slow, terrible death simply for

the asking? And still I stood there with the

coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness

is not an emotion. I knew that too. Forgiveness

is an act of the will. And the will can function

regardless of the temperature of the heart. Help!

I prayed silently. And then this healing warmth

seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears

to my eyes. I forgive you brother, I cried, with

all my heart. Had she not known God's forgiveness,

she never would have done that. Now going from

bitterness to forgiveness, like any form of sanctification

of holiness, it's a process. We're not going

to be perfect at it straight away. But we keep

working at it. We keep growing it. Especially

if the wounds of hurt are deep. And if we have

received God's forgiveness, we will grow at it.

We'll get better at extending forgiveness to

others, and it will be clear that we're radically

different in that. But if we don't, it's a warning.

Maybe God's forgiveness hasn't taken root in

your heart. I'm not trying to victim shame. Let

me be clear. Bitterness is a real spiritual danger.

When someone hurts you badly, here's what happens.

The massive debt you owe before God looks smaller

and smaller. and the wrongs that that other person

has done to you look bigger and bigger. And the

only antidote is to look to the cross so that

we flip it back the right way up, so that we

see again how massive our debt was, so that we

see again how wonderful God's grace is. Even

as we look at the cross, we see Jesus' immense

forgiveness as He's being crucified. Forgive

them, Father, for they don't know what they're

doing. The cross is so powerful at warming a

cold and bitter heart. All right, well, let's

draw some threads together. We started by talking

about the dangers of sin, that sin... can trap

us, it can give us a callous conscience, it can

leave us just feeling miserable with a guilty

conscience, and it can leave us with a bitter

heart when people sin against us. But God's forgiveness

at the cross destroys sin's power. See we have

a massive debt, but at the cross it shows that

we do have a debt, that it needs to be paid.

God cancelled our debt and at the cross it says

we see that the debt has been paid and we must

forgive debts. At the cross we see the example

that Jesus shows us of what a forgiving heart

looks like. But what's this got to do with the

Lord's Prayer? Well that line of the Lord's Prayer

brings these truths to bear in our lives. These

aren't just truths to be understood cognitively,

these are Truths that we need to feel, these

are truths that we need to pray again and again

and again. And that's why our big idea is this,

pray for God's pardon so that sin won't ensnare

your heart. Or as the Lord's Prayer shows us,

there's two aspects to it. Ask for God to forgive

you and ask for God's help to forgive. That's

what we need to do. Now, if you're a Christian,

Here's what it means for us. There's always a

possibility that we might become hard -hearted

or hurtful or abusive, that we just keep sinning

and we don't recognise it. What helps you guard

against that? Because it's a real danger. Self

-reflection and confessing your sins. Spending

time And that's what you have to do when you

confess your sins. You don't just generically

do it. Lord, forgive us our sins. Amen. No, you

want to think, OK, what did I do yesterday? What

did I do today? Yeah, oh, gee, that was horrible.

I really shouldn't have done that. And spending

that time, doing that hard work, prevents our

hearts from becoming calloused. Do it in the

morning. Do it at night. How do I sin today?

I'm looking back on the day I had. Father, I'm

sorry for, you know, I did this and I did that,

and thank you for your mercy. Thank you for Jesus'

death on the cross. Thank you that it cleans

all my sins away. Thank you. Doing that will

keep your heart soft. And if you're a Christian

who's wracked with guilt, you can lie awake at

night, thinking, God can't love me. If that's

you, bring your shame and your guilt to God.

It's the same thing, confession. Confessing your

sins to God reminds you that you can't out -sin

the Saviour. It helps you feel it. You pray something

like this, Father, I did it again, I'm sorry.

You know it was worse this time, whether it was

porn, whether it was lying, whether it was being

judgmental, whatever it was. But you say, help

me to see the wonderful forgiveness in Jesus.

I love that verse that was on the front of our

bulletin. It's to see that the blood of the lamb,

the blood of Jesus is like spiritual bleach.

It washes us completely clean in God's eyes.

Help me to see that, Lord. And if you're a Christian

and you've been hurt by others, it's easy to

throw in the towel and give up on Jesus. I mean,

there's been times where that's been tempting

for me, I'll admit. How do you guard your heart

in those times? Well, it's praying those things

that we just said it's you got to have an understanding

of how big your Debt is and how much God's done

for you, but it's also praying something like

this Help me forgive them Genuinely from the

heart Lord Give me a forgiving heart protect

me from bitterness Please Lord, you know the

wrongs they did help them repent because I want

to see them saved too. If you're a Christian

and you make it a habit to pray like that, it

will help your heart be in a spiritually good

and safe place. Now, don't get me wrong. This

doesn't mean we tolerate more abuse. You know,

oh, I'm just going to let them keep hurting me

and... No, put up boundaries. Reconciliation,

it doesn't happen unless there's repentance and

forgiveness. We need to have both or otherwise

the relationship will remain broken. But even

if they won't repent, we need to be ready and

willing and extending forgiveness. Let me ask,

who is it you need to forgive? I wonder here,

are there folk at the Good Shepherd Church, perhaps,

that maybe some of us need to forgive? Maybe

if you've been hurt by another church, maybe

it's people there. Maybe it's an ex, maybe it's

an employer, maybe it's your spouse. I don't

know. Don't hold onto bitterness, though. Don't

get bogged down in resentment. Don't put yourself

in spiritual danger. See the size of your debt.

See the wonder of God's grace and ask him to

help you forgive. And if you're here today and

you're not yet a Christian, I've got something

for you too. I hope you've seen that you too

need God's forgiveness. Jesus is offering it

to you free today as well. What else can make

you face your failures with honesty and recalibrate

your conscience? What else can make you free

from guilt and fill you with hope and joy? What

else can transform you into someone who's radically

compassionate like Jesus? Nothing else can. If

you want to experience that forgiveness, it starts

with a prayer. Here's the prayer. Dear God, my

sin debt is massive. I can't pay it off. Please

forgive my debt. Thank you that Jesus paid my

debt in full by his death. Please let your forgiveness

change me and my heart. Now if you want to become

a Christian, I mean these aren't magic words,

these are just the ideas that you need to be

praying about if you want to become a Christian.

And if you already are a Christian, this is the

same sort of stuff we pray about too, isn't it?

So everyone today, if you're a Christian, I encourage

you to pray that with me now, just silently in

your own heart. But if you want to become a Christian,

pray that too, just quietly in your own heart.

I'll pray it, and I'll give you some time to

pray it after me quietly in your own heart, and

then we'll close. Let's pray. Dear God, my sin

debt is massive. I can't pay it off. Please forgive

my debt. Thank you that Jesus paid my debt in

full by his death. Please let your forgiveness

change me and my heart. Amen. Now if you've prayed

that for the first time, God is at work in you.

You have been forgiven. Please come and have

a chat with me. We'd love to help you on the

way as you now follow him.