Because You Are Forgiven (Pastor Greg Hudson, 07/12/25)

Dear God, you brought us to this Sabbath day.

We're reminded that we get to be in your army,

that we get to serve you each and every day,

that you are chasing after us, that we can love

you because you have first loved us. Be with

us as we open up your word this morning. In your

name we pray. Amen. Let me do that one more time.

So several years ago, I read a book. This is

the book here. It's called Unbroken. And as I

read this book, it told the incredible story

of someone who I actually hadn't heard of until

I read this book. His name is Louis Barini. He

was born in New York but raised in California.

At a young age, he was kind of gotten out of

trouble. And so his older brother convinced him

to start running, to join the track team. And

he became a very quick... And for a time, he

was the fastest miler in California. He never

quite broke the four -minute mile in the 1930s.

And then he was so fast, he was so well -known,

that he was going to try out for the Olympic

team in 1936. Anybody happen to remember where

the Olympics were in 1936? It was in Germany.

It was in Berlin. It was famous for Jesse Owens

winning. So many medals. And Louis, although

the mile was his best distance, the United States

had some much faster people in that category.

So he tried out for the 5 ,000 meter, the 5K,

5 ,000 meter race. And he made the team. He was

able to make the team. And so he made it to Germany.

He competed in those Olympics. Do you think he

won? No, he didn't. He did not win. He came in

eighth, but he was the fastest American in that

race, and he was kind of well -known because

as the race went on, he finished the last lap.

He set the record for the fastest lap on the...

on that very end of the race. He was way behind,

and he passed a bunch of people and came in eighth.

And he's like, okay, the next Olympics, that's

going to be my time to shine, because he was

only about 19 years old. He's like, in 1940,

those Olympics are going to be in Tokyo. That's

where I'm going to shine, and I'm going to win

some medals. Of course, we know those Olympics

never happened because of World War II. And soon,

Louis found himself as a... A bombardier on a

B -24 flying missions over the Pacific Ocean.

They were shot up. The plane was shot up. They

survived. But there was one mission where they

weren't going to bomb anybody, but they were

going to look for somebody who they thought maybe

had crash -landed. They were looking for a life

raft. And as they were making that journey out

over the wide, vast, open ocean, something happened

to their plane. It didn't get shot down. It just

stopped working. And they ended up crash landing

in the middle of the ocean. And Louie and two

other people, so three people, were able to make

it into two small life rafts. And that's when

another deal began because they were in those

life rafts for 47 days. You know, they had just

minimal water. They were able to catch some rain,

catch some fish. grab some birds, fight off sharks,

get strafed by the Japanese, dive in the water

with the sharks there. 47 days. Two of them survived

for that 47 days until they made it to an island.

Unfortunately, that island was held by the Japanese.

So then those two were prisoners of war for the

next two years, and they were beaten and tortured.

and starved, and forced to work in mines as they

were taken back to Japan. And it was just not

a pleasant situation at all. And finally, the

end of the war came, and Louis was able to make

it back home. He went back home. He was picked

on, especially because he was this famous Olympian.

And so they particularly tortured and abused

him. He made it back home. He met a woman that

he married, and they became husband and wife.

But he was upset because he'd gone through all

this. Because for two years, he'd been tortured

and beaten. Soon he found himself with PTSD.

They probably didn't call it that back then.

And he was in depression. He was becoming an

alcoholic. And his wife was ready to walk out

the door. I'm tired of this. I'm done with this.

And he was upset because of what he had been

through. You ever get upset because of what you

live through, because of what you go through,

because of the circumstances that you find yourself

in? Sometimes it's easy to get upset, and it

seems as if our society today, oftentimes we

look for reasons to be upset. We go searching

out things that we can be angry about, people

that we can be upset with because of how we're

treated, because of what somebody says. And this

whole idea of online communication. People go

online just to find people to argue with that

they don't even know. And that anonymity of the

internet allows them to be extra cruel and pick

on other people about things that normally you

wouldn't argue about. You wouldn't care if somebody

else said something else. But it seems as if

in our society, people are out. to get someone

else. They're looking for some opportunity to

accuse someone of something or to hurt somebody

because of something or to sue somebody else.

Oh, I bought a coffee and I spilled it on myself

and I got burned because the coffee was hot.

Well, let me sue the fast food restaurant or

whatever it is. What did Jesus say? How are we

supposed to act when others sometimes treat us

in the wrong way. Let's go to the gospel of Matthew.

We're going to start in chapter 5. We're eventually

going to end in chapter 18. But Matthew 5 has

what we refer to as the Sermon on the Mount.

And Jesus says some things about how we treat

other people. Start in verse 39. Verse 38 says,

you've heard an eye for an eye and a tooth for

a tooth. That's what you've heard. But Jesus

says, but I tell you, Not to resist an evil person,

but whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn

the other to him also. This is where we get the

idea of turn the other cheek. If somebody demands

you to do something, once your coat, we'll give

them your overcoat as well. And it goes on down

to verse 43, and it says, You have heard that

it was said, You shall love your neighbor and

hate your enemy. That's what some people want

to say. But Jesus said, but I say to you, love

your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Do good

to those who hate you. And pray for those who

spitefully use you and persecute you, that you

may be sons and daughters of your Father in heaven.

No, we're not supposed to hate our enemies. We're

supposed to love. Even our enemies, even those

who are doing us wrong, we're supposed to pray

for and we're supposed to care about because

they are also people of God. And as we read the

words of Jesus, we begin to realize that the

kingdom of God is different than the world. And

that if we are followers of God, we should respond

differently to circumstances we find ourselves

in. We can't do that on our own, but we can only

respond differently by the grace of God. When

we're cut off in traffic, how do we respond with

the grace of God? When someone gives you that

look, oh, you know that look I'm talking about.

When someone takes credit for your idea at the

workplace, how do we respond in those different

situations? Too often, we feel... That we are

a victim. We feel that we are persecuted. That

other people are after us. That other people

are trying to get us. The teacher doesn't like

me. The boss doesn't appreciate me. I am being

persecuted. There are people in the world being

persecuted. But I hate to break it to you if

this is the case. You are probably not one of

those people that are really... being persecuted.

Because if you may or may not be able to see

that, but the blue countries on that map, that's

where Christianity is restricted. It's really

hard to be a Christian. The green areas on that

map, that's where people are outright evil towards

Christians, and people are imprisoned or beaten

or killed. There's a story in the mission story

this week about a, actually it was last week,

a young girl named Tanya. who her dad came home.

This is in Zimbabwe. Her dad is a professional

rugby player, so was often gone on the weekend.

And he looked under something on the table, and

he found something new. It was a baptismal certificate.

Tanya had been baptized the previous Sabbath

while her father was out of town, and her father

came home and found that. A totally different

animist religion tore up the baptismal certificate.

If you go to that church again, I'm going to

beat you. And so he tried to make sure that he

would be home on Saturday mornings. Because if

he was gone, he knew that she would go, her grandmother,

to church. And Tanya began praying, God, help

me to be able to go to church. I miss going to

church, but if I go, I'm going to be beaten.

Help me to be able to go. And it was several

months later, her dad was home on Sabbath morning,

and her mom said, why don't you go? talk to your

dad and tell him that you're going to go to church

today. And she was a little nervous, but she

went in and said, Dad, I'm going to church today.

And he said, okay. That was that. After months

of being threatened to be beaten, now she is

able to go to church each week. And now her prayer

has changed. No longer is she praying that she'll

be able to go to church, but she's praying that

maybe my dad will come with me. to church at

some time in the future. So there are people

in the world being persecuted, faith for their

life, but probably none of us are in that category.

Let's turn back over to Proverbs. We're going

to come back to Matthew, but turn to Proverbs

because even the Old Testament, this book of

wisdom in Proverbs contains an idea, Proverbs

19 and verse 11 is what we're going to read.

It says the discretion of a man makes him slow

to anger. Slow to anger. And his glory is to

overlook a transgression. To overlook a transgression.

When somebody says something or does something,

that doesn't mean we pretend it doesn't happen.

But no, we choose. That's not something we do

on our own. By the grace of God, we choose to

overlook that. We choose to go past that. We

don't let what someone else does to us determine

how I'm going to live my life and walk my life

as a child of God. Let's turn over to Matthew

18. This is where our scripture reading was from,

where Peter comes to Jesus and he says in verse

21, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against

me? And I forgive him. Up to seven times? God,

that's pretty good, right? If I forgive somebody

seven times, is that a good number? A good biblical

number? In verse 22, Jesus said to him, I do

not say to you up to seven times, but no, up

to 70 times seven. Now, in my math, that tells

me that's about 490 times. That's what my calculator

would tell me. But I don't think Jesus is saying

we need to have a checkbox. You know, 478, 479,

490. Okay, 491, sorry. That's the limit. I'm

not forgiving you anymore. I think what this

is saying is that it's supposed to be an ongoing

thing. That when people speak ill to us, that

we are supposed to respond in a different way.

than the world does. And then it goes on in verse

23, and Jesus tells a parable. We're continuing

our parable series that we've been preaching

through, and this parable is in response to this

question that Peter asked, how many times do

I have to forgive somebody? In verse 23, it says,

therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a certain

king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.

All right, bring in the books. Let's see what

people owe me. How much have I loaned out? How

much have people paid back? What do people still

owe me? In verse 24, when he begun to settle

accounts, one was brought to him who owed him

10 ,000 talents. That is a huge amount of money.

That is millions and millions and perhaps billions

of dollars. Now a talent is a certain weight,

200 and some pounds of silver or gold. And so

if you add this up, it's basically beyond calculation,

beyond comprehension. And so again, I think the

point of this is that this is unpayable. The

tax revenue for one year in the province of Galilee

was about 300 talents. 300 was the tax revenue

for that. And so this is a huge amount that could

really in no way ever be repaid by a single person.

Notice verse 25. It goes on and says, But as

he was not able to pay, obviously, his master

commanded that he be sold with his wife and children

and all that he had and that payment be made.

Now this was not going to repay the debt. but

it would be a common practice in ancient days

and really up to a couple hundred years ago.

People could be thrown into debtor's prison.

You're not going to get your money back, but

it's punitive. There's some punishment. And if

you're selling somebody into slavery, you'll

get a few coins at least, but it's not going

to pay it back. But then verse 26, the servant

fell down before the king. I want you to notice

the words here. Pay attention to these words.

Master, have patience with me, and I will pay

you all. Lock those words in. We're going to

talk about those again in a few minutes. Master,

have patience with me, and I will pay you all.

Note those words. But for now, just notice that

this servant apparently has a very wrong view

of himself. He thought some way, I'm going to

pay this back. No, he wasn't. There was no way

for him to do that. He had a wrong understanding

of who he was and what his capability was. And

if we move this to the spiritual realm, we can

remember and recognize each one of us has a debt.

You know, the Bible says the wages of sin is

death. We have all fallen short of God's We have

all messed up, and that is a debt that we cannot

repay. We can't make that right. We have sinned.

We are falling short of God's glory. And the

wages of sin is death. We have offended God.

We are debtors. We can never say, God, I'm going

to make this right. Because we have earned that

wage of sin. We have earned that picture of death.

And this man had a wrong... picture of himself.

He thought that he could make it right. He thought

that he could repay that huge amount. But notice

what happened in verse 27. There's a picture

of grace. Then the master of that servant was

moved with compassion, released him, and forgave

him the debt. That's a picture of grace right

now. He had something that he could not repay,

and this king, this master, released him of this

debt, forgave him of that debt. And isn't that

what God does with us? He says, if we confess

our sins, he is faithful and just to do what?

To forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

That is what God does. How would we respond?

How do we respond when a debt is relieved, when

a burden is lifted? You know, if a church is

paying off a mortgage, and when that day comes

that that last mortgage payment is made, you

ever been to a celebration like that? They actually

light a fire in the church to burn that little

mortgage note because they want it wiped out.

and gone forever. In the church building, there's

fire because they have paid off that mortgage,

that debt is released. If a family pays off a

home, there's a celebration because the debt

that hangs over them is relieved. How does this

guy respond when this huge debt is paid off?

It's not a response of joy. It's not a response

of celebration. But we're going to see it's a

response of anger, of hatred. And sometimes that's

the response that we exhibit as we interact with

others. Notice verse 28. It says, but that servant,

right after the master of the servant forgave

him the debt, but that servant went out and found

one of his fellow servants. He went out looking

for somebody. It didn't just come up. He went

out looking. for trouble, looking for something

else, and he found this man who owed him a little

bit. Does it ever seem like sometimes the people

around us, or maybe we, do we go out looking

for trouble? Do we go out looking to find the

wrong in somebody else? Do we go out looking

to find somebody that is offending us? Do we

look for the worst in each other, at least from

time to time? went out looking and he found one

of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred

denarii. A hundred denarii. Now what is that?

That's not 10 ,000 talents. Now in the Bible,

a denarii is the equivalent to like one day's

wage. If you went and did work for one day, you

would expect to receive in payment one denarii.

That was what you would earn from your labor.

So that would be enough to buy your food. to

pay for your house, your clothes, support your

family, whatever that was, for one denarii. So

this is 100. So that's what, three, four months

of labor? So don't tell me, but just think, how

much do you make in three to four months? That's

what this debt would approximately be. So a pretty

big amount, but not impossible with tight budgeting.

with maybe doing a little extra work, doing some

overtime, taking another shift, making some good

investments. It's a big amount, but it's not

impossible. And what did this guy do? It says,

the second part of the verse, owed him 100 denarii,

and he laid hands on him and took him by the

throat, saying, pay me what you owe. That's not

the way to get your money back. To go and choke

somebody out? He's not looking for finances.

He's looking for a fight. He's not looking for

a resolution. He's looking for some kind of reaction

here. This isn't the way to go about it. Even

though it was a big amount, this wasn't the way

to try to get this back. Now, notice the next

verse, verse 29. So his fellow servant... fell

down at his feet and begged him, saying, let's

think, have you heard these words before? Have

patience with me, and I will pay you all. That's

the exact same thing that servant number one

had said to the master, the exact same words,

and now this other servant with a much smaller

debt is saying, you know, this is one I could

pay you back. Just give me a little time. Have

patience. Wait for it, and I'm going to make

this right. But that's not what he did. Verse

30, and he would not, but went out and threw

him into prison until he should pay the debt.

He's not going to pay the debt in prison. So

when his fellow servants saw what he had done,

the other people around, they were very grieved.

They were upset by this. They did not like the

way that this went down. They did not like that

this man did not respond to the grace that he

had received. He did not respond in a positive

way by sharing grace with someone else. And they

went and told the master, they went and told

the leader all that had been done. Do you think

the master was happy about that? No, he was not.

Then the master, after he had called him, said

to him, you wicked servant. I forgave you all

that debt because you begged me. Should you also

not have had compassion on your fellow servant

just as I had pity on you? You received forgiveness.

Shouldn't you pass that forgiveness on to somebody

else? Should you not have had compassion just

as I had compassion on you? You threw him into

prison, torturers. He could pray this back because

he was angry. And then verse 35, it says, So

my heavenly Father also will do to you if each

of you from his heart does not forgive his brother

his trespasses. This is the main idea of this

whole parable. Peter said, How often do I need

to forgive? Seventy times seven. Jesus says,

We need to forgive. those who have wronged us.

We need to forgive those who trespass against

us. You know, it's very closely to the Lord's

Prayer. We talked about that a couple weeks ago.

What's that one line? It says, forgive us our

debts as we forgive our debtors. Forgive us as

we forgive our debtors. And if you look at the

verse immediately after the Lord's Prayer, The

very next verse in Matthew 6, verse 14, immediately

Matthew 6:14

after the Lord's prayer, it says, For if you

forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father

will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive

men their trespasses, neither will your Father

forgive your trespasses. Have mercy. That's pretty

clear right there. We need to forgive as we have

been forgiven. Because we are forgiven, we need

to forgive. If we haven't truly accepted and

recognized God's grace, if we aren't willing

to pass that grace to somebody else. We haven't

accepted God's forgiveness truly if we aren't

willing to forgive somebody else. So as we look

at this story, we can see, first of all, we need

to have a correct view of ourselves. That first

servant thought he could pay it back. I'm going

to pay it all back. No, we can't. We are desperately

in need of a Savior. We can see that we need

to, as we look at others, we need to not look

for the wrong that they have done, but look for

the goodness that God has placed in them. And

then when we are wrong, we can respond with grace.

We need to forgive because we are forgiven. And

we can say, sure, that makes sense, Pastor Greg.

That makes sense when somebody cuts me off in

traffic. Sure, I'll forgive them. That makes

sense, you know, if somebody teases me or laughs

at me. But what about the real issues? What about

those things that I deserve to be upset about?

What are those things that I deserve to get some

sort of revenge or some sort of justice? that

rudeness or that abuse or that disloyalty or

that rejection or that unfaithfulness. And I

will say that God wants us to be safe. God wants

us to be in places where we are protected and

our family, but we can also still continue to

treat people the way that God would treat people.

What were the words of Jesus about persecution?

We read it in Matthew 5. He said, turn the other

cheek. He said, pray for your enemies. Pray for

those who persecute you. Those are beautiful

words, Jesus. But what about the actions of Jesus?

What did Jesus do? Well, we can remember night

in Jerusalem outside the walls when Jesus had

every right to be offended. He had every right

to bring whatever judgment down that he could

because that crowd came to him as he was praying

in a garden. Jesus was praying. And the mob came

and they arrested him and they grabbed him and

they dragged him away. They hit him in the face

when he had done nothing, when he had said nothing

offensive. They pulled out his beard. made no

threats to anybody. They spit in his face, and

he had done nothing wrong. You know, there's

an old gospel song that says he could have called

10 ,000 angels. If he was there on that night,

he could have called 10 ,000 angels to destroy

the world and set him free. He could have called

10 ,000 angels. Anybody know the next line? but

he died alone for you and for me. He could have

called, he could have smote them, he could have

destroyed them, but instead he said, Father,

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

doing. Father, forgive them, for they don't know

what they're doing. In 1 Peter 2, we've got just

another verse or two here. 1 Peter 2, notice

what it says. In verse 21, it says Christ suffered

for us, leaving us an example. Then it says who,

when he was reviled, did not revile in return.

When he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed

himself to him who judges righteously. Jesus

didn't strike back. Jesus didn't fight back.

Jesus allowed God to take that place of judgment.

Jesus allowed God to do all that. Now, there's

a saying that psychologists and pastors have

maybe noted. You've probably heard it. It says,

hurt people, hurt people. If somebody's been

hurt at some point in their life, they are more

likely to pass that on to somebody else, to pass

that pain and suffering. Hurt people, hurt people.

And in the sinful world, there's a lot of people

that have been hurt. And perhaps the flip side.

of that saying is that forgiven people forgive

people. And we, you and I, have been forgiven.

So we can forgive, not because somebody doesn't

deserve something, not because we like how we

were treated, but we can forgive because we were

forgiven. Have you recognized that you're someone

who makes mistakes? Have you recognized that

you're someone who daily is in need of a Savior?

Have you accepted God's grace today? Are you

willing to forgive because you are forgiven?

Louis Zamperini came back after being tortured,

after being beaten. He met a young lady who became

his wife. He became an alcoholic, depressed.

And as I'm reading this book, this book had everything

that I like to read about. This guy was a runner.

I like running. This guy was in the Olympics.

I love the Olympics. And next year, there's the

Winter Olympics coming up. You're going to hear

lots of stories about the Olympics. This guy

was in World War II. I like reading about World

War II. It's fascinating to see that historical

part. Survived in a life raft for 47 days. I

like reading about survival stories and nature

stories and man versus nature and all that. But

when the war was over, there's still this much

of this book left. He's home from the war, and

there's this much, you know, 50 pages. What in

the world is happening? I didn't know how this

story ended. His wife was ready to leave him

because of his abuse, because of his alcoholism,

because of his depression. But before she left

him, she went down the street in Los Angeles,

somewhere across town, and went to a big tent.

And there was a young preacher in that tent named

Billy Graham. He was talking about the love of

Jesus and the grace of Jesus. And as she went

to that meeting, That revival meeting with Billy

Graham, she gave her heart to Jesus. And she

said, you know what? I'm going to stay with this

guy. And she went home and she began to encourage

Louie. Louie, you come with me. You need to come

to this meeting. And finally, probably to make

her stop, what's the word? I don't want to say

nagging, but that's the one that popped into

my head. To stop this discussion, he went. And

as he was listening to Billy Graham talk about

Jesus, he gave his heart to Jesus and surrendered

all of that anger and that depression and that

alcoholism and that abuse that he had tied up

in his heart. And he recognized that the power

of Jesus, that Jesus died for his sins, the power

of Jesus forgives him and that he needs to forgive

because he was. And so as he interacted with

Billy Graham, Billy Graham helped him to kind

of start a ministry and to go and speak, especially

to young people, about living their life for

Jesus. And it was in about 1950, five years after

World War II ended, that Louis went back to Japan.

And he went to a prison where those guards were

serving now as prisoners. Those guards who had

tortured him, who had starved him, who had beaten

him, who had mocked him, they were now in prison

for war crimes. And he went before them and he

talked to them. And he told them about Jesus

and gave them Bibles. And he said, I forgive

you because Jesus has forgiven me. And he said

that some of them even accepted Jesus in that

moment. An incredible story of someone who...

through so much, but because of Jesus was willing

to forgive those who wronged him. We can remember

that we can forgive because you are forgiven.

Is there somebody that you need to forgive this

week? Is there grace that you need to accept

that Jesus is pouring out, but you haven't truly

accepted it? It's my prayer that you'll open

your heart to Jesus to accept his grace and to

share it. with somebody else. Let's bow our heads

for prayer. Dear God, forgive us. We're sorry.

We know we have messed up. We know we fall short

of the glory of God. Forgive us for those words

that we have spoken, for that distraction that

we have had which has turned our eyes away from

you. Forgive us for those interactions which

did not bring glory to your name this week. Lord,

help us to accept that grace, but not just accept

it, Help us to share it, to pass it on to somebody

else, to forgive because we are forgiven. In

your name we pray.