The Jesus Stories • The Story of the Unforgiving Servant

Welcome to the Willow Ridge Sermons podcast. This is

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Well, good morning. That's good. If you

have your bibles, and I hope you do, I want to invite you to join

me in Matthew, chapter 18.

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

As you turn there, I, wanna share something else with you guys that

we're really excited about. for a

pretty good season of time now, one of the things we've been praying about is

staff and leadership is how to better connect

with different, groups or demographics within

the context of our church. And one of those, groups that we've

been really praying about is our young adults. And so

we're kinda defining, that, I'm sorry, for,

like, 18 to 24 year olds as they come out

of the student ministry, into the world of

college, career, military,

or that space. And maybe you were there and I

was definitely there of none of those three, because I have

no clue, what I want to do or what

God has for me. And so we are intentionally, as

a church, starting to target that group with

a new discipleship ministry

opportunity. excited to share with you guys, Josh Nix is going

to be coming alongside us and leading in that

capacity. And so after the service is over with, not

only will Aaron and I be back in the back for first time guests,

but if you are an 18 to 24 year old, or if

you are the parent grandparent friend of an 18 to

24 year old, and you'd like to speak with us about

what that ministry looks like, we'd love to talk to you about

that. I know Josh has already got on the docket. Just kind of get

together with this group several times over the course of the

summer just to hang out and do some stuff. And

so here's what I know. He shared with me this morning

on Monday, July 8, he's going to

get together with that group, take them

bowling, take them, out to dinner. it's

free. Josh is going to pay for that. So

we're excited about that. It is free. Josh didn't know

that he's going to pay for it, but now he's going to pay for it, right? and so we want to

encourage you guys to be a part of that and go out that wonderful time and

just build, the beautiful bond of fellowship and

community, with that. And so Josh and I will be

back in the back if you want to get connected, if you got any questions.

We would love for you to answer that.

Well, as we continue on in our summer series

this morning, we're going to be looking at the parable of

the unforgiving servante.

And so I want to start, though, by looking at the verses

right before that which will lead into

Jesus telling this parable. So,

verse 21 of Matthew 18 says this.

Then Peter came up and said to him,

lord, how often will my brother

sin against me? And I forgive him

as many as seven times.

And Jesus said to him, I do

not say to you seven times, but

77 times. Let's pause there

for a minute. This is that, culmination point that we've been talking

about with all of our parables of what sparks Jesus in

these moments, to do the teaching on the parable that he

does. Right before this, Jesus had been

speaking to the discipleships about unity.

And so, Peter, maybe from

sincerity, but probably nothing,

ask Jesus a question.

He says, jesus, how many times should I

forgive my brother?

Now, not necessarily the brother related

brother, but a brother in faith, a

friend, how often should I do this?

Should they have sinned against me, lord,

should I do this? Up to seven times. And I kind of

picture in my, mind, Peter's saying that

a little bit with, like, his chest stuck out a little bit,

like seven times.

Here's seven. Seems generous, right? I don't know if

you've ever been hurt or wounded by someone. I would

likely think that you have, because you've lived and you

know, what that walks through and, you know, the difficulty

when you're in a relationship and someone hurts you and hurts

you and hurts you. And so Peter

says seven, right?

The rabbis during the time, many of them

would teach that once, you'd forgiven someone three

times, you are no longer bound to forgive

them anymore. So Peter

takes what would have been

customary, doubles it,

and then adds one to it. Pretty good.

Pretty good. Probably like what people

would have looked at for him and thought, man, that guy's

gracious, he's generous,

he's kind. He's setting a

standard beyond the culture of the norm.

But then Jesus answers. Now, if you're reading

along in your Bible, you might have got a different, different

number than what I read. And my

translation says 77 times. Other

translations say 70 times

seven. Either

way, here's the big idea leading into

this parable that Jesus is going to teach on

when we talk about forgiveness. Number one,

we, as his people, as his followers, are commanded to

forgive. It's not a suggestion. It's

not an idea. It's not a strategy,

it's not a tactic, but

an obedience to the Lord and surrender to him in our

life. That you and I, as followers of

Jesus, are commanded to

forgive. Number two

is your forgiveness should be

sacrificial. Whether you're saying

77 times or 70 times

seven. here's the thought that we want to

get. It's sacrificial. It's over

and over and over and over and over

again. They hurt me. I forgive. They

hurt me. I forgive. I forgive. I forgive. I forgive. I forgive.

They hurt me in the past. I haven't seen them since.

I forgive. I forgive. I forgive. I forgive. I forgive.

The number that Jesus is looking at is not a

magical number. It's over and over

and over again.

the third that we're going to see is

forgiveness doesn't keep

records.

I think what we're looking at here

is honestly, like, who's

going to keep track? Like,

imagine, like, we used to

go to six flags growing up,

and going to six flags in Atlanta. We would go

through and we would get, like, paper tickets. Like I know now, like, you can

scan phones and, like, you can do things like that. but for a

younger generation, younger than me, like, there used to be that time

that you had paper. And I'll never forget, one time we were

driving to, I was driving, I was

16 years old. We were driving to six flags

for the day with my family. My parents were going to let me drive on the

interstate. I was driving my mom's

suv, and I thought

that it would be great if going 70

miles an hour down I 20, headed toward Atlanta, that I

rolled the windows down. So

I rolled the windows down. What I did

not know, and probably I was 16, I wouldn't have put this much

thought into it even if I did know. but all four of our family

tickets were placed in the

visor right above

me. And as I rolled my

window down, my dad yells, no.

And out the

window goes, tickets. So we pulled over

my dad's like, I got the side of the road, bo,

you get the median right.

We never found them. We never found

them. Did we go? Yep. My dad was kind

and gracious and good, but I heard

about it the whole way there

and the whole way back. We could have gone

for two days. Yeah, we could have. But, you know,

I didn't drive anymore that day, but they

used to do something when you would leave and you came in, there was a person that would take your ticket,

and then there was a person with a clicker and then

people clicking as people came in, clicking as people came out.

What Jesus is saying is, we're not a person

that lives with a clicker, that we sit

there and go, well, you know what? They've done this to me. I forgive them.

Click. I forgive them. Click. I forgive

them. Click. I forgive them. Click.

We do it over and over again that we're commanded

to and that doesn't keep records.

And so Jesus has this moment of this

interaction with Peter,

and then what Jesus is going to do

brilliantly is leverage this into a

parable where the topic of

forgiveness is strong

through. We're going to look at that, but there's

more to it.

So let's look at verse 23.

Jesus begins and he says, therefore, the kingdom

of heaven may be

compared to a king who

wished to settle accounts with his

servants. Let's pause there.

This parable. We'll look at the topic of

forgiveness. But as Jesus

sets the stage for the

parable, I feel like sometimes

we take these teachings of Jesus and we just want to kind of turn

these into, like Doctor

Phil, be a better

guy, object

lessons. And

Jesus is going to teach on forgiveness. But there's more than

that. He's going to paint the picture

and describe the kingdom of heaven.

Therefore, the kingdom of heaven may

be compared to a king who wished to settle

accounts with his servants. So

I'm going to talk about Jesus. Jesus is going to talk about

forgiveness, but within the concept of what he's going to

talk, he's going to paint a

picture of this kingdom

and paint the picture of those in the kingdom.

And we can speak for weeks discussing

exactly the kingdom of heaven. But for the sake of our

time, for the sake of this passage, for the sake of this parable,

which, look at this, the kingdom of heaven

is the rule of eternal sovereign

God over all the

universe. But when we narrow

this down, specifically what we're connecting today,

the kingdom of heaven is a spiritual

rule over the hearts and the lives of those

who willingly submit to God's

authority. And so Jesus is going to paint

this picture for this moment in this room. Lord,

isn't seven enough? Isn't seven

enough?

Well, Peter, let me tell you about the kingdom of heaven. Let

me tell you and paint a picture of what this

is like. So let's read, we're going to read the entirety

of the parable 24 through 35.

When he began to settle,

one was brought to him who owed him 10,000

talents. And since he could not

repay, his master ordered him to be

sold with his wife. And

children and all that he had in payment to be

made. So the servant fell on his

knees, imploring him, have patience with

me, and I will pay you everything.

And out of pity for him, the master of that servant

released him and forgave him the debt.

But when that same servant went out, he found

one of his fellow servants, who owed him 100

Daenerys. And seizing him, he began to choke him,

saying, pay what you owe. So his fellow

servant fell down and pleaded with him, have

patience with me, and I will repay you.

And he refused and went and put him in prison until he should

pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had

taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and

reported to their master all that had taken place.

And then his master summoned him and said to him,

you wicked servant, I forgave you

all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should

not you have had mercy on your fellow servant

as I had mercy on you?

And in his anger, his masters

delivered him to the jailers

until he should pay all his debt. And

then Jesus gives us some commentary.

These are Jesus words. These are

true. So also my

heavenly father will do to every one of you

if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.

We got a parable of two debts.

It says, master kingdom, depending

on. What's your translation? The first

debt is between a king and a servant. The servant

owed the king, the Bible tells us 10,000 talents. Now, this

debt is hard to fully cover, to

understand, to convert, for us to truly

understand. But on the low end, they think the

10,000 talents in today's economy

would be about $12 million.

It's on the low end. On

the high end, 1 billion.

So we could argue. We could take an average. But I think

here's the point. This debt is too

great for this man to pay

12 million, 1 billion.

Now, if you're like, nah, that ain't bad, like,

let's have a conversation, all right? Like,

I'd like to know some things,

right? This debt's too great for this

man to pay. And I think this is

interesting. He doesn't seek

forgiveness. Look,

he seeks patience

so that he could have time to

repay. Now, I wonder, have you ever wondered how this

guy got into this situation? Like, Jesus leaves the space open

for us. Was it gambling? Was it foolish investments? Was it bad

business practice? Was it foolish spending? Was it wildlife? We don't

know. It could be a little bit of

all. It could be a mix up of what was

there. It could be one more. So than the other,

we don't know. But what we know is

the servant is, accountable for

the debt that is there. And so

he makes this appeal

for the depth of his debt.

Let me make it right.

Have patience with

me. Here's,

what I want us to see. As we look at forgiveness,

as we look at our relationship with God.

As you stand before the king,

as you stand before God, you and I,

we had a sin debt that is greater than a billion.

We had a sin debt that was so great that

if given eternity, you and I, we could never

repay it. And

when we think this, when we think, I don't need

God's forgiveness, but what I need is just

patience so that I can take what I wronged and

make it right. What you and I do is we fight

a battle that's impossible to win.

We've accrued a, debt

that we are incapable of

paying. And so what does the king

do? Out of pity,

out of looking back last week

at, the parable that we looked at

with the Samaritan, what we

see is out of pity, out of

compassion, he forgives the

debt. He forgives the

king. The good,

gracious, kind

king forgives the

debt. Scripture says he

releases him. He says, you're no longer

held, bound by,

limited by, restrained

to, tied to this debt.

That's your fault that you created, that you owned.

I'm going to release you from it.

And then he forgives the debt. He

doesn't just forgive him, he

forgives the debt. Which means he says this,

that the debt is canceled.

The debt is taken care of. The debt is

paid. And this is how God forgives

us in Christ when

we are saved. Your debt,

your sin has been created.

It's incapable for you. And God has paid it in

full, past, present and future. The

debt that you created, you are not bound to. You're not known

by. You didn't have to work to pay it off. And that gives us

reason, that gives us hope, that gives us a perspective of

life to celebrate. The king of kings and the

Lord of lordsness. Every dark

area of our behavior, of our thoughts,

of our words, of our deeds, of our actions.

And he forgives us. And he forgives us fully. And it's why we

have a song to sing. It's why there's joy that

fills us. Because of who he is and what he has

done for us. And in this

parable, this servant

receives forgiveness from a debt

that he can never repay. And he's

released. But there's two

debts. There's two debts.

The next debt is servant to servant.

The new servant, the servant who has been forgiven goes

out and what does he do? Does he

celebrate? Does he go and tell

everyone how merciful the king

is? Does he go and does he volunteer his time?

Does he go and give things away? No. What does he

do? The Bible, lets say, immediately.

Immediately. What he does is he goes and he finds

someone who owes him money. And

he doesn't go to them and say, hey, man, this is what happened to me.

So high five to you, like done. Don't

worry about it. I got this. No, no. Instead

he attacks him.

He attacks him physically and

demands that he'd be repaid. And what he is

owed is 100 deneri now. 100 deneri

to be thought of a hundred days, days wages.

So in a South Carolina economy, Google this. This is what

economists are saying right now here in our

beautiful, wonderfully, extremely

hot state of South Carolina.

In our economy, this would be about

19,500.

Now it's 19,500. A lot

of money. Yes. If you said

no again, like, let's have a conversation afterwards,

right? That's a lot of money,

but it ain't 12 million.

Like when we look at, within the context of what is

happening here,

12,019,500.

So the servant who owes the

19,500,

he asks for the same thing that the other

servant asked for.

Patience. Patience. Let's look

at this practically. You choose option

a or option b.

Option A is you owe

someone something, some

entity, $12 million.

Can you repay that? No.

Option B, you owe someone

$19,500.02.

Things. Number one, you didn't do the Dave Ramsey plan.

Right. Number two,

can you repay that? Yes. Are you excited about

repaying that? Not really. What do you need? You need

some time, you need some work, you need some opportunities. And within that, like

this is something that you can do.

But instead, as he begs for patience,

what happens is he has him thrown in prison.

12 million forgiven,

19,500 not

forgiven. As

deep as we look at this in

forgiveness, as we look at that as

how we've sinned against God and how we've

sinned against one another and how, how we've

been hurt by the sins of others,

as deep as you and I have been hurt and

offended by others, it pales in

comparison to how you and I have hurt

and offended God. No

comparison. There's nothing

that can be done. There's no

lines that we could draw

from time to time.

I like to share my pet peeves. I've

shared this pet peeve before I'll share this pet peeve

again. When I'm driving,

I can't stand when

someone cuts me off. When someone

cuts me off, I gotta

pray, lord, let me

walk or drive in your

goodness and grace, right? Help

me think positive things. Maybe they're

headed to an appointment. Maybe they're headed to the

hospital. Maybe they're, may they

not be headed to a tee time, right? Like, this

is where we're at. I can't stand to

be cut off. The other day, I'm driving down highway

six, heading into downtown Lexington,

and I hit what has become a problem.

An intersection. The intersection right there in front

of ala. And I'm

kind of daydreaming as I'm driving. I'll be honest

with you. I'm in the right hand lane.

I've got to go all the way downtown,

and I realize that I've got to get over

into the left lane, and I've got

a choice to make. Do I hit my

brakes? Do I slow

down? Or do I just kind of

go, well, I just

kind of went and I

cut someone off. And

in that moment,

that person, through things that

were very evident to me at the time, was,

angry with me. They

were not hiding their feelings. They weren't

praying. Like, I'm reading lips. Like,

there's all kind of things that are going

on in that moment. And I just, like, bo,

just, just stare. Just go forward. Like, this is awkward.

Please let them not be going to where I'm

going in this point. And

I've got to apologize. Witness to

not get punched in the nose. Right?

Here's my point. Here's my point. Silly illustration.

But here's my point. I

can't stand the thing that I

do to people, or I'm sorry that people do to

me, even though from time to

time I do it to others.

When we look at the character and the nature of who God

is, God

forgives, and he's

never, not one time,

sinned against anyone. But

yet you and I, withhold forgiveness,

and we sin against one another all the time.

M all the time.

But do you know what they did to me? Well,

what have you done to them?

Or even greater, do you know

what we've done to him?

And the weight of that?

And he's never done that

to us. He's

never sinned.

But yet you and I, who fall short

so often, are incapable

of forgiving the other.

So the king gets news. Like, even

other people are like, this is crazy. And he

responds, king's told about what happens. And

immediately he summons the servant,

and he says, I forgave you.

Forgave you greatly. I

forgave you at a depth like this. But you,

you cannot forgive minimally.

And now remember this. This isn't just a

picture. This is not a five step

parable of what it looks

like to walk through a process

of forgiveness. This

is a parable where Jesus says,

therefore, the

kingdom of heaven may

be compared to this

situation where God's

people, who are forgiven and

commanded to forgive and commanded to

forgive all and commanded to forgive freely

and commanded to give graciously and commanded to

forgive extravagantly, and

commanded forgive sacrificially, because

that's what we receive,

but yet we stay in line. But you don't

understand. It's not just you. It's

me. It's me all the time.

But you don't know my story.

But you don't know how hard it is

to forgive.

But Jesus does. But

jesus does. And

he calls us to a

life. He calls

us to a relationship

with him that's based in

forgiveness. And he gives us the

power of the Holy Spirit.

To live in a way that

he understands is

weighted. That he

understands is difficult.

But here's what I found with us. Here's

what I found with me. Here's what I found with

you. We want

the life of the kingdom.

We want the blessing. We want the

joy. We want the peace.

We want the happiness. We

want the life of the kingdom.

But we do not want the death that

the kingdom requires.

Jesus died. Jesus

died to make a way for

you and I. But in

this, you and I, are

called to die.

Matthew 16

24 25.

Then jesus told his disciples,

if anyone. If

anyone would come after

me, let him

deny himself,

take up, his cross, and

follow me.

For m whoever would save his life

will lose it. But whoever

loses his life for my

sake will find it.

It's a call

into a relationship with

him. It's a call

to understand the power and the work

of his death and what he's done. But

it is a call

to die for self.

I remember when I got saved.

June 1,

2002.

I remember when I was raised in church. If you don't know that I was.

There wasn't a point in time.

I went to VBS. I went to church camp. I went to

rastaine. I did all the things that, like, Southern

Baptist kids did in the eighties.

I was familiar with felt boards and, like, saltine

crackers before we had goldfish, right?

I had a belief and

a knowledge of Jesus.

I knew who he was,

but what I needed to be

different was my

response to him.

What I needed. What I

needed was

surrender. You see, you and I, in our

relationship with Jesus, if we look at these, we get these

illustrations of the king. Of the

king. I've never

lived under a king.

I've never. I've lived my whole life in

the United States of America. I've

lived in a democracy, a

democracy of equality and unity.

A, democracy where men and women have

struggled. A time where men and women

were not treated great, where men and women have given

their lives for others. But in the

democracy, what, we have

in this is freedom.

My freedom, my choice. I

decide. And we think that this

is. This is what we live in. And so

these are what these things are. So we take things like

scripture, and I think, we wouldn't say this,

but we feel this, and we definitely live this

way. Oftentimes, as we take this and we

say, all right, I know it's king Jesus, but

we're just gonna be president Jesus for a little bit.

And I'm going to kind of navigate through what I want to vote

yes on. What I want to vote no on what's going to apply to

me, what's not going to apply to me. But what we

see in this is the kingdom of

God. The kingdom of heaven is not a

democracy, but it's a monarchy.

It's a king, and it's his

rule, and it's his reign, and

it's what he's determined, and it's who he is. And he's

benevolent, and he is good, and he is

righteous, and he is in mercy. And when we come in,

we're like man. I want the benefit of the

king, but I want to live the life the way that I choose.

Jesus, I don't

know that that

can work together.

if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, tape

up his cross and follow me. For

whoever would save his life will lose it. But every who loses

his life for my sake will find it. Paul writes

in Galatians 220,

I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I, who live, but

Christ, who lives in me and the

life I, ah, now live in

the flesh. I live by

faith in the Son of God

who loved me and gave

himself for me.

When we talk about salvation,

we talk about that our eternity

has been set, our

eternity has been sealed.

And then somewhere along the way,

bad teaching or

unwillingness to surrender,

we've come with the idea

that that means that my eternity

is set, but I can live how

I want to live today.

I want to read that verse again. Galatians 220.

For I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live,

but Christ, Christ,

who lives in me,

in the life I live. I now live in

the flesh. I live by faith in the son

of God who loved

me and who gave himself up for me.

The beautiful thing of what we've been seeing over, these last several

weeks with the parables is Jesus is

drawing us in. And as we look at his

words, we understand the picture that he's

painting. And what he's showing us is this.

This is the beauty of what it looks like

to have a heart of compassion.

Why? Because we were dead on the

side of the road, and God

saw us. And what we

received was his compassion. That

we stood before a king

and that we did not get what we deserved.

We did not get the

wrath that was due to us.

Instead, we got forgiveness.

And as those who have been shown

compassion, as

those who have been shown

mercy for those who have been

shown for forgiveness,

go and do

likewise to live for the

kingdom, to live for the name of

Jesus, and to live

boldly where he's placed us.

Would you pray for me, God? I thank you so

much, Lord, for this opportunity, Lord, that we could be

here. I thank you for your word,

Lord. I thank you for the power of your word. I

thank you for its fullness, its

completeness. Every

word written true.

Every word written powerful.

God, I pray right now,

Lord. Because, Lord, I know there are so

many people in here.

They believe. They know,

or they're just like me, just like I

was. And I know the things of God.

I know the teachings of God. I believe in them.

I believe them to be true.

But there's a lack. There's an

unwillingness to surrender.

There's an unwillingness to come before the

kingdom,

to bend our knee, to

bow our head and say, it's not

just enough to believe in the king,

it's a surrender to the king. It's

a death to myself so that I can

live and live not just in

eternity, but so that

I can live in the power, in the

presence of God every single day,

to share light in a dark world,

to know what it means to be blessed, to

forgive, to show

compassion, to love,

to speak hope, not to people

who just deserve it, who we deem

deserve it, but to everyone,

to choose love, to choose compassion,

because that's been given to us. So, God, help

me.

Help m me, Lord, in my

life,

help me deny myself,

help me take up my cross,

or to help me follow you

more tomorrow than

today.

Gotta pray for our church.

Pray for those that are here.

I want to pray that we would respond

likewise, God,

if there is anyone here,

man, woman or child,

maybe this whole concept of Jesus is completely new to

them. Maybe they've never heard

before. Maybe they've

heard before and haven't

responded to you. God, I pray that

today will be the day of their salvation.

Today will be the day that they put their faith, hope,

trust in Christ. Today will be the day that

they seek forgiveness. Today will be the day

that they surrender their life. Today would

be the day that they take up their cross and they

follow you,

jesus m. Have your way

as king, king of

kings and Lord of Lords,

send your name we pray. Amen.

Thanks again for listening and be sure to check back next

week for another episode. In the meantime, you

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