The Pardon of Prayer

Welcome to this week's message from the Church at Chelsea Westover.

Our core values are vibrant worship, intimate fellowship, fulfilling service, and clear biblical truth.

We pray that this message changes your life.

Let's tune in to today's message and see what God has in store for you.

I want you to turn with me this morning in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

And again, it's been an unbelievable series of messages.

By the way, if you're here this morning, you do not have a worship guide, please raise your hand.

Anyone needs a worship guide, it has the outline on the back.

We'd be more than willing to get that to you.

And I praise the Lord for how God teaches us each and every week.

One of our core values is that we are given to the teaching and believing of the unadulterated, inspired, infallible Word of the Living God.

Can I get an Amen?

Clear biblical truth.

So that's what you get here.

In fact, we were uh David and I were talking yesterday.

Uh it's not just a rally, a pep rally, which I believe in that.

I think church ought to be a pep rally for Jesus.

Well, I don't know about you, but all week I fight the devil.

Anyone else like that?

You fight the devil all week long.

You really do.

I mean, I call it hand-to-hand combat.

And if we do not have our sword, so so what happens after a battle, you know, you usually after battle you go back to headquarters, you lick your wounds, you you tend to your wounds, you get rejuvenated, you get uh, you know, you get more ammo, whatever.

You you know, you kind of what?

Really just get yourself ready to fight another battle.

So all week long, when uh you know, you're out there battling, and so Sunday, Sunday's rally time.

Sunday's the time to be encouraged.

That's why he says in Hebrews 10, 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some are, but exhorting one another so much more as you see the day approaching.

In other words, you can't wait to get back to church because you know you're gonna be encouraged, you know you're gonna be fed, you know you're gonna sharpen your sword, which is your offensive weapon of putting on the armor of God in Ephesians chapter 6, and you're gonna get ready and encouraged to go back in to battle Monday morning.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

Sometimes it doesn't wait till Monday morning, sometimes it gets the Satan attacks Sunday afternoon.

Can I get an amen?

So that's why we come to church.

It's exciting.

You can't wait.

You can't wait to be encouraged.

We just got encouraged with the worship music, worshiping God in spirit, which we just did.

Now we're gonna worship him in truth, which the Father seeketh such to worship him.

John 4, 24.

So, this morning we're gonna be looking at, we have two messages left in this series.

We looked, first of all, at God's paternity, our Father, the paternity of God's prayer, then we looked at the priority of God's prayer, hallow be thy name.

Then we looked at the program of God's prayer, thy kingdom come.

Then we looked at the plan of prayer, thy will be done.

And then we looked at the provision of prayer, give us this day, our daily bread.

And today we're gonna be looking at God's pardon of prayer.

God's pardon of prayer, and then we'll finish with God's protection of prayer.

So that's where we'll be going these next two Sundays.

Today's probably out of all the messages that we're gonna hear, it's the toughest for the Christians.

And let me tell you why.

Or really toughest for everyone.

For the lost person, number one, he's got to acknowledge that he's a sinner.

And let me tell you, no one will acknowledge they are a sinner unless they get humbled.

Acknowledging that you are a sinner and you need to be saved, you need to be changed is a humbling experience.

Can I get an amen?

It took me at least two years fighting it all the way.

I just know I'm not gonna do that.

So that's that's it's tough.

That's why a lot of people never come to know Christ.

They will never humble themselves before Christ.

Then for the Christian, boy, some of you are gonna go out of here mad at me today.

I already know you are.

Please don't be real mad at me.

Because all I'm I'm just, hey, don't shoot the messenger.

Okay, I'm the messenger boy.

Because the second part, and we may end up having to finish it next week because I'm not gonna miss any in this.

The second part of this is the toughest for us Christians.

And that is forgiving those who have offended us.

Now, I know every one of us here this morning says that's no problem.

I'm gonna tell you something that's probably the largest, biggest problem you and I face as Christians is forgiving people that have offended us.

And when you get through hearing what Jesus said, not what I said, you're gonna say, that's mmm.

I'm already, I've been all week.

So today, I want us to look at, Sylvester, can you believe what I'm about to do?

Matthew chapter six.

If this thing messes up, honey, I'm in trouble.

You gonna bail me out?

Have I fixed my settings?

What's that?

I got it.

I got it.

That was good.

I that was really you set that one up well for me.

So in Matthew chapter 6, verse 12, 13, 14, 15.

Matthew 6:12

Jesus said, and forgive us our debts.

That's us forgiving, hey, asking God to forgive us of our sins.

That's gonna be the first part.

We're gonna look at two parts today: our sin problem, and then our forgiveness problem.

Those are the two points.

And forgive us our debts as what we forgive our debtors.

Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Amen.

And that's the last message, the protection of God's prayer right there.

But what I want you to look at, verse 12, and then really we skip up over verse 13 to 14 and 15, which go along with verse 12.

And he says, now, let's read it this way.

You look at verse 12.

And let me let me read it in the New Living Testament, verse 12.

It's beautiful.

And forgive us our sins as we have forgiven those who sin against us.

And then verse, drop down to verse 14.

For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

Powerful statement, folks.

There is a direct correlation in how we forgive other people in the relationship of how God forgives us.

Can I have an O me?

And then verse 15, but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses.

Verse in the New Living Testament says, but if you refuse to forgive others, your father will not forgive your sins.

Oh, let me read that again.

But if you refuse to forgive others, your father will not forgive you your sins.

And I don't I don't I don't can I be honest, I don't like that.

That's that's tough.

So today we see here the prayer of the disciples shifts from the sustenance of God, our daily bread, now to a prayer of cleansing and forgiveness.

Cleansing and forgiveness, which is the main issue of the whole relationship with us with God and us with other fellow believers.

It really is.

The issue of really he deals with humility and confession, sin, fellowship with God, and seeking forgiveness and us seeking forgiveness, but also us forgiving our offenders, those that offend us.

And it's so important.

So, let's look first of all at our problem.

Verse 12 again, and forgive us the first part of verse 12, and forgive us our debts.

The whole uh, I found this little story, I think you'll like it.

The whole town had gathered in the courthouse for a trial.

The prosecuting attorney called this first witness, an elderly woman, to the stand.

He approached her and asked, Miss Jones, do you know me?

She responded, why, yes, I know you, Mr.

Williams.

I've known you since you were a young boy.

And frankly, you've been a big disappointment to me.

You lie, you cheat on your wife, you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs, you think you are a rising big shot, but you haven't the brains to realize you will never amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher.

Yes, I know you, she said.

The lawyer was stunned.

He didn't know what to do, so what else?

He just turned.

And I love this.

The lawyer was stunned, not knowing what else to do, he pointed across the room and asked Miss Jones, Well, do you know the defense attorney?

She replied, Well, of course I know Mr.

Bradley.

Since he was a youngster, too.

I used to babysit him.

And he too has been a real disappointment to me.

He's lazy, he's a bigot, he has a drinking problem.

The man can't build a normal relationship with anyone, and his law practice is one of the shoddiest in the entire state.

Yes, I know him.

About that time, the judge goes, Order in the court.

Both the attorneys, please approach the bench.

And sure enough, they approach the bench.

And at this point, the judge said to them in a quiet voice, he said, If either of you ask her if she knows me, I will hold both of you in contempt of court.

Pretty good, isn't it?

She knew everything about him.

Well, beloved, God knows us.

He knows everything about us.

He knows our thoughts before we think them.

That's scary.

That's what he says in Luke.

In fact, listen to what he says in Psalms 94, verse 11.

Psalms 94:11

The Lord knows the thoughts of men.

They are vanity, they are useless.

They have no profit whatsoever.

Listen to 1 Chronicles 28, verse 9.

1 Chronicles 28:9

The Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind those thoughts.

If you seek him, he will be found by you.

But if you forsake him, he will not, hey, he will reject you forever.

Wow.

So we see, this is why.

In fact, he knows especially about our sinfulness, and this is why we have to ask him for forgiveness.

In fact, the word forgive here, it's atheamy, which means to send away.

It means to send away.

We've got to, hey, hey, we've got to ask God to forgive our sins.

And when we do, let me tell you, he sends them away.

In fact, Psalms 103, verse 12 says he sends them away as far as the east is from the west.

Psalms 103:12

Hey, so far he removes our transgressions.

Listen to what uh Jeremiah 31, 34.

He says that he will remember our sins no more.

Micah chapter 7, verse 19, he says, he will put them in the deepest part of the sea.

Micah 7:19

And then, you know what I say about that verse?

Then hey, he hangs a sign that says, no fishing.

Amen.

So we see the forgiveness of God.

And we see right here at this section of the Lord's Prayer, the Lord deals with our problem, the problem of our sinfulness.

Now notice, sin is represented here as a debt.

It's a debt.

And as our sins are many, they are referred to here plural as debts.

The Greek word there is ophilema, ophilema.

And it literally means, hey, debts are offenses against God.

That's what a debt is.

Debt is an offense against God.

God made man that he might live to glorify God and gave him a law to live by.

And when we disobey God's word, God's law, we have a sin debt to repay.

And it's very important that we pay that debt.

All men have broken God's law and are guilty, and the penalty of death must be paid.

Why?

Romans 6.23.

And here's what it says.

For the wages of sin is death.

For the wages of sin is death.

Our greatest need is forgiveness of sins.

Amen?

That's the hey, that's our greatest need as a person is to have our sins forgiven.

Now let me tell you, when I thought about that, I said, why is that such a great need?

What does sin do to us?

We need forgiveness of sins for fellowship with God.

We need forgiveness of sins for fellowship with one another.

We have to have it.

In fact, let me tell you what I saw.

Sin does.

First of all, sins, are you ready?

Dominates our mind.

Now, this is not in the outline because I got this later.

This was a question God gave me a couple of days ago, and I said, I need to answer this for me.

So I came up with five things.

So you find a little place to write down, it's simple in the verses.

But first of all, sin dominates our minds.

In fact, Romans 1, and we don't have time to go there this morning, but you go there.

But verse 21 says that our thinking is futile and our motives are foolish, and that we have turned against God and we have started to serve the creature more than the creator.

Sin dominates our mind.

And we see that throughout Scripture.

And Ephesians 2 talks about that Satan, that the prince and power of this air, controls our minds in Ephesians 2.2.

He controls our minds.

And that's why Paul said, casting down imagination and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

2 Corinthians 10 5.

Because sin, with Satan being the prince and power of this air, with his power, tries to dominate our minds with the thinking of worldliness and sin so that we keep our thinking away from God.

That's what he tries to do.

That's why it's so important that we keep our eyes fixed on God.

Because, see, listen, we need forgiveness of sin because our sins hurts our walk with God.

But, hey, hey, and in fact, see, you can't come into God's presence.

I saw this first and I hadn't seen it in a while.

And I thought, that's it.

You can't come into God's presence with sin in your thinking and in your life because he says in Abakka, listen to this, Habakkuk 1.13, God is a pure eyes and cannot look on evil.

That's powerful, folks.

That's powerful.

So we see it dominates our mind.

But number two, sin brings men under Satan's control.

Ephesians 2, under the power of the prince, and the prince and the power of this heir.

Under his control.

Number three, sin makes men objects of God's wrath in Ephesians 2, 3.

Ephesians 2, chapter 2, and verse 2 and 3.

Powerful.

That whole little section talks about we're either children of God or we're children of the devil.

And hey, and it's evident by, hey, who controls you by your actions.

So it's very powerful.

And then sin subjects men to, hey, to uh objects to God's wrath.

But then number four, sin, hey, subjects man to the miseries of life.

Did you hear that?

When you and I are living in sin, we're miserable.

If you are a Christian, you can't live in sin and be happy.

Amen.

Oh me, you can't.

You can't live in sin and have the peace of God that passes all understanding.

If you're a Christian, after you lost it, it doesn't matter.

And if you hey you don't have any conviction over what you're doing's wrong, then guess what?

You need to be saved.

I'm going to just say it right out.

Or at least examine yourself whether or not you'd be in the faith, Paul says.

Amen?

So we see, listen to what he says in Isaiah 58, verse 22.

There is no peace.

There is no peace, saith the Lord, to the wicked.

No peace, saith the Lord to the wicked.

And then number five, you know what sin does?

Sin, and uh boy, this is so powerful.

Our sins affect our prayer life.

You can't pray if you have sin in your life.

Oh, you can pray, but it's not getting any further than the roof.

How do you know that?

Psalm 66, 18.

If I regard iniquity in my heart, God will not hear me.

Wow.

Let me repeat it.

If I regard iniquity in my heart, God will not hear me.

So we see.

Why he says here in Matthew 6, 12.

Forgive us our sins is to be our prayer.

And then you ask the word, well, what is sin?

We see what sin does, so what is it?

There's five Greek words that are used in the New Testament for sin.

And I want you to fill them in.

Here we, and it's powerful.

First of all, we see harmatia.

Harmatia, which literally means is the most common word used for sin.

It's used 151 times in the New Testament.

151 verses.

Harmarthia.

And here's what it means: it means to miss the mark.

It means that it's kind of like shooting at a target.

We all in here, a lot of us are, we love to shoot our guns or bow and arrows or whatever.

It means that you have a target and you're shooting at the target, but you're missing the target.

That's what it means.

It's a powerful word.

Romans 5.12, wherefore, as by one man, here it is, sin entered into the world and death by sin, so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned.

Hamartia.

We've missed the mark.

We've missed it.

It means sin misses the mark of God's righteousness, of God's plan for you and me.

When we are living in sin, we're missing what God has for us.

Wow.

And most of us, you say, Pastor Danny, I want to be successful.

I want to be happy.

I want to be, hey, I want a happy marriage.

I want a great job.

I want to always live and be happy and excited and just have a great life.

Well, folks, if you're going to do that, you can't miss the mark.

And one of the greatest verses that I love here, and I really do believe this, we tend to miss the mark because we get distracted.

We tend to miss the mark because we're out of practice.

We just don't do what we know we're supposed to do.

Can I get a know me?

You know you're supposed to come to church, but sometimes you just don't do it.

You know you're supposed to read your Bible.

Sometimes you just don't do it.

You know you ought to memorize Scripture.

Sometimes you just don't do it.

You know you ought to share your faith, but sometimes you just don't do it.

You know you ought to love your brother and your neighbor, but sometimes you just don't do it.

And you say, why is that?

I can answer it.

I'm helping you.

Me too.

Sin.

No, no, no, no, no.

Don't call it sin.

I'm just, you know, I just need to be better.

No, you just need to be forgiven.

Amen.

Come on now.

Help me, church.

I knew it was going to get a little quiet.

We excuse our sinfulness, don't we?

Thank you, Darren.

That's one.

I'm going to repeat that.

We excuse our sinfulness, don't we?

Yes.

Amen.

We do.

We have an excuse and we we appease our own selves when we're guilty.

And we know that.

For this reason, God tells us, hey, we're out of practice.

Our focus gets distorted.

I wrote this down.

These are to me.

Sometimes I get my eyes off the Lord and put them on other other things.

And by the way, those other things can be good things.

There's nothing wrong with football.

There's nothing wrong with honey.

There's nothing wrong with old cars.

Got that one in.

I mean, I could go down the line.

There's, you know, good things that we do for recreation and hobbies, and we all need that.

We need an escape rap.

But sometimes that focus can get so much on our hobbies or good things that we've miss the main thing.

I'm going to count three.

We're all going to say, oh me.

One, two, three.

Oh me.

Well, good.

I'm preaching it again.

So some of you need to hear it, amen.

And me too.

That's right.

So, so we see that right here, and this is what he's trying to teach us and admonish us here.

We do not practice having a daily walk with Christ.

And for this reason, notice what he says.

We are admonished to keep our sights and our eyes fixed on God.

Psalms 141, verse 8 says, My eyes are fixed on thee, O God, in the Lord is my trust.

Psalms 141:8

You gotta, what did Paul say?

I gotta what?

Die daily.

It's a daily battle, folks.

It's a daily battle.

It really is, until we go to be with the Lord.

Jesus said, Hey, if we live in the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit.

Hebrews 12, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

And then what I love about Paul, when Paul, and you'll see now the context coming together, when Paul said, this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, hey, I reach forth for those things which are before me.

And then notice what he says.

I press toward the what?

Mark.

The mark right there.

The mark.

And what does the word mark there?

It's a the Greek word scupas.

And it literally means that I reach my goal.

Or I hate that that goal's in sight.

I'm pressing, I'm giving everything I got to make sure I reach the goal.

Wow.

Did you hear me?

Everything I got.

The word press there means giving it everything you got to be all that you can be for the glory of God.

Not half-heartedly, but wholeheartedly.

98 and a half won't do, won't do.

God wants a hundred percent, and he wants you and you and you and me.

Well, Pastor Denny, I'm giving 98.

Well.

Okay.

Oh, you know what we do?

Here's what I do.

Maybe you don't do this.

I look at other people.

And I say, Well, I'm doing better than they're doing.

Hello.

Hello?

Now I know I'm the only one that does that.

Yeah.

Well, hey, I'm doing I'm doing better than Darren.

Darren's doing better than preacher.

Uh-uh.

See, I'm not gonna, hey, when I get before Jesus at the beam of judgment seat, it's not gonna be about me and Darren.

It's gonna be about me and Jesus.

Big difference, folks.

I'm not to try to compare to him.

I'm trying to live up to Jesus and what Jesus has told me to do.

I'm not gonna be judged by you.

I'm not gonna be judged by Darren.

I may be being judged today by you, but that's, hey, that doesn't, yeah, it bothers me, but I really don't lose any sleep.

I take a little baby aspirin and go to sleep at night.

But but hey, but but I tell you what I really do, and hey, knowing have I been all I can be for God.

And then here's how we would justify that.

Well, nobody can do that.

I'm doing the best I can.

Maybe your best's not good enough.

Because if you have the Spirit of God living in you, that's exactly where I'm going.

I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.

Philippians 4 13.

So there goes that excuse.

That hurt.

I think I'm gonna just take my shoes off.

Preach barefooted, they're already hurting so much.

But now notice.

Notice what he says.

Well, that feels good.

But notice, he says, Paul said, I fought a good fight.

I finished the course.

I kept the faith.

The mark here Paul was pressing toward was the Lord Himself.

Paul was looking forward to seeing and being with Christ.

He did not want, hey, to fail to miss the mark.

That's one thing I can tell you about my best friend David Wilson.

He did not miss his mark.

Daily he pressed toward the mark.

Every day.

You could count on him being up at 5 o'clock in the word.

You see the light flip on.

Every day.

He's pressing toward the mark.

Walking toward the mark.

Charles Lamb has a picture of a man named, I saw in my research, named Samuel Lee Grease.

Now watch this.

Grease was a brilliant youth.

Young people, young adults, listen to me.

Listen to this unbelievable example.

Grease was a brilliant youth who had never who had never fulfilled his promise.

Lamb says that there were three stages in his career.

There was a time when people said about Samuel Grease, he will do something great.

He had that potential.

He had that giftedness.

He said, stage one, for you and me, we can do something great because with God nothing's impossible.

Can I get an amen?

We can do what God calls us to do.

He said, the second stage.

When people said about him, he could do something great if he would.

If he would.

All this talent, all this giftiness, God has given to us, and we're not using it for his glory.

And then the third stage, there was a time when people said he might have, he might have done something great if he had done what he should.

Wow.

I thought about that.

I wrote this to myself.

After a certain age, all of us, good, bad, doesn't matter, are grief stricken.

You know why?

I'm 63.

Will be.

No, I am.

I don't know how how old am I, honey.

63.

Be 64 in December.

And I know I don't look it.

Thank you very much.

But as as I was working on this message, dear, I started thinking about.

And you know, with David's death, we all, it happened so quick, you can't help but start thinking, have I done?

Am I doing all that I can do?

Because one day, ladies and gentlemen, every knee's gonna bow.

And every tongue's gonna confess to Jesus Christ our Lord.

Are we doing everything we can?

Are we really pressing toward the mark?

That's what he's saying.

Or, and I love this.

I love this that we all come to that part.

And I ask myself, am I being a good husband?

Am I being as good a husband or what and you ladies or wives that we could be?

Kids, are we being as good children to our parents as we could be?

Or are we being deceitful and lying and manipulating?

Are we being as good employers and employees as we could be?

Man, I got all this started running through my mind.

Are we the best Christian we can be for the Lord?

Is there anyone who would dare, and I wrote this to me, to claim that he is all that he might have been and has done all he could have done?

When we realize that sin means the failure to hit, and this is so good, to hit the target, the failure to be all that we might have been and could have been, then it is clear that we all are sinners saved by God's grace.

And we need God's grace to be all that we can be.

Can I get an amen?

Is that not good?

Is that not good?

And there's a second, in fact, let me tell you the greatest example here.

How many of you have read this?

Um, the guy that saved the the Jews.

Yes.

Sin Schindler's list.

Have y'all read that book?

I've read the book a long time ago, but I thought about him as I was working on this message.

You know what he'd do?

He'd sell stuff and buy Jews and hide them.

And he saved over 200 plus.

And you know what?

At the end they were trying to praise him and he started weeping, and he said, No, don't praise me.

He said, I could have done more.

I could have sold this or I could have done that.

I could have, I could have, I could have.

He wasn't, you know, and he did great.

And I mean he saved hundreds of Jews' lives.

But uh when they asked him, trying to give him a compliment, he said, no, no, I could have done so much more.

And I thought to myself, there is not one of us on the day of judgment, and we'll be looking at that when we start our revelation series this fall.

Well, hey, when we stand before Jesus at the beam of judgment seat and bow before him, there's not one of us that will not say, We could have done more.

We could have done more.

In fact, what this means, parabbas, is a stepping across.

A stepping across the line which is drawn between right and wrong.

When we step over that line and we disobey God's word, we've stepped across the line.

It is going out of bounds, if you want to use a good illustration.

When you play a ball, it's going out of bounds.

When you're walking with Christ and you sin, you go out of bounds.

And when you're out of bounds, guess what?

The game stops.

You're no longer being productive for God.

Sometimes you get thrown out of the game.

That means you, hey, there's no way you can fulfill what God's called you to do.

So it's important that we don't step away.

We play by the rules.

And what are the rules?

The B-I-B-L-E.

That's the book for me.

Then the third word.

Paraptama.

Which means slip across or fall.

It's used 20 times.

The word parabbas is used seven times.

And the word right here, paramata, paraptoma, I'm sorry, which means to slip across or fall, is used 20 times in the New Testament.

Right here, verse 14 and 15.

That's the word.

And in two other places it's translated trespasses and fault.

Galatians 6.1, he says, brethren, if a man be overtaken in a paraptoma, a fault, which means trespass, ye which are spiritual, restore such one in spiritual meekness.

And then James 5.16, confess your paraptapa faults one to another, and pray one for another that you may be healed.

So again, paraptoma is a kind of slip.

In other words, what it really means is you kind of you kind of take them by surprise.

That old lust of the flesh, or you you may be walking somewhere you ought not to be walking, being in a place you ought not to be, watching something you ought not to be.

Bam, you're gone.

All of a sudden you're in sin.

It's a slip.

It's not, here's what I mean.

It's not quite as potential as the other.

That's what David did.

When he looked over the balcony.

When he looked, he should have run.

Yeah, he wasn't where he should have been.

He should have been leading a battle.

So, that makes sense?

And then the fourth word, the fourth word is anomia.

It means lawlessness.

It is used in 13 verses and is mainly translated iniquity.

Jesus put it this way.

And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you.

Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity.

Wow.

That's a powerful word.

In fact, let me tell you what it really means.

Anomia is the sin of the man who knows what's right, but he does wrong.

And here's what I put it down and wrote it in the Greek synonyms mean.

Anomia is direct and open rebellion against God.

Direct and open rebellion against God.

Here's a good example.

You've had it happen in your life.

I've had it happen in my life.

I knew what I was supposed to do, but I just looked at God and myself and said, I know that's what you want me to do, but I'm just not going to do it.

I'm going to do it my way.

And boy, did I pay.

Man, that's powerful.

Then the last word is the word that we're using here.

Ophilame.

Debts.

Debts.

And it means to pay that which is due.

In other words, it's a failure in duty.

When you and I fail in our duty, when we fail in doing what God told us to do, when we miss the mark, we owe a debt.

We owe a debt.

A sin debt.

And that's why he said, look, right here, forgive us our debts.

Confessing that we need forgiveness of sins is humbling.

It's humbling.

And either we can confess here or we'll confess one day up there.

Amen.

But you will confess.

And we know that, Philippians 2, 9 through 10.

Every knee's going to bow, every tongue's going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

So, we got a problem.

How many of us say we got a problem?

Say it with me, church.

We got a problem.

And what's the problem?

What's the problem?

Say it! You didn't even want to say it.

It's tough, isn't it?

You don't want to say it.

Well, I don't drink.

I don't do this.

I don't do that.

No, but what about your attitude?

What about your whining?

What about your complaining?

I know.

I'm preaching to me.

Y'all just join in with me.

Amen.

I can, I, a lot of people don't think I can be.

Well, I'm not going there.

My wife would amen too much.

Number two.

Now let's look.

We got a problem.

Now let's look at the proportion for forgiveness.

This is good.

Now this is the toughie.

As we forgive our debts, then verse 14, if we forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Now, our forgiveness of others demonstrates our felt need of being forgiven by the Lord.

Wow.

Let me explain it this way.

In the way you forgive others is a demonstration of how thankful you are for God forgiving you.

Did y'all get that?

Come on now.

Let me repeat it again.

For in the way that you and I forgive others is a demonstration of how thankful and humbling we are for God forgiving us.

Let me tell you the ones that are super spiritual.

The ones are always, and this is where legal, I'm convinced this is where legalism comes in.

There's no doubt in my mind.

In other words, if you don't look right, taste right, go right, do right, read the right Bible, all that stuff, all that legalism, do, do, do, do, do, do.

Alright, let me tell you where that.

By the way, serving Jesus is not a do.

Serving Jesus is a love.

The love of God compels me.

Amen?

I do because of love, not because of legalism.

That's good, preacher.

Okay?

You with me?

So legalism comes in when I'm judging you.

And I think I'm spiritual in you because you're not doing what I'm doing.

Hello.

And see, here's the problem with that.

Romans 2 says that when I start thinking that way and judging you, I'm as guilty or more guilty of doing the same things.

Hello.

So why am I judging?

Jesus said, judge not that ye be not judged.

You will be judged.

So the imperative here simply means that we must have a forgiven spirit if we expect to be forgiven.

Let me repeat that.

We must have a forgiving spirit if we expect to be forgiven.

Wow.

That's powerful, folks.

That's liberating.

I mean, is it liberating?

The attitude of forgiveness of others demonstrates, I wrote this down.

The attitude of forgiving others demonstrates our true repentance.

It really does.

Let me tell you something.

When you and I realize what we've been forgiven of and what he did for us, oh, listen, anything that anybody does to me is trifle.

It's so minute.

It is so no comparison than what Jesus did for me.

Man.

Man, that's good.

We must not expect our prayers to even go any further than the roof if we have an unforgiving spirit.

In fact, listen to what Augustine, one of the greatest old Puritan writers of all time.

You know what he called this verse?

Oh, he was so taken by it, so convicted by it.

He said, It's the terrible petition.

Now the Puritans were tough.

They didn't cut anybody's slack.

He said, it's the terrible petition.

Listen to what he said.

Because he realized that if we pray, forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors, with an unforgiving heart, we are actually asking God not to forgive us for our sins.

The Lord is telling us to pray, forgive us our sins as we have forgiven those who.

Have sinned against us.

Jesus does not want anyone to misunderstand it.

So he repeats it again in Matthew 6, 14 and 15.

Forgiveness involves a change of relationship between the wrong person and the wrongdoer.

Now write that down.

Forgiveness involves a change of relationship between the wronged person, if you've been wrong, and the wrongdoer and the person that wronged you.

It will involve restoration of a broken relationship and privileges.

In other words, now here's where you're going to get mad.

You've got to go to that person and you've got to make it right.

You say, but wait a minute, I didn't, oh, it doesn't matter.

If you know that you have aught with your brother, what does he say?

Matthew 5, leave your gift at the altar and go make it right.

Matthew 18, he says, you and you alone go to him to make it right.

If that doesn't work, then you come back, get somebody, the leader in the church or whoever, to go with you and make it right.

That's what it says.

Read it.

That's what it says.

So I don't care if it's been 10 years ago, 20 years ago, if you've been wrong, then you're harboring forgiveness.

I mean, unforgiveness, thank you.

You gotta make it right.

You say, no, I don't.

No, you don't.

But you will be miserable.

And let me tell you what I've I've dealt with this before.

Now listen to me.

I've dealt with it in my own life.

Okay?

And I'm gonna give you a good.

Let me go ahead and give you the example I've I found.

I never knew this.

The Lord's Supper portrait.

How many of most of us have one?

It's one of my favorite.

Da Vinci paints the Lord's Supper.

Let me tell you what I found out in all my research in this message on forgiveness.

Da Vinci was riding the Lord's Supper, and he had had a run-in with another painter.

And he was so upset with this other painter that he decided when he got to Judas, Iscariot, that he would paint the painters that he was upset with face on Judas.

So that everybody that looked at Judas would see the guy that wronged him.

I said, DeVinci?

Yes.

And he would get to the face of Jesus, and he can never paint it.

He can never paint it.

And he was reading this verse, quoting the Lord's Prayer, and God knocked him off his feet and then said, Until you go make this right, you'll never paint my face.

So he had to make it right.

Then he was able not only to repaint Judas, but he was able to paint the face of Jesus.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Folks, that's Da Vinci.

There was something else.

You know why it took four years to paint the paint?

Hey, another thing happened.

He had the cup that they were all drinking the Lord's Supper out of.

It was brilliant.

Beautiful Rosemary.

Something like you you would do.

And two or three of his painter friends would look at it and say, Oh, it's so beautiful.

Oh, it's gorgeous.

The cup.

Struck him again.

So he painted over the cup.

And he said, Nothing can take the focus away from Jesus.

I thought to myself, that's us.

We can allow nothing to keep us from focusing on Jesus.

Nothing.

He's our master.

He's our king.

He's the supreme.

My eyes are fixed on thee, O God.

And thee is my trust.

So what truth we see here.

So let me ask us the question.

Boy, is this not kind of convicting?

The word forgive in our text means the dismissal of a punishment or of a debt.

You're going to have times when you get mad at someone and you stay heated for a little while.

But you got to forgive them.

You've got to restore that relationship.

Listen to what Jesus said.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Is that not good?

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall show mercy.

Thomas Watson, the great Puritan.

I told you the Puritans are tough, but great, great godly people.

Listen to what he said.

Darren, listen to this.

A man can as well go to hell for not forgiving as not for believing.

That's powerful.

Clay, that's powerful.

Let me repeat that.

A man can as well go to hell for not forgiving as for not believing.

Charles Spurgeon said, listen to this.

Unless you have forgiven others, you read your own death warrant when you repent the Lord's Prayer.

And that's what happened, hey, to Da Vinci.

Wow.

Is that not awesome?

C.S.

Lewis, one of our favorites.

You've got to read C.S.

Lewis' book.

We listen to it, I listened to it as we're driving.

No part of this teaching is clear.

There are no exceptions to it.

He doesn't say that we are to forgive other people's sins, provided they are not too frightful, or provided they are extenuating circumstances or anything of that sort.

We are to forgive them all, however spiteful, however mean, however often they are repeated, if we don't, we shall be forgiven none of our own.

Wow.

Our forgiving hearts make our prayers die on our lips.

Our unforgiving hearts make our prayers die on our lips.

For if we say, I will never forgive so-and-so for what he or she has done to me.

And then go and take this petition on our lips, we are quite deliberately asking God not to forgive us.

And folks, I'm going to tell you what.

That doesn't make you search your heart, nothing does.

I am convinced I read three psychological studies, two of them out of the three, said that half the people under psychological care is because of an unforgiving spirit.

Wow.

Can't forget it.

Now with that said quickly, all right, ten minutes.

Gotta do it.

No, no, I'm not gonna do that.

No.

No, no, no.

It's too much.

Part two next week.

Keep you bulleted.

Because here's what we're gonna do next week.

No, I'm telling you, this is too powerful.

This is so spoken to my heart.

Next week we're gonna look at how does an unforgiving spirit affect us or others.

Woo! Amen.

And then we're gonna look at how do we overcome anger and forgive others.

That's too much.

I can't do it justice.

And those are the answers that we're all thinking.

I knew this was gonna end up to part one, part two.

That's okay, because I got three Sundays anyway.

So it's gonna work out perfect.

Now here's the invitation.

There's not one of us in here that we don't know, that we don't need to ask somebody to either forgive us, hello, or we know they've got all against us that we need to go and try to make it right.

See, here's the thing.

You say, but I I don't have that animosity.

But if you know somebody who has it towards you, see, here's my problem.

I know that I have offended some people.

I know I have.

I know I offend some people regularly in preaching.

Now, if it's my little rabbits that I chase sometimes and they're not scriptural, and I've hurt your feelings, I'm being very vulnerable right here.

Because if I'm not, you won't.

If I've hurt, if I've made some of those little cute sayings, and I've tried to, the older I've gotten, I've tried to be more sensitive to that.

I really have.

A lot of times when you have it here a young preacher, it's just immaturity.

I mean, I used to be pretty bad.

I mean, I'd I'd rip you up one side and right back down the other with the verses turnaburn! Not a lot of love.

But you know what happened in your pastor's life?

God just got a hold of my heart one day.

And I'm gonna tell you, when things happen in your life, hello, listen to me.

When things start happening to people in your own life and family close to you, you start looking at things a whole lot differently.

Now I'm not talking about compromising the word, never, but how you respond to that wrong.

Sympathy.

Well, what?

As you respond to a wrong, you respond because of how God responded to you.

Now that takes a powerful spirit, that takes a humbling, it takes a brokenness.

Some of you have been mistreated by your moms and your dads.

I was my mom.

But I had to learn to forgive.

I had to forgive my mother.

And you know when I really forgave my mother, it wasn't a month later she got saved.

A month later she got saved.

See, it was me.

It was my animosity toward her.

You've got to forgive.

You got to.

Or you'll be miserable the rest of your life, or you'll wander in the wilderness for 40 years.

So I don't know who it is.

You don't have to confess it to me.

I'm not your priest.

Confess it to him, make it right with him, and then you make it right with the people.

You may maybe, hey, there you don't even know where.

Write them a letter.

That's the best way to do it.

Write them a letter.

Or call them.

Amen.

That's what you have to do.

Now, now, I know what you're saying.

I don't care what you say, Plato.

I'm not gonna do it.

I know that's what I told the Lord.

I'm not gonna do it.

And I just walked around in the flesh and trying to, you know, and let me tell you how you know you need to forgive something.

When everything irritates you and makes you mad.

There's an unforgiving spirit in your heart.

Hello.

I shouldn't have.

Y'all were doing good till I said that.

That's when you know that root's there.

You gotta pull it out.

Gotta pull the roots out.

What is that you told me about the roots?

They they they break off and they're still there.

And they grow back.

See, until you zip that roots out, it's gonna come back.

That bitterness is gonna come back.

That anger is gonna come back.

And usually when it comes back, it comes back more fierce, more forceful.

Thanks again for tuning into this week's message.

We pray that your life has been changed.

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We hope you have a wonderful day, and again, God bless you.