Pray Like This: Forgive Us - Pastor David Houck | 9.13.26

So I'll be honest with you, this week I kind of struggled a little bit with deciding what to do this morning.

Um, given the funeral we had this week and the passing, the unexpected passing of John.

Um it not only was it a busy week for me, but I I didn't quite know what would be best for our congregation.

Um, but the more I thought about it, I realized not only would it uh best honor the memory of John and Tom, but um also I believe that it is needed for us to continue with our series looking at the Lord's Prayer.

And um I I believe, actually, the more I reflected upon it, that today's message is kind of a difficult one and one that we might be tempted to tune out a little bit on a regular basis.

But given what we are going through as a church family, I believe that it kind of carries more of a weight and urgency, especially as we reflect on just how short life truly is.

Um, that perhaps you would join me in taking um Jesus' words here to heart and applying it uh with more urgency to our lives.

So let's look to the Lord's Prayer in Matthew chapter six, verses nine through thirteen.

Jesus said, Pray then like this, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

So, as we have said every week, this prayer is a model for prayer.

It is an example for prayer, it is a template that Jesus gave us, and we've broken it down into five parts.

Uh, first of all, it is the person that we praise to, or we pray to.

Who do we pray to?

We pray to our heavenly Father.

How are we able to pray to him?

By being a child of his.

And how can we become a child of our heavenly father only through receiving Christ his son?

Secondly, it was about praising God.

Our prayer should include praise for God.

It was hallowed be your name.

It is aligning yourself with God's will, that your ultimate glory or your ultimate purpose in life and your ultimate goal with your prayer is that he would be praised, that his glory would be recognized.

Thirdly, was the priority of prayer.

What is the priority?

What should be the priority of prayer?

What should be the priority of our lives, his will, and his kingdom?

That is what we should seek first, not only in our day-to-day living, but especially in our prayer life.

And then last week we began the section of petition.

This is when we make requests to God, requests perhaps, while it always is for his glory, it is also more specifically uh requests on our behalf.

And today continues to look at the petition.

And then next week we will look at protection.

So we can take away, first of all, from uh the section that we're looking at today, which is verse 12 forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.

We see that Jesus taught us to seek God for both our physical and spiritual needs.

Last week we looked at how Jesus taught us to present our physical needs before God, represented by our daily bread, our basic necessities, trusting God that he knows exactly what we need and that he will provide what we need.

God hears and God answers those prayers.

He wants to answer those prayers, he desires to bless us.

There is nothing too big or too small to pray about.

Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7, Ask and it will be given to you.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

Seek and you will find.

Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone.

Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent.

If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?

The heavenly father we pray to is a generous father.

I likened him to a parent on Christmas morning, who just experiences so much joy watching his children open up the gifts that he has provided.

Now, as we talked about last week, does this mean absolutely everything we pray for, we will get?

No.

It's when we align our will to God.

And God knows what we need, God knows what we don't need, God knows what would be harmful to us.

And so he answers those prayers accordingly.

But he invites us to present our requests to him.

And as we discussed last week, that part is pretty easy for most of us.

I mean, for many of us, that is what the majority of our prayer life looks like is just presenting our physical needs to God.

But we mustn't lose sight of what's truly important.

Because our need for God's forgiveness is greater than any physical need.

This is actually illustrated quite well in the story of Jesus and the paralyzed man that many of us know, many of us are familiar with.

We've read it, we learned about it in Sunday school growing up.

This is when Jesus was teaching in somebody's home.

And of course, uh healing was a big part of his ministry.

This is early on in his ministry, and so some men wanted to bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus, but the crowd was so great they couldn't uh bring him through.

So they actually took apart the roof and lowered the man uh on a mat before Jesus.

And what Jesus did in response was a total shock to everyone.

Matthew chapter 9, verse 2 says, And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed.

Matthew 9:2

And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven.

Now, not only did this completely offend the religious leaders who saw this as total blasphemy, it likely surprised and probably confused those who were in the crowd.

I mean, clearly, this man was being brought before Jesus to receive a physical healing, but instead, Jesus did something not only unexpected, but something far greater.

He healed him spiritually.

He blessed him with something far greater than the man even knew he wanted.

And if you know the story, you know that he also did heal him physically.

And as impressive as that was, it's nothing compared to the spiritual cleansing of God's forgiveness, because there is no greater need than that.

In fact, God will not hear any of your prayers for physical needs until you have first received his forgiveness.

Isaiah chapter 59, verse 2 says, But your iniquities have made a separation between you and God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

Isaiah 59:2

Our sin separates us from God.

Just as evil is separate from good, and darkness is separate from light.

They do not coexist.

There is no fellowship between light and darkness.

Our sin against God, our rejection of Him is a crime of unimaginable evil.

It is an act of violence and hatred against goodness itself.

Our sin, our sinful nature, our offense against our very creator creates an internal, eternal, infinite, unpayable debt to God.

And nothing we could ever do can make even the slightest dent into what we owe.

And so when you think about it that way, why should God give us more?

Why should we expect Him to bless us with other things?

We come before God, you know, where we just pray to the generic man in the sky and we say, God, please help me with this, God please grant me this, help me find this, give me this person, give me strength today, whatever it is.

But we already owe more to God than we can possibly repay.

Why would he hear those prayers?

Prophet Isaiah said he doesn't.

It's not that God is incapable of hearing those prayers, he is omniscient, but he does not accept those prayers if you're not his child.

The only hope we have of being freed from that debt and being able to access God is if he were to forgive our debt altogether.

And that's the only hope we have of escaping eternal punishment, too.

So there's no greater need than our need for God's forgiveness.

But the good news is God offers forgiveness.

Jesus' prayer shows that not only can we receive his forgiveness, but how our lives are to be completely transformed by it.

Jesus' prayer emphasizes the importance of forgiveness in our relationship with God and our relationships with others.

And we will break this down.

First of all, it's clear that true repentance is necessary for receiving salvation.

True repentance is necessary.

True repentance must exist in order for someone to receive God's forgiveness.

Peter said in Acts chapter three, repent therefore and turn back that your sins may be blotted out.

What does it mean to repent?

Repent isn't just apologizing, repenting isn't just saying, I'm sorry.

Repenting is often also translated and explained as turning away from or changing one's mind about something.

True repentance is coming before God and saying, I no longer want this sin.

I no longer want to be ruled by sin.

I no longer want to do life on my own because I know where that leads.

I want you.

He says, turn back, turn back so that your sins may be blotted out.

Many places in scripture it says that when we receive God's forgiveness, he remembers our sins no more.

Again, is that an argument against his uh omniscience, against his sovereignty?

No, not at all.

But it just says when he looks at his ledger, so to speak, when he looks at our account, he just sees forgiven.

He no longer sees a list of our sins, he no longer sees a record of our debt.

Now, repentance is not simply guilt over one's sin.

I mean, all of humanity has a guilty conscience to some degree.

And it's not simply sorrow over one's sins, out of a fear of the consequences, or out of an embarrassment or a sorrow over the consequences of our sin.

A lot of people are sorry for their sins because they got themselves in trouble.

True repentance is something else entirely.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians, for godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret.

Whereas worldly grief produces death.

So there is a difference here.

Worldly grief, sadness and anger and shame over one's own sin, particularly because we're faced with the consequences of our sin and we're focused on the pain that it has caused ourselves, is not the same as true repentance because it isn't about God, it's about us.

And when it's just about us and our own pain and sorrow and misery, what happens is that we just fall into a vicious cycle.

We've sin, we feel shame over our sin, and to overcome that shame or to try to self-soothe that shame, we turn to more sin and self-indulgence.

And that just leads to death.

But godly grief is different.

Godly grief is a deep sorrow over our sin, not because we're faced with the consequences of it, but because we're faced with the fact that our sin is an assault against the mighty God.

It's that kind of sorrow that leads to repentance, which ultimately leads us to salvation.

In the modern American evangelical church, we really have abandoned the truth, the doctrine of repentance.

When we try to evangelize to other people, to share the good news, we just talk about how Jesus loves them.

We just talk about how Jesus has a plan for them and how you can go to heaven when you die.

But too often we're ashamed, we're embarrassed to talk about the fact that we are desperate, wretched sinners.

We want to talk about heaven without talking about hell.

And so the result is so many people consider themselves Christians because they prayed a prayer and hey, I'm going to heaven when I die, you know, all that stuff.

They consider themselves Christians, but they never actually had a true repentance.

That's why we see so many people claim to be a Christian, but are not Christ-like.

They never gave up their sin because they never saw a need to give up their sin because they never felt the need for it.

I have to say, if you think you're a follower of Jesus, but you've never actually mourned over your sin, there is reason to doubt that your salvation is real.

Because Peter said, and so many others said, and Jesus said, you must repent.

Now, how is it that some are able to experience godly grief that produces repentance rather than worldly grief?

It's because repentance is an inward gift from God that enables us to receive the outward gift of his forgiveness.

This is a really important statement that you need to understand.

God's forgiveness is not the only gift given to the redeemed, it's not the only gift freely given in salvation.

The act of repentance is a gift from God in itself.

Because you and I are only ever able to realize our sin and repent of it because God enables us to.

We did something better than them, but we didn't earn it, we don't deserve it.

God, in his sovereign mercy and grace, chose to open our eyes to our sinful state and give us, gave us the desire to repent.

Paul wrote that repentance is granted by God.

He wrote to Timothy, God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth.

When he's talking about this group of people, he he didn't say they might choose repentance and God will grant them salvation.

He says, Perhaps God will grant them repentance leading to the truth, leading to salvation.

In our natural state, you and I are covered in so much filth that our eyes cannot open to see just how dirty we are.

And our hands are covered in so much dirt that they could not possibly clean our eyes.

Only God can remove the mud from our eyes so that we're able to see what state we're in and then ask him to cleanse us.

Is this making sense?

I want to make sure that I am explaining this well enough.

Apart from him, we can do nothing and we deserve no rescue.

But God's love for us is greater than our depravity.

John said, in this is love.

Not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation of our sins.

Salvation isn't because we decided to love God, it's because God loved us first and sent his son to be the propitiation of our sins.

That means Jesus averted God's Wrath away from us by taking it upon himself on the cross.

God's wrath is not eliminated.

God doesn't overlook our sin.

Christ took the punishment for our sin.

Our debt was transferred to his account.

And this happened once.

One sacrifice that covers all sin, past, present, and future.

Scripture says, for Christ also suffered once for sins.

Elsewhere it says he was offered once to bear the sins of many.

And when we say it, we don't necessarily mean it in the incorrect way.

But too often we, you know, we might say that, you know, every time I sin, it's another lash on Jesus' back.

Or every time I sin, it's another bang of the nail into his hands.

But that's not true.

He suffered once.

You know, Catholicism, one of the main issues with Catholicism is that what Mass is, it's a re-sacrifice of Jesus.

That's what Mass is, that's what communion is.

That when you take communion, they preach, they teach that Jesus is once again offering his body up for our sins.

And that's why you have to do it every week.

That's why, you know, uh the actual uh catechism of Catholicism teaches, you know, you should probably do it several times a day.

Because every time you sin, you're no longer covered by his sacrifice.

You know, we got the question, Pastor Mike already addressed it, but we got a question with AMA what happens if we die without confessing all of our sin?

Well, if you already repented for your sin and Jesus died for your sin once, then you're covered.

It covers sins past, present, and future.

So you don't need to worry that, you know, maybe I asked for God's forgiveness yesterday, but uh this morning, you know, I, you know, flip someone off on the way to church, whatever it hope you didn't do that.

But but you know, I sinned this morning, and and then if something happens to me, I'm no longer covered by God's forgiveness.

But that's not how it works.

It was once and for all.

But that leads us, especially when we read this passage, with a question.

That if we repent once and and Jesus offers salvation once and forgiveness once, why would he then teach us in our a model for prayer to repeatedly pray for forgiveness?

Because if this is a model, and you know, as we saw it, we pray, give us our daily bread, you know, give us this day our daily bread.

The expectation is that we pray every day, we pray these things every day, including forgiveness.

So, how does that work together?

Well, continued repentance is necessary for the enjoyment of salvation.

True repentance is necessary to receive salvation.

Continued repentance is necessary for the enjoyment of salvation.

The forgiveness we are to ask God for on a daily basis should look the same on our end.

It is a genuine repentance of our sin, a genuine sorrow.

It is telling God I'm making the decision to turn away from sin.

So it looks the same.

Our heart should be the same in the act, but what we're looking for is different.

It's not seeking salvation once again, it's not seeking baptism of the Holy Spirit, a total rebirth once again.

It's just a forgiveness, it's just a washing away of the day's sin.

Jesus illustrated this quite vividly at the Lord's Supper.

I believe this will help us understand.

John 13, chapter 4, verse 11 says, He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist.

Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, Lord, do you wash my feet?

Jesus answered him, What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.

Peter said to him, You shall never wash my feet.

Jesus answered him, If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.

Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.

Jesus said to him, The one who is bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but is completely clean.

And you are clean.

But not every one of you, for he knew who was to betray him.

That is why he said, Not all of you are clean.

Love Peter, so passionate in everything he does.

He requests that Jesus would give him a full head-to-toe bath, if that's what's required to belong to him.

But Jesus assured him that wasn't necessary for the one who has bathed.

If one has already bathed himself, Jesus says a second bath isn't necessary.

If Jesus has forgiven you of your sins, transferred your debt into his account, cleansed you from all unrighteousness, then there is no need for him to do it again.

But as we all know too well, while we have been forgiven of all sin, still sin still remains in our lives.

I wrote this and it's quite interesting.

I put in an illustration that, you know, we might have taken a shower this morning and we're clean.

We put on, you know, a clean uh outfit and pair of shoes, but then on the way in, we step in mud, you know, uh, we dirty our feet.

That was the illustration, but then right before church service started, I spilled coffee all over my shoes.

It's like, thank you, God, that adds a bit to my message today.

Now, did I then go back and take a shower?

Did I go back and wash my face and my hair?

No, it wasn't necessary.

I wiped off my shoes.

In our Christian life, we will get our feet dirty.

We will be tempted, and we will give in to that temptation.

And that is what we are seeking a cleansing for.

Ongoing sin in a believer's life does not diminish the existence of their salvation, but the enjoyment of it.

So, to be clear, you cannot lose your salvation.

If you sinned today, no matter how many times, and you're genuinely saved, then you're not going to lose that and you need to ask for God's saving grace once again.

But you can lose some peace because of your sin.

You can put yourself in a position where you feel distant from God.

Paul speaks of this truth in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30.

Ephesians 4:30

He says, And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

So there are two important truths here.

He says, the Holy Spirit has sealed you for the day of redemption.

Meaning the Holy Spirit, if it lives within you, it's not going to leave you.

But you can grieve him.

When you sin and you possess the spirit within you, he feels that.

And you feel that.

King David experienced this.

King David had God's spirit upon him.

He was called a man after God's own heart.

But after his egregious sin, his his affair with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, he felt great sorrow and distress and pain.

He said, It feels like my body is wasting away.

And he prays in Psalm 51, verse 12, restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Psalms 51:12

He didn't say, God, restore to me salvation.

He said, Restore to me the joy of salvation, meaning because of his sin and because of his secrecy, because of his desire to conceal that sin and his continued living in that sin, he no longer experienced the joy of salvation.

He didn't feel close to God, he didn't feel inner peace.

So his prayer was that he would be cleansed of it.

When we ask God for forgiveness on a day-to-day basis, it's not asking God to once again save us, it's asking him to wash our feet.

To make sure that we're okay with him, to restore that disconnect that we just created in our lives.

And this is where this really gets difficult.

Someone who has experienced the freely given, total forgiveness of God are expected and do forgive others.

We're expected to, we're commanded to, and if our salvation is genuine, we will.

Continuing the story of Jesus washing his disciples' feet, he said in verse 14, If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.

For I have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done to you.

Oftentimes when we look at the story of Jesus washing feet and commanding us to wash one another's feet, we look at it as uh willing to be a servant to others.

And that is true.

Jesus took the position of a servant, but the expectation in serving one another is that we forgive one another.

We wash each other's feet as he washes ours.

And if Jesus, our Lord, is willing to forgive us, then we should forgive others.

This is hard for many of us.

This is hard for all of us at times.

Some of you may have experienced genuine hurt from someone else.

And I'm talking about an assault, an offense against you done with malicious intent, premeditated.

Their desire was to cause you harm, and that was the effect.

And that makes this so difficult.

But the command still applies because it's nothing compared to our sin against God.

But let's be honest.

Oftentimes what we face is just silly offenses.

We take something someone says the wrong way.

We make something that has nothing to do with us, all about us.

We make assumptions.

Anyone guilty of that?

Create entire scenarios in our head.

Someone gives us a scowling look in the grocery store, and on the way home, we can't stop thinking about it.

And we're imagining all these reasons why they could have done so.

They hate us, they didn't like what I did, they didn't like what I was buying.

Oh, they're judging me.

Oh, they think that I'm unhealthy.

Oh, they think that I'm a terrible parent because I'm buying uh lucky charms, whatever it is, and it builds up in your head, and in reality, that's just what their face looks like.

Nothing with that.

It's often what my face looks like.

And it's not personal.

I just walk around with a grumpy face, alright.

Proverbs 19, 11 says, good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.

Means it's our wisdom that makes us less likely to become offended and irritable.

Now I want to give you my own translation, all right?

And it's the reverse side of the statement.

And look, I'm talking about myself.

Again, please don't be offended by this.

The reverse of the statement is that it's one stupidity that makes them quick to become angry, and it is to their shame that they pick up offenses.

It's my stupidity, my foolishness, my selfishness that makes me quick to become angry and offended by what someone does or says.

And that's to my own shame.

Our entire culture does this today.

And I hear all the time older generations say it's to younger generations.

It is all generations.

Everyone is offended by so many different things.

The truth is, sometimes people are intentionally kicking mud up on us.

Other times we step in it and then blame the person closest to us.

And this is the very opposite of Christian love.

Paul wrote in the Corinthians in the love chapter.

He said, Love is patient, and he says it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

True Christian love is patient and not easy to offend.

Meaning we don't automatically, we shouldn't automatically assume the worst.

We give everyone the benefit of the doubt that rather than automatically assume what someone said is an intentional dig against us or how someone looked at us is because of how they feel about us.

We give them the benefit of the doubt and just decide in our hearts and our minds they probably didn't mean it that way.

It probably has absolutely nothing to do with me.

And it keeps no record of wrongs.

How many of us are guilty of that?

That we're arguing about one thing and then we bring up all these other older things.

Never a great way to discuss a problem with your spouse.

But I'm guilty of trying it.

But Paul said that's not love.

We often say I forgive, but I can't forget.

But let's be honest.

That's an excuse we make to hold on to hurt.

That's keeping a record of wrong.

That's not forgiveness at all.

Evangelist D.L.

Moody, I love this quote.

Says, those who say they will forgive but can't forget, simply bury the hatchet, but leave the handle out for immediate use.

So yeah, I buried the hatchet, but guess what?

You're ready to pull it out at any time.

That is not forgiveness.

And in the verses immediately following the Lord's Prayer, we get a frightening warning.

Jesus said in verses 14, 15, for if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses.

Now, what does this mean?

Does this mean we must forgive others in order to be saved?

No.

That would be works-based salvation.

What Jesus is saying here is that God will withhold this day-to-day washing of our feet if we're not washing the feet of others.

God will not grant a restoration of peace and joy as long as we're holding on to bitterness, anger, and resentment.

I mean, that is sin.

Why would we think, you know, we pray to God, forgive me of these sins, you know, cleanse me so that I once again feel close to you.

But meanwhile, we're holding on to the sin of not forgiving others.

To hold on to bitterness and anger and resentment is a sin if we're commanded to forgive.

It is difficult to experience peace with our Heavenly Father when we are not at peace with his children.

We like to think that these two things are completely separate.

Our relationship with God versus our relationship with others.

I can have a great relationship with God and a horrible relationship with others because it's different.

But Jesus said the two greatest commands, the commands that are tied together are love God and love your neighbor as yourself.

We love God by loving our neighbor.

We love our heavenly Father by loving his children.

That is what God desires of you more than any other sacrifice or good work.

Jesus said in Matthew chapter five, So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something.

Against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go.

First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Coming to church, putting money in the offering box, handing cash to the homeless person.

Says, really, that doesn't mean much to God if you're holding on to anger and resentment, or you haven't forgiven to someone, or you haven't asked forgiveness to someone you've hurt.

Says, before you do those things, restore your relationship.

This is difficult.

Even Jesus' disciples had a hard time with this.

Matthew chapter 18.

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

After teaching on forgiveness, 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 look, Peter thinks that he's talking on the extreme.

He picks the number seven.

Do I grant them a second chance?

Do I forgive them even seven times?

Jesus said to him, I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Now, this isn't an invitation here to keep a record of wrongs and count the number of offenses that the moment they hit 78, you no longer forgive them.

Jesus is just making a point.

It doesn't matter how many times they hurt you, you are to forgive them.

Now look, this doesn't mean you don't set boundaries.

If someone is shoving you repeatedly, maybe you just need to step out of the way.

But don't use that as an excuse to not forgive them.

Don't label bitterness boundaries.

Don't hold hatred and resentment and anger and upset over something in the past against someone.

I'm never gonna talk to them again because of what they did.

And say that's a boundary.

That's not a boundary.

That's unforgiveness.

Don't let boundaries be an excuse to leave the handle of a hatchet sticking out of the ground.

And then Jesus continues.

He says, Therefore, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.

When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.

And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and 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.

That's a picture of repentance, an unpayable debt to God.

That when we repent, he chooses to forgive us.

But Jesus continues.

But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denari.

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 pay you.

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.

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 anger his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt.

So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.

We owe an incalculable debt to God, yet so often we're unwilling to forgive someone of a minor offense, even one that we have imagined.

We owe God a billion dollars.

And then he forgives us of that debt.

And then we demand someone who owns us ten dollars to pay us back.

How hypocritical.

How unjust is that?

And Jesus was clear that angers God.

Now, the master delivered him to jailers, not the executioner.

His anger didn't result in a death sentence.

The master, the king, still called him his servant.

So this doesn't mean that we lose our salvation, but we will experience God's anger, and we will experience his discipline.

God's discipline is not something to be toyed with.

When we refuse to correct our ways as a child of God, he will do it for us, and that is never pleasant.

Jesus says that can be avoided by seeking forgiveness from God and forgiving others.

Life is short.

We've all been reminded of that this past week.

Why hold on to anger and bitterness and resentment?

We should have no tolerance for that in our lives.

I increasingly have no tolerance for that.

I hate passive aggressiveness.

Stomping around, the silent treatment, the avoiding the person.

I hate conflict too.

I hate confrontation.

But I've reached a point where I will just reach out and address the elephant in the room.

Because life is short.

Why live in that pain and bitterness?

I mean, we've all heard the example, the unforgiveness.

Drinking a poison and expecting it to hurt the other person.

So close with this quick question.

Do you forgive others as God has forgiven you?

If not, why?

If you refuse to, then I'd say that perhaps you don't know God's forgiveness at all.

Be careful.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, this word is challenging, it's convicting.

But Lord, we pray that we would be quick to receive your word, slow to speak about that which we don't understand, and slow to find offense when it conflicts with our selfish, sinful ways.

Your word is for our good.

You want us to experience the joy of our salvation.

You want us to have assurance that we belong to you.

You want us to have a sweet fellowship with you where nothing stands in the way.

But in order for that to happen, we need to be willing to turn to you daily and say, God, forgive me.

And we must be willing to do what is hard in our own minds, but so easy in comparison to what you've done.

And forgive others.

Not only forgive others, but choose to not pick up the offense in the first place.

Because that is love.

That is what you have done for us, and that is what we are called to do.

So, Lord, we pray for your help through the Holy Spirit in being obedient to this.

If there's anyone here this morning who realize that they have never repented, that they have never turned away from their sins, I pray that you would grant them that repentance, that their eyes would be opened and they would just cry out to you, God, forgive me what a wretched sinner I am.

Because I know it is through that repentance that you offer your forgiveness and salvation through your Son Jesus.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.