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00:00:00 it's so good to see everyone um here in on the Beautiful Sunday today's scripture um today's scripture reading is taken from The Book of Matthew chapter 18 verse 21-35 verse 21 then Peter came to Jesus and asked Lord how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me up to seven times Jesus answered I tell you not seven times but 77 times therefore therefore the Kingdom of Heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants as he began the settlement a man who owed him
00:00:38 10,000 talents was brought to him since he was not able to pay the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt the servant fell on his knees before him be patient with me he begged and I will pay back everything the servants Masters took pity on him cancel the D and let him go but when the servant went out he found one of his fellow servants who owed him one a 100 dinari he grabbed him and began to choke him pay back what you owe me he demanded
00:01:17 his fellow servant fell to his knees and backed him be patient with me and I will pay you back but he refused instead he went off and had the man thrown in prison until he could pay the that when the other servants saw that what had happened they were greatly distressed and went and told the master everything that had happened then the master called the servants in you Wicked servant he said I cancel all the Deb of yours because you begged me to shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I
00:01:53 had on you in Anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured until he should pay back all he owed this is how my heavenly father would treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart this is the word of God good morning everybody um Sunday school kids you may go to Sunday school and teachers I presume too uh good morning uh it's a joy to be here this morning uh and uh be back at FBC uh and also greetings from uh gospel City Network we are really thankful for First Baptist Church and partnering with
00:02:47 us to be able to host uh the conference uh together here it's exciting to have Mark deor in town um to be able to come and and preach and teach uh uh from uh well compelling Community his book so he's taking couple coup of excerpts uh from uh the book and is able to uh teach it here and we have the pleasure of um having here with us so uh do join if you can now um I'm going to uh get right into it because I see a timer uh klicking down already so I'm getting a little bit nervous uh about finishing on
00:03:19 time so uh today we will be talking about forgiveness and uh before um I get into uh sermon proper I I have a couple of questions that I would like to ask you who has hurt you who has sinned against you who owes you who has neglected you who has abandoned you who has caused you pain who has um made you bitter who has upset you who has angered you nobody who has betrayed you nobody who do you need to forgive well we will still talk about forgiveness today so uh let me pray pray heavenly father as we read or as we just read
00:04:37 your written word and about to hear your spoken word proclaimed father I ask that you appoint us to your living word Jesus Christ help us to put ourselves under the authority of your word and give us Grace in Jesus most precious name we pray amen so today's passage uh begins with uh Peter asking Jesus a question and uh the question comes right after Jesus teaching on how he should handle a situation when another brother or sisters has sinned against you how do you lead that person to repentance in
00:05:14 the local church how how do you reconcile the passage before today's passage shows how God provided the process that moves from the private to the public giving somebody the opportunity to repent you know first one then two then three then bring it before the church should a person remain unrepentant he or she is treated like somebody who is not part of the church so Peter in response to this then came up to Jesus and asked Lord how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him as many as seven
00:05:52 times well this is a a a good question after Jesus's teaching on the process of Well church discipline I mean how often must you forgive a person and ranic teaching rinic teaching during that time would have thought that the answer is three times you forgive three times and that is sufficient a a a fourth time is not required so three times gtim wash your hands so this means that Peter already had a good inkling towards the lavish generosity that God had given because he said s times Peter's use of the number seven
00:06:34 already implies completeness because that's what the number represents however hearing then from Jesus 70 * 7 or 77 times depending on which translation you use um it informs us that we should forgive an infinite amount of times it doesn't mean that we should stop forgiving the 78th time or the 49 first time but rather that we should always forgive after this Jesus gives a parable uh to explain the implications of infinite forgiveness he begins by describing the nature of forgiveness and how it relates to the kingdom of heaven
00:07:12 he then continues the story to talk about the nature of unforgiveness and finally he points us to the necessity of forgiveness and um that's how we're going to spend our time together this morning we're going to look at the nature of forgiveness the nature of unforgiveness and the necessity of forgiveness so let's begin with the first one the nature of forgiveness and there are three things that I would like us to look at under this point which are cost compassion and choice so let's start with cost
00:07:50 therefore in verse 23 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 10,000 talents now we must first understand uh the amount that is owed one Talent was about 20 years worth of wages for a Labor uh so now to imagine the figure let me calculate that for you um a Laborer's wage in Malaysia right now and if you go I think the lowest I think it's 1,500 ring uh uh per month uh so one Talent would be 360,000 and
00:08:29 therefore 10,000 talents would be 3.6 billion so when you're thinking about what who the servant is in this Parable it's mostly not like mostly not a shoe polisher there'll be somebody in the position to handle that kind of money 3.6 billion so it's most likely somebody who set to rule over a region a governor a high ranking civil servant now we have no idea how he created this depth I'm not sure whether he bought his wife too many Hermes bags uh or whether he threw parties on Yachts uh or maybe donated
00:09:07 money into the bank account of a prime minister of another country um I don't not know that that the story doesn't tell us how he created the debt but he had the debt now what we do know is that he couldn't pay his master and his master the king ordered him to be sold uh and with his wife and children so he had to be sold with all that he had for the payment to be made now clearly Jesus is using exaggerated figures to make a point and the point he's trying to make with this exaggeration is that a servant was in no
00:09:43 position to be able to pay back the huge depth that he has to the king and therefore the cost of forgiveness the cancellation of depth that the king is bearing is great so Jesus used the image of debt to illustrate the concept of forgiveness when someone wrongs you there's an innate sense that the person owes you something as a result uh there is a natural tendency to seek retribution or restitution whether through causing the other person harm belittling them or making them suffer in some way we often feel the
00:10:24 urge to make the wrongdoers pay to settle the score or to exact Revenge sometimes it's just waiting and watching for something terrible to happen to that person and then at times when we feel that they have suffered enough we believe that the obligation is gone they no longer owe us and at other times nothing will ever satisfy that the debt has been paid and I'm sure that many of us can relate to this or maybe I'm the only one hoping that people will suffer this shows that forgiveness always comes
00:11:02 at a cost in fact forgiveness is extremely costly it's emotionally expensive uh it takes Blood Sweat and Tears at times to pay the debt yourself it costs you because you're refusing to give Vengeance you're refusing refusing to inflict pain in order to relieve the sense of debt that is that you feel that somebody owes you so forgiveness is costly because when we forgive we bear the cost we pay the price but forgiveness also requires compassion in verse 26 the servant fell on his knees and implored the master
00:11:40 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 his debt the word pity in verse 27 can also be translated as moved with compassion the king had compassion for the servant most likely because the servant appeared repentant he fell on his knees and implored the master have patience with him and promised to pay him everything back there was no way he could pay him everything but the master was moved to by the action of repentance the master
00:12:18 was able to see beyond the offense I was able to see behind the person behind the offense and forgiveness requires you to see the person not just as somebody who has committed the crime but as a human being it's natural to want to eliminate dominate isolate abandon or exclude that person who wronged us and to justify these kind of actions um usually we would have to dehumanize the person in order uh to do that and what we do in our minds we reduce them to the crime that they have committed or the harm
00:12:59 that they have done to us compassion instead allows you to see somebody not for what they have done but who they are a human made in the image of God this often requires you to humble yourself because it means to have to come down from your righteous position to come down to a a a level and lower than you in that time and and put yourself in the shoes of the perpetrator and maybe even try to to feel what they are feeling for you to able to muster up some kind of compassion it requires a certain amount
00:13:37 of empathy to be moved with compassion um compassion also includes patience one has to recognize that a person will take time to change in our text the servant asked the king have patience with me compassion allows people time to change it recognizes that someone won't be able to be immediately transformed the word patience specifically here actually is the word uh longsuffering so we have to understand compassion includes the element of being willing to suffer for the other person now one of my favorite quotes
00:14:18 about patience is this patience is a form of suffering disguised as a virtue patience also requires a certain sense of hope that the person actually will change I want to make it clear uh that even though I'm talking about emotions and compassion here I'm not saying that forgiveness is a feeling if we wait to feel like we want to forgive we will never forgive anybody and forgiving is also not excusing uh because we're not saying that sin is not sin forgiving is also not forgetting because we don't suddenly have amnesia
00:14:57 when we forgive at its fundamental core forgiveness is a choice and that's the third aspect that we examining under the pattern of forgiveness that it's costly it requires compassion and that it is a choice when the servant fell on his knees and asked the king to be patient with him the king had to made a choice should he forgive or should he punish in his book peace maker Ken Sandi says forgiveness can be costly when someone sins they create a debt that someone has to pay most of his debth is owed to God in his great Mercy he sent
00:15:43 his son to pay the debt on the cross for all who would trust in him but if someone sins against you part of their debt is also owed to you which then leaves you with a choice you can either take the payment on the depbt or you can make the payment forgiveness then is the choice to make the payment when uh presented with the choice it means that when someone sins against you you have the option to make your heart harder through unforgiveness or to make your own heart softer through forgiveness you can either make your
00:16:28 heart bigger because it requires a bigger heart to give forgiveness so you can either make your heart bigger or you can make your heart smaller through unforgiveness but it's your choice and that's the nature of forgiveness so in summary what it is it's a costly choice to pay someone's debt because they you have compassion for them let me say that again it's a costly choice to pay someone's debt because you have compassion for them and as we just examined U the the nature of forgiveness sometimes it's very good for
00:17:07 us to look at the the opposite so let's look at the nature of unforgiveness together in verse 28 it says but when that same servant went out he found one of his servants uh who owed him a 100 dinari and seizing him he began to choke him saying pay what you owe now just again to put things into context um the person owed 100 dinari um that's about a 100 days wages um so using the same mathematics and the same rates as we used earlier 1,500 per month um considered a 20 days work a month this means 5 months worth of wages which
00:17:46 is then 7,500 ring um clearly this is very insignificant compared to 3.6 billion and we see we hear the same plea again in verse 29 as as earlier on be patient with me and I will pay you however this time that pea is not met with a compassionate choice to absorb the cost but a heart choke to the neck and a demand for payment and of course placing the person in prison as we see in verse 30 there are a couple of things that immediately disturbing first of all that he's going out and he's choking a person
00:18:30 the first picture we get of what it looks what unforgiveness looks like is a choke we might not be going out physically choking people but there are ways our unforgiveness actually spiritually and emotionally chokes people the first way we hurt is when we hurt people directly for example when we make cutting remarks and drag out the past over and over and over we choke them when we are far more demanding and controlling with the person than we are with others all because we feel deep down they still owe us we choke
00:19:09 them when we punish them with self-righteous Mercy that is really a way to make them feel small and justify ourselves we go to them and say oh I will not take revenge that's that's beneath me that's actually choking them when we avoid them and ignore them them we choke them but there's a second way we choke people more more indirectly when we cut the other person down in front of others when we when we spin truth when we gossip or directly slander them to diminish them him or her in the eyes of others we we choke
00:19:50 them when we run them down under the guise of warning people about them we choke them when we've run them down to others under the guise of seeking sympathy and support and sharing our hurt we choke them and then there's a third way we choke people by indulging in ill will in our heart when we continually repay the videotapes of their wrongs in our imagination in order to keep the sense of loss and hurt fresh and real to us so that we can stay actively hostile to that person and feel virtuous to
00:20:33 ourselves when we do that we choke them when we vilify them or demonize the offender in our imagination rather than recognize the common sinful Humanity that we share with them we choke them and when we when we root for them to fail and we hope for their pain instead of praying positively for their growth we choke them so that's the that's the first picture we see here the unforgiveness looks like we we we are choking somebody but there's a second picture here it looks like we are demanding a payment the servant is thrown into jail
00:21:15 to pay and emotionally what we do is we throw people into jail to pay and here are ways that we make them pay we make people pay by constantly bringing up the subject we make people pay by feeling them making them feel constantly guilty we make people pay by removing ourselves from them and we make people pay by ostracizing them from Community these are all pictures of unforgiveness and why do we do these things well because seeing other people suffer makes us feel better it does it really does
00:21:59 I mean when I see the person in front of me cut me off and snatch The Parking Spot in the mall from me and then they hit their sight mirror against the wall I rejoice and if the sight mirror falls off the debt is paid we like to see those who heard us suffer but you see there's also a picture that we get from this Parable that our unforgiveness is petty it is hypocritical and in fact it is outrageous verse 31 when his fellow servants saw that what had taken place they were greatly distressed and they
00:22:42 went and reported to their master all that has taken place we see that the fellon servants were outraged they were greatly distressed now their great distress did not come from the fact that there's now somebody who demanding their debt to be paid demanding your debt to be paid is not something outrageous per se the outrageous fact was that he was somebody who had been greatly forgiven his depth of 3.6 billion was cancelled and you see him choking somebody else for 7,500 it's because it is everybody's
00:23:25 expectation without fail everybody here and my a everyone of us has the same expectation that if you receive great Mercy you should have the capacity to give little Mercy when you have received great forgiveness you should have the capacity to give little forgiveness if someone had receiv received great compassion they should have to be able to muster up a little compassion for others because you should be able to relate you should be able to understand you were in the same position you see that exact same thought
00:24:07 process that one should be able to give Mercy when one has received Mercy is made clear by the master in verse 32 and 33 then his master summoned him and said to him you Wicked servant I forgave you all the depth because you pleaded with me and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you he should have had mercy for the king gave him Mercy in fact his unforgiveness here is called wicked it's called evil and that's the last picture that we see unforgiveness does not acknowledge
00:24:49 the mercy that you have received so how does unforgiveness look like it looks ugly it looks Petty it looks Wicked it looks hypocritical it looks like you're choking somebody and that look is Unbecoming it is not a gospel witness in fact it's a stumbling block for those looking on the other servants were greatly distressed seeing it so that they had to go to reported to the master unforgiveness does not fit into the way of the king Kingdom because forgiveness is the way of the Kingdom which means
00:25:36 forgiveness is necessary to be part of the kingdom and that's the third point the necessity of forgiveness in verse 34 it says and in Anger his master delivered him to the jailers until until he should pay all his debt the debt will never be able to be paid in jail this is eternal condemnation this is a death penalty it is also worthy to mention that the word Jailer is actually a mild word a better translation would be torturers he was sent to be tortured now of course I want to First say that unforgiveness torments you it imprisons
00:26:34 you it takes away the freedom that you have you could have had and instead of Freedom it confines you to bitterness now though that is true I don't think that's exactly what this text here is specifically saying this is saying that to not recognize and reciprocate the great mercy of the king warrants great punishment let me say it differently the King has set the pattern of the Kingdom the King has set the pattern by lavishing great mercy and forgiveness forgiveness is the way the kingdom operates therefore subjects of the
00:27:17 Kingdom who don't follow the pattern have no place in the Kingdom it's a sign that they are not part of the Kingdom why because it shows that their hearts were not changed by the mercy of the king now does that mean that every single time somebody sins against us we have to forgive them just like that otherwise we are deemed not Christians is there no consequence to sin do they not have to repent and just as Peter asked the question how often must we do that must you do forgive and forgive and forgive
00:27:54 and forgive well yes and no let me explain I think when it comes to forgiveness there are different kind of aspects and one aspect is the conditional aspect clearly we can see here that The Unforgiven servant was an unrepentant servant he did not value that he has been greatly forgiven which means he still had a heart heart he still had a small heart and in the end of this story he does not receive forgiveness he's thrown back into jail so Luke 17:3 sheds some light for us it says pay attention to yourselves if your
00:28:42 brother sins rebuke him and if he repents forgive him if he repents forgive him and if he sins against you seven times in a day and turns to you seven times saying I Repent you must must forgive him you see here there's a conditional aspect to the Forgiveness the person must repent and you must only transact forgiveness to the person who has repented and by transact I mean extend it to the person which means to say I forgive you now I want to be clear about what I'm saying here this is not an excuse to Harbor
00:29:31 unforgiveness in your heart this is merely referring to the transectional aspect the extending it to somebody else the aspect that has to do with reconciliation for two people to come back together and be in relationship together both repentance and forgiveness need to occur for reconciliation to happen however repentance is their part and your part is forgiveness which means there is a part which you have to work out by yourself without the other person's repentance there is a transactional a conditional aspect but the conditional
00:30:14 aspect is the transaction for reconciliation because Hebrews mentioned that unforgiveness imprison you and grows a root of bitterness so there's a transactional aspect the conditional aspect but we in our hearts must do all the work for forgiveness already which is the unconditional aspect Ephesians 4:31 and 42 says let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with malice be kind to one another tender-hearted forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave
00:30:52 you that's Unforgiven unconditional forgiveness God does not have roots of bitterness in him towards you he has done all the work of forgiveness on the cross already of course he has done all the work and you must repent to appropriate that forgiveness to yourself so in the same way we do all the work for forgiveness we bear the cost we bear the price we are willing to take the posture of forgiveness so that when somebody else is ready to repent we're able to transact forgiveness and then have reconciliation it's
00:31:33 costly it's painful as you mentioned it requires compassion it's a it's a it's a choice that you have to do and guess what not just once but over and over and over again it's costly because you don't get to choke anyone you don't get to vilify them in your mind mind you will have to choose at that moment to love your enemy which are again famous words of Jesus now it's not all the time that we will get to the transactional aspect it's not all the time that we will get to reconciliation because not everybody
00:32:20 repents therefore it's important for us to work in our own heart to have the spirit of forgiveness which is what this text is primarily talking about now it's in vital to explain on the contrary that the text is situated right after talking about church discipline and the the whole idea is that the primary objective there is to have reconciliation through repentance and in this Parable we see the servant being punished for his unforgiveness which is a clear sign of an unrepentant heart hence the severity
00:32:54 of the punishment now let let me just also note which is important that you do not transact forgiveness which means it's saying I am I'm forgiving you to the person if the person has not repented that would be calling sin not sin and often we are easy and ready to transect forgiveness without the other person repenting because we are more our relationship with that person is more important to us than that person's relationship with God so we call sin not sin and let me explain to you why why why why that is
00:33:30 actually not a good thing to do now imagine I I have an argument with somebody or or two people have an argument and and one person is ready to forgive and now I go up to the person to the other person the other person is is not repentant doesn't think they've done anything wrong and I go to him hey brother I forgive you you know what he's going to say what do you mean you forgive me I forgive you that the person is not is not ready to forgive you can't forgive them because the person doesn't recognize their
00:34:02 sin they don't think they've done anything wrong it's actually insulting if you got to somebody and say I forgive you if they don't even recognize that that they have wronged you it's not helpful forgiveness without repentance does not help to bring people to Heart Change as we know from the very last sentence of the passage Jesus says that he's about Heart Change you must forgive from the heart and so we must engage the person we must talk to the person we must always pursue the person we should try
00:34:40 to resolve the conflict as Christians we always called to go but we only transact forgiveness transact give it we have to own forgiveness we need to have forgiveness but we only give forgiveness by saying I forgive you when the other person has repented in verse 35 it says says so also my heavenly father who will do everyone um so also my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from the heart now this might bring you to another question does it mean if I Harbor any
00:35:17 kind of unforgiveness does it mean that I'm not saved or does it mean that I that the condition for me to be saved is that I must forgive well yes and no your forgiveness to others is not a condition for your salvation much rather it's a sign of your salvation in fact it's a good measurement to check whether you understand the gospel or another way of saying it it it probes your gospel temperature in the New Testament there are many places that liken the ability to it forgive forgiveness the ability to
00:35:59 forgive towards real heart transformation that happens if the Holy Spirit has regenerated your heart or if the if God has changed your heart from a Heart of Stone to a heart of Flesh when he God has made you alive through faith say Matthew 614 and 15 if you forgive others their trespasses your heavenly father will also forgive you but if you do not forgive others that trespass you neither neither will your father forgive your trespasses or another passage Colossians 3:12 to13 put on then as God chosen ones
00:36:36 holy and beloved compassion's Hearts kindness humility meekness and patience bearing with one another and if one has a complaint against another forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you so you also must forgive our forgiveness is a reciprocal forgiveness if you have received did you should be able to give it your ability to forgive signifies your transformed life it's the pattern of the kingdom and the subjects of the Kingdom must conform to the pattern or else they are not part of the Kingdom so
00:37:15 therefore forgiveness is necessary so forgiveness means to Bear great cost it means to cancel someone's debt it requires Great humility a suppression of one own's ego compassion it requires as well we require as well one must make the choice to suffer for the other person and one needs to be patient one must restrain their desire to make others pay and one must do that not just once but over and over and over as the scriptures say in infinite amount of times it's unconditional in posture but of course
00:37:57 in trans ction it is conditional on the other person's repentance now where do you get the strength to do that where do you get the power to do that because verse 35 says that you can't just do it superficially you can't just pretend you must forgive them from the heart you can't fake it and of course there's just one place and one place only where we can get the power for this kind of infinite costly painful forgiveness and that's the Cross of Christ now we began by looking at 10,000 talents and how great the depth of the
00:38:41 servant was that he that he had wrecked up and some of you might be thinking right now my sins aren't that great I I have not done something really bad I I I don't owe 3.66 billion I I owe maybe 10,000 but we must recognize that the great Deb is just that great death is not just dependent on the severity of sin but also dependent on the person who you have sinned against so let me illustrate if if if I come down from the stage now and I go and slap Wong Arnold will be happy but no no if I go down and slap him what will
00:39:30 happen is you will kick me out of your church and probably tell me never come again but then if I go outside the church and and I see but imagine if I try to go and slap the prime minister of Malaysia I I will I will be in jail for a long time and if I so try to go and slap Joe Biden by the time my hand is trying to reach his cheet I'll be shot dead now in all these incidents my sin was the same I was slapping a man but the cost of my sin was far greater because whom I was slapping whom I was sinning
00:40:16 against brothers and sisters regardless of how big and how small your sins are all of your sins are against God and God is of infinite worth an infinite value the more smallest sin and Rebellion against God is far greater than 10,000 talents you will never be able to pay back that debt it's unpayable for you God himself had to come down and pay that price in the person of Jesus he chose to Humble himself and become man because he looked at you with great compassion and it was a choice to suffer for you
00:41:04 and he took on death for you you have been forgiven an infinite amount you have received an infinite amount of compassion God has shown great patience and great Mercy because Jesus Paid the price but also Jesus rose again which means that there's power to change which means there's power to change for you and there's power to change for others so that means you can be patient because people can truly repent the gospel is the power that changes our hearts and takes our hearts of stone and turns them into hearts of
00:41:49 Flesh it makes our hearts bigger it makes our hearts softer as we look at what the king of King has done for us and when you look to the cross it will humble you for it demonstrates that you are a sinner so great that it took God to come down and die for you you are no better than a sinner next to you but it fills you with great love for he chose to die for you you are loved as much Jesus himself it should fill you with great compassion for you have received great compassion and to the degree that you'll be able to
00:42:30 see how greatly you have been forgiven to that degree you'll be able to forgive and usually this is where I would end my sermon but I realize one thing that all I've done is given you the typical of justification that you are sinful that you owe that there's a judge who's going to deem you guilty but then the judge comes down and even though he has given you the guilt sentence he comes down and he he pays the price so that you can be let go and that's good news and when you think about that you
00:43:10 had guilt that you were guilty that you had sinned that you had dead owed and it's taken away well usually you feel relieved you you will feel like that's all I need and and we we are satisfied with our justification we we we're satisfied that we end been now made right before the law how many of you if you're in that situation when you have been deemed guilty and the judge comes down and actually pays the price for you would say but he didn't bring me home for dinner he did not invite me to his
00:43:49 house nobody would say that because you're just really really happy that your guil has been taken away how many of you would say well I know he forgave me but he didn't adopt me he paid the price but he didn't give me his inheritance none of us would ever say that because that would be outrageous to think about it' be impossible to think about and so many of us are just so happy with our justification that we completely forget to live in our adoption God is not just the judge who came down and paid the price for your
00:44:27 penalty know he did far greater than that he paid the price and then he said you are now my son you are now my daughter and you can come home with me and not just did I pay the price for the penalty of your sin no no no here is my will you are now an heir you will receive everything that I have J peka said the doctrine of adoption is the a far greater Doctrine than the doctrine of justification of course they always come together but we need to bask in the fact that we are not just Sinners saved by grace but that we
00:45:07 are Sons and Daughters of a Heavenly Father you have received so much more than just forgiveness you have received a family you have received a father that's why Jesus says here my heavenly father and to the degree that you are able to grasp that he's now your father who loves you you will not just have the theological framework of justification that that yes I should forgive but you will finally have the emotional capacity to actually do it because you're doing it out of a feeling of Love relief
00:45:45 anymore because if you think about somebody forgiving your sin it's relief but you think about the fact that you have been chosen and loved it fills your heart and it gives you the emotional capacity to do so so as I asked the worship team to come up let me ask let me end by asking you a couple of questions that I asked you when I started who has hurt you who has sinned against you who owes you who neglected you who abandoned you who has CA C you pain who has made you bitter who has upset you who has angered
00:46:36 you who has betrayed you who do you need to forgive who do you need to engage who do you need to pursue and will you forgive what will your choice be today this morning when you walk out the hall will your heart be bigger or will your heart be smaller will your heart be harder or will your heart be softer it won't stay the same because the gospel doesn't allow it to stay the same you will have to choose we have to think pray and reflect and decide and as you do look to the cross and see who it is that has
00:47:17 forgiven you look at how much it cost him and look at who adopted you and lavish great love upon you and gave you his inheritance today will you pursue those who you need to forgive as God pursued you let us pray Heavenly Father by the power of your spirit with us right now grow our forgiving Hearts help us see that Christians are the most forgiven people on Earth and therefore we should be the most forgiving people people on Earth help us to be redeemed from our unforgiveness this morning free us from the prison of
00:48:07 unforgiveness by the power of your gospel because we know that Jesus Paid It All and it is in his name we pray amen amen I'm doing the communion can I see your list of thy strength indeed is small child of weakness Watch and Pray find in me th all in all Jesus Paid It all all to him my own s had left the CR St he washed it wi and [Music] snow Lord for now indeed I find th th power and thine alone can change the leest and M the heart of [Music] St Jesus Paid It all all to him I own had left the Christmas day he washed it
00:50:03 wide as [Music] strong and Before the Throne I stand in incomplete Jesus died my soul to save my lips shall still be Jesus Paid It all all to him I all s that left a Christmas day he worship right as strong Jesus Paid It All all to him my own s has left to Christmas day he wased it white as snow he was it by as [Music] St oh place the wall one who paid my debt and Rise his life up from the dead oh praise the one who pay my debt and Rise his life up from the dead oh praise the one who paid my de
00:51:50 Andes my from the de oh praise the one who pay my death and rightous life come from the dead oh PR the one who my Andes my from the oh pra the one who be my Andes my from the de Oh Praise [Music] Oh Praise Him oh praise him all praise [Music] Him Jesus Paid It all all to him my S has left a chess day he wash it wi as [Music] [Music] snow brothers and brothers and sisters indeed the Lord Our God has forgiven our sins way more than we can imagine now we come to a time of communion that you may be
00:53:45 seated if you do not have the elements uh could you please raise your hands so that our usurers and uh can pass it to you so if you can refrain from opening first we like to have a time of silence and prayer before we partake this elements together Christ Our Lord invites to his table all who love him who earnestly repent of their sin and seek to to live in peace with one another therefore let us confess our sin before God and one another and as Pastor masimore has preached us now and asked us a series of
00:54:43 questions let me repeat these questions for us to consider and think together have we Hur anyone have we sin against anyone do we owe anyone anything have we neglected anyone have we abandoned any brothers or sisters have we caused pain to those around us whether we know or don't know have you upset others anger others or betray anyone let's let us spend a few minutes in silence to confess our sins to the Lord and a time of in introspection of thinking how we have been living Our Lives knowing that we have been adopted
00:55:46 as sons of the Living God for [Music] Our Father in heaven we confess that we have not loved you with all our heart all our soul our mind and all our strength we have not LED our neighbors as ourselves and as today's sermon that we have heard Lord every single sin that we've committed every single act of negligence of sin of omission or commission that we have done Lord it is actually a front to you it is a sin against you as Pastor masimo was sharing just now not only have we attempted to slap
00:57:38 the judge or the prime minister or Joe Biden but Lord every single sin that we do we are is akin to us trying to slap you L we want to for we want to confess our sins that Lord every single time when we actually are unkind loving to our brothers and sisters who are made in your image Lord we have been sinning against you we have been doing something that is wrong and Lord you have forgiven us so much and Lord we want to say that Lord help us to remember we want ask for forgiveness help us to remember how great is your
00:58:17 love for us and that you have paid it all for us on the cross forgive us we pray free us for joyful obedience through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen may I ask you to stand as we partake these elements together 1 Corinthians 11 verse 23- 26 the Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me let's take this breath together remembering that for our transgressions Christ body was broken for us
00:59:45 in the same way after supper he took the cup saying this cup is a New Covenant in my blood do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of of me for whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes this cup that we see over here is a symbol of the outpouring of God's blood for us forgiveness is costly is not free the price is paid on the cross and because of what Christ has done for us we can give our lives for to him we can live every single moment of
01:00:33 Our Lives knowing that Christ has died Christ is risen and Christ will come again and therefore we can leave every moment for him and to him be all glory be all glory honor forever let's bring the cup together the time back to our worship team shall we sing the song again starting from verse two Lord now indeed I find th power and I can change the and M the Heart of Stone Jesus Paid It all all to him my own sin has left a graceless day he was it white as snow [Music] and Before the Throne I stand in him
01:02:07 complete Jesus di my soul to sa my lips just to repeat Jesus Paid It all all to hear my own s had left a Christmas day he washed it white as strong Jesus Paid It all all to him I own s has left a Christmas day he was it wide as snow he wased it wi as [Music] [Music] [Music] May the god of Hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in Hope thank you masimo the service is over I think thank you very much God bless you all and uh please stay back any one of
01:04:04 you one prayers the elders and pastor masimo we all in front to receive again uh have good bit of head and please talk to us if you just want to just chat or just bounce of anything God bless all of you
