The Church of Eleven22 - Forgiveness - Impossible to Possible - Matthew S5E7

Episode Date: July 12, 2026

What is biblical forgiveness?  In this message from Matthew 18, Pastor Adam unpacks one of Jesus' most challenging teachings, showing that forgiveness isn't based on the size of someone's offense but on the greatness of Christ's sacrifice.  Discover what it means to forgive as you've been forgiven, why forgiveness doesn't ignore sin and how the finished work of Jesus transforms the way we approach conflict, reconciliation and grace. 📌 Supplemental Resources From This Week: • Deepen Podcast — The Freedom Found in Forgiveness - Deepen with Pastor Joby Martin: Matthew S5E7    • Jake and Kaley's Story — We Chose Forgiveness Instead of Divorce • This Week’s Full Service — Forgiveness - Impossible to Possible - Matthew S5E7 • Matthew Season 5 The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here.

Well, church, good to be with you guys. Grab a Bible if you've got one. If you don't, there's one in front of you in the seat, and you're going to want to go to Matthew chapter 18. We are in week 32 of our study of the gospel of Matthew. And this chapter, Matthew 18, is probably one of the most practical and the most useful chapters in ministry that I've had in 30 years of doing ministry. And so we're going to dive in.

We're going to pick it up at verse 21, but I want to kind of back up, get a running start, give a little bit of context to what we're dealing with. And almost the entire part, chapter 18, is dealing with sin. And what do you do with sin? And so in verse 7 through 9, what is going on is the question is, well, how do we handle sin in ourselves or temptation to sin in ourselves? And what Jesus says is when you're tempted to sin, you need to take extreme measures. Like gouge out your eye, cut off your hand.

The old Puritan John Owen said, you need to be killing sin or it will be killing you. And then when you go down to verse 10 through 14, Jesus is talking about how does God handle sin among his children? And Jesus kind of retells an abbreviated version of the prodigal son. And if you know that story, the son is a long way off and he's making a bunch of excuses. He's trying to figure out how he's going to work off things so that he can be accepted back by his father. And while he's still a long way off, the dad goes running to the son, humiliates himself, gets to his son, finds his son, reaches his son, wraps his son up, says it takes a cloak, puts it around his son, covers him. like in his righteousness covers his son puts sandals on his feet, puts a ring,

the family ring, meaning, hey, you are adopted back, you're one of my kids, you're an heir, a co-air, everything I've got, that's yours. That's how God treats his children. And then it goes on in verse 15 through 20, and it's how do we handle sin in the church?

And Jesus kind of gives these three steps about how we're supposed to do that. And I would encourage you, Pastor Jobi preached a message on October 27, 2024. You can go back on the app or the website. Look it up. It's week seven of run over by the grace train. It's that passage.

You should deal with it. It is incredible. It's a great message for what happens when we sin in the church. And then you get to verse 21. And Peter's going to ask a question to Jesus about what to do when somebody sins against you. Now here's the thing. I don't want this morning to be this. I don't want it to be theoretical.

I don't want it to just be a concept or an idea. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to get in your mind, so you kind of tuck elbows in, don't like do this, but I need you to think of somebody who has sinned against you. Like a current situation, or maybe it's a past situation.

It's just unresolved. Like you haven't settled this thing with them. And it's still kind of in there. And it's still humming, all right? And I want you to hear what Jesus says, and I want you to listen through that. And so in verse 21, it says then Peter came up and said to him to Jesus, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times, kind of hear him proud about that. Jesus said to him, I do not say to you seven times, but 77 times.

Or some versions say 70 times seven or 490 times. So Peter's question seems pretty straightforward, doesn't it? How many times do I forgive? Jesus goes 490 times. Good. We're done. Let's pray. Forgive people.

But when you hear Peter's question about forgiveness, doesn't it raise a whole? bunch of other questions for you about forgiveness? Or when Jesus says, no, don't just forgive seven times. Forgive 490s, forgive seven times seven times. Then that open up all kinds of other questions for you. And then Jesus is going to go on from here and he's going to tell a parable to kind of dive deeper into what he means about forgiveness. And at least for me, that opens all kinds other questions that I have about forgiveness. I mean, you have them, don't you? Like, I know it sounds silly to say, but what is forgiveness? Or what do you need forgiven from? Or can I forgive somebody if they don't even know they've done anything wrong? Can I forgive somebody if they don't ask to be

forgiven? What if I don't feel like forgiving them? Like, what if I'm really still hurt? Or if I forgive them? Is that like letting them off the hook? Is that a license for them to continue on? Do I have to accept them back into my life? There's all these kinds of questions, aren't there, that hum around forgiveness? And so we're going to look at forgiveness today. One, because this is just where the text goes, and I love it our church, we just go where the Bible goes. The other thing that we're looking at this issue of forgiveness is because it is core, it's central to the Christian faith. everything rises and falls on it.

Our relationship with God rises and falls on forgiveness. And forgiveness is unique to the Christian faith. There's not another world religion that has forgiveness at the core of it. Every other world religion says you have to figure out how to earn your way back to God. You have to work it off, you have to pay it back. and Christianity is the exact opposite. And every bit of our relationships, horizontally and vertically, are affected by forgiveness. And it is one of the most misunderstood things about the Christian faith.

And so Peter asked this question, and then Jesus answers them, and now Jesus is going to tell a parable. And so he starts in verse 23. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven of heaven. may be compared to. Now, our, we have a, we have two kids. Our son is 23 years old. He's about to get married this fall. He's engaged.

She'll girl named Ashley. We love her. It's amazing. We got another daughter in our family. I just, I couldn't be more excited about this wedding. But we have to kind of teach Ashley what it means to be a Flint. You know what I'm saying? She hadn't been a Flint before.

She doesn't know that you pass up 24. other parking spots in the sun to find the shady one. She's got to figure out, like, road trips are not about the journey. They're about the destination. Come on, guys, it's about how early do you get up, how much gas mileage can you get, how quick can you make the pit stop. Have you ever pulled off, like you pass somebody and then you pull off into the rest stop and you see them drive by? It's so maddening. We have this thing in our family where if you're telling a story, you get to say, hey, this is my story. You've ever been telling a story and your husband or your wife kind of like, hey, that's not quite how it went.

And in our family, it's like, hey, when you want to tell the story, you can tell your story. But right now, this is my story. So she's got to figure that one out. And we have a very active family group chat. And it is all bragging. It's not humble bragging. It's just straight up. Look what I did.

Look what my kids did. Look how awesome the flints are. And you got to, like, if you're going to be a flint, you got to get in the family group chat. You can't mute the family group chat. You got to be active. You got to be lobbying things in there. I mean, a couple weeks ago, my brother was like, hey, this is getting a little pathetic. We need to step up our game.

And if you're going to be a Flint, you've got to be up on SEC football and particularly gator football at all times. No? Okay. I get it. I'll be the lone gator up here. It's fine. This is what Jesus is saying.

The kingdom of heaven is like, hey, if you're going to live in the family of God, if you're going to be a child of God, if you're going to be a part of the kingdom of God, let me tell you how things are going to be. The world can do things the way. the world wants to do them. But let me tell you what it's like to live with God as your father. Here's what it means to be in the family of God. And so he says, therefore, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king. That's God. Who wished to settle accounts with his servants. That's us. And when he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents.

and he said he could not pay. His master ordered him to be sold and his wife and children and all he had in payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, have patience with me, and I will pay you everything. Out of pity for him,

the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants. So the fellow servants, other people that we have a relationship with, that person you have in your mind, who owed him a hundred denari. Now we're going to talk about these talents in denari,

but this second one is far less than the first. And he finds one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denari and seizing him, and he began to choke him saying, pay what you owe. So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, saying almost the exact same thing, have patience with me, and I will pay you. He refused.

Went 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 of his debt. So, here's the conclusion, verse 35, so, point. Here it is. Also, my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. So Peter asks this question, how often do I forgive? Jesus gives a pretty straightforward answer. You're supposed to forgive.

And he tells this parable about forgiveness. But the question is, if I'm going to be forgiven, if I'm going to be a forgiving person, I have to know what forgiveness is. And in order to know what forgiveness is, you've got to know what you're being forgiven of. And we're not being forgiven of mistakes. We're not being forgiven of accidents. We're not being forgiven of mislips. We are being forgiven of sin.

of sin. And the Bible has all kinds of ways that it describes sin. And most of the time when we think about sin, the Bible describes it in this way as rule breaking or law breaking, right? God says, don't do something. You do that thing and you think, well, that's sin. That's one way the Bible describes it. The Bible also describes sin as trespasses. Like that's going too far. You shouldn't have gone. You're a creature. You're acting like a creator. You went too far.

Took things into your own hands. Scripture will talk about sin like treason, rebellion, war, idolatry, self-righteousness. Talk about effects of sin like death, captivity, slavery, bondage. But here in this parable, in this situation, Jesus describes sin in a very particular way. He says that sin and sin's effects are a debt owed. Do you see that? Peter asks, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him?

And then look at all the language, the money language that's in there. It says settle accounts twice, owed three times, 10,000 talents, 100 denari. Payment or pay is used seven times in here. sold and debt is used four times in this passage. And it isn't just in here in this one place, but we see that sin is described as a debt in other places. Like when Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray in Matthew 6.14, says, when you pray, pray pray like this.

And he gets to the part on forgiveness. And he says, you pray, Father, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. maybe you learn the Lord's prayer and you learned it as sin or as trespasses, but the actual word is the same word as in this parable. It's a debt owed. Father, forgive me the debt I owe that my sin is created. And so sin creates this debt-deater relationship. That when I sin against you, I've created a debt that I owe you.

Or when I sin against God, I've created a debt that I have created a debt that I have. oh God. And you're like, okay, well, but how? I mean, how does my sin create a debt? So think about like idolatry, Second Commandment. Think about it. That what you're doing is you are saying, God, I am, I'm going to take from you your goodness, your glory, the worship that is due to you, and I'm going to give it to something

else. And what we owe God in that sin is we owe God the worship that he is due and we took it from him and a debt is owed to him. Or what if I lie to you? Right? When I lie to you, I owe you the truth. And even more than that, when I lie to you, you don't get all of really who I am. Therefore, you can't have the relationship with me that you think you're having. and I owe you that that I took trust from you when I lied to you and I owe you that trust

or if I steal I mean yeah you might be able to be like okay you stole my truck truck's worth $6,000 you owe me $6,000 but if you've ever had somebody break into your home you know that it isn't just the amount of money

of the things they took right they owe you safety and security or you take infidelity, adultery and somebody cheats on you you're like you stood up front and you said I will they said I will and then they didn't and what they owe you is fidelity they owe you is faithfulness

the problem is we can't quantify our debt Like, how do you put a price on sin like infidelity? How would I ever quantify that back to pay you back for that? Or how do you quantify how it affects everybody else? How it affects kids and family and friends. Or how about this? We don't even know all the times we have sinned in our life.

So how would we ever quantify what we would pay back when we don't even know that we've done it? Or if we could quantify it, let's say we could, we can't repay it. Look, the debt that that servant owed, the king, he says it's 10,000 talents. Do you know how much money that is? In today's dollars, it's $10 billion, 200,000 years of working for $50,000 a year. What Jesus is saying is, listen, even if you could come up with your debt, you can't pay it back.

You don't have $10 billion. Sin is an unpayable debt. And sin isn't just a debt that we can't pay back to somebody else. It's a debt we can't pay back to God. The psalmist says in Psalm 51-4, against you and you only, or against you and you first, God, have I sinned. So how am I going to pay God back anything?

God has everything. what am I going to give them to make it up? And the scriptures say that the wages of sin is death. If you die in your sin, what you will die with, what you will pay with is your life. It's the only thing that would even come close to being able to describe the debt that's owed in that. And I know that that's not like, wow, so glad we showed up at church this morning so you could just tell me how I'm going to live eternally separated from God in a debt I could never count and never repay. But until we realize the depth of our sin, we will never understand how absolutely stunningly amazing God's forgiveness is.

And so forgiveness is not cheap and it is not easy. It costs the king $10 billion. Scripture says without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Forgiveness is not easy and it is not cheap. It is incredibly costly. And forgiveness is not fair. You know, fair is just getting what you deserve, right? Fair is retribution.

Fair is you wrong me, so I ice you out until I think I've extracted enough out of you to pay me back. Forgiveness is not that. forgiveness is not the way of the world. Today's culture is, if you do something wrong, I hold a grudge against you. If you do something wrong, I, like, unload on you on social media. Or cancel culture? All that is is a form of retribution. That's not forgiveness.

Forgiveness is not letting go. The king had to pay off the debt. that $10 billion came from the king. He didn't just let it go. He paid for it. And forgiveness is not, have you ever heard somebody say this? Forgive and forget.

Do you know that is nowhere in the Bible? It's not anywhere in the Bible. The closest we get it from is in Hebrews 12, and it says that God remembers our sin no more. And you're like, okay, same thing, right? Nope, not at all. God isn't an absent-minded professor. He wasn't like, oh, yeah, Adam, he's a black-hearted sinner.

I forgot about that. He knows that full well forever. But God chooses to not remember, not take this thing in the past, drag it up and make it an ever-present reality forever. What God has forgiven is done, paid for. He doesn't make you relive it over and over and over. over and over and over again. And forgiveness doesn't mean no consequences. And forgiveness does not necessarily mean reconciliation or restoration. You can forgive somebody and not go back into that

abusive situation. You probably shouldn't go back in. And forgiveness is not a license to keep on sinning. If you say I'm forgiven so I can just keep on going, you missed the whole thing. So what is forgiveness? If sin is a debt owed, then forgiveness is a debt fully paid. Look at verse 27. Out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. The king makes full payment at his own expense for the debt that is owed to him. The king takes the crushing weight of the debt off.

of the servant and he shoulders it himself. The debt the servant is buried under, the king takes that and he himself becomes buried under that debt. That's what he's doing. A sin that is a debt owed, forgiveness is a debt fully paid. If you've been around 1122, you've heard a couple of these Bible words used a lot. Propitiation. You know this, right? Propitiation is a payment that satisfies. Now think about that in light of sin as a debt owed. Forgiveness is a payment that fully, not partially, not a little bit, not just a little down payment on it. Forgiveness is a full payment that completely satisfies all of the debt caused by sin. Or Titellastai. or Jesus is hanging on the cross

is the last words father it is finished that word the Greek word for that phrase it is finished is to telestai it actually means paid in full it's a financial term they have records from traders

that were people that traded goods and they were going across northern Africa think of like Egypt in about this time 2,000 years ago and these guys were taking goods and they had to stop and pay taxes on their goods as they were trading them. They would stop at these tax depots. They found these documents. And on the document is stamped to Telestai.

Paid in full. The bill owed, the debt owed for crossing for you to go on any further, you've got to pay the debt and paid in full. Done. And here's how our sin is paid in full. it's only paid by Jesus. You and I don't forgive and it's like, well, I'm going to do something. No, when we forgive, what we're saying is Jesus is the full payment for our sin. And the only way Jesus can be that, and the only reason Jesus is the only one that can satisfy in that regard

is because Jesus is fully God. Yes, he's fully man, but he's fully God. And because he's fully God, he is of. infinite value and infinite worth and therefore when he gives his life on the cross it is payment of infinite value it satisfies and jesus knew no sin jesus had no sin debt to pay for that when he died on the cross he wasn't paying for his own sin so he gives his life of infinite value and he pays for another sin. He pays for your sin and for my sin. The only place you and I will find forgiveness is in Jesus Christ. The only way you and I will ever be able to give forgiveness

is in Jesus Christ. Here's my definition. We'll put it up on the screen for you. Forgiveness is applying Christ's death on the cross as the full payment for sin's debt so that the sinner no longer owes anything to the one sinned against. Forgiveness is applying. It's not feeling. I feel forgiven.

That doesn't matter. It's applying, not your forgivingness. it's applying Jesus, it's applying Christ's death, his full payment, as a complete, total satisfaction.

And so when you forgive somebody, what you're saying is, I am applying Christ's death as full payment. When you go to God and you seek forgiveness, what you're saying is, would you apply Christ's death as full payment for my life, for my sin?

And so Peter asks his original, question, what's the limit on forgiveness? Seven times? Like every day for a week I'm supposed to forgive? And Jesus is like, no, no, no, no, you don't get it, do you? Seven times seven, 70 times seven. Seven is the number of perfection. So Peter's like, so do I forgive completely? And Jesus is like, no, you don't forgive completely. You forgive completely upon completely. You forgive fully full. Utterly, totally, total, you forgive. That's what forgiveness. The limit on forgiveness is the limit of the value of the life of Jesus.

You want to know how much you've been forgiven? It's not your sin. It's what is the value of the life of Jesus Christ. That's how much you've been forgiven. That forgiveness isn't limited by the size of our sin. It's actually limited by the size of the Savior. and what's the size of the Savior? Infinite.

It's infinite. That's how much we've been forgiven. You're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, Adam, that's great. But I've heard there's like this thing called the unforgivable sin. And it comes from Jesus in Matthew 1231. Jesus says every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven. But the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. Here's what this is.

It is a denial of the person and the work of God. That's what blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is. It's to deny that God is fully Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So you're denying the person of God. You're saying God is less God than He is. I don't really believe God is who He says He is. And I don't believe that the work of God. I don't believe that the Holy Spirit breed the breath of life in me

and created me in the image of God. I don't believe that when I sinned, I was dead in my sins. But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us while we were dead in our sins. God, the Holy Spirit, made us alive. By word for that is regeneration, that God regenerates us. That the Holy Spirit grants us repentance and gives forgiveness. The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is to say, I don't believe God is who He says He is. don't believe God does what he says he does.

And what that means is that you and I, if we deny God's person and work, then we do not have forgiveness and we will die apart from him forever. Now, this question that kind of bubbles up in here for me is, so can I forgive somebody who doesn't confess or repent? Or can I forgive somebody that doesn't even know they've done anything wrong? you've been in that situation haven't you you're like they know they've done something wrong they won't admit it or or you're like they don't even know they've hurt me can i still forgive them years ago when my niece was really little my niece and got a bunch of niece and nephews two of them

brother and sister my niece little sister of her older brother one day she just lit into him and made him cry. Like just brought him. I mean, she was just brutal. Like, she just lit him up. And my sister-in-law, like, got down with her daughter and was like, hey, you need to say you're sorry to your older brother. And she's like, but I'm not. Well, she's honest. She's just ruthless. Like, what do, I mean, can you forgive somebody that won't apologize? So he doesn't even know, doesn't think they've done anything wrong? And the answer is yes. Yes, you can. Jesus in Luke 2334 says,

Father, he's hanging on the cross. Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. Father, apply the finished work of my life. They don't even have a clue that they're sinning against me right now. If someone doesn't think they've sinned or they don't admit that they've sinned,

here's what you and I can do. We can remember how much God has forgiven us, that he's forgiven us far more than we even know when we didn't know that we've sinned, God has forgiven us. And if sin is a debt, we can apply the finished work of Jesus as a full payment against that sin so that that person no longer owes me a single thing. And I can cancel their debt. Listen, forgiveness and reconciliation are two completely different things.

Forgiveness and restoration are two completely different things. things. I can apply Jesus's death as a full payment so that the other person doesn't owe me a single thing and not be restored in a relationship. That restoration takes two. You forgiving, you can forgive. You can apply that debt. And here's the thing. Maybe, just maybe, if you would forgive that person, if you would be so bold as to go to that person and say, hey, I'm not asking you to apologize. You may not even know you've done anything wrong. Let me just explain.

And then I just want you to know you're forgiven. You don't owe me a single thing, paid and full. Maybe that just might be the thing that brings them to understand their sin and they would confess and repent to you. Maybe it would be the thing that brought them to understand they've sinned against God and they would confess and repent to God. maybe all they've ever only gotten in their life is grudges and retribution and payback

and maybe for the first time you offer to them what God has offered to you and it brings them to their knees to repent to God and they confess faith in Jesus because of it. Another question that comes up at the end of this for me is okay, if I don't forgive others will God not forgive me? I mean look at verse 33.

King says, 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 debts. So also, my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. Now listen, don't take the parable where it doesn't go. But what Jesus is giving is a warning and you and I need to pay attention to the warning. and what he's saying is that being forgiven should have a transforming effect in our life that those of us that have been forgiven,

we should be forgiving types of people. And what you can know here is that we're not somehow like obligating God to us when we forgive somebody. That's not what this is about. It isn't like, well, if I forgive them, then God has to forgive them. me. The warning is true, but what you need to know is forgiveness is not earned. Forgiveness is not achieved. It's not a work that we do. If I forgive you, then God is going to forgive me this.

That's not how it works with God. Forgiveness is received, not achieved. And that those of us that have been forgiven, we should be forgiving people of all people. And so Jesus is saying, hey, hey, listen, if God has forgiven you, you go be forgiving to somebody else. Colossians 313 says this, bear with one another. And if one of you has a complaint against another forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. Forgiven people forgive. And here's the question, the last question I've got. Why does the king forgive?

Why does he forgive him $10 billion? He doesn't forgive him because the guy is so forgivable. He doesn't forgive him because it's just a little minor offense. He doesn't forgive him because the guy worked off his debt to him. Look at what it says in verse 27. He does it out of pity. The word's fine, but it's fine. doesn't it have this, like I feel so bad for you.

I pity you. What this word actually means is it's the word that means it comes from the guts or from your bowels. It's like I have compassion. It's a sense that like I look at something in the world and I don't think it should be that way. I'm mad that it's that way. There's a righteous anger in it. There's a pain. There's an ache in your soul because this is the way it shouldn't be.

And it's down in my guts. I got to make this right. And it says the king forgave his debt because he had that inside of him. This is not the way it's supposed to be. And it also says in verse 26 and verse 29 that the king forgives him because he has patience on him.

You know that God is not slow to forgive. But he's patient, wishing that all would come to know Jesus. He's patient. And then it says in verse 33, you should have had mercy because I had mercy on you. You didn't get what you deserved. You deserved locked up, out, apart, separated, done, no freedom, bondage, slavery, forever. You didn't get that.

What you got was your debt paid. The reason the king forgives is it doesn't have anything to do with the other guy. the reason the king forgives is his character and his nature, his character of being compassionate, his character of being merciful, his character of being patient. Do you know what do you call it when somebody does something for you? Not because you did anything, but totally because they have chosen out of their character and nature to do something for you?

It's grace. It's grace. And the only place you will find grace, is in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. It's the only place. Jesus' death is where you find grace to be forgiven. It's where you find the mercy of God. It's where you find the patience of God.

It's where you find the compassion of God. It's where you find this sense of this is not the way it's supposed to be and I'm making it right character and nature of God. That's why the king forgives. So here's how I want us to close. I'm going to read four Bible verses, and I'm going to ask you to do something. And I don't just jump. I'm going to read a Bible verse, and then if it applies to you, I'm going to ask you to stand,

and I'm asking you to stay standing. So here's the first one. 1 John 1, 8 through 9. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. if we confess our sins, he, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Listen, if you are a Christian, if you have placed your faith, I'm with him, I'm standing, I'm not standing

because I'm preaching, I'm standing. Listen, if you're a follower of Jesus and you have sin to confess and repent to God and you stand on his offering forgiveness, would you stand up right now and stay standing? I feel like I should sit down and then stand up. I'm with you. Ephesians 432 be kind to one another tenderhearted

forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you if you need to forgive someone like if that name from the that thing I told you grab it hold on to it listen to the sermon through the lens of it like

do you need to forgive somebody stand up and stay standing right now so just need to sit down and restand up Matthew 5, 23, and 24 says this. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift before the altar and go first be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. So if you've sinned against somebody and you need to ask their forgiveness, stand and stay standing.

And then here's the last one. I love this verse, Acts 1043, to him, meaning Jesus, all the prophets bear witness. He's saying all of the Old Testament is pointing at Jesus, and the thing they're pointing at Jesus is that everyone who believes in Him, in Jesus, receives forgiveness of sin through his name. if you have never put your trust in Jesus as the full payment for your sin that your sin debt is erased and you want to receive that full payment today

would you stand up stay standing and here's where I want you would you raise your hand right now like raise it up high bowl come on way up keep them up come on keep them way up amen let's go heavenly father you are our forgiveness Jesus, thank you that you are the payment, the full payment that gets applied to our sin debt by grace through faith in you, Jesus.

So, Lord, forgive us our debts. And may we be the type of people who's being forgiven would overflow and we would forgive our debtors. God may it crush temptation in our life, confession and repentance. it. May forgiveness found only in you, Jesus, honor and worship and glorify you. Lord, our running to you with our sin instead of running from you in our sin. May it may be so honoring and pleasing, maybe an act of faith. May a church that doesn't hide and play games, but stands in full transparency before you and one another that were sinners in need of a great Savior.

May it be a pleasing sound in your ear. We love you. Thank you, Jesus, for your work and your life, death, and resurrection. We pray it all in Jesus' name. Amen. So let's worship. We're going to respond. We're going to sing.

We're going to worship God for the forgiveness he's given. maybe for you, you're still like, I want to forgive, but that thing hurt. Maybe you need to come down here and wrestle that out with. Maybe you don't want, you need to come down and use things you need to confess and repent to God. Maybe you need to come down and pray. And then we're going to bring our first and best because God gave us his first and best and fullest in Jesus Christ.

Let's worship God as a forgiving God.