The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - The Weight of Unforgiveness: America’s Got 10,000 Talents

Episode Date: November 19, 2021

Unforgiveness is one of the biggest stumbling blocks in our walk with the Lord. Jeff uses the parable of the unforgiving servant to share with us how unforgiveness hardens our hearts, immobilizes us spiritually, and prevents us from appreciating God’s mercy with our own brokenness. Snippet from the Show There is a relationship between us being forgiven and us forgiving others. If you struggle with unforgiveness, remember what Jesus did for you on the Cross. Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

You're listening to The Jeff Kaven Show, episode 246, America's Got 10,000 Talents. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavins. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven Show. Thanks for joining me today. Listen, if you have been hurt, wounded, or emotionally bruised by someone that you love or an acquaintance, someone at work, or even a stranger. You don't know what to do with it. You don't know how to get over it. This is your show. This is your show. America's got 10,000 talents. That'll make

complete sense by the time we get done with the show here today. Hey, if you do want show notes, and today I've got some good scriptures for you, all you got to do is text my name, Jeff Havens, one word, and texted to the number 33777. That's 3377. Every week we're here, and I should say I'm here every week, and trying to provide some things that will make your life easier as a disciple. Give you some suggestions on how to walk, and boy, I'll tell you the times they are changing, as Dylan says, and a lot of people are looking for that better future and someone to trust and we've been talking about that for a number of weeks now. Hey, I got a lot of feedback from you about my other show over on Hallow with Jonathan Rumi. It's a daily devotion I have over there.

And if you're interested in that, all you've got to do is go to www.hallow.org forward slash Jeff Kavens. And you get three months free, kind of nice. And Bible in a year is really going well. and we've got some real special things coming up related to Bible in a year. We've got a big conference coming up in February, and you can find out about that at ascensionpress.com. We might even put that in the show notes for you here so that you can get that. I'll leave that up to our wonderful, wonderful producers. Well, all of us have had some experience in being hurt, wounded, bruised in some way,

and I am part of that as well. I can look back at my life, and I can see several times where, wow, I was really hurt. I was really wounded. But for a while, I didn't even know how to deal with it. But then, you know, the word of the Lord was starting to become very clear. And I found that answer. And that answer is in forgiveness. And we're going to look at forgiveness here today and how do you do it?

And do you have to feel like you forgive in order to forgive? We'll look at that. Jesus said in John 1633, he said, I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world. I love that, John 1633. I've always read that, thinking to myself, well, he's being honest. You know, Jesus is being honest. He's saying in this world, you're going to have some trouble. trouble. And he says, take courage. I have overcome the world. That idea of experiencing trouble really has to do with kind of a tearing apart in the inside. And we've all been there. We've all run into stumbling blocks, if you will, in our life. And it's really interesting because this word for stumbling block is the word scandalon in Greek, scandalon. And that will be in the show notes for you. It's a stumbling block. It's that which gives offense, an object of anger or disapproval. And Jesus even said that he was a stumbling block to some, right? But we've all

experienced stumbling blocks. And it's interesting because if you take a look at like a mouse trap or any kind of trap, you have the apparatus and then there is a particular place on the trap where you put the bait, whether that's a cheese for a mouse trap or it's meat for a mountain lion or it's a carrot for muskrats or whatever it is. You've got to find the scandal on that part where the bait goes. You put it on there. And they used to call it the bait stick. And the idea is that when you take the bait, you are trapped. You are trapped. And when you have been hurt by someone. And you take the bait of unforgiveness. You go after that with an anger and a vengeance and a passionate emotional response. It's a trap. And it's a trap that can immobilize you.

And I know what that is like. And I know you do too. And I just think that's very interesting. Next time you see a mousetrap, look at that little bar, that little stick, if you will, where you put the cheese. That's what we're talking about. And I know for sure that the enemy, Satan, yes, I do believe that he is real, he is a master at setting traps for us in our life. And if he can get you to take the bait in any situation, whether it be at home or neighborhood or work, if he can get you to take the bait of being offended and hurt, then he's going to immobilize you. And if he can immobilize you, that means that you're out of commission. You're not going to be any threat to him at all. In fact, you're going to be focused on your own pain and your own circumstances and your emotions and what's going on inside of you.

When you look at a trap, I think it's important to realize that a trap is designed to do two things. One is that a trap is designed to not look like a trap. Because if it look like a trap, you wouldn't walk into it, right? If a mountain lion saw a trap and said, hey, there's a trap and there's some meat on it, not going to do it. You know, it looks too much like a trap. And maybe you've even seen videos on YouTube of men or women who have been trapping animals and the animal comes around and the animal figures it out.

there's something wrong here. There's something that's not right. And I'm not going to go for it and they move on. Maybe the trap wasn't set well enough or it wasn't camouflaged enough or the scent wasn't. I don't know, but they went on. And so number one, a trap is designed to not look like a trap. And number two, a trap always, always is stronger than the intended victim. And so again, if you want to hunt a bear, you've got to have a trap that's stronger than a bear. If you want to hunt muskrats, you trap them, you got to have a trap that's stronger than a muskrat, you want to hunt birds, you got to have a trap, stronger than the birds. And if you want to immobilize human beings, if you want to immobilize and trap human beings,

then you're going to have to devise a trap that is stronger than the human being. And that is unforgiveness, just like that. maybe you felt that i don't know you know as i'm saying it i i remember those times in my life where wow i i heard the trap snap and i knew that life was different and i knew that i was immobilized i was hurt and so when we walk in unforgiveness regardless of why why why you know and i know that some people might say why you don't know what happened to me this is unbelievable what happened to me? Well, yeah, sounds like a big trap. It can be small traps or big traps, but you're trapped. And what happens when we don't forgive is that we are immobilized and

oftentimes we pay a price not only, you know, obviously in our relationship with the Lord, but you pay a price at work too because when you're trapped, it's going to take away from your effectiveness at work and certainly at home. If you are single, still at home. If you're married, and you have kids, it's going to affect you as a husband or a wife, a mother, a father, a grandma, a grandpa, it's going to affect you. Now, this is a common theme in the Bible, actually. We have a number of common themes in the Bible all the way through it, but there is one that starts at the very beginning in the Garden of Eden, and that is exile. If you see Adam and Eve, after they sin, what happened? They were exile. They were taken and picked up and brought outside of the garden.

taken from a place where they were walking with God in the cool of the day, and now they are east of Eden. And so all throughout salvation history, we have this amazing pattern of exile and return. Exile and return. It's a pattern that you'll see at the very beginning, and you'll see it all the way to the end of the Old Testament and on into the New Testament. And in fact, I'm going to read to you just a moment here from Jeremiah. And if you do have your Bible, if you're not driving right now, you can certainly follow along with me. But I'm going to read from Jeremiah, and it's going to be Jeremiah chapter 34. So Israel, as God's firstborn son among the nations, was really called on by God to do to others what God had done for them. And we know that God forgave Israel.

That's what's going on in the Holy of Holies, the Ark of the Covenant with a mercy seat on top of it, and the cherubim facing each other with wings touching. Once a year, the great high priest would go in and make atonement for the sins of Israel. And it happened right there in the Holy of Holies. And so now that God has forgiven Israel, God expects Israel to treat the nations. this way. And that's why it says in Exodus 716. In the show notes, Exodus 716, let my people go. See, God delivered them, and he expected Israel to treat the nations as they were treated. Now, every 50 years in Israel's history, they experienced, and they,

this was a great one, a great one, a jubilee. They experienced a jubilee. And then they had smaller jubilees as well. But the great jubilee every 50 years was a time when slaves were returned to their family. Land was returned. Liberty should be proclaimed throughout the land. So just pause for a moment there. Do you get what I'm saying that what God did for Israel, and that is he brought them out of bondage, he brought them into freedom, and he forgave them, and this is what he expects Israel to do to other people. This is sort of their trump card, you know, in a way. They're different than the other nations. They're going to walk in the same attitude that God had for Israel. But here's what happened. Israel failed to release and extend

liberty. And as a result, Judah went into Babylonian captivity in 587 BC. And here it is. I'm going to read it to you in Jeremiah 34. Just to put this in proper context, looking at King David, God made a covenant with King David. And that meant that someone from his family would be on the throne forever. And so after him is Solomon. And then after Solomon, we have Solomon's son, Rehaboam. But the kingdom divided in the year 930 BC into Israel to the north, Judah to the south. And then the next big moment was in 722 when the Assyrians took out the 10 tribes to the north. They did. And then a little bit later in 587 BC, the Babylonians took out Judah, the two tribes in the south, Judah and Benjamin. And they were taken out and brought into Babylon for 70 years. But what brought that on?

What brought on the exile? Well, it was a failure to release people just like God had released Israel. Listen to this. This is Jeremiah 34. And it says, word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to make a proclamation of liberty to them, that everyone should set free his Hebrew slaves, male and female, so that no one should enslave a Jew, his brother. And they obeyed all the princes and all the people who had entered into the covenant, that everyone should set free his slave, male, or female, so that they would not. be enslaved again. They obeyed and set them free. Okay, sounds good. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

Right there. But, verse 11, but afterward, they turned around and took them back. The male and female slaves they had set free and brought them into subjection as slaves. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I made a covenant with your father. when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying, at the end of six years, each of you must set free, the fellow Hebrew who has been sold to you and has served you six years. You must set him free from your service, but your fathers did not listen to me or incline their ears to me. You recently repented and did what was right in my eyes by proclaiming liberty, each to his neighbor, and you made a covenant before me in the house

which is called by my name. But, but then you turned around and profane my name. So every seven years you have this jubilee within the nation of Israel, and every 50 years, there is a jubilee that really has to do with the nation's surrounding Israel. But the point is this, is that what happened to Judah was the result of their failure to forgive and release. Now, we know that in the New Testament, in the Gospel of Luke chapter 4, we see that Jesus is going to proclaim a major jubilee. He's going to, he's going to proclaim one. And you can find this in Luke chapter 4, verses 18 and 19.

And here's how it goes. I'll go back to verse 16. And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and he went to the synagogue, as was his custom, on the seventh day. And he stood up to read, and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written. The spirit of the Lord is upon me. Because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And then he closed the book, gave it back to the attendant. All the eyes were on him. And then he said, today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. And so he proclaimed a jubilee. And you can tell by the language that he used, it was to release to the captives, recovery of sight, to the blind, liberty, to those who were oppressed. And you can tell, by the language. this was absolutely a jubilee. And you know what?

We've even had jubilees in our own lifetime. In the year 2000, John Paul II called a jubilee. And it was for everyone in the world, all Christians, you know. It was for us to experience this tremendous release from God in forgiveness. And then we have the chance to pass it on to others. And then in 2016, what did we have? we had the year of mercy. Same thing. We had this rare, rare opportunity. But Jesus gives you that rare opportunity today to be forgiven and to forgive others. When I come back, I want to talk to you

about how this goes about being forgiven and what happens if we don't forgive? You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. If you enjoyed the Rejoice Advent resources in the past Advent's, you know firsthand how God can use the season of Advent to foster a personal encounter with him so that you are ready for the person of Jesus Christ at Christmas. My name is Father Mark Toops, author of the Rejoice Advent Meditation series, and I'm excited about this year as we invite you on a pilgrimage as we learn more about the places, people, and events of the very first Advent. I am humbled with all of you who have celebrated with me the gift of Advent. Over 100,000 people have been a part of the Rejoice resource in the past. It's been a humble privilege for me to walk with you, and I'm excited about this year's pilgrimage as we learn more about those places, people, and events of the very

first Advent. To learn more and to go on the pilgrimage with us, go to rejoice program.com, Until we see it in this Advent journey, God bless you. All right, we're back and we're talking about the fact that we are called, as God's people, to forgive when we are hurt, when we take the bait, when we grab the scandal on, the bait stick, and the trap, and we find ourselves trapped, what do we do? You know, how do we get out of it? Now we know that Jesus has proclaimed a great Jubilee, and Jesus forgives us our sin, but it didn't happen by magic. He literally paid the price. And that's what Peter said in 1st Peter 1. He said, you know that you were ransomed from the feudal ways inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

So we have been redeemed by Jesus. This wasn't magic, as I said. It's not like waving a wand or making a proclamation. He literally took on our sin. He literally died, which is the penalty for sin. The end of sin is death. The antidote is to pay the price. And that's what Christ did for us.

And you can see this in Matthew 27 in verse 21. Matthew 27, verse 21, we have the governor. This is where Jesus is on trial, basically, and he is there, and all of the people are there. And this is, this must have been an amazing event, you know, just to, to witness this as Jesus literally takes on the sin of the world. And it starts in chapter 27 of Matthew in verse 15. Now at the feast, the governor was accustomed to religious. for the crowd, any one prisoner whom they wanted. And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. So when they had gathered, Pilots said to them, whom do you want me to release for you, Barabbas or Jesus, who is called Christ, for he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up. Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him saying, hey, don't have anything to do with this righteous man. I've had some bad. dreams about this guy. Now, the chief priests and the elders persuaded the people to ask for

Barabbas and destroy Jesus. Now, you would think that the pilot would say, well, it's obvious they're going to get rid of, you know, they're going to let Jesus go free. I mean, he's a good preacher. They don't like him, but certainly not worthy of death. But that's not what happened. The governor said to them, which of the two do you want me to release for you? And they said, Barabbas. Pilots said to them, then what shall I do with Jesus? who's called Christ. They all said, crucify him. Let him be crucified. And he said, why? What evil is he done? But they shouted all the more, let him be crucified. Now, I studied this a while ago, and I was just blown away. I remember sitting in my office. When I read this, I, you know,

and I was studying the Greek and Hebrew, and I was in the basement office, and I was looking up the name of Barabbas. And it hit me like a ton of bricks when I realized that the name Barabbas means son of the father. Son of the father. And then it became clear that standing before Pilate were two sons of the father. Jesus, the righteous, sinless, merciful, kind, loving, Son of God. And Barabbas, a known criminal, guilty as hell. And the two stood before Pilate and what happened? He released Barabbas. And Barabbas was free. Free. Do you imagine what he looked like at that point when he looked back at Jesus? Now listen, the only reason that Barabbas is free is because Jesus took the penalty. Jesus died. Jesus was crucified for Barabbas. And then I got to thinking,

and it hit me again like a ton of bricks, and I suddenly realized, I am Barabbas. I am Barabbas, the one who is guilty as hell. I am the one who is Barabbas, the one who is guilty and worthy of hell. And Jesus died for me and when he was on the cross in john 1930 what do you say it is finished when he received the vinegar he said it is finished and he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit and now today as a follower of jesus he is asking us to forgive others when we have been hurt he's asking us more specifically, in Matthew 6 in the Lord's Prayer, he's asking us to forgive others as, as, you might want to highlight that in your Bible, big yellow, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Get it? There is a relationship between us being forgiven and us forgiving others. And so the measure you forgive other people really is going to show up in, you. your forgiveness, and your relationship with God also has a horizontal aspect to it. It's really something. And this, my friend, is why so many people are so trapped, so depressed, so anxious, so lost because they are trapped in unforgiveness in their life, whether it be in their spouse or children or someone at work or a brother, sister, a cousin, a pastor, a deacon.

some things happen in their life and they are they are trapped now jesus gives the the anecdote for this in matthew chapter 18 i'm going to just tell you this story here for the sake of time because it's so powerful in matthew 18 starting in verse 21 through 35 you've got a story that is on the on the heels of peter asking jesus lord if someone sins against us how many times should we forget them seven or seven times maybe huh and jesus says no i say unto you seven times 70 which basically means forever they've sin against you a hundred times you've got to forgive them and so then comes the parable about forgiveness and this i'll tell you what you talk about a trap opener this is the story and a mayor this is so good listen to this you got one guy who owes the master

He owes the master 10,000 talents. Now, you know where I got the name of this show. America's got 10,000 talents. This guy owes 10,000 talents. And now, a talent is amazing. How much is this? Well, a talent is a weight, and a talent is the equivalent of 15 years' wages.

That's a lot, isn't it? One talent, 15 years' wages. wages, and this guy owes not one, not two, not three, but 10,000 talents. Oh, he goes to the master and says, oh, please, I'll pay it back. Don't take my wife, my children, and sell my home. Please, he gets down on his knees. I will. I will pay you. And the master was moved with mercy. And what did he do? He released the man from 10,000 talents. Oh, man. Then that man went and found one of his friends who owed him a hundred denarius. That's not much. It's a hundred days wages. And what did he do to this guy who owed him very little? He said, pay me back. And the guy said, oh, I will. Please, please.

Have mercy on me. I'll pay you. And he didn't. He grabbed him by the throat. And he put him in jail. And bystanders saw it. Went back and told the original master what they saw. And the original master came to and said, you wicked servant, I forgave you those ten. thousand talents. I had mercy on you. Shouldn't you have had mercy on that man who owed you only a hundred? And he put him in jail until he paid back all of it. Wow. 10,000 talents. It's a lot to forgive. I'll tell you, America has a lot to be forgiven. There's a lot of forgiveness that needs to happen in America with everybody that we know. Well, that is. That is. is not the end of the story. And the story doesn't end so well. Really, I mean, it does if you're

right with God. But after it says, and in anger, his Lord delivered him to the jailers till he should pay all of his debt. Then it's over with. And then Jesus says, he says to his disciples, he looks him in the eye and says, so also my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. You see how serious that is? Wow. Now, now. Now, Now, the key word in that parable is the master, the Lord, released the man of the 10,000. The failure of that man who had been forgiven was he would not release someone else. So he found himself in bondage. Now, in the minute or so I have left here, I just want to ask you a question.

Are you trapped? Are you hurting? Are you holding unforgiveness towards someone? I want to encourage you this week, go to confession. Go to confession, talk to pastor, talk to father about what we've been talking about here, and tell them, I am failing to forgive someone, I feel like I'm trapped, and I'm feeling it. Confession will release you from that trap. And once you are released from that trap, three things that you don't want to do,

you don't want to rehearse this again. You don't want to go over it again and again once you're free. don't go over it again, don't rehearse it, don't curse it. In other words, have a terrible attitude about this after you're forgiven, and don't nurse it. That is, don't feed on it and meditate upon it. You are free. You are free. And now go and release, release.

Isn't that beautiful? So America's got 10,000 talents to be sure. and the Lord is ready to release and forgive. And you are the conduit to the world. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I love you. I thank you for my friends here today. And I ask you, Lord, to work deep in their heart so that they will know that they are released and to share this with others.

Thank you, Jesus. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. I love you, my friend. God bless you and have a marvelous week. Thank you.