Transcription
[Music] Good morning. And all God's people said, "Amen." Amen. How are you this morning? You hear in the rain? You hearing the rain? Yeah. I hope your windows are rolled up in the car. If not, you can leave. We won't stare at you. I'm glad that you're here today. Welcome into the space.
And if you're visiting for the very first time, maybe you're just checking us out. Welcome to you. If you're here as a part of Texas annual conference, let me tell you something. Ain't no party like a pastor party. Come on. If you need a pastor at all over the next several days, really good chance if you show up at the church, you're going to find one. Really good chance. But we're uh we're excited about what God has in store here. And and I love this community. I love My goodness. I hope you know I love the fact this is what I love about our worship team. I love that before I even preach the word um the word has already been preached through the songs. I hope you get that like you I mean praise the Lord if I mess this message up today and I'm always so fearful I will but even if I praise the Lord like you've declared the the good news of what this message is all about today. So I just want you to know I'm thrilled you're here. Welcome into this place.
So, uh, this week I got an opportunity to attend the Church of Bono on Wednesday night. Uh, I was at a YouTube concert uh, on Wednesday. It was on my bucket list of things to do. I've always wanted to do it. Great side note, side story with that. I'm there. I've waited a long time to see you two in concert. True story. And I'm I'm on like the second level. So, I'm sitting in the seat and the concert's about an hour in and and man, I'm having a great time and there's a lady in front of me. Now, the room's kind of dark. The room's a little dark. And she's on her phone, so I'm going to sound like a total creeper cuz I saw what she was writing on her phone, but you know, her phone was like giant. And there's no way to I was just looking at what she was doing. She was right here. And she types in an hour into the concert, "Who is Sunny Bono?" And I I see that and then she reaches over to her husband. She goes, he used to sing with Sher. I'm like, "No, that's not No, give me your ticket. You need to leave. You shouldn't be here." I tried not to judge her, especially since I'm speaking on this today.
But, um, there was one moment there was one moment in the the course of the concert that, you know, anytime I I preach on whatever topic that I'm preaching on, I just I I always sort of I'm I'm looking at the world through the lens of the text that I'm preaching. And I think we should always live that way, right? And and Bono said this this one thing within the context of of of he was speaking on unity. And he said this. He said, 'You know, we find common ground when we take to higher ground. We find common ground when we reach to higher ground.' And and the truth is there's so much truth in that, right? Like in one instance when you're on the ground and you're having a disagreement or you're in the midst of something, there's something about when you take a higher ground, when you see something from a higher perspective, you get a completely different view. And that so fits within the context of what I'm talking about today because today we're wrapping up the Joseph series. And I want to talk to you about forgiveness. Now, two weeks ago, I talked about guilt. I talked about how do you forgive yourself, but today it's how how do you forgive that person that has deeply wounded you? And I want to say it at the onset before I ever open up the word, before I even get into uh before I even get into the message today, just with the number of people that are here, this is going to this is going to hit close to home for someone today. It is. Maybe someone has done something to you and and it's it's just it's evil. Maybe someone has done something to you and in your mind it's it's unforgivable and and you are you are consumed today to the point that you can't breathe. You fake it well, but you're overwhelmed. I'm going to talk today about forgiveness. And let me just give you the whole message in a sentence at the beginning before I preach it. You don't have the ability to forgive that person of what they've done. You don't. But God does. God does.
So, I want to pray for us before we get into the message today. Will you just bow your heads for just a moment and just pray with me? Heavenly Father, um we come before you, God, and I just want to pray over my friends in the space. I want to pray over those that uh that are live streaming today um on Christ alone, the cornerstone that Father, you're you're moving and you're at work in the world in ways that we see and in ways that we don't. So, God, I pray that you would just open the word, your holy word up to us today. Father, you meet your children. You're here. You've chased us all week. Some of us been going so fast. But let this be the moment that we slow down enough. And God, let's just inhale your grace. And let's exhale the very same grace into this space today. Father, we love you. We praise you. We don't want to run ahead of you, but we want to walk with you today. So it's my prayer that you would just use me that you would speak through me and if not through me in spite of me so that your will, your words and greater that your freedom can be heard. And it's in your name that we say amen. Amen.
If you have your Bibles, if you brought your Bibles today, would you open them up? Uh I'm going to be in two places primarily today. I'm going to be in the book of Genesis. We're wrapping Joseph's story up. So I'm going to be in Genesis chapter 50 today. And uh I'm going to spend a majority of the time over in Matthew chap 18. But you know, I feel like I say it with every series that we ever get into. I need another four or five weeks to just kind of wrap Joseph up and and give it what it's due. It's just been an incredible series. Um I have loved, you know, Paul says when you look back and you see how the people how they went through their situations with such hope, it gives us hope to where we are today. A that's why I always think it's so important to go back and to look at these stories. We've looked at the favor of Joseph. We've looked at the faith of Joseph. And we've looked at forgiveness. The brothers, the brothers last uh two weeks ago, we talked about how they were just ridden with guilt. And we talked about how you have to before you forgive others. Sometimes you just got to start with yourself, right? There's a lot of things you can do with guilt. You can bury your guilt. But when you bury your guilt, it just comes out of the ground and it will chase you. Burying it doesn't do any good. You can blame that thing that you've done. Well, they deserved it. They asked for it. You can blame it away, but by blaming it, you're not taking responsibility for that thing that you've done. So, two weeks ago, I landed here. I said, you know what? You've got to face it. You have to confess it. And you have to ask for forgiveness of it. That's what you do when you're struggling with it. Because the thing about the brothers, like in in Genesis 42, Joseph is there. The brothers are bowing before him. And there's that moment. They don't recognize it's him. Joseph puts them in prison. 3 days later, they come out and he hears them saying, "Maybe it's the first time in 20 years that they're like, "Look, we have to deal with this thing. We haven't talked about it. We got to deal with this thing that we did with our brother." And in Genesis 45, I love, right? Remember, he sent them back to go bring Benjamin back. And eventually the brothers come back. They fulfilled their side of the deal. And in Genesis 45, the big reveal happens. Joseph tells everyone, "Leave the room except for the brothers." And he pulls them close and he says, "I'm Joseph." And scripture says in 45, Genesis 45, that the brothers were strangely silent. You know what this is? This is awkward. That's awkward turtle. That's the international sign. That's that moment like times a Google. That's so awkward when Joseph says, "I'm here." He reveals himself and he says, "Go back. Get dad. Come back. Don't panic. I'm not going to punish you. I see that God was at work here in this circumstance for such a time as this." So, they go, they bring dad back. Now, fast forward 17 years to Genesis 50. I told you I got to kind of burn through this pretty quickly. And in Genesis 50, there's this moment. They've been living together, all of them taken care of. Joseph was a man of his word. Incredible forgiveness that he had. And Jacob, their father, dies, and all of a sudden in Genesis 50, the brothers panic. And here's why. They say, "What if Joseph was faking this whole thing? Like, what if he's hated us this entire time? And what if now that dad is dead, he's going to punish us for that?" You see, guilt clings to the side of the boat that grace occupies. It's always trying to get back in. And the thing with the brothers, I don't think they ever got over the guilt and the sin that they had committed. I don't think they ever fully just confessed it and came to a place where they said, "We need to be freed from this." So, they come up with a plan. They send word to Joseph that dad said, "If you hold us accountable, he's not going to be happy about it." Like Jacob, he they made up the story that Jacob doesn't want you holding a grudge against us. And when Joseph reads that, he weeps. The scripture says he weeps. And look at what he does. The brothers come before him. Genesis 50:18. His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. We're your slaves, they said. But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God. Will you say those two words? But God, you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what's now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don't be afraid. I'll provide for you and your children. And he reassured them and he spoke kindly to them.
So, how do you forgive others? The thing that I see about Joseph, the ending of Joseph's story, and I really see it all throughout his entire story. Remember I said one of the phrases is you see and the Lord was with him and the Lord was with him. Don't ever mistake God's silence for his absence in your life. But that moment how he was truly able to forgive time and time and time again, I think is in those two words that I had you say, "But God," because he said, "Look, you intended to harm me. Make no mistake about it. what you did was evil. But God to say those two words is to recognize that there is a higher ground in your circumstances and situations. Even though Joseph said, "I didn't understand what was going on," God was still able to take something in your motives that was broken and wicked and bring about some restoration. Joseph took higher ground.
So, what about us? How do we find the ability to be able to forgive someone in our lives that's done something hurtful and wicked? How do we do that? Glad you asked. Brilliant question. Matthew chapter 18. Now, Matthew 18, uh, let me talk about the context before I get to the specific passage that I want to look at because context, I always say this is so key. Matthew 18, Jesus is talking to his disciples. There's people that are around him and there's this beautiful moment. Remember confirmation Sunday last week I talked to our kids that moment where the children were coming before Jesus and Jesus says if you want to enter the kingdom of heaven you got to do it like a child. What does that mean? See kids what I love about children is they're always filled with awe. They're always filled with wonder. The reality is kids really don't hold grudges. They don't. They forgive very quickly. So he has this moment around children. He says you have to be like this. But then he gets into this idea of, okay, what do you do if someone sins against you? Conflict. Now look, I I've been, this is my 21st year in ministry, working in the United Methodist Church. 21st year working in ministry. And and I kind of I mean, I grew up in the church. Now, just because I said that doesn't mean I was always singing Kumbaya and had a really tight relationship with the Lord. Understand that. But church has always kind of been my context. And I got to just I'm going to make an observation. It's a very broad observation and and and you you may not may not like it. I'm just this is where I am. What I have seen over the course of my time in the church is I see that really I don't think Christians are very good at conflict. I just don't think we are. I think a lot of times we tend to run away from conflict, right? Like sometimes maybe it's our our pride. Sometimes it's just easier to unfriend someone on Facebook and kind of go off and talk about what So Jesus has some things to say about conflict and the proper way to address conflict in our lives. Are you ready? He tells his disciples this one thing you do is this. If someone sins against you, you go to them and you have a conversation. Wait, what? What? Now I'm thinking if it's modern day, Peter would just say, "Can I just send a text?" No, you can't. Conversation, literally eye contact, your mouth's work. Jesus says, "Go have a conversation with someone if there's conflict between the two of you." It's radical, I know. Second thing he says you should do if that doesn't resolve it because you see you you got to work through the conflict because if you walk away from it, if you ignore it, the thing about conflict is it can grow and animosity and bitterness and it's a snowball effect, right? And all of a sudden this huge things there. So first you go, you have a conversation. Second thing is you get a couple people in the mix and you go and you have a conversation with them. Now you're not creating a gang. You're not trying to gang up on someone, but you want to bring a few other voices in the mix. Jesus says that's the second thing that you do. And then if that doesn't work, Jesus says the third thing you do is you get the person that you have conflict with, you bring them to church, and while the preacher is preaching, you drag them up on the stage. That's not true. But I made that up. It would make for a memorable Sunday, right? No. Jesus says, "The third thing that you do, if if bringing some people into the mix doesn't fix it, then you seek out some counsel in the church. Seek out some counsel in the church. Bring them to the church. I' I've had it's always a blessing to sit down with people and just kind of kind of talk it through because sometimes a pastor, you know, when you bring it before the church, there there's some things that we see that that kind of helps guide the conversation. So Jesus is having this talk about conflict and forgiveness and how we're supposed to just do everything we can to work through it. You know what Paul says? He says this in the epistles. Jesus taught it. But listen, the church still had conflict in the midst. And Paul says this. He says, "Don't give the devil a foothold." You understand that, right? Like there are forces that just want to wedge into the church, wedge into the beauty of what God is doing and divide it with conflict. I see it all the time. It breaks my heart and I think it breaks the heart of our heavenly father. It does.
So Peter, Simon Peter, thank the Lord for Simon Peter who always asks all these great questions. Simon Peter came to Jesus, pulled him aside one-on-one. Apparently not since Matthew's writing about it, but he tried. It's like texting and Matthew's just like looking over his shoulder. Sorry, that was a side note. And Peter came to Jesus and he said, "Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me?" Seven times. Now, it's interesting. Why? Why seven times? Where does that come from? A lot of this is speculation, right? But but rabbis would say if you go back into the Old Testament, specifically the book of Amos, like the prophets, the rabbis would say that three was the magic number for forgiveness. You would go once, you would go twice, you would go three times, and if they still didn't receive it, then you were done. You'd wash your hands and you were finished. Three times was the number. So, it's believed that maybe what Peter was doing was he was more than doubling that. So, he's like seven times, right? He's trying to be impressive, but I love what Jesus says. Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but 77 times." Now, this is so cool. You find that phrase that Jesus uses in relationship to forgiveness 77 times. What does that mean? Is that literal? You find that phrase two times in the scriptures. One time in this moment that Jesus says it in response to how many times should we forgive? Seven. And Jesus says 77. You find it here. And the other place that you find it is in Genesis chapter 4 on the other side of the murder of Cain and Abel. When you have that whole thing that goes down, there's this guy by the name of Lamech. And it's short. It's this long. But Lamech actually says, "Listen, I am going to avenge him 77 times." Think about that for a moment. Coincidence? that this one instance in Genesis chapter 4 where this guy uses the phrase 77 times in relationship to getting them back. Revenge. I am going to serve them what they deserve 77 times. Coincidence that Jesus would take that one phrase in response to revenge and anger and flip it on its back and say, "This is what forgiveness should look like in your heart." I don't think it's a coincidence at all. This is what Jesus does, right? I love that. I love that.
So following that, Jesus says the word, therefore, and that means that Jesus is saying, okay, now that you understand that forgiveness is a continual act like I love that Martin Luther King Jr. says this, this great quote, forgiveness is not an occasional act. It's a constant attitude. So Jesus says now that you understand it's a constant attitude. This is what he says. He tells a parable. Now a parable is a story. It's a fictional story that has a deeper meaning. There's something deeper going on underneath it that Jesus wants to convey. So never check out during parables. Jesus says, "Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, there was a man who owed him 10,000 bags of gold, 10,000 talents, and it 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 would be sold to repay the debt. Now, this is fascinating. Do you know that one talent, he owed 10,000 talents? One talent was the equivalent of 16 years worth of wages. So when you do the math, you actually find that he owed the master 160,000 years worth of work. That's a huge debt. I would say that would be the one time Dave Ramsey would go, "I can't help you. Bye-bye." like huge. Jesus went like I'll take your sweet little seven times Peter and up it exponentially 160,000 years of work at this right brought the servant the master brought the servant brought the the the wife the children because when you acrew a debt when you acrew a debt that that the the wife I mean it affects everyone so he would bring them all forward to pay for this one man's debt at this the servant fell on his knees before him and he said be patient with me he begged and I will pay back everything and the servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt, and let him go. Now, if you're listening to this story, right, you've never heard it before and you're the disciples and you're hearing it, that that would just take your breath away because you see what what Jesus is doing here. 160,000 years of work that you could never pay. I mean, Jesus is ba I think when he's telling this, he's smiling a little bit because he understands the debt that we as a humanity could never repay. is the sin that we have that we could never pay. But we know that God made a way. I mean, God made a way through Jesus Christ on the cross to take on the sin of the world so that the debt could be cancelled, could be paid in full. Understand that the master when he canceled the debt, he was absolving it. He was taking on all of that himself and providing freedom for the one that was before him. Huge. This is why Paul in Colossians chapter 2, Paul says, "When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us of our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us. He has taken it away and he has nailed it onto the cross." Can I get an amen? I mean that's that's huge. So you're hearing that you understand that Jesus is just telling us this incredible news. The deeper meaning there is that we have found forgiveness. So what the disciples are doing at this moment, anyone that is around Jesus hearing the story at this moment, you know what they're thinking? Okay, so now that the servant has had that massive debt forgiven, how is he going to live differently as a result of it? Because here's what you'd assume. Radical grace, radical mercy, radical forgiveness should lead to a radically changed and lived life. But Jesus does what Jesus does, and it goes in a different direction that you wouldn't expect. Verse 28. When that servant went out on the other side of his freedom, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. That's just a 100 days worth of wages, a little over 3 months. And he grabbed him and he began to choke him. "Pay back what you owe me," he demanded. Sound familiar? His fellow servant fell to his knees and said, "Be patient with me. I promise I'll pay it back." But he refused. Instead, he went off. He had the man thrown in prison until he could pay the debt. And when the other servant saw what had happened, they were outraged and they went and they told their master everything that had happened. And then the master, he called the servant in. You wicked servant, he said. I canceled all of that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you? In anger, his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he should pay back all that he owed. And then Jesus steps out of the parable, steps out of the story, and he looks those in the eyes around him, and he says, "This is how my heavenly father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or your sister from your heart." It's just amazing when you hear that, right? Like forgiveness, it's not just something that he encourages us to do. Jesus says forgiveness is something that you have to do because unless you learn to forgive, you can never fully know freedom.
Now, I read this where the guy goes back and there's someone that owes him three months of wages and he's like, "Pay me back." And I kind of get it if we're going to be honest with ourselves. This is human nature, right? I mean, when someone pushes you, what you want to do is you want to push them back. But you got to listen. Authentic forgiveness is never cheap. Authentic forgiveness is never cheap. Now, let me tell you a couple things that forgiveness is not. Forgiveness is not condoning. It's important you hear that. Some of you need to come to terms with that to truly be able to forgive. When you forgive someone, you're not saying, "Listen, I'm completely okay with what you did with what you did to me." That's not what you're saying at all. Forgiveness is not condoning. I would say forgiveness isn't always reconciling with someone. I truly believe you can come to a place in your life where you forgive someone, but that doesn't mean that you're going to be besties. It doesn't mean that you're going to go watch Marvel superhero movies together, and you may not be friends on Facebook. Paul says in Romans, "If it's at all possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." Praise the Lord. Paul just didn't say live at peace with everyone. I I'm sorry, but I love the loophole. As far as it's possible, as long as it depends on you, Paul is saying, I get that there are some people, there are some Don't point at anyone. There are some circumstances where you just can't reconcile as far as it depends on you. Forgiveness isn't always reconciliation, right? And another thing, forgiveness isn't always forgetting. It's not always forgetting, but it does mean that you're not going to carry it with you every day and you're not going to let it eat you away. See, bitter, anger, hatred, it's cancer. And the last time I checked the stats on cancer, unless you do something about it and you cut it out, it'll do you in. I'll tell you, anger and hatred is the same way. There's a phrase that I've heard, and the phrase is is this. Hurt people hurt people. Have you heard that? But I want to say, let me add a little bit to that. Hurt people hurt people. But I also believe this. Free people. Free people. Think about that. That's exactly where Joseph was. Free people. Free people.
You ever been in an airplane and oxygen masks drop? Has anybody ever had that happen? Raise your hand if you have. Oh, praying for you. Good Lord, that's scary. Well, you know, I'm always the guy that that I pay attention when the flight attendants are talking and doing that whole spiel, right? Like I I know it by heart. I almost should just get up and demonstrate it sometime. I I fly a lot. But I I know that they say this when those oxygen masks drop, first thing you do is what? Breathe normally. 100% chance I'm going to fail that. 100% chance. Is anyone like really? Are you going to lean over and go, "Hey, you really need to be breathing normally right now?" No, of course not. It's fine. That's why it's got a big hole in the front of it. First thing that you do, they say, is if there is a child sitting next to you or if there is a childlike person that's sitting next to you, you put the mask on yourself first and then you help them put their mask on. Right now, I got to tell you that has always felt so counterintuitive to me. That just doesn't feel right. Like you're thinking, "If there's a child next to you, the first thing I really should do is I need to help them get that mask on." But why do we put our mask on first? Because if we're not breathing in oxygen, we are no good to anyone else. You can only exhale what you inhale. You understand? Free people, free people. When you inhale, when you take into your lungs what God has done for you the lengths to which he has gone to reach you and each one of us in our lives. When you live a life and you are breathing that in, the natural response is to breathe that out on those around you. I'm telling you, if you really sit in this and you ask the Holy Spirit to just pry your fingers off of those people that you hate, those things that have been done, and you grasp this, there's incredible freedom that's there.
I love the last thing I'll share is a story. Corey Tinboom wrote this incredible book called The Hiding Place. And she shares the story that she was in this uh this concentration camp with her sister. and her sister would actually die in the concentration camp. But she would get out and she had to deal right with a lot of the survivor trauma of that and and having to come to some place this beautiful Christian faith that she had of of actually forgiving people, forgiving those who have done hurtful, horrible things. And she tells the story that she was 80 years old. She's speaking at a church and as she was finished the message was on forgiveness. As she was finished, there was a gentleman that walked forward and he extended his hand to her and she immediately recognized he was a guard in the concentration camp that she was in. She remembered humiliated. She was naked walking by. He was brutal. He did horrible things. And all of those images and all of those memories came back. He walks up to her and he says, "Listen, I want to thank you for that message on forgiveness because I was in a concentration camp. I was a guard and I did some wicked, some horrible things, but I've given my life to Jesus Christ and he's forgiven me and I just have to say, I'm sorry." And her first thought was, "Does he recognize me?" He had no clue who she was. Listen to what she wrote. She said it couldn't have been many seconds that he stood there handh held out, but to me it seemed like hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I ever had to do. For I had to do it. I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition that we forgive those who have injured us. If you don't forgive men their trespasses, Jesus says, "Neither will your father in heaven forgive you of your trespasses." I knew it not only as a commandment of God, but as a daily experience. Since the end of the war, I had had a home in Holland for victims of Nazi brutality. And those who were able to forgive their formal enemies were able to also return to the outside world and rebuild their their lives, no matter what their physical scars. But those who nursed their bitterness, they remained invalid. It was as simple and as horrible as that. And still I stood there with a coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion. I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will. And the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. Jesus help me. I prayed silently. I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling. So woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder and it raced down my arm. It sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes. I forgive you, brother, I cried. with all of my heart. And for a long moment, we grasped each other's hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God's love so intensely as I did then. And having thus learned to forgive in the hardest of situations, I never again had difficulty in forgiving. Now, I wish I could say it. I wish I could say that merciful and charitable thoughts just naturally flowed from me from that point on, but they didn't. If there's one thing I've learned at 80 years of age, it's that I can't store up good feelings and behavior, but only draw them fresh from God every single day.
Where are you in the story today? Where's their bitterness? Where there's anger, where's their rage? God didn't create you to carry that. Jesus didn't go to a cross so that you could nail yourself to one every single day. Be freed from it, friends. Let go. And no freedom. Let me pray for us. Father, I am um Lord, I'm thankful. I am I'm thankful for the truth of your word. God, there there are Sundays that your word it just it it cuts so thick. You can't run away from the truth of it. You can't. But God, I love that there's freedom. There's freedom in these words today. There's freedom in the phrase, I forgive you. So God, I pray for those in the space that are struggling this morning. Maybe those right now, Lord, that emotions are coming up and they have no idea where they're coming from. Holy Spirit, that your peace would just be present in the midst of their lives. That your spirit would provide a balm, Father. That it would just provide an anointing, a healing on them. So that Lord, as we move from this moment on, we would take the steps necessary to release the guilt, the anger, the pain, and just say, "I don't know how, but Lord, I'm trusting the who." And it's in your name that we pray. Amen.