Forgiving in Mercy and in Grace- Orange County LACAC

Forgive Mercifully (Matt 18)
In Matt 18, Jesus starts telling this story where a King was owed 10,000 talents.
I know many of us have heard this story before, but I have a feeling most of us don’t understand the significance of 10,000 talents.
When I first read this story, I was like, wow, 10,000 talents. That seems like a lot of money.
For sure much more than the 100 denarii that the other guy owed.
But what most of us don’t intuitively understand is that 10,000 talents is calculated today to $8.4 billion!
10,000 was the translation of the Greek word myrioi, translated simply as “uncountable”, or “countless”.
Sometimes it’s translated 10,000 as just a general term to mean such a great number it’s uncountable.
Young people say, “10 gajillion people”, which is another way of exaggerating and describing something that’s unfathomable.
The Jews listening got Jesus’ point right away. He was making a very clear point in this story: The debt he owed was unpayable. There was no way that he could pay off what he owed.
And yet in mercy, the king lets him go! He had compassion on him and he let him go!
The Greek word for forgive is the word “aphieimi”, literally “to let go”.
The King forgave him Mercifully, because he let him go of the punishment he deserved. The man deserved to be thrown into jail and to have his possessions sold as a punishment, but the King didn’t give him what he deserved.
He let him go.
Brothers and sisters, do we understand the debt of what we owed? As sinners, we owed our life.
Do we understand what we deserve? We deserve the eternal wrath of God.
We have a King who is a perfect God, morally pure and morally perfect.
The Bible makes clear that our sin deserves death, for the wages of sin is death.
It also makes clear that there is nothing we can do, for who can possibly pay the debt?
It is a debt that is too great for us to ever repay. It is unpayable!
Yet our King, our God, has let you go. When you believe, he canceled your debt and let you go. He has forgiven you.
Not only does he let us go, but he makes the payment for us!
While we were still sinners, he gave us Christ his son, to die for us. He provided the payment that was too great for us to ever repay on our own.
Are you thankful for the cross and the unconditional forgiveness shown to you when you believed?
EX: Jason and Cindy
When we forgive, it ought to bring people back to the cross. Not just the forgiven, but the forgiver as well.
The deepest offenses committed against God, has been let go.

Then the story goes on.
V. 28 says that the servant who was just let go, just forgiven of an incredible amount, goes about and sees a fellow servant who owes him 100 denarii.
100 denarii, as you might think, is not a small amount. Sometimes we think Jesus is saying that 100 denarii is so small, how can we not forgive those who commit small offense against us.
100 denarii is about 3 months wages.
If we calculate that in our terms, considering a minimum wage job, that’s still a few thousand dollars.
For someone working full time, that’s easily 10,000 dollars right there.
I don’t think Jesus necessarily has in mind the small things that we need to forgive, such as when someone cuts us off on the 405, or if someone cuts in front of you at McD’s.
Of course Jesus would want us to “let it go” and forgive them.
But what I think Jesus is teaching in this parable is even the serious, deep offenses against you.
The kind of hurt that really takes a toll on you.
The kind of setback that might really put you back financially.
The kind of wrong that may have damaged your reputation.
The kind of slander that has broken friendships.
I think that Jesus would is saying that EVEN these need forgiveness.
Why?
Because he first forgave us. But what he let us go of is of much greater significance then what we may experience here on earth in our earthly relationships.
When we come back to the cross, and recognize what Jesus has done from us. He has forgiven us of crimes we cannot repay. He has saved us for eternity and has reconciled us to the eternal King.
This is an eternal matter!
And if we allow the Holy Spirit to help us just really soak that up, and let him reveal to us the significance of what Christ has done, the riches of his grace and mercy, then these things that others do unto us will truly pale in comparison.
They will fade dimly in the light of Christ.
They are not small things, they are not painless things
But in response to God’s Eternal forgiveness toward us, how can we not also respond with mercy?
As deep as the offense that a brother or sister has committed against you, will you forgive?
We who believe, who truly grasp the infinite love and mercy of our King, will we be able to demonstrate our understanding and our gratitude of what has been done for us?
In Mercy, Will you let the offender go?

Forgive Graciously (2 Cor. 2:5-11)
Turn to 2 Cor. 2:5-11, there’s a situation where a person in the church is guilty of sin, and the majority of the Church has acted out against him, whether it’s some kind of punishment or agreed discipline that they’re putting him through.
There are different theories, but I don’t want to get caught up in the debate.
The important thing is that the sinner is repentant, In v. 7 Paul says:
“Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8 I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him.”
So whoever it is and whatever he’s done, Paul begs the Church, “Please, I plead with you, reaffirm your love for him and make sure he knows that you love him.”
There’s something more significant here in what Paul is instructing. There’s something more than just words.
In other words, don’t just tell him you forgive him, but show him!
Make sure you comfort him with action and show him that you indeed do love him.
EX: IF you’ve been keeping up with the news, one of the biggest stories a month or two ago was the disappearance of an 8 yr. old girl named Sandra Cantu.
She was last seen skipping and jumping down the street on a surveillance video.
Later she was found raped, murdered, and stuffed into a suitcase and thrown into a pond.
The news of her murder outraged people across the city, CA, and nation.
Hundreds and hundreds of people came to send flowers and light candles and give gifts in memory of Sandra.
As police were transporting all the flowers and gifts, they came across a letter that read “To My Killer”.
Inside the letter wrote “Dear killer, I forgive you. But God will judge you. Sandra”
And I thought about it, and it doesn’t sound like there’s any forgiveness there at all.
It sounds like “Don’t be afraid of me, but you better be afraid of GOD! God’s gonna git you”
TO me, it sounds like its just words. You say you forgive, but you haven’t really forgiven.
Sometimes, It’s easy to say “I forgive you.” But have you really forgiven?
The Bible calls us to not only say you forgive him and relent on your punishment or discipline toward the offender, but now go and proactively comfort the sinner and love him.
Welcome him into your house. Cook him a meal. Take him out. Write him an encouraging letter. Throw him a party.
Your comforting and loving actions will be fruit of true forgiveness. It will be evidence that you have forgiven.
Application: You want me to go out of my way to comfort and love the one who wronged me?
Many of you in this room have been hurt, have been mistreated, have had trust broken.
The point of Jesus’ parable earlier was to forgive in the sense that we let it go. Aphieimi. We’re not going to hold it against them. We’re setting them free.
But I noticed something interesting here in 2 Cor.
Whenever Paul uses the word forgive in this passage, he uses a different word.
It’s not aphieimi, but its “Charisomai.”
The root word means Grace. Charisomai is to “show favorable grace”.
Meaning, you are giving them and showing something they don’t deserve.
The Bible teaches that the Full picture of forgiveness isn’t just letting a person go in mercy (aphieimi), it teaches to also go and show them act out toward them in grace (charidzomai).
It’s going out of your way to comfort them. Going out and show them love and forgiveness by what you do.
“Yeah, they don’t deserve it!!”
But neither did you when Christ showed you his love and forgiveness and died for you on the cross.
Do you realize that you sin against God, and he didn’t only show forgiveness to you by being merciful in withholding wrath from you, from withholding eternal condemnation and damnation from you.
I suppose God could have just declared from Heaven, “Ah, he believes, let him go.” “Don’t punish him”.
He also showed you forgiveness by being gracious to you. Showing you grace when you don’t deserve it.
There is something about his action toward you that demonstrates amazing grace.
You don’t deserve it, but he gave you his Son to Die for you!
You don’t deserve it, but he gave you his Spirit to live in you.
You don’t deserve it, but he gives you his Power to transform you.
You don’t deserve it but he gives you his joy to strengthen you.
You don’t deserve it, but He gives life and life abundantly.
And in his love and forgiveness, he lavishes you with all this.
And for what? For sinning against him and spitting in his face?
For those of you in here who God is calling to forgive, will you show the repentant offender against you that you really do forgive him or her? Will you not only show mercy, but will you also show them grace?
How can you practically comfort them in their sorrow?

Beware the schemes of Satan
Why is it so important that we learn to forgive brothers and sisters in the Church?
2 Cor 2:11 “in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.”
I was talking to a missionary who had as been in Taiwan for 30 yrs.
They say most Americans don’t understand the reality of Spiritual warfare.
Paul talks about Spiritual warfare against the church quite often.
In Eph 4:26-27. “do not let the sun go down on while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.
EX: My sister getting her foot in the door. When we were growing up, me and my sister had a special relationship- We Hated each other. We would physically fight all the time.
But see, she had these things that came out of her fingers called nails. People wouldn’t believe they were real, they thought they were Press On nails.
And so she would chase me around the house, and I came to learn that the first place to run is the bathroom, the door with a lock. And I would run, but sometimes she would get there quick enough to at least get her foot in the door.
I knew, that if I let her keep her foothold, and I didn’t actively fight to get it out, I was doomed. Because once her foot was in, then she would get her thigh in. And once her thigh was in, It’s game over.
Paul says in Eph 4 that when we are angry at each other, the devil gets his foot in the door.
“Foothold” in the Greek literally translates “topos”, which means place or location. When you give him place in your relationship, you’ve given him access to set up shop where he can run his business.
We need to be aware of Satan’s schemes.
One of his schemes is to divide. Satan loves to bring division to the body of Christ.
Satan schemes to cause those in the Kingdom of God to divide against themselves.
Why do you think God speaks so adamantly against greed, selfishness, envy, pride, hatred, anger, murder, stealing, lying, etc?
Because these things DIVIDE. They Break relationships.
It is direct rebellion of “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Satan wants to divide us and cause us to rebel against the Greatest commandments given by God.
Even Jesus taught that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand (Mt. 12:25).
Satan is creative. He’s clever. He’s witty.
He can figure out ways to destroy the Body of Christ…better yet, the Body of Christ to destroy itself.
What a great way to destroy the Body of Christ by turning it’s members against each other
What a great way to destroy the kingdom of God by turning it’s subjects against each other in unforgiveness.
It’s great because it’s one of those devices where it’s so subtle, that we don’t realize that we’re being divided by unforgiveness.
Anger can’t be hidden. Hatred is obvious. Murder is the talk of the town.
But unforgiveness, no one has to know. It can be this deep-rooted sin that hides itself deep in the heart of the offended one. You can keep it all to yourself.
As long as I just keep my distance
As long as we don’t have to be too close.
We’ll just go to church on Fridays and Sundays and I’ll just make sure I sit on the other side.
Unforgiveness is so easy because it’s so easy to get away with.
And so Satan wittingly will scheme to root us in bitter unforgiveness.
But Paul says WE WILL NOT be outwitted by Satan, but we will expose darkness and be aware of his schemes.
We cannot tolerate unforgiveness, lest we let the DEVIL have his way in us.
EX: FCBC Retreat. I spent a lot of time with a guy named Kevin. He was obviously rejected, and spent time by himself a lot. No one talked to him.
I spent a lot of time with him, because it was easy. I didn’t have to talk much. He had so much to say. SO much anger and bitterness because of all the rejection he’s received.
During the retreat, he kept telling me about this one retreat where he was uncontrollably angry.
On the last night, he wanted to confess something to me, that was so shameful. He said that one time, he was so desperate, that he prayed to Satan to help him.
I was like “WHAT?@!!” That is a NO NO. Anyone who knows anything about Spiritual warfare knows that we are never to invite Satan into our lives.
By doing so, you give him permission to have influence over you, and he takes you up on it and acts like one of those unwanted visitors who make themselves at home and never wants to leave.
Even when you engage in activities like ouiji board, or fortune telling, or séances, you invited Satanic influence in.
But Kevin straight up asked the Devil to help him.
I hope that disturbs you, because that is extremely disturbing.
But Church, please listen. We will not be outwitted by Satan, we will be aware of his schemes.
When we insist and persist in unforgiveness, we are unwittingly giving Satan access to our lives.
We are giving him a place, a topos, a foothold to set up shop, and build his business.
Please be aware of Satan’s schemes. AS crazy as it is for someone to pray to Satan, let us be aware of ways we may give permission for outside influence
We cannot tolerate unforgiveness; but MUST forgive as Christ forgave us. Both in Mercy, and in Grace.
In obedience to our King, and in defiance to our enemy.