Compassion on Your Fellow Servant

Hello again. A number of years ago, my wife and I had an opportunity to meet Mr. Andy Deemer and his wife. Mr. Deemer is a pastor of the United Church of God in Worcester, Massachusetts. We immediately hit it off. He has been in finance, and I was in finance.

He was coming to a decision about leaving his full-time employment in finance and going to work full-time for the church as a pastor. I also was going through that same process. We shared a lot of notes, and we talked a lot about the decisions. He and his wife, and Maurice and I, became close. He at some point said, you know, I always wanted to come to France for the feast. He registered for the feast, and he was going to be coming to France for the feast in 2014.

And then we heard news of his daughter, Michaela Deemer. Just a few days before the feast, actually I think it was on the Feast of Trumpets, news came that they had found his daughter. His daughter had been raped and murdered. This was now the conclusion to a very, very difficult time that he had been going through for over a month. How many people have seen the story of Michaela Deemer on Beyond Today? I think some of you have. If you haven't seen this, you can actually go onto the web and you can type Michaela Deemer, United Church of God.

There's a United Church of God short film. It's about 17 minutes, which recounts the entire story. We showed it in Petaluma two weeks ago. I thought that we might show it here, but it's a very heavy film. Adult themes are in there, and I felt I might just, for sake of time, just describe it just a little bit in the introduction. Mr. Deemer had come into the church, and he had met somebody who also had just come into the church. They had been married. Then, after they had Michaela and, I believe, two other children, his wife began to do some things which were inappropriate, and eventually they were divorced.

Michaela seemed to have suffered greatly from that. She got into drugs, and she got into alcohol. Even though she had a nursing degree, she nonetheless could not keep her job because of the addiction to alcohol. She had a number of DUIs. She really hit rock bottom. She was trying to rebuild her life when her life was taken by someone that she actually was working with at a local center there in Cleveland. Andy Deemer tells the story of forgiveness. He tells the story of losing his daughter to the hands of a convicted felon multiple times who took the life of his precious 31-year-old daughter.

If you haven't seen it, I'd recommend that you look at that. I think it's a very powerful story of forgiveness on the part of the Demers as they worked through the emotion and seeing this man in court and letting go of the anger and resentment they had towards this man. I think as we approach the Passover, the topic of forgiveness is a vital one because, as we'll see here from Scripture, God has forgiven us a great number of things.

And he expects us to show the same level of forgiveness towards our fellow servant. So if you're looking for a title today, the title of this message is Compassion on Your Fellow Servant. That's the biblical wording that we're going to read here in a moment for what we're talking about.

Compassion on your fellow servant. Forgiveness is a journey, but I think in many cases, as we see with the Demers, it is a destination as well. Forgiveness is one of those topics that's so fundamental to our Christian walk that there's so many places we can go. It's hard to contain it in a short message, and I hope as we go through this you can jot down a few things because there are probably important scriptures that you will come to mind and you'll think of, and you can mention those in the sermon chat afterwards.

And so as I consider the story of the Demers, and as you've seen the video, you can consider that, I'd like to think about forgiveness today. I'd like us to go through that as we prepare for the Passover, and I'd like to talk about the incredible gift that God has given us through His Son and the forgiveness that He granted to us, and how in the same way we should be granting forgiveness to our fellow servants. And as we go through this, we'll go through some specific examples, I'd like you to think about who you might have offended, or who might have offended you, and how you're working through those things.

Let's start out in Matthew 6 for this message. Matthew 6 and in verse 5. Matthew 6 is sometimes called the model prayer. It is an instruction in how we can think about our prayers after the disciples asked for help. And we'll start out in Matthew 6 verse 5. It says, When you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogue and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your father who is in the secret place, and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

But when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think they will be heard for their many words. Therefore, do not be like them, for your father knows the things you need of before you ask. And in this manner, therefore, pray. And now he gives us this outline that we can use. And I want you to notice something in this outline here.

The thought here of the prayer goes all the way to verse 15. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen. And sometimes we'll want to stop in verse 13, because that is, of course, the end of the outline of prayer.

But the instruction regarding how to pray does not end in verse 13. It actually ends in verse 15. Verse 14, For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not, but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

And that's really the end of this instruction. We sometimes forget verse 14 and 15 as part of that instruction. And it's almost as if Jesus is sharing with his disciples this notion that, you know, I've taught you how to pray. I've showed you this example. But you know, will God even hear your prayers or forgive you your debts if you don't forgive the debts of others? It's kind of put on the end. And it's really just another repetition of the same concept that he gave in the outline, which is to forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

It's in there twice. It's so important that he wanted to emphasize it one more time. God has forgiven us a great debt. And we, likewise, following that example, must forgive the debt of those who have harmed us. This is the example of forgiveness. Now, as I said, this four here in verse 14, it has this implication of, okay, I've given you this instruction, but pay attention.

Because sometimes, if we're not right with God, we have actually examples that that can actually cause us to be cut off from God. Look over in Psalm 66 verse 18. Psalm 66 verse 18. It says here, David says in Psalm 66 verse 18, If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear. So this is actually showing that, you know, God might actually see us praying, but if we're harboring iniquity in our heart, we're harboring some sort of resentment or anger against a brother, will God actually hear us?

Just like He said, I will not hear the heathen for their many words. We might have very articulate and eloquent prayers, but if in our heart of hearts we're harboring something against our brother, then God may not forgive us of the things that we do. Again, this is not taking away from the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Clearly, we have been given grace that we might be reconciled to Him. That is not at issue here. More at issue is truly that we need the ongoing love and compassion of our Heavenly Father as we walk through this life.

So this is the story. Now, if you go back to Matthew 5, we also see that, again, we just read this example of prayer, but we also have this instruction that's just right before in Matthew 5, where Christ gives an example about how if we have something against our brother, we have to leave our gift at the altar.

He's Matthew 5 and verse 21. You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment, and whoever says to his brother, Raka, shall be in danger of the counsel. But whoever says you fool shall be in danger of hellfire. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First, be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

This is the same concept that perhaps somebody is upset with us, and we need to go seek forgiveness, or perhaps somebody has harmed us, and we need to let that go. We cannot come before the altar of God unless we have truly forgiven our brother. So let's look over in Matthew 18, because we'll see that this concept is explored more thoroughly in the latter part of chapter 18.

Because the question often comes up, well, God has done great things for us. He has forgiven us great debts. Just how great a debt has he forgiven us, and how should we respond to that?

Matthew 18 verse 21, Peter came to him and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me? And I forgive him, and he put out seven times. You know, seven times is actually a lot, if you really think about it, right? I mean, if somebody is going to hurt you seven times, after a while you'll be like, that's not going to happen anymore. Seven times is a lot. And Jesus said to him, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

Now, there's a lot of complexity around here about not putting ourselves in a position to to be heard, or not giving somebody who's abusive the opportunity to continue to abuse.

But nonetheless, there is this concept of a well of forgiveness, which is bottomless.

That's the concept that's getting across here. It's not about counting. It's not about keeping score, right? Yeah, well, there was January, and then there was the following year, and then in 2016 there was this. So it's not that. It's a bottomless well of forgiveness.

And then he goes on to give a parable, and he says, therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. Now, it begins with this concept of this king, and he's going to settle accounts, and there's this servant who owes him a great deal of money. Perhaps this was money that this servant went to use to, you know, buy some assets or do something with, and maybe those investment strategies didn't work out. Maybe things didn't go as planned. Maybe the person got sick. We don't know, but there's this great debt that this person owed. And it said in verse 25 that he was unable to pay this debt. So how big was this debt? How much is 10,000 talents? This is actually a somewhat complex question to answer because in the Old Testament, talents were about weight. So you would actually talk about, you know, 10,000 talents of gold or 3,000 talents of silver, and it was a unit of weight. And you can look in different commentaries. Typically, a talent was sort of weighed about 75, 80 pounds or so.

So if you had 80 pounds of gold, okay, that would be a lot of money. You can imagine, right? 80 pounds of gold at whatever it is, $1,200 an ounce, right? A talent would be a lot of money. But in the New Testament, a talent was actually a monetary figure. It wasn't a weight. It was actually a monetary unit.

And again, there's different theories on how much a talent would be. According to the Expositors' Bible Commentary, one talent was worth about 6,000 denarii. So if you want to do it, I'm going to do a little bit of math for you here. We're going to try and calculate one theory of how much a talent was worth. So a talent, according to them, would be worth 6,000 denarii. Now again, there's different ways of thinking about this. You could take, you know, 70 pounds of gold times 1,200 bucks, multiply by 10,000. You're getting big numbers here, right? Or you could go by this theory of 6,000 talents. So, sorry, 6,000 denarii. Now, how much was a denarii worth? Well, if you look over one page, you'll see in Matthew 20 verse 2 that, in this case, they agreed that the laborers would work a day for a denarii. And that typically was considered a day's wage. One denarii was worth one day's wage.

So let's put this in a modern context. So here in California, the minimum wage has been going up. You've probably heard that. It's $11. It's going to be 12 soon. It'll be more after that. But let's use $11 just for sake of example right now. So a day's wage in California is $11 an hour times 8 hours. So that's $88. That's a day's wage in California. You'll have to pay tax on that, of course, but we'll just go with the day's wage.

So $88. There are approximately 260 work days in a year.

And so that would come out to about $22,880. That would be the minimum wage.

So if you were going to earn $6,000 denarii, you would need to work approximately 23 years to earn one talent. And so you would have earned $528,000. So if you were going to repay one talent, you would work 23 years at California minimum wage, and you would hand over $528,000. Again, assuming there were no taxes on that money, assuming that you didn't eat and didn't use that money for anything, assuming somebody else paid, you just put all your savings away. And now if you're going to have to repay 10,000 talents, that would come out to $5,280,000,000.

Okay, so or again, you could if you want to take 80 pounds times 10,000 and multiply that by 1200, you could also get a similarly large figure. All right. So the idea here is that this, think about think about someone like Bernie Madoff, right? This person is a billionaire. We're talking about a billionaire here. This is not just some normal person. This person who owed these 10,000 talents would have been classified as a billionaire, and he had a great deal of debt.

And he couldn't repay it. And that often, believe it or not, happens. You get people who look really rich, but they're not actually. They're actually burdened with debt, and they often have more debt, and they're living on that debt, and they live a fancy lifestyle, but in fact, they all have debt.

So this man owed, let's just say, for example, $5.3 billion to this king, and he didn't have the money to repay him. And so the master commanded that he be sold with his wife and children, and all that he had and that payment be made. Now, how much did a slave cost in those days? Well, you can look that up. It depends on whether the person, you know, was, let's say, healthy or young.

Beauty could come into it sometimes as well. So people were sold into slavery at that time.

And so sometimes a person could actually get a talent for, or could pay up to a talent for a slave. You could actually pay $6,000 for a slave. So this man owed $10,000 talents, and let's just give him benefit of the doubt that he and his wife and his children, let's say, you know, maybe a couple talents, maybe, if he was lucky, some slaves would go for a tenth of a talent, you know, for maybe $600. So even with selling this man into slavery for the rest of his life, he was not reimbursed. I mean, this man owed so much to the king that even selling himself couldn't even begin to satisfy even a tenth, even hardly a fraction, maybe even one percent of the total debt. Truly, this man could never repay what he owed. And the servant fell before, fell down before him saying, Master, verse 26, have patience with me and I will pay you all. Right. Yeah, that would be some feat, right? How he's going to come up with all that money. And then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him and forgave him the debt. To begin to get a picture of what our heavenly father, through the sacrifice of his son, gave for us, this is what this is what Christ is trying to get across here to his disciples and to those who are listening.

This was an enormous debt that they owed and that really, truly, this man could never repay. Even if his life was sold, he could never repay. And yet the master was moved with compassion and he released him and he forgave him the 5.3 billion dollars. Verse 28, but that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. A hundred denarii. Okay, let's do the math here again on that just to make sure we're clear. That's a hundred days of labor at 88 dollars a day. That's eight thousand eight hundred dollars. Not an inconsequential sum, I might add, right? If somebody owed you eight grand, you'd be like, hey, pay up. All right? Eight thousand bucks. This is like serious money. Let's pay up. The servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed a hundred denarii and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat saying, pay me what you owe. And so his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, have patience with me and I will pay you all. I will come up with the money. Now, eight thousand eight hundred dollars is a hundred denarii in this case. It's just my sort of example. Again, there's lots of theories on how much this is. This is a legitimate theory. You can look it up in all sorts of commentaries. That person likely could have, with time, come up with a hundred denarii. That was possible. If the person had just given them a little bit more time, at a minimum, he could have said, okay, I'm going to give you another chance. I'm going to give you a chance to do this. He, at a minimum, could have done that. Or, given the example that was just shown to him by the master, he could have said, you know what? I have had this great debt forgiven me. You know, I live the life of a billionaire, and really a hundred denarii is nothing to me. So I'm just going to let it go. But no. Instead, his response was, and he would not, verse 30, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. Now again, going back to my example, that man could have, you know, raised the money by being sold into slavery and paid off his debt in a bondservant kind of arrangement. But instead, the person actually can find him to prison to try to earn the money in prison, which would be much harder. This person just had absolutely no compassion in any way, shape, or form for the servant. He actually just threw him into prison to pay the debt. So verse 31, so when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were grieved. You know, this poor man, he owed a hundred denarii. I'd give him a break.

They were grieved and came and told their master all that had been done. And then his master, after he had called him, said to him, You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you.

And his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers, that's my translation, the torturers, until he should pay all that was due to him. And verse 35 is really a chilling verse.

So my heavenly father also will do to you if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespasses. Are you harboring something towards your brother or sister?

Because if you are, verse 35 should scare you to death. Because it says that that is going to be your fate. That's going to be my fate. And interestingly enough, it uses the word torture, or torturers, because when we don't forgive and we carry something around inside, there's a lot of evidence that actually shows that it actually tears us up.

It actually can shorten our life. It actually it harms us physically, emotionally, mentally, and clearly in verse 35, spiritually. That is the fate of someone who will not forgive.

And Christ then shares this parable to say, look at the incredible forgiveness that God has shown towards you. And again, in my modern analogy, 5.3 billion dollars. Why won't you forgive the 8,800 that your brother owes you? Isn't that enough? God has set that example. And that's what we should be doing. Look over in 1 John 1 and verse 5. This concept of how much God has given for us, and how much he has forgiven us, this is this is powerful stuff. This is life-changing. This is transformational. This will really, truly change how we think about the world and about ourselves.

1 John 1 verse 5. This is the message which we have heard from him and declared to you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. We read this at the Passover. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. Not forgiving our neighbor is walking in darkness. That's what we just seen. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son cleanses us all from sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is transformative, as I said.

You see, you don't have to feel indebted to some sort of, you know, God, some Greek God. You don't have to walk around feeling like you offended the gods, and now you're cursed. This was a huge issue in the ancient world. Because if you offended a God, you had to get into that God's good graces, and you did all sorts of things to try and do that. And now comes along this message of forgiveness that says, you know what? You have been forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ, and if you confess your sins, he is just to forgive you. You know, you have to ask sometimes, how did this little tiny sort of, you know, group of people, Jesus had what, 120? You know, it was a small group, and after he died, they all abandoned him. And then afterwards, now there's 3,000 people, you know, who are baptized on the day of Pentecost, and then it suddenly just swells and swells, and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger. You know, people heard this message. They heard this message, and they said, wow, you mean I can be forgiven? I don't have to carry this guilt for all the bad things that I've done. I have to walk around with all that shame? No, you don't. That is liberating. This is what we're given. We're given this liberation that we don't have to feel that anymore. You know, sometimes, you know, people, oh, well, you know, say to me, well, I'm just struggling. I know God has forgiven me, but I just feel like I still keep falling down over here. Yes, you've got to change that, but we don't have to constantly say, you know, you know, God, I know that I've asked for forgiveness for this, but I hope you've forgiven me. No, God has forgiven us. That's why we see in the prayer, we say, God, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, because each day we come before the throne of grace, and we say, God, I know I'm imperfect. I know I've made mistakes, but I know you are just to forgive, and I'm going to do what I can to change. I'm going to repent of my behavior, because I know you're just to forgive, and I will show the same mercy towards my fellow servant that you have shown towards me. I think that's got to be part of the story, right? When Jesus came, he didn't come saying, I have come to you to preach the Sabbath day, right? No, he said, he said, I've come to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God. That's what Mark says, the first gospel likely written. He came preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. The gospel that there is this kingdom, and that there is there is God, and he is going to forgive us, and we can be reconciled to him. And, you know, I mean, this is the powerful message that we were given. And sometimes we can lose track of that. We can lose sight of that. Of course, Christianity has been changed in all sorts of, you know, variations of Roman Catholicism and Greek Orthodox and Luther's tradition within Protestantism and so forth. But at the core, there is a powerful message here. There is a powerful, powerful message of what's being discussed. I'll go over to Ephesians 1 and verse 7.

Ephesians 1 and verse 7. It's reiterated again here. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. That's what we have. We have forgiveness. And what is that worth? Billions of dollars in this example.

You know, we couldn't even comprehend what five billion dollars is like. It's beyond our ability to even understand. It's a value beyond comprehension. And this is what Jesus Christ did when he died for us. And Paul expands on it in Colossians. Go over to Colossians 2 verse 13.

Literally, the word debt comes up in this concept because this is what Jesus preached. Colossians 2 and verse 13. It says, In my Bible there's a little one next to the handwriting of requirements. And in my margin next to that it says certificate of debt. Certificate of debt. It's just like the master. There was a certificate of debt for 10,000 talents. It's like a mortgage, right? You can imagine it that way. I have a mortgage, right? Everyone has a mortgage. You have a mortgage, and so there's the mortgage, and this is what it's going to be. And you owe that. And he says, you know that $100,000 you own on your home? Don't worry about that. That certificate of debt has been stamped as forgiven, canceled, done away. Verse 14, Having wiped out the certificate of debt with its requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Now, mainstream Protestant thinking will say, oh, well, that handwriting requirements, that's the law of Moses, right? Well, no. It's a certificate of debt with its requirements. And what is the requirements of certificate of debt? Well, if you can't pay, you're going to get thrown into prison. You're going to be killed, right? Sin separates us from God and leads us to death. So this imminent death that we were going to suffer because we could not possibly pay has been wiped out and has been nailed to the cross. And then in verse 15, it says, Having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. So because of this incredible blessing, this incredible feat, this incredible grace that we have been given of this debt being nailed to the cross, therefore, let no one judge you in food or in drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is in Christ. Now, again, Protestant, mainstream Protestant thinkers will say, oh, well, here, this is the verse that says you don't have to keep the Sabbath or the Feast of Trumpets or clean and unclean meats and things like that. Well, again, what it's talking about is judging you in how you do these things. And I think it'd be difficult for people in mainstream Protestant circles to judge one another in how they keep the Sabbath or how they keep the Feast of Trumpets because they're not keeping the Feast of Trumpets and they're not keeping a Sabbath and how they might judge them on, well, you know, did you really check that that gelatin was truly without pork? I just I don't know about you. Maybe you are not exactly converted because, you know, you didn't check, right? I mean, that's what judging people in food or drink is all about. That's what's being discussed here. He's saying, look, let's focus on the big things here because those are shadows. They're shadows. They all point to Jesus Christ. They all point to what he did and how he died for us. They are shadows, but the substance is of Christ. We have to keep these big pictures in mind. That doesn't mean we're not going to do those things, right? Just like tithing, right? These you should have done, it says, right? Justice, mercy, and faith without leaving the others undone. This is the same message here. It's not that we don't keep the Sabbath or we don't keep a feast of trumpets. We don't keep clean and unclean meat. These types of laws, clearly Peter was keeping those things even as this book was being written. But how do we judge our brother? That is the message that is being conveyed here.

Let's look over in Luke 23 and in verse 33.

Luke 23 verse 33. What is the example of Jesus Christ himself as a human being when it comes to forgiving his fellow servants? Luke 23 and in verse 33. And when they had come to the place called Calvary there, they crucified him.

And the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. And what did Jesus do?

Did he tell them of their sins and how they were going to pay for what they were doing, how they were going to get theirs in the end, how he was falsely accused, and what they were doing is wrong, and how they just wait. They just wait because they're going to get it. Now, he says in verse 34, Luke verse 34, Then Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do. That was Jesus's example. He said, forgive them. He actually said to his father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do. He was interceding for them. He was actually that's his role, right? He sort of helps translate what's going on, right? And when we pray to our heavenly Father and we have Jesus Christ at his right hand, sometimes I pray, you know, Jesus, you knew what it was like to be a person. You know the challenges we have. Please understand and, you know, help me to understand how I can grow and please have compassion on me.

Truly, he's interceding right there. He's interceding for these people and what they did.

That's an incredible state of mind. The example of somebody who was falsely accused and treated so badly and nothing is in him but mercy and blessing and intercession. Have you ever been wronged?

Have you ever been in a situation where you've been wronged falsely? You know that feeling?

It's just this feeling of indignation. You know, it's like, oh, they only knew, right? I had the situation come up, just a very simple situation. I used to travel a lot and so, you know, whenever you're traveling, you're on these different lines and so you're always like, okay, what line is going to go faster, right? You know, the bank line, the supermarket line. And you know how it goes, like when you're in a supermarket. You always get in the wrong line. Anyway, so I was in a security line. It's a little different than the supermarket because you're in a security area and, of course, you know, with terrorism and everything, you've got to be very careful.

And so I was in a particular line and it was not moving at all. It just wasn't moving. So I went underneath the little, you know, they're not ropes anymore, right? They're little Teflon things.

I can't remember what they're called. Anyway, I went underneath it, kind of ducked underneath it, went on the other line, and then suddenly that other line just went, right? That always happens, right? So I'm standing there like, okay, all right. So I ducked underneath again, got my same place, no harm, no foul, right? So some sort of security guard saw me ducking under this line, cutting in front of all these people, and he said, hey you! Hey, what are you doing?

Staying right there. And I'm like, yeah, but wait a minute, I was in that line. I just went back, you know, and he's like, you. He would not let me. He couldn't say anything. And I just stood there, kind of like, called out, right? I mean, kind of in the security and people are passing me, going around, and I don't know what's up with you. And I just felt like, yeah, but you don't understand.

And he just wouldn't say anything. And I even, I was thinking, okay, all right, this shouldn't bother me. It shouldn't bother me. Finally, after a long period of time, seemed like long term, it was probably a minute, right? Felt like a long time, right? It was probably a minute. Person said, I said to him, so can I get back in line? He said, yeah, get back in line. Okay, that is so silly, right? That is the silliest example. But it just shows that, that I felt wronged. You know, I ducked under the line, went on the line, you know, I mean, I kind of brought it on myself, but I didn't do anything wrong, really. If the person had seen that I had gone underneath and seen that I had gone back, he realized I wasn't trying to cut in line. I didn't have bad motivations. But the fact is, when we feel wronged, we have that sense of we just want to explain ourselves. We just want to get our story out. But that's not the example of Jesus Christ.

That wasn't his example. Our example is to let it go, is to forgive and move on. It's a state of mind. It's a state of how we think about, how we think about things. Look over in 1 Corinthians 4 and verse 12.

1 Corinthians 4 and verse 12.

Paul shares this, And we labor, and we labor, working with our own hands, being reviled, we bless. Being persecuted, we endure it. Being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world and the offscouring of all things until now. They were willing to be reviled and to bless.

That is a state of mind. That is a state of mind that you have to be in all the time, because our human nature is going to be a knee-jerk reaction to just fight back, right? Or run, right? Fight or flight. That's what we do. But no, it's just a sense of peace. It's a sense that we have been blessed to be part of God's family, and we have been called to be part of the firstfruits. And that is the blessing. And what happens here is just what happens here, and we can manage that. We can manage what might be coming our way.

So, who has hurt you? Who must you forgive in your life? Who must you put out of your thinking, in terms of what they did against you? When I gave the sermon in Petaluma, we had the discussion afterwards, and I'll share something that Mr. Bronson said. He's such an interesting person. I can say that he's not here. He said, for people that have hurt me, I just pray for blessings for them. And then after a while, I forget what they did to hurt me. I just pray that God would bless them. And I'm praying regularly that God bless them, and then I'm praying that so frequently. I just forget what they did to me. And then it's not a problem anymore. I thought that was a very powerful statement, that you're just thinking, basically you filled your mind with blessings for them, because that's what it says. Being reviled, we bless. I think that's an example of the Scripture that was shared.

And there's different other ways and approaches I've shared with you before that you can take those hurts, and you can write them down on a piece of paper, and you can put them away. And that's sort of writing them down, praying over that God will allow you to forgive, to let go, and to not remember these things anymore. And then putting that away in some place, in some drawer, that's kind of a physical way of just putting it away that leads to that spiritual removal, that forgiveness. And then as time goes by, if you really care to, you can pull that list out and you can look at it. And when you look at it and say, wow, I forgot. I forgot that person did that. Then that's probably the time to get a big sharpie and just go ahead and completely cross through it, right? Such that you can't read it anymore. You can't read that issue anymore because you've forgotten. You put that away. You ask God to just completely wipe it out, blot it out, because that's what God does for our sins. Acts 3 verse 19, look over there. You can imagine God the Father with a giant sharpie, a really thick, wide, black band that he just sort of just draws right across that sin that we committed. Acts 3 verse 19, repent therefore and be converted. So we repent, we seek baptism, we counsel, we receive the laying on of hands, that your sins may be blotted out. That's the analogy. It's a sharpie. It's a giant, wide sharpie. It's drawn such that even if you wanted to read what was there before, you can't read it anymore. It's blotted out. You can't even see it. So that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. God wants to blot out our sins and he is willing to do that if we repent, we seek baptism. That's what he expects us to do with others. We can just draw that sharpie and we can just get rid of it. Several years ago at the feast, I was talking with someone, and they were sharing a mutual story. They were sharing a story of a mutual acquaintance.

This person was really, I could tell as the story went on, sort of reliving the moment. He was back in the moment. It kind of got more and more passionate. I was thinking, wow, this person is really still upset about this. The person was relating what this other person that I knew had done to him and how he'd hurt him and how unfair he had been and just all these bad things. I had no idea. He's telling the story and I'm just listening. I'm commiserating. I'm so sorry to hear that. Then he kind of finished it and he said, that person actually came to me a few years ago when he was telling me the story. He kind of came up next to me and put his head down and kind of whispered to me on the side, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all the things that I did. This person I was talking with said, he said, I listened to that and I said, he's not getting off that easily for all those things he did. I said, no, I don't accept your apology.

And it just pained me to hear this. It just pained me to hear this because often in life we're not going to get an apology. We're not going to have an apology. We're going to have to do this work on our own, on our knees before God and Jesus Christ, our elder brother. We're not going to get the benefit of an apology from somebody. And here this person was offering an apology. Was it sincere? I don't know. Was it done correctly? I don't know. You know, I mean, but the words were there.

And this person wasn't ready to forgive. I hope that this person is ready to forgive because we will be tortured. And as I read in Matthew 18, as we all read together, Matthew 18 verse 35, right? Tortures. So will your heavenly father, our heavenly father, do to us.

I'd like to conclude by reading Psalm 103.

Psalm 103 conveys the incredible mercy that God extends to us. The example that he sets for us as humans, as his creation, to let go that we take the Passover with a pure heart. As much as depends on us, we are prepared to forgive. And when we pray, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, we truly mean it. Psalm 103 will read verses one through five. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Who forgives all your iniquities and heals all your diseases. Who redeems your life from destruction. Who creates your life from destruction. Who creates your life from destruction. Who crowns you with the loving kindness and tender mercies. Who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. And then in verse 10, he has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities.

For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy towards those who fear him.

As far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us.

As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him. For he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust. I hope we can keep this in mind as we prepare for the Passover this year, and that when we pray, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, we can truly know the meaning of that prayer.