church find your seats and grab your songbooks turn to page number 53 we're
gonna be singing beulah land song number 53 beulah land five three let's sing it
together on the first I've reached the land of joy divine and all its riches
freely mine here shines undimmed one blissful day for all my night has passed
away sweet beulah land my house mount I stare 'cross the sea where mansions are prepared for me
shy shore had my dear comes with me see you who commutes as head sea
shins on I stare the sea sweet I stare for me singing brother Jake would you
open the word of prayer? second song be song number 49 meet me there 49 meet me
there song four number uh song 49 meet me there 49 let's sing together on the
first the happy golden shore is blooming the storm is starving the storm is bursting the path is
blue the storm singing it this time we will have our announcements verse of the
week this week is first Corinthians 13 4 which says charity suffereth long and is
kind charity uh charity envyeth not charity vaunteth not itself is not puffed
that's first Corinthians 13 for again we're here at our night service over
Jason's to be prayed preaching and then on Wednesday we're gonna be having our
Bible study for first Corinthians 4 part 2 and then we for so wanting we had one
person saved today and then brother Kyle you said you got someone at work yeah so
that bumps the total up to four so praise God for that both of those stories
seem super cool too brother Kyle had some divine intervention going on we have
assumed I mean that the you'll have to talk to him about the story after service
but it's pretty cool how God works to get people saved and and the things that
happen in our life that bring us to be able to preach the gospel people so that
brings us up to four though for October which is great praise God and as far as
our announcements go we have our homeschool day at 11 a.m. at the church
building so you can RSVP with my wife if you're going to that and or if your
kids are going to that they're gonna have crafts and snacks what kind of
crafts we're talking it's a secret okay something pagan that's what I'm gonna
assume okay no Christmas tree no that's a joke okay hopefully you guys know
that's a joke what else we got here though oh we got the church picture day
so that'll be the 26th of October and my wife will be doing pictures for that so
make sure you dress up nice for that and then our child memory verse for the week
is Psalms 28 13 which says he that covered his sins shall not prosper but
whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy so if you want some
candy and you're a kid then this is for you go up and tell my wife and memorize
that verse and get the eternal benefit throughout your life of having a verse
memorized from the Bible because we're supposed to be hiding God's word in our
heart that's what the Bible says so if you start young that's just less stuff
you have to memorize as you get older when your memory sucks well I guess my
memory always sucked but it definitely gets worse the more the elderly you get
but I think that's pretty much all for announcements brother Alejandro's
birthday is at the end of the month you just want us to sing happy birthday to
you right now no he's like what but what that'll be the little go-to our prayer
request dear for the God it's gonna be a psalm actually I don't even get on my
Bible what's up with that it's gonna be Psalm 15 Psalms number 15 as a matter
of fact I'm scared now I'm gonna go up and mess it up Psalms number 15 we could
sing it together on the first Lord who shall abide in my tabernacle who shall
dwell true that one taketh us where he that put he that's where I do he that
do Jason could you bless the offering for us everybody to sure foundation
Baptist Church if you could go ahead and take your Bibles and turn to Leviticus
chapter 19 Leviticus chapter 19 and here at our church we read the entire
chapter before the preaching Leviticus 19 the Bible reads and the Lord spake
unto Moses saying speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel
and say unto them you shall be holy for I the Lord your God am holy you shall
fear every man his mother and his father and keep my Sabbaths I am the Lord your
God turn ye not unto idols nor make to yourselves molten gods I am the Lord your
God and if ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord you shall offer
it at your own will it shall be eaten the same day ye offer it and on the morrow
and if and on the morrow and if ought remain unto the third day it shall be
burnt in the fire and if it be eaten at all on the third day it is abominable it
shall not be accepted therefore every one that eateth it shall bear his
iniquity because he hath profaned the hollow thing of the Lord and the soul
shall be and that soul shall be cut off from among his people and when you reap
the harvest of your land thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field
neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest and thou shalt not glean
thy vineyard neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard thou shalt
leave them for the poor and stranger I am the Lord your God ye shall not steal
neither deal falsely neither lie one to another and ye shall not swear by my
name falsely neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God I am the Lord thou
shalt not defraud thy neighbor neither rob him the wages of him that is hired
shalt not abide with thee all night until the morning thou shalt not curse
the death nor put a stumbling block before the blind but shalt fear thy God
I am the Lord ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment thou shalt
not respect the person of the poor nor honor the person of the mighty but in
righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor thou shalt not go up and down
as a tale bearer among thy people neither shalt thou stand against the
blood of thy neighbor I am the Lord thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine
heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor and not suffer sin upon him
thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people but
thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself I am the Lord you shall keep my statutes
thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind thou shalt not sow
thy field with mingled seed neither shall a garment mingled of linen and
woolen come upon thee and whosoever lieth carnally with a woman that is a bond
made betrothed to an husband and not at all redeemed nor freedom given her she
shall be scourged they shall not be put to death because she was not free and he
shall bring his trespass offering unto the Lord unto the door of the
tabernacle of the congregation even a ram for a trespass offering and the
priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering
before the Lord for his sin which he hath done and the sin which he hath done
shall be forgiven him and when ye shall come into the land and shall have
planted all manner of trees for food then ye shall count the fruit thereof as
uncircumcised three years shall it be as uncircumcised unto you it shall not be
eaten of but in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy to praise
the Lord with all and in the fifth year shall ye eat of the fruit thereof that
it may yield unto you the increase thereof I am the Lord your God ye shall
not eat anything with the blood neither shall ye use enchantment nor observe
times ye shall not round the corners of your heads neither shalt thou mar the
corners of thy beard ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead
nor print any marks upon you I am the Lord do not prostitute thy daughter to
cause her to be a whore lest the land fall to whoredom and the land become
full of wickedness ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary I am
the Lord regard not them that have familiar spirits neither seek after
wizards to be defiled by them I am the Lord your God thou shalt rise up before
the hoary head and honor the face of the old man and fear thy God I am the Lord
and if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land you shall not vex him but the
stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you and thou
shalt love him as thyself for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt I am the
Lord your God you shall do not know unrighteousness and judgment in in
meat yard in weight or in measure just balances just weights a just ifa and a
just hen shall ye have I am the Lord your God which brought you out of the
land of Egypt therefore shall you observe all my statutes and all my
judgments and do them I am the Lord brother Kyle pray for the preaching
thank you Lord for the gift of your words. Please fill brother Jason with the spirit as he
preaches to us. Amen all right so we're here in Leviticus chapter number 19 and
I wanted to focus in there on verse number 18 where the Bible reads thou
shall not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people but
thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself I am the Lord and of course this is a you
know this is a pretty famous verse due to the fact that Jesus quotes this verse
in the New Testament when he says you know hey love thy neighbor as thyself
which is what probably one of the most famous things that Jesus ever said in
the Bible and of course it comes from this particular verse here but kind of
what I wanted to focus in there on this verse is where it says hey thou
shall not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people and
so the Bible's telling us here hey don't hold a grudge right and so that's kind
of what my sermon is gonna be about is about not holding a grudge but I just
wanted to kind of read the definition of a grudge really quick just so we can all
you know get on the same page of what a grudge is and I think we pretty much
kind of naturally know what that is but I just typed this in to Google and you
know that I brought up the AI overview and I thought this was a pretty good
definition here it says a grudge is a persistent feeling of anger resentment
or ill will that someone holds against another person typically after a real or
perceived wrong it is more long-lasting than anger and can be a source of deep
bitterness and so you know a grudge is when you're just kind of you have an
angry feeling towards somebody over a long period of time right it's basically
what I would call it is the lack of forgiveness right you know and here
Leviticus 19 it's kind of comparing that or contrasting that with loving your
neighbor as yourself because do you just want everybody in your life to just have
a just hold everything just be angry about everything you've ever done wrong
against you no right like you want people to forgive you and to not have a
feeling of bitterness and a feeling of constant anger towards them right you
want to have people forgive you so we ought to be able to forgive other people
but go ahead and turn to Psalm 103 Psalm 103 so the Bible is commanding us to not
hold a grudge against the children of thy people but here's the thing about
God is that God you know he never asks us to do anything that's just impossible
to do and he never asks us to do anything that he doesn't do himself
that he already hasn't done himself right and so I want to you know this
kind of first part of the sermon I want to look at the example of how God has
mercy towards us which is going to be an example of how we should be towards
other people okay so in Psalm 103 look at verse number 8 it says the Lord is
merciful and gracious slow to anger and plenteous in mercy he will not always
chide neither will he keep his anger forever he has not dealt with us after
our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities for as the heaven is high
above the earth so great is his mercy towards them that fear him and I was
I was reading that you know I just kind of thought of this question you know how
high is heaven above earth does anybody have like a measurement that they can
give me you know if somebody could give me just you know like a like an
approximation of miles right front that heaven is from earth to the dome right
well how high is the dome though you know so however high the dome is on but
you know whatever whatever number or somebody could put out there right maybe
oh a million miles a billion miles well it's always more right it's always more
and so but that but that's how you know high that's how much mercy God has
towards us is however far away heaven is from earth which is not even something
that we can that we can measure you know which is which it's a testament of two
things right for one it's a testament of how bad we are that God has to have that
much mercy but it shows just how much mercy God has towards us right and so
you know if God can have that much mercy towards us how much mercy can we have
towards our fellow brethren verse number 12 says as far as the east is from the
west and again it's one of those things like hey can you give me a number as
to how far the east is from the west no I mean you can like north to south that's
a little bit different story right you know it'd be like you know six they're
like 12,000 or you know I can't remember what it is but you know there's a
certain distance there but east from the west mathematically it's that's you know
that's unanswerable right and so but that's how far away God has put our
transgressions away from us right so this is the great mercy that he asked
towards us verse number 13 it says like your father pityeth his children so the
Lord pityeth them that fear him for he knoweth our frame that he were excuse
me he remembereth that we are dust now you know for those of you out there that
have children right if your children is like four years old five years old six
years old or even older you know as a parent do you just like like if your
child does something bad when they're like four years old do you bring it up
when they're five okay remember when you were four a whole year ago you did
this thing and you know like I'm still mad about it I mean is that like a
reasonable thing to do as a parent no right you know and but that's that's how
God is with us we're like his little children right and so the Lord pities us
so like you know when your children do something that's wrong you know you
punish them they're kind of right on the spot you take care of the problem
immediately right but then like the next day you're not just bringing it up again
okay remember you spilled the milk everywhere remember that no we're not
doing that right we're just we're letting things go and we're not just
remembering and bringing up things that our children have done wrong it in the
past right we we deal with it and then we we let it go right we forgive them
and then verse number 14 it says for he knoweth our frame and he remembereth
that we are dust you know and that's what that's one of the great things about
God is that he he knows I mean for one you know God became flesh and dwelt
among us right but he realizes that we all have a sinful nature and we're all
gonna be screwing up all the time right and though we may try and though we may
strive to do better and to and to get rid of sin out of our lives and to try
to please God yet he knows that we are going to fail but yet you know he's he's
he still has mercy for us he still has forgiveness for us and he knoweth our
frame right he like he knows our weaknesses and he knows you know the
things that trouble us in our life and and he knows what we're made out of
right and so he has you know it's like you know with your children you know
that they're gonna mess up you know like if one of your kid you know spills the
milk for example you're not like shocked you know like how could this have
happened you know it's kind of something you expect right because I mean they're
just they're little kids like what are you gonna do and so God realizes that
with us like he knows our frame he knows he knows what we're made out of he
he's not surprised when we screw up he's not like shocked he's like I just I
can't believe that you did this this is just like he knows right he know with
our frame and so you know he has he has this great mercy towards us you know he
knows that we're gonna screw up and so he gives us mercy and you know and the
Bible specifically says you know that he that his mercy is so great towards them
that fear him right and so if we if we if we fear God and you know we're not
being bitter towards our brother and we get we're gonna get a little bit into
that a little bit more later he's gonna have a huge amount of mercy for us right
so that's that's our example Psalm 130 verse number one it says out of the
depths I have cried unto thee O Lord Lord hear my voice let thine ears be
attentive to the voice of my supplications if thou Lord shouldest
mark with equities O Lord who shall stand but there is forgiveness with thee
that thou mayest be feared so notice there in verse number three it says look
if thou should mark iniquities meaning basically if every time we messed up and
every time we screwed up God was like I saw that you know tens bankings or you
know whatever we would all just be screwed like who would be able to stand
before God if it's just like every single time the moment we screwed up he's
like lightning bolt throwing it down and just you know cooking us or whatever we'd
all be screwed but yet you know we're not screwed why because the Lord has
mercy for us and you know verse number four says but there is forgiveness with
the notice this the thou mayest fear God and I'm emphasizing that just because of
what brother Kyle told me earlier after soul winning he said that he talked to
this guy and he was like he asked I was like do you fear God and Kyle's like
yeah I'm a God fearing man he's like oh you're not supposed to fear God and
it's like you've you never opened any part of the Bible like I mean like we're
looking at the mercy right and he's like hey there's forgiveness that thou mayest
you know be feared it's like we're all supposed to fear God right like you know
the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord or the fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom right you know and it is a fearful thing to fall into the
hands of a living God like I don't know I just I thought that was really bizarre
that somebody would you know have that idea but you know you run into all kind
of just strange bizarre stuff out soul wedding you know no no fearing God it's
like well you're kind of scaring me right now I'm kind of afraid of you like
like the Apostle Paul writing to the Galatians like I'm afraid of you like
what's what's wrong with you I don't know man but anyways go ahead and turn
to Hebrews chapter go ahead and turn to Isaiah chapter number 38 and I'm gonna
read for you out of Hebrews 10 Hebrews 10 verse number 17 says and their sin and
iniquities will I remember no more now where remission of excuse me now where
remission of these is there is no more offering for sin you know so the Bible
is very clear that that God is he's not just holding everything we do against
us all the time right he is forgiving us you know there there are sins and
equities he's gonna remember them no more and Isaiah 38 17 it says behold for
peace I had great bitterness but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it
from the pit of corruption for thou has cast all my sins behind thy back right
so God is taking our sin and he's just like I forgot about it I don't remember
it I tossed it behind my back he you know I'm not even worried about it right
so this is this is the great amount of mercy that that that God has towards us
I mean doesn't sound like God is just holding a grudge against us all the time
like we just wake up every day and God there remind us hey remember that time
you screwed up God you know and and the Bible says that there's new mercies for
us every single morning right and so God has a huge amount of forgiveness for us
and so this is like the total opposite of just holding a grudge against somebody
right and so go ahead and turn to Ephesians chapter number five so we see
the example of the amount of mercy that God has for us we see the example of God
forgiving us and not holding a grudge against us and and not just holding all
of our sins that we've had over our heads even though we've sinned greatly
against him we see the fact that he has this great mercy and so you know how how
does that how does that apply to us how should we treat you know the people
that were around well you know we ought to have you know great mercy for our
brothers and sisters in Christ for our family members and it says here in
Ephesians chapter number 5 look at verse number 25 it says husbands love your
wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it so as
husbands we are commanded to love our wives as Christ loved the church now
Jesus has a lot of mercy for the church right and so we as husbands we need to
have a lot of mercy for our wives as well now you know obviously God is the
perfect example for us right you know and sometimes it's not always just the
easiest thing in the world to just be super forgiving and to just love your
wives just exactly like Jesus Christ but look that's the standard that's what
we're supposed to do you know marriage you know anybody that's been married for
a few years knows that marriage has its ups and downs and if anybody came to me
and just told me like hey I've got the best marriage ever we never fight we
never have any kind of problem there's no issues it's just a bed of roses with
no thorns you know I'm gonna say that person's a liar they're probably about
to get divorced right the divorce I'm just waiting for the divorce to come
through right but but the thing is is that it you know once you get married
you need to stay married and you know what you may as well just love your wife
you know enjoy the wife of your look of your youth you just need to love your
wife right and so you know it doesn't matter how difficult it is you just
need to do it right and you know and a lot of times in marriage you know it's
really easy to do it's not hard at all you know I've like oh I gotta love my
wife and and whenever you know whatever you say oh I you know love your wife you
got to get down to that little I just gotta do it you know so a lot of times
Sometimes it's great. A lot of times marriage is great. I really love my wife and I'm really
glad I married her and right now we're doing awesome. Marriage right now for me is wonderful.
I go to work all day and I come home and she's got a meal ready for me and a kiss waiting
for me and my cute awesome little kids waiting for me. Marriage right now, it's great. It's
a wonderful thing. But sometimes you got to have mercy and here's what's going to help
husbands in their marriage is to not hold a grudge. Don't hold a grudge. Whatever thing
happened just forget about it. Let it go. This also applies for the women too. The wives,
they need to not hold a grudge either. They need to let things go because look, us as
husbands sometimes we do stupid things. Sometimes there's the spider right next to the head
and we don't say anything about it for some stupid reason. I don't know why and sometimes
we screw up. There's things that happen. Again, we're all human and we all screw up. Men,
we need to be able to let things go, not hold onto a grudge, but the women, wives, hey you
need to not hold onto a grudge either. You need to forgive your husband. Sometimes he
forgets to do whatever that thing was that you wanted him to do. You don't have to remind
them every six months. They'll get it done eventually. Wives and husbands, they need
to have mercy for each other and not hold grudges. Because think about it, if everything
that your wife did wrong to you, if you just held onto that and held it in your heart and
brought it up every time there was an issue, how good of a marriage would you have? It'd
be circling the drain pretty quick, right? Like it's going downhill. And then same thing
for wives, if you never forgave and let go the things that your husband did that you
thought were wrong or that were wrong, right? If you just held onto that and bring it up
every time there was an issue, that's going to cause a lot of problems. That's not going
to turn out to be a very good marriage, right? There's going to be some issues there. And
so to have a great marriage, you've got to learn to let things go. And here, that also
applies with all of your other relationships too, because there's things that happen between
brothers and sisters in Christ, where people wrong one another, right? But we have to be
able to let those things go. Go ahead and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter number 13.
Corinthians chapter number 13, verse number one, it says, "Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels, and of not charity, I am become a sounding brass and a tinkling
cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and of not charity, I am
nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body
to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." Charity, notice this, suffereth
long and is kind, charity envieth not, charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, does
not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil,
rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in truth, beareth all things, believeth all things,
hopeeth all things, endureth all things, charity never faileth, but whether there be prophecies,
they shall fail, whether there be tongues, they shall cease, whether there be knowledge,
it shall vanish away.
And so charity here is basically, and pretty much everybody knows this, but this is another
word for love, right?
So just like in Ephesians 5 it says, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ says, love
the church."
You know, charity, you can have all these wonderful things, the gift of prophecies,
the gift of tongues.
You can speak every language and all this stuff.
But if you lack love, according to the Bible, you're nothing, right?
I mean, this is the apostle Paul talking about himself, like, "Hey, I've got all these gifts,
all this understanding, I know all mysteries.
But if you don't have love, if you don't have charity, you're nothing."
Notice that charity suffereth long.
We ought to have a long fuse.
We ought not to just get angry at people at the drop of a hat, right?
We should have a long fuse with people.
It should take a lot before we are provoked to wrath.
We suffereth long, and is kind, and vaunteth not itself, does not behave itself unseemly,
seeks not her own, and is not easily provoked, right?
So we ought to be people that are, again, not easily provoked.
We kind of have a long fuse, right?
It takes a lot to make us angry.
I mean, that's the condition we'll be in if we have charity one towards another.
We're not just going to be angry at each other over just the tiniest thing.
Let's see here.
Verse number five, it says, "Do not behave itself unseemly, seeking not our own, is not
easily provoked."
I read that one already.
"Rejoiceth not iniquity, but rejoicing the truth, beareth all things," right?
And so we should be able to bear a lot of transgressing against us before we just start
getting mad.
And it's one thing to not be easily provoked, but also that goes along with not retaining.
If somebody does provoke you, though, you ought to be able to get over it and forgive.
And again, this can be something that is difficult to do.
This isn't something that just kind of comes naturally to man, right?
I mean, there's a reason why God had to put it in the Old Testament.
It says, "Hey, thou shall not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of my people."
I don't know if God would have had to put it in there if everybody was just kind of
naturally forgiving and naturally just never holding any grudges.
The condition of man is that we want to hold grudges.
We don't want to forgive people.
We don't want to let things go.
And it is something that you have to work on, and it is something that is difficult
to do, to be able to let things go, right?
Because like, I mean, everybody knows, you know how you feel when somebody does something
wrong.
You just, you just feel like they had no reason to do this at all.
They were completely in the wrong.
I didn't do anything at all.
Like how can they do this to me, you know, I mean, pretty much, we all know that feeling.
We all, we all get that feeling every once in a while.
And so it's, it's very difficult to overcome that feeling, but I mean, this is why chapters,
like Ephesians 5 and 1 Corinthians 13 are in the Bible, because God is trying to give
us the tools to be able to overcome that and be like, Hey, look, no, you need to have charity.
You need to have love one toward another.
And you know, you need to be able to put up with these things, you know, these, you know,
these different, you know, perceived transgressions that people have against us.
We need to be able to get over those things and not hold a grudge because look, when you,
when you have a grudge against somebody, that can do a lot of damage.
You know, and in, I believe it's in Hebrews chapter number 12, the Bible says, "Looking
diligently," verse number 15, it says, "Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace
of God, lest any root of bitterness spring up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled."
And so it's interesting that even in that AI definition of holding a grudge or of a grudge,
it brought up holding bitterness against somebody, right?
And so here in Hebrews 12, it talks about there being a root of bitterness.
And if you think of like a root, it basically just kind of digs down into the dirt, right?
And if you have bitterness in your heart, that's not like an infection, but it's just
like, you know, something like driving a wedge kind of into your heart and slowly kind of
corrupts it and, you know, makes it worse.
And you just become a bitter, angry person, right?
And the Bible says here, it says, "And thereby many be defiled."
And so, you know, a lot of people can be harmed by somebody having a root of bitterness within
them because they are holding a grudge against, you know, either one person or against a bunch
of people, right? Because they're not able to let things go, right? And it hurts the
person that's holding the grudge because they're becoming a bitter person, but it can also
hurt other people as well. It can harm your brothers and sisters in Christ. Because if
somebody comes to church and they just have a grudge against somebody or against multiple
people, maybe that person can become where they don't want to talk to so-and-so or they
don't want to talk to so-and-so or they don't want to hang out with so-and-so or they don't
want to be around so-and-so because they have this root of bitterness because they have
a grudge against somebody, right?
You know, that can cause friction and that can cause issues and problems in church.
And so as Christians, you know, having forgiveness, that's kind of like that lubricant, you know,
in an engine.
You know, what's the point of lubricant in an engine?
It's basically to reduce the friction, right?
Because if you have too much friction in an engine with those metal parts rubbing against
each other, basically they heat up and then they expand and then they seize, right?
And then you have a blown up engine and it doesn't work anymore.
And so if you have, you know, an organization such as a church where there's lack of forgiveness,
where people are just holding a grudge one against another, you know, basically that's
going to cause a lot of friction and that's going to cause a lot of heat until eventually
it just blows up.
The organization just kind of explodes because there was lack of forgiveness, right?
Because there wasn't that lubrication between one Christian and another.
But here's the other thing though, that applies to family as well.
You know, in marriage you have to have a little bit of that oil to reduce the friction, right?
To reduce the friction.
And you know, again, what's that oil?
It's forgiveness, letting things go, don't hold a grudge, right?
Because when you're holding a grudge, it's like you took that drain, you know, the drain
plug out of the engine, you let all the oil out, and then you're just, "Wah!"
You know, that can cause a major issue, right?
You know, if you think about like, you know, why is it that people get divorced?
Well, this is probably one of the biggest reasons, is because people weren't, they weren't
able to let something go.
You know, they weren't able to forgive their spouse, and that friction built up, that heat
built up, and eventually blew it up, right?
And so, you know, we need to be able to have forgiveness one for another, so that we don't
grow a root of busyness, and so that we're not wholly grudges and causing issues and
causing problems, right?
Let's see here, so go ahead and turn to Luke, turn to Luke chapter number 11, I'm going
to read for you Luke 17, verse number three, it says, "Take heed yourselves, if thy brother
trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he reprent, forgive him; and if he trespass
against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day, turn again to thee, saying,
'I repent, thou shalt forgive him.'"
So God here, he's specifically commanding us, if somebody does you wrong and they ask
for forgiveness, the Bible's saying here, like, you need to forgive them.
This is not an option, you have to forgive them.
If they say, "Hey, I repent," you know, you've got to forgive them, right?
But it also does say here, hey, if somebody has done you wrong, you can rebuke them.
What is that?
Well, you can go to them and be like, "Hey, you did this thing to me, and I didn't appreciate
it, right?
This was wrong of you to do.
You shouldn't have done that."
Okay?
So, you know, being able to forgive people, that doesn't mean that, you know, you just,
you never confront anybody, you never tell somebody that you have an issue or that they've
done something wrong to you.
That's not necessarily true.
You know, like if you have an issue with your husband, right, or if you have an issue with
your wife, you know, you need to be able to tell them, you need to be able to, you know,
rebuke them, and of course, you know, a rebuke isn't just always like, you know, like screaming
at them or whatever, but it could just be telling them, "Hey, you did this thing and
it made me mad," right?
So there is that component, right?
You should be able to just go tell somebody, "Hey, you did this thing to me and I didn't
appreciate it."
And if they're like, "Hey, I'm sorry," then you have to forgive them, according to the
Bible here, right?
If they apologize and they repent, you have to forgive them, right?
You're not allowed to hold a grudge against them for that, according to the Bible here.
And it says, "Hey, if this happens seven times in a day," and this is pretty significant
because think about it.
Has anybody ever wronged you to the point where you're like, "I'm going to go rebuke
them."
Seven times in one day, has it ever happened to anybody in here where they literally had
to go rebuke somebody seven times in one day?
No.
So this is like, I mean, you know, we're going to get to it later on, but I mean, seven times
is quite a few times, you know, and I don't think God is necessarily putting a limit on
that either.
And again, we're going to get to that a little bit later.
But you know, that's quite a few times where God's saying, "Hey, you need to forgive."
But in Luke, chapter 11 right there, look at verse number one, it says, "And it came
to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples
said unto him, 'Lord, teach us to pray,' as John also taught his disciples.
And he said unto them, 'When ye pray, say, 'Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed
be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven so on earth.
Give us this day our daily bread.'"
Notice this, "Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted unto
us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil."
So notice in verse number four, it says, "Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone
that is indebted unto us."
And so basically Jesus here, he's saying, "Hey, look, kind of the reason why we should
be asking God to forgive us is because, hey, we're forgiving the people that are indebted
unto us."
But go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter number six.
Matthew chapter number six, we kind of have a parallel passage here that will give us
a little bit more information about Luke chapter number 11.
It says in verse number 12, it says, "And forgive us our debts as we forget our debtors."
Pretty similar to what was going on in Luke 11.
Verse 13, it says, "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen."
"If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
So here's another big reason why we shouldn't be holding grudges toward anybody, is because
the Bible is saying that basically the way that you forgive your brothers and sisters
in Christ, or, you know, he doesn't even specify that.
He says, you know, just men, right?
Just anybody.
The way that you're able to forgive other people is the way that God is going to forgive
you on this earth, right?
And so, you know, if we want God to forgive us for when we screw up against him, we need
to be able to forgive our brothers and sisters in Christ, we just need to forgive our fellow
man, right?
So that should be a major motivating factor, you know, because you'd be like, "Well, you
know, I just, you know, I like my grudges and, you know, I just kind of like being upset
of people and not letting things go."
I don't know. I don't know. You're not really convincing me, Jason. Well, okay, well, let
me give you another reason why you should want to be able to forgive your brothers and
sisters in Christ and just everybody, right? It's because you want God to forgive you.
Who wants God to forgive them today? Yeah, right? I mean, I don't think anybody here
just wants God to just be on them all the time. You know, anytime they screw up, he's
just like, "Gotcha. You know, we're going to write you a ticket for that one. You know,
we don't want God doing that to us, so we need to be able to forgive, you know, our
fellow man."
Now, of course, this does not apply to salvation, right? You know, and, you know, many of the
verses that we do read about God having basically infinite forgiveness for us, truly that applies
with salvation. Truly that applies there. You know, when it comes to living our daily
lives, you know, the Bible does say, "Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourges
every son whom he receiveth." Right? So, you know, so that does mean that God is not infinitely
merciful for every little thing that we do on planet Earth while we're alive. Now, He is
infinitely merciful when it comes to the fact that He will not punish us in hell for those sins.
We are not going to get the just punishment for any of our sins. Let me tell you that.
You know, if you are saved, you will not get any just punishment for any of your sins.
But the Bible is clear that He does chastise His children. Right? He does spank His children.
And you know, so there's a varying amount of mercy that we can get from God the Father
while we're here on this earth. And what the Bible is saying here is that if we're more merciful
towards our brothers and sisters of Christ, towards mankind in general, the more merciful
He's going to be with us when we screw up. Does that make sense? I'm hoping I'm making sense.
Go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter number 18. Matthew chapter number 18.
You know, I will say this, even if you are just like a super grudging person and you're not
forgiving your brethren, I will say this, I think God is still having a lot of mercy on your life.
Because again, at the end of the day, He doesn't just come down and rain down, even on like a
wicked Christian, like a Christian that's just not forgiving people, that's just holding grudges and
whatnot. I think He's still even merciful to them, right? He's still just, you know, He's not marking
every iniquity that they're doing either. But it's just that He's going to mark more than He does for
the people that are merciful. You know, I don't know if that makes sense. Just, I mean, just because
like if He marked everything, you know, if He gave us just exact justice for everything we did, He
would just kill us and we'd go to heaven, in my opinion. You know, because, I mean, why? Because,
well, for the wages of sin is death, right? So even the fact that we're still breathing at all,
that in and of itself is mercy from God, in my opinion. And so even people that are, you know,
not being forgiven or not being forgiving, God, at some level, He still has mercy on those people,
just a lot less mercy than He has for other people that are being forgiving. So,
let's see here. Matthew chapter number 18, look at verse number 21, it says, "Then came to Peter to
him and said, 'Lord, how oft shall thy brother sin against me, and I forgive him, till seven times?'"
Now, you know, to me, it kind of makes sense that he's asking, you know, hey, till seven times,
because of that other passage where he says, you know, hey, if he sinned against you seven times a
day, rebuke him, and then if he repents, forgive him, right? I mean, that kind of makes sense. So,
he's like, hey, is it till seven times? Is that like the limit? Verse 22 says, "Jesus answered and
said unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times, but until seventy times seven." Right?
Now it's, you know, it's interesting he says that. And it's like, all right, well, let's go ahead and
get out the calculator. Let's go get a pencil sharpener. And, you know, we'll do some calculation
and figure out what the upper limit is, right? It's not really the point, obviously, you know,
Jesus doesn't want us to get out a calculator and then just be like, all right, 400 and whatever.
That's it. You know, that's not the point of what he's saying here. He's just, it's, it's unlimited.
Okay. That's basically what Jesus is trying to say here. You know, we don't, we don't need to get
out the calculator and get an exact number. It says verse number 26 is therefore is the kingdom
of heaven likened and a certain king, which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun
to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him 10,000 talents. Now this will be probably a
huge amount of money, you know, 10,000 talents. You know, you always hear like, oh yeah, a talent
is like one lifetime worth of money, which that would be a lot of money if it's 10,000 talents.
I mean, I don't know where he is. He's like Elon, you know, that's like Elon Musk levels of wealth
right there. I don't know, but who knows how much money, you know, this actual 10,000 talents is,
but it seems like a lot of money, right? It says, but for as much as he had not to pay his Lord
commanded him to be sold and his wife and his children and all that he had and payments to be
made. So apparently they didn't have chapter 13 bankruptcy back in Jesus's time. So, because
nowadays, you know, people aren't really being sold because they owe money. But, you know, anyways,
says the servant therefore fell down and worshiped him saying, Lord have patience with me and I will
pay thee all. So, you know, we see the servant, he, he, what is he doing? He's basically asking
for, you know, I don't know if you'd say it's forgiveness, but he's asking for more time
because he, he's not saying that he's not going to pay, but he's just saying, hey, be patient with me
and I will pay thee all, right? And so then the Lord of the servant was moved with compassion and
loosed him and forgave him the debt. Now talk about a great deal. I mean, you just ask, I mean,
imagine like if you, if you got behind on like a mortgage payment or something and then you just
called the bank and be like, you know, don't do the late fee. I'm going to pay, you know, just,
just hang on, just be patient with me. I'm going to pay, pay you all. And then they're like,
don't worry about the debt. You just, the house is yours now. That'd be a great deal. I'd be like,
sweet. Thanks. Like, this is awesome. No more mortgage. This is fantastic. You know,
maybe I'm going to try this on Monday. Maybe, you know, maybe they're merciful or whatever,
but probably not. The banks are run by the Jews. And so, you know,
likelihood of that happening is pretty low. But anyways, it says, what verse was I in? Verse
number 27, it says, "Forgave him the debt." Okay, look at verse number 28. It says, "But the same
servant went out and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him a hundred pence,
and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest." So,
you know, somebody owed him money, right? And, you know, a hundred pence, which is a way lower
amount of money than whatever ten thousand talents is, right? Well, you know, so somebody owes him
like a hundred bucks, and he grabs him by the throat, and it's like, "Give me the money!" It's
like, "Whoa, dude, you need to calm down. You just got your mortgage forgiven. This guy owes you a
hundred bucks. Like, bro, calm down. Like, you know, this is insane." You know, but here's the
thing, though. Like, we would look at this and be like, "What's wrong with this guy? What's his
problem?" You know, he just forgave this. You know, he just got forgiven this giant huge amount of
money. You know, and this guy owes him a hundred bucks and he's freaking out about it. But here's
the thing, though. We do this in our own lives sometimes because God forgave us. I mean,
however much 10,000 talents is, what would be worse to owe 10,000 talents or an eternity in hell?
Right? Eternity in hell, it's way worse. And God forgave us that. And by the way, you know,
God is not engaged in money creation, right? He doesn't just like write what you owe on a
piece of paper like the banks do, and they just create credit out of nothing. You know, fractional
reserve banking is a myth because they just, each, every single bank just, you know, makes it out of
thin air, right? So God is not engaged in that. So God actually had to have the payment, right?
And we, you know, as fundamental Baptist, we believe that Jesus Christ actually paid for our
payment of sin in hell, right? He had the full payment. So that, you know, that is a, you know,
he didn't, he didn't forgive like an imaginary debt. You know, they didn't, they didn't just
create your, you know, he didn't just create your debt on a spreadsheet out of thin air.
No, there was actually something that we have, you know, that we were going to have to pay off in
hell for eternity, right? And he paid, actually paid that for us. And so, I mean, this, this is a
big deal that God has forgiven us. And so when we lack forgiveness for our brothers and sisters in
Christ, when we lack forgiveness for our fellow man, we're acting a lot like this guy in the story.
And so, you know, when, when we read this story, we need to put ourselves in this,
in those shoes, like where we've been forgiven this massive debt, this massive debt. And so we
should be able to learn how to forgive, you know, just cause somebody owes us a hundred bucks or
whatever, like, well, you know, give it to me right now and I'm going to grab you by the throat.
You know, so verse number, number 29, it says, and his fellow servant fell down at his feet and
beside him saying, have patience with me and I will pay the all. Right. So he has kind of the
same attitude that, that he had towards his Lord, where he's like, Hey, just give me more time.
It says, and he would not, but went and cast him into prison until he should pay the debt. Now,
you know, one thing that I always wonder when I, you know, when I come across these stories in the
Bible, it's like, well, if you're in prison, how are you going to work and pay the debt?
I don't know that, that, that, you know, that never made a lot of sense to me, but you know,
it is what it is. It says, so when his fellow servants saw the, saw what was done, they were
very sorry and came and told unto their Lord all that was done. And then his Lord, after that,
he had called him and said unto him, Oh, thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all, excuse me,
all that debt because thou desired me. Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on my fellow
servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his Lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors
till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly father do also unto you,
for, excuse me, if ye from your heart forgive not everyone his brother their trespasses. So,
you know, and of course, you know, a lot of people will try to take the story and see, you see,
if you don't forgive, if you don't forgive people, you're going straight to hell. Now,
here's the thing. That's not what this passage is saying. For one, if we want to look at what the
actual, what it actually says is in his Lord was wrath and delivered him to the tormentors till he
should pay all that was due unto him. Right? So that means that there's going to be an end
of his tormenting. When, when, and when's that end? When he pays it off. Now, here's the thing,
when it comes to hell, are we going to go to hell till we pay it off? No. Why? Well, you can't pay
it off. And the Bible says over and over and over again, that hell is eternal. I mean, the Bible
says in Mark, chapter number nine, it says, "Where the worm dith not, and the fire is not quenched."
Right? And the Bible says in Revelation 14, "Where the smoke of their torment shall ascend
up forever and ever, and there's no rest day or night, the take of the mark of the beast,
and worships," you know, and I'm butchering the verse, but it doesn't end. Right? And so that
proves that this is not talking about somebody actually going to hell because this is a temporary
punishment. Now here's the thing, if we lack forgiveness for our brothers and sisters in
Christ, or just mankind in general, God is, he can send us to the tormentors on this earth
because he has promised that we are not condemned for our sins, and that means we can't go to hell.
Okay? So, I mean, the Bible is just so clear about that. So this is not talking about a
punishment of going to hell, but it's talking about chastisement, right? Because, you know,
otherwise, otherwise, the Bible would just make no sense at all. We would just be in like lala land
where nothing makes sense at all. But, but it is clearly talking about the fact that, that, you know,
God has, is going to have varying amounts of forgiveness for us on this earth. And if we have
great amounts of forgiveness for our fellow man, God is going to have great amounts of forgiveness
for us, right? But if we don't have forgiveness for our fellow man, God is going to have a way
less amount of forgiveness for us, right? And so, you know, this should be a great motivating factor
for us to be able to have forgiveness for one another, is the fact that, you know, for one,
it's just the right thing to do, right? God commands it. He expects us to do it. And He has
great mercy toward us. So we ought to have great mercy towards one another and not be holding
grudges one against another. But, you know, if that's not enough, you want God to have
forgiveness for you. And you don't want God, like, holding a grudge against you. Because
if you don't forgive your debtors, neither is God going to just forgive you in this life,
right? He's gonna, you know, He can cloud up and rain on you and make you pay to the last farthing.
You know, He can really screw up your life. Like, you know, the Bible says, again, it is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of a living God. And so we ought to be afraid of what He can do to us.
You know, like, my life has been a pretty good life so far. But if you think about it, God could
really screw up my life. God could really screw up your life too. So we ought to have some fear of
Him. And we ought to desire that mercy. And so, like we desire that mercy from God, we ought to
be able to hand out the mercy. You know, don't expect to receive from others what you can't give
yourself, right? I mean, what is it that Leviticus 19 said? That's not Leviticus 19. Where'd it go
here? It says, "Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people,
but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. I am the Lord." Right? You got to treat others
as you would want to be treated. And so if you want forgiveness, we got to be able to forgive.
If you don't want people holding grudges against you, you got to let go and not hold a grudge
yourself. And then God is going to have a ton of mercy on you. Let's go ahead and bow our heads
and have a word of prayer. "Deafeningly Father, I thank you for this day, Lord. I thank you for
everything you've done for us, Lord. I pray that you would help us all to be able to let things go,
to be able to forgive one another, even when it's difficult, Lord. And the Lord will help us to not
hold grudges one towards another. And that way you can have mercy on us and that you will not hold
our sins against us, Lord. In the name of Jesus, amen." So brother Jason, our last one we saw,
number 441, "Great is thy faithfulness." Song number 441, "Great is thy faithfulness." 441,
let's sing it together on the first. "Great is thy faithfulness, O God I see."
His name is Brother Kyle, could you listen to our prayer?