Paul
Stephen
Leah taking over flow
Monday February twentieth kickoff party
How to talk about sex and social media with your kids
March 10 9am-3pm
Offering
Paul
Our God Saves (In the name of the Father)
Communion during the next few songs
Love Came Down (Forever yours..If my heart is overwhelmed)
One Heart Under Your Blood (I am a famine, my heart is a drought)
Sweetly Broken (To the cross I look)
Love Came Down (Forever Yours) coda
Jon
Uganda trip
2 weeks from June first to June fifteenth
Matthew 18
So good at the dialogue of forgiveness when we’re asking for it
When someone sins against you, how do you behave
Everyone in this room has been sinned against, been hurt by someone else
Henry Nouwen – but forgiveness changes the way we remember…the only people we can really change are ourselves
Esther de Waal – needed at two levels…cannot be free
The first two verses Peter asks the question about how often should we forgive
…
When we practice forgiveness, there is a physiological change
What forgiveness is not
Forgiveness is not forgetting
There are things that have been done against us at will, be impossible too forget
If somebody tells you to just forget it, you never can
When I do decide to turn towards forgiveness, there is a shift
I turn my mind away from it and freedom comes
It does not mean you have to condone the behavior or shove it under the rug
Some relationships are so toxic that justice needs to be done and barriers set up
I want reconciliation with you, but I can’t be near you right now
We want to be a people that embraces reconciliation
That seek forgiveness with one another
We need to give one another grace
This process doesn’t have a magic timeline
The wicker the better obviously, but it takes time
Vanessa made this statement the other day “God is nice”
Let’s invite God into the process and not try to do it ourselves
Say “Holy Spirit, I don’t know how to work through this, guide me, give me people to guide me”
People we encounter throughout the day, there a innumerable opportunities to grow
…
Jesus fairy dust and you are able to just forgive
No, it’s personal and takes time
Good sign of growth – a year ago I wanted to do physical harm to someone, today I don’t
Not able to say grace and peace be with you and now you can say it and mean it
Speaking blessings instead of curses
Working towards forgiveness
Not bound by anger and able to experience freedom
Before we read, I want to take a moment of silence before the Lord and ask him to help us grow
Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.
“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.
When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.
And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” (Matthew 18:21-35 ESV)
The kingdom of heaven is like a king with a book of debts
One servant has a very large debt
10,000 bags of good = $2,252,000,000
You, your wife, and your children working of this debt
If not in your lifetime, it carries on to future generations
150,000 days wages
Be patient with me and I will pay back everything
Pathetic request
The king took pity and canceled the debt and let the slave go
The king realized this debt could never be paid
Casts away the debt
Greek word splagma
A gut level compassion
Kingdom of heaven is this king who feels this gut level compassion and forgives ALL debts
Do you want to participate in this type of life
…
We all have books that record offenses against us
Some of us have real books, some metaphorical books, some Facebooks
…
Motivated by compassion first of all
Do you want to participate in this kind of life
Crowds would walk away from Jesus’ teachings saying “That’s too hard”
We can’t be THAT radical
When I look at that invitation from Jesus, asking us if we want to practice that type of forgiveness here in Manhattan Beach
Are we moved by splagma or by our own selves?
As the king looked at this community, he absorbed this debt onto himself
Somebody still has to make the payment
Gives this community an incredible gift
…
Maybe tonight, not just throw the entire book away, but maybe one day at a time, take one page out and throw it away
Start small
I want to walk in freedom
I don’t want to hold on to this, I want to set people free
How could I not even begin to extend that?
V28 – 35
1 Corinthians 13 talks about love doesn’t keep records of wrong
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6:14, 15 ESV)
…
We have cassette tapes in the back of our heads playing over and over again, all these offenses, all these memories
So Satan uses old technology?
The slips
Those things that have been done to us
The email that I “forgot” to respond to
Also has the deep stuff, not just the light stuff
She took the money and ran
What does it mean?
If I don’t do A, then B
Feels like a business transaction
But it’s not business, but reality
When you’re underwater and need to breathe, you need a tube to bathe
If I’m sucking life through this tube, it is my source of life
If I just breathe in, I’ll eventually die
Need to breathe out of the same tube
This source of life has two functions
If I’m no longer able to get air, if the tube becomes obstructed = death
To me that’s like forgiveness
If you refuse to forgive, you’re cutting yourself off from the source of life
We like to compartmentalize, to split things up
Forgiveness is not forgetting or condoning
Sometimes there are legal ramifications
It is a posture
It takes it me
He’s not asking us to forgive it all tonight
But if we’re desperately holding onto to one page and saying well never throw it away
It is NOT us and them and then us and God
It’s us and them AND God
All rolled in together
Ocean of compassion and forgiveness
To walk in accordance with Jesus is to walk in forgiveness
Throw away the books
The kingdom of heaven is like a king who is owed a very large debt by the people of manhattan beach
I will extend mercy and forgiveness to you, now go and extend that to others
It’s all connected
So Holy Spirit…
Paul
Lead Me To Your Heart (In your will is where I want to be)
Jon
Maybe this can be the sound you hear this week
*tears page out of book*
Send it away and walk towards Jesus, walking towards my king
His grace, his smile, his warmth, his compassion
Why me? I’m not worthy
I’m so saturated in grace, I can’t help but forgive you
Ask the holy spirit to help us start to loosen our grips on our books
Can’t just take life, have to give it too
God puts irritants in my life for practice
I need to understand where I’ve missed it too
Walk in grace and humility this week