In this episode:
The key to living a life filled with love and peace is hidden within one of Jesus’ teachings about forgiveness
Join us as we unlock this secret, journeying through Matthew 18, where we unpack the depth and breadth of forgiveness. The conversation begins with Peter’s profound question to Jesus about forgiveness and the ensuing response that creates a transformational tool for understanding forgiveness.
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Take the opportunity to forgive others, that you ask for forgiveness, that you extend that forgiveness and that you let that just permeate all the things that you do as you try to be the leader God intends you to be. Click To Tweet Chris Grainger
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Chris Grainger
Host
00:03
Welcome to the Lion Within Us, a podcast serving Christian men who are hungry to be the leaders God attends you to be. I’m your host, chris Granger. Let’s jump in. All right, guys, meet time. Hope you’re ready, let’s get into it.
00:15
Let’s look at our verse of the week. Okay, our verse of the week is Matthew 18, 22. It says Jesus said unto them I say not unto thee until seven times, but until seventy times seven, god. Go check out that spiritual kickoff. I’ll unpack that one in depth, okay, because it’s not a mad problem. No, it’s forgiveness, and that forgiveness has no beginning or end, guys. It’s all about forgiving always and all times, so important. So today we’re going to be talking about how to forgive your neighbor and why that’s important, and that’s what is Chris saying about it, because it’s really irrelevant what I say about it. What does God’s word say about forgiveness? We’re going to use that to learn, simplify, to apply. But if you want to get your Bible, go ahead, open it up to Matthew 18. That’s kind of where we’re camping out at, okay, and ultimately, we need to know one thing fellas Love leads us to forgive. You take love out. You’re going to have a hard time forgiving. I’m just telling you you’re just going to have a hard time as we think through forgiveness. I want to just kind of start off with a little bit of a question that kind of gets you going, gets you thinking, as we work through this material together today.
01:31
Well, you’re sick, you want a good doctor, right? You want a good doctor, and think about what separates a good doctor from the great ones. Right, there’s a big difference. There’s also a book called Good Degrees, a phenomenal business book, by the way. Check that out. And what separates the good ones from the great ones is the bedside manner. The bedside manner is huge, really huge. Now we know they got to have the head knowledge. Doctors need to know their medicines, their diagnosis, the different types of prescriptions, the different types of ailments that you have all these different factors. They got to have all this knowledge. But a truly great doctor has a way of connecting with their patients with compassion. They just do right, because it can be scary if you’re facing something serious like physical diagnosis or broken bone or something like that.
02:24
If you have that doctor who just has that equally high EQ, that can increase overall confidence and just your outlook on the situation in general. Right, because we’ve all had those doctors who are terrible with their bedside manner. They’re just super awkward. I mean, they’re really smart, but they’re just terrible when it comes to talking with you or your family and it’s just all it does is it increases stress.
02:50
Right, but we need to remember here as we start thinking about Jesus and what he’s teaching us on forgiveness and things like this is Jesus, he’s the great physician, he’s it and he sees what makes ultimately our hearts sick, and Jesus has never missed a diagnosis. Y’all, I don’t care what your favorite doctor is, how great his bedside manner or her bedside manner is, they are nothing compared to the great physician of Jesus Christ. Okay, and the awesome part, I don’t always see the great physician. He’s the cure as well. Now, how cool is that?
03:25
So one of the sickness that he sees, that Jesus sees all the time, is this disease of unforgiveness. I think you guys can admit you don’t have to look very far to see the unforgiveness is running rampant. It’s out there. Hatred everywhere, fellas. It’s such a just an epidemic in itself of how much unforgiveness exists in this world. Right, and what that does, all it does for us. It robs us. Was it robbing us? Two things love, peace, love and peace. These are two of the things that we need more than anything in this world, and unforgiveness just saps all that out, all that out.
04:12
So we’re going to look at God’s Word today together. We’re going to cover some ground here Matthew 18. And we’re gonna see how we can apply this to our life. The lessons, hopefully yeah, it’s not about what Chris says here, fellas Ultimately, the Holy Spirit has gotta do the heavy lifting and showing you what he wants you to understand and to take away. Okay, so you gotta take some time here to really spend some time in the Word, see what the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, then apply. We’re gonna start off easy. Couple of two easy verses, okay. 21, 22, says then Peter came in and said Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?
04:58
Up to seven times. Jesus said to him I do not say up to you seven times, but to 70 times seven. Okay, so we can think we can all relate to Peter. Okay, peter’s just saying what’s on his mind. That’s why I love old Peter. He just lets it fly right. Sometimes there’s no filter and he’s probably like bro, do you really just say that? I guess I can just relate to Peter. He’s just very direct.
05:19
And so Jesus had talked about conflict resolution within the church and the step one was to go directly to that person, right, because you wanted to go directly to that person, so with the hopes of restoration, okay, and you can’t get that part. You can’t get that restoration without resentment, bitterness and unforgiveness. To raise his head right so often. That’s the reason we can’t get the restoration, because you’re gonna be somebody’s resentful, somebody’s gonna be bitter or somebody’s just gonna be unforgivable, and when that happens you’re not gonna be able to have forgiveness carry. So Peter’s asking this question. Okay, just think about this.
05:55
Peter asked this question after he experienced so many things. He experienced Jesus, not only Jesus himself walking on water, okay, and he was asking for clarification on parables. Peter did this a lot. He was told that Christ would build his rock, his rock on him. After he had a slam-dunk answer that he gave Jesus when he says who do you think I am right? He drilled it right, these four people. I’m gonna tell you what, peter. He didn’t mind stepping in and sharing his opinion, right, and when he started thinking about chapter 18 and looking at what’s going on here in God’s Word. It’s pretty cool because it’s talking about what it’s like to be a servant of Christ.
06:39
Now, we don’t know why Peter asked this one question, right? He could have just been a curious dude who just really wanted to know yo, jesus, you’ve done some incredible things. You’re obviously Messiah, you’re the Son of God. So I’ll finally forget folks. It could have just been a completely innocent question, okay, but really he wanted to know how he could restore that fellowship with a fellow believer when there’s conflict and we know we’re gonna have conflict in this world, right? And he could have known, well, been curious to know what’s the minimal barrier of entry. We all wanna know that sometimes. Right, think about that class in college, like bro, what do I gotta get, just so I don’t have to take this class again. I think you guys can all relate to this.
07:24
Maybe Peter was doing like that, I don’t know, maybe that’s what it was. And look, think about a concert. Sometimes you just want. You want to be in a front row, right, and sometimes you just wanna be in the building. So somewhere in between just being in the building and being in the front row, peter just wanted to know. He just wanted to know nothing wrong here.
07:43
Now, rabionic Judaism actually taught that you had to four times that if after that genuine repentance had not occurred. So really, what was going on here is basically you say, okay, I get that, so if I go seven, that’s pretty astronomical compared to whatever one’s teaching right here these days. Right, and what’s going on really is what we show no mercy are natural response. Think about this for a second, guys, when you think about showing no mercy, our natural response was kind of a big deal. Right, it’s a really big deal. So Jesus shot this stuff down quickly. He’s saying no, bro, I’m not saying that you can do this, I’m saying it up to 70 times seven.
08:33
There’s a couple other verses I wanna share with you guys. You don’t have to turn there, you can’t even do two. But let’s go and look at Genesis real quick. Genesis four look at verse 15, it’s hanging with me while I read this one and it says so. The Lord said to them therefore, whoever kills King, vengeance will be taken upon him. Seven pole and the Lord appointed a sign for King so that no one fighting him would slay him. Now let’s look also at Genesis four 20, 30, 24. It says Lamak said to his wives, ada and Zilla listen to my voice, you eyes of Lamak, give heed to my speech, for I’ll kill a man, wounding me, and that boy for striking me. The King is a then seven fold and Lamak 77 fold, all right.
09:15
So what’s going on here, fellas, as Lamak was bragging about how much more ruthless he was in King that’s what it was, fellas, we talked about and how much more God would value his action. This is some ultimate twisted thinking here, fellas. This is not how we should act. This is not how we should respond. So when Jesus is doing, he’s making a stark contrast right here, very stark contrast to these retaliation stories. We’re not called retaliate. He was teaching mercy, field thinking. That’s it. Not retaliation, mercy, big difference, right? And we need to have extravagant forgiveness as we move forth as Christian men.
09:50
Extravagant forgiveness means doing things that no one else would even consider. Why would you do that? Because you’re more called to do, we’re more to walk in the image of Christ and to be more and more like him. We can’t be of the way of the world. The way of the world is just like. You know what? Just forgive, maybe, if you want to. It’s up to you or you could just count. You know, if you don’t forgive him, maybe that’s all he’s gonna do, that you’re gonna have to talk to this person again.
10:14
That’s not what Jesus is teaching right here. He’s talking about being an extravagant forgiver, and sometimes that is hard, particularly when people have hurt you in meaningful ways or hurt your loved ones or, forbid even like, killed your loved ones. It can be hard for us to actually go out and extend forgiveness. It’s just real. So it’s really important, as we kind of dig into it, to understand that in order for us to be spiritually whole, we gotta let some more forgiveness go, fellas. We cannot let that our forgiveness take root and start growing, because it grows big and it can get out of hand and next thing you know it is pulling you down, it is impacting your walkings, impacting your testimony, and we cannot have that, fellas. Okay, so now we’ll take our first break. We’re gonna come back and we’re gonna unpack some little bigger piece of scripture here to look and see what our forgiveness is all about, how we can actually set the bottom part of this in our life. We’ll be right back, guys.
11:20
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12:20
So we just talked about Peter here and asking the question, and Jesus gives him the answer of forgiving 70 times seven. Let’s pick up and read a few verses here. Let’s read 23 to 27. Says for this reason, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. Now again, jesus, is Jesus talking? When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him 10,000 tablets was brought to him, but since he did not have the means to repay it, his Lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying I have patience with me and I will pay you everything. And the Lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. All right, fellas.
13:12
So what’s going on right here? Jesus is using stories to teach. I think he’s using the stories to teach because he knows Peter, just like me. We gotta break it down for Jesus. Okay, we’re a little slow in the uptake sometimes, so I’m gonna give you some context to help you think about the amount of money that this sermon owed. Maybe you listen to sermons on this, maybe you can. You already know, but when he says 10,000 tablets right there, that was actually about 200,000 years worth of money. Let that sink in. We’re talking billions, pun billions, if not trillions dollars. Right, it would just be like somebody’s staying up. You stood up to work today and say you know what y’all need to chill out. Everybody, calm down, relax. I’m fixing to stroke me a check to US government to pay off the national debt. I got it, don’t worry. Just maybe you wanna hold that check to a payday. But other than that, hey, we’re good to go. Right, this is what it’d be, right, we’re kinda going.
14:15
It’s crazy to think about it, cause we’re gonna dig in and notice how the king didn’t accept this fellow’s crazy terms. No, this is not what this is about. What the king did was he extended forgiveness. Big, big difference here. Okay, verse 23,.
14:33
For this reason, the king of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to have his settled accounts with slaves. All right, now it’s also in some version. It begins with therefore, right, that’s so. Whenever you see, therefore, you gotta see what it’s there for. But Jesus ties this parable to the life of the king. Right, that’s what he’s doing, cause he’s teaching us right here, to all who believe right, you need to settle this, you need to settle this with their slaves. So what’s going on is the principle he was teaching us here is a format that Jewish leaders would often pull Kings, servants okay, kings and servants, and usually, in this format, king would represent God, servants would represent believers. Okay, that’s it.
15:20
So the part about selling accounts that he talks about right here, that actually is referred to how, in time, people were kindly sold in slavery as a way of selling debt. Now it really listed the way we think of it so many times. When we think about slavery, a lot of times you would be in someone’s debt, so you technically would be their quote, unquote slave, but you would just work off your debt. Now, when that debt is worked off, you’re free to go right. So it’s just a little bit different context of what’s going on back then versus what’s going on now. Okay, so this has been a very common occurrence and that the disciples would have very much recognized and been able to connect with. Okay, and probably even related with. Probably there’s no back and forth on this, but who knows, some of these disciples could have been indebted to slaves at some point in their life, right, it was just a very common occurrence, again, much different than the slave training that we think of today.
16:13
Okay, now, when you look at verse 24 and 25, when he had begun to settle them, one who owed him 10,000 talents was brought to him, but since he did not have the means to repay. His Lord commanded him to be sold, while his wife, children all he had and repayment to be made Now. Again, the amount of money here would have been even hard to imagine. I mean, just try to put your mind around the national debt number. It’s just mind boggling, right? And when you think about for a little further context, one talent was about 6,000 denarii, okay, and denarii was one day’s wages, right? So just think about it as 16 million days to sell this debt. Okay, so I don’t know where old Dave Ranji is at when he needed him, but that’s a debt snowball Like you never see. That debt snowball would kill somebody around them, right?
17:04
So look what the King commanded. What did the King command Right here, the King of? So, right here, in verse 24, he was demanding everything that the means be repaid. So he was saying, okay, I get it, but you repay me. You’re gonna have to pay it all, everything, family possessions, your kids, your wife, everything you own. That’s what you’re gonna have to do. Even though, think about this for a second you ever thought about this? Everything the King was asking for right here, or what it asked for, would not even be a drop in the bucket to compare to what this guy owed. Okay, think about that for a second. Guys, I mean, just think about it If they sell everything that you own, would it even come close to selling your national debt? Maybe, but most likely, maybe not. Right, let’s just be real, maybe not, and that’s what’s going on. So it’s pretty interesting that the King would even propose that. That’s an interesting comment when you look at verse 26,.
18:03
So the slave fell to the ground, prostrated himself before him, saying have patience with me and I will pay you everything. Yo bro, desperate times call for desperate measures. I’m gonna say it’s Hail Mary time. Please help me, please help me. Right, he was broken. He was absolutely broken, and the Aramaic word for debt was commonly used in the Hebrew and the Hebrew, but it’s the same word for sin.
18:30
You guys hear me talking about it a lot of times, a lot of the times sin. It was thought of. Just a few generations ago, that debt was actually viewed as sin. Okay, think about the Lord’s prayer give us our debts, right. So it’s basically what’s going on. He was in utter desperation, utter desperation, and he was also pretty dug on, humiliated. Think about what he had to do. One of the boys was doing to keep my dish much debt. He must have had one heck of a weekend at Vegas weekend, right, or maybe Corinth right. There you go. So he was basically at the king’s mercy. He was at the king’s mercy and begging was all he could do, right, and all he could offer saying I can repay. That was a few times. I mean, we talked about drops in the bucket, fellas, and look, you gotta remember debt and sin. They go to Gallow.
19:21
Guys, I’m not trying to make this an episode where I’m talking about why debt is bad. We need to eliminate it. But I’m telling you there’s things, there’s wisdom to be found from God’s word. Now look at verse 27,. And the Lord of debt and the Lord of debt slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him a debt. So think about this, the three things right here you have to master, pity, cancel.
19:49
Okay, the master had all the power. He had all the power. He could do whatever he wanted because he was in charge, he was in control. The master had pity, right, the verb formula that was actually used in the scripture right here in the case that he was deeply moved, right. So this is not just something. He just felt bad like. No, this is a deep within his spirit, it’s in his soul. Something moved him and canceled the debt. Right, the only finnish buts. It’s just canceled, it’s gone.
20:23
It costed the master everything. Right, think about that. It cost him everything. He was never gonna be able to be repaid by that servant. It cost him everything. Now, make that time, do your salvation. That salvation. You can’t work your way in the heaven King, you can’t pay for it. So that penalty for our sins costed Jesus everything, everything. Now. He was thinking about that when he was hanging on that cross. Fellas, I’m here to tell you he was thinking about you and you may not think that, you may not believe that. I’m here to tell you that’s from the lives, from the pits of hell, from the evil one, if you get sent back to where it belongs. He was thinking on you hanging on that cross. That’s the gospel, that. This is a picture of the gospel right here.
21:08
He couldn’t make the payment, so the master stuck himself in and took the payment upon himself. It’s beautiful when you start thinking about this right and seeing how God’s word starts to reveal itself to us as we lean in, as we learn as we listen, as we let the Holy Spirit guide and direct us. Like he look, he felt compassion, released him, forgave debt. I imagine how he felt he owed all this money and all of a sudden it wasn’t there anymore. That burden wasn’t holding him down. He didn’t have that doom overtop him. The stress, the anxiety, the panic attacks probably went away right. Just imagine all the debts you have. Maybe you have a house, car, you know some personal debts. Maybe you got credit card debt, student loans. Think about what that number is. Maybe it’s $100,000. Maybe it’s $500,000. Or getting close to a million, or maybe a couple million. Whenever that number is, think about the impact it would have that number were erased in mine.
22:22
How would you feel the next day? Would you feel a little encouraged? Would you feel a little weight lifted off your shoulder? How many of us would go out and make some stupid decisions the next day and probably be right back in this same situation, right, you just never know. But I like to think about it. What is this man in that moment Before we get to the next verses, because we’ll find out in the next verses he just completely screws up everything. How would you feel? How would you feel? Would you have just ultimate joy and just absolute thankfulness? But it’d just be one of those moments where it’s like you’re shaking because you can’t believe it. I think many of us would Imagine if you didn’t have to make a mortgage payment anymore. How good would that feel. Or a car payment, or a truck payment, or credit card payment or anything. With a payment you don’t have to make them anymore. Everything’s canceled. Everything would be pretty incredible. Right? We’re going to see this memory. This was all canceled. Everything’s taken care of. Let’s see what his response is going to be. Okay, we’ll take a quick break, guys. We’ll be right back. We’ll check out his response.
23:48
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25:00
So Pete is asking look how many times I need to forgive somebody. Jesus is basically saying yo, bro, you just keep forgiving until I tell you what it means. Never. You always can be forgiving. And he’s given him a story.
25:11
Jesus is trying to paint a story to help Peter understand. He talks about this dude who owed basically the national debt for the United States to a king, and king he was like yo, just give me a chance, I’ll pay it back. There’s no way he could pay it back. We’re talking about years upon years, upon years of debt. There’s no way he could pay it back. King was going to take him, take his family, take all his possessions, even though that was a drop in the bucket. He’s going to get rid of him, take it and get him out. And all of a sudden the king felt compassion and forgave the debt. Now, now let’s see how he responds.
25:46
We’re going to read 28-35 together and then we’re going to unpack this. So 28-35 in Matthew 18 says but the slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him 100 in there and he seized them and began to choke him, saying pay back what you owe. So a slave fell down to the ground and began to plead with him, saying I have patience with me and I will repay you. But he was unwilling and went through him in the prison. He should pay back what he was owed. So when his fellow slaves saw what happened, they were deeply grieved.
26:19
It came and reported to the Lord all that had happened. Then, summoning him, his Lord said to him you wicked slave, I forgave you all the debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave in the same way that I had mercy on you? And this, and his Lord moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. My heavenly Father will also do the same to you Eat, if, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart. Woo, I don’t know about you fellows, but that just got real, that just got real quick.
27:01
Now, the servant missed it. He missed it, he missed mercy, he missed grace, he missed forgiveness, all the things that the King just gave to him. He missed it. Forgiveness is a choice and it’s a process. And God fell us. He knows our hearts, he knows them and he will help us with our forgiveness by his spirit, by his word and with other believers. Now we don’t want to mess this stuff. And when you look at the first two verses 28 through 30, the first three verses the slave went out and found one of the fellow slaves, wrote him a hundred and Mary, right. And basically what was going on? He seized him, choked him. The other guy fell to the ground and was basically begging him, right, begging him, look. But he was unwilling to admit to prison and take him paying back. God expects us to forgive, pretty simple. This wasn’t a lesson on finances here, guys, don’t get caught up, okay, it was a lesson on forgiveness, particularly forgiving our brothers and sisters in Christ.
28:06
Now notice the parallels here. You got the guy in charge, who was the king, and the servant, right. In both situations the king was the first guy in charge. The second situation the servant was the guy in charge. You had the guy in debt, you had the servant, who was the first guy that was in debt. Then you had the fellow servant who’s in the second kind of debt, right, okay. Then you have threats made. So the king was making the threats originally right, I want you to repay everything. And the servant was making the threats made right. Basically saying, look, if you were choking him, right. Then you had pleads. Who made the first plead? The original servant was making that plea to the king. The second plead was the other servant to the original servant.
28:48
I know it’s kind of trying to try to follow along with all the guys that tell me Then we have a shift. Here’s the shift. So we’ve had a guy in charge, a guy in debt, threats and pleads. Okay, all that’s been tracking, all that stuff’s been tracking in both stories. You can pretty much line them up side by side and you’ll get the same outcome Until you get the response.
29:11
What’s the response? The king, forgiveness, the servant, imprisonment. Notice how different they are. He was determined to get his 100 in the area. That’s what it said right here 100 in the area. Okay, now, when you think about that, that was about a quarter of a year worth of work. Not a small number. I’m not. I wanted to diminish it. It wasn’t like he was like 50 bucks Now, it was a significant number, but it wasn’t a national debt, the way that he owed Right, pretty small number in comparison. But notice just that shift and their response. So think about your one. What is your response? Okay, there’s an opportunity to extend forgiveness. Are you gonna put your foot down, keep your foot on their throat, not let them up, or are you gonna actually extend forgiveness and walk them out and show them with mercy, with compassion, with love? Very interesting here. Okay, now let’s see how the people around him responded. 31 says.
30:22
When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came reported to the Lord All that had happened. So what did they do? They went and touted on him and to summon him, the Lord said you, wicked slave, I forgave you and all that debt To you not have also had mercy on your fellow slave? Don’t forget that one. In the same way that had mercy on you, the Lord moved with anger, handed over him to the torturers until they should have repaid all that he was owed. My heavenly father also did the same to you. Each one of you does not forgive his brother from your heart. Guys, I’m telling you this is so.
30:57
Dog on a port, and as we read this word together, we don’t know if the servant knew the other guys, if we knew about his debt and the inter-race. We don’t know. We don’t know that right. He doesn’t say that those servants actually saw and had, privy to the understanding, that his debt was erased. So we don’t know that. What we do know is that them boys were hot when they saw what was going on. They were hot. They went straight to the man in charge.
31:28
Right, imagine it’s you sitting right there. Imagine you’re the king. You’re sitting there in your trunk, in your throne, you’re chilling, you’re eating some grapes, you’re maybe sipping on some wine, you’re chilling out with all your peasants that are bringing you stuff that you want. An old boy comes up and says you know what that dude you forgave with, like you know, the trading, the dollars, yeah, yeah, I know that dude. Yeah, well, he just do.
31:55
One of the boys in prison for a couple months worked of money that he owed him, and just think about this. How would you have responded? Would you be, would you? I’m just gonna be straight up. Would you be pissed or would you be chill? Most of us would probably be elevated in that moment. Right, why? Because injustice had just occurred, and we don’t like that. The king didn’t either.
32:24
Right, and think about what. We see this rebuke. We see it in action, right here, guys. Right, the first meeting. You go back to the first meeting, the beginning of this, of this, this part of Matthew. When a slave left that meeting, he was free. He was free. When he left the second meeting, guys, he left with the death sentence. He ain’t gonna ever pay this back. This was a death row sentence.
32:54
Right here, okay, and Jesus makes it very simple for us, fellas, and this is your way to simplify and apply this. Right here, okay, forgetting people are to forgive people. That’s it. Forgiving people are to forgive people. So God has shown us right here, through extravagant forgiveness. He gives us and he expects the same in return. Right, he knows your heart, guys. He knows my heart, okay, I’m not, I’m not excluded here. He knows my heart, and that’s the core. What he desires is that we love others.
33:33
It says right here in Ephesians 4-32 guys be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God and Christ has also forgiven you. Do you walk that out? Do you walk that verse out? Because that should be right there at the hallmark of us as believers, right there we have to walk out forgiveness. We can’t just be walking around bitter and then a curmungent and always got these, these bad thoughts going on. No, walk out forgiveness. Truly, extend it to others. Extend grace, mercy, compassion. We can’t afford not to forgive, fellas, we cannot afford to not forgive. I’m telling you because if your heart is sick with our forgiveness, that’s gonna take you down. The good news is you can be healed, you can be restored to immaculate spiritual health when you lean in on the great physician. But you have to lean in on Jesus, you have to let the Holy Spirit guide and direct you.
34:37
I want you to think about where do you need to start extending some forgiveness? You know who are you hardest on? I know a lot of times for me it’s for my wife, my beautiful wife of back. Well, I can be the hardest on her sometimes because she gets the worst version. A lot of times I’m tired, and when I’m tired, the worst version comes out. So I had to be more intentional about extending forgiveness and asking for forgiveness with her. So who do you need to forget? Who do you need to have that conversation with? But you know what? I’ve been a jerk, I have just been a jerk and I’ve really want to walk out my Christian values and I would really like to ask for your forgiveness. Or maybe you need to extend some forgiveness, right, we all have those situations in our life too, where we need to extend some forgiveness. I’m not sure what your situation is. You don’t the Holy Spirit’s whispering something to you right now? I know you did.
35:37
You know that text you need to send, or that phone call you need to make, or that person you need to go visit. I would highly encourage you to do the last. This world’s the smartphones have taken so much out of us. If you can actually see that person. I bought an eyeball. There’s power with that. This phone call. It’s the second best thing. If nothing else can happen, then I guess the text will be okay. But primarily, we connect better when we see people.
36:04
So do you need extensive forgiveness today? Most likely, yes. Are you going to do anything about it? That’s your question, because if you want to unleash the line within, if you want to take this word and simplify and apply it and understand that forgiving people, forgive people, that means you got to take some action, fellas. You got to take some action. So think about this how can forgiveness extend beyond the limits that we set? We put these limits on ourselves. God doesn’t put those limits on us, but we do. We put those limits and when we put those limits, we’re holding us back. We’re holding ourselves back from the goodness, from the beauty, from the wonderful things that God has planned for us.
36:50
So, fellas, I pray today that you take this opportunity to forgive others, that you lean, that you ask for forgiveness, that you extend that forgiveness and that you let that just permeate all the things that you do as you try to be the leader God intends you to be. Guys, I’m telling you I want to pray for us. I feel the urge to pray. Follower, just thank you for the man listening. I pray that the guy who’s listening right now or the girl, that they know the steps they needed, taking obedience with you to forgive others the way you have called us to God. I pray you give them courage courage to step in and forgive and not worry about what the world thinks or the wrongdoings or they owe me more than I should forgive. Put all that to the side to know that ultimately, what you gave did for us, what you poured out your blood for us, and how you love us, how you forgive us from all the things we screw up and mess up on, how we should extend that same grace and mercy and compassion to others. I pray these guys take action and move forward and be the man you’ve called us to be. In Jesus’ name amen.
38:07
All right, fellas, let me know if you like this. We’d love to know your feedback on these types of episodes. I know we’re doing some things differently, but I just like to know what you think about it, if you get value from this stuff. Again, go check out the website TheLionWithInus. We have all our resources there. Give us a rating, write a review for the podcast, share the podcast out. Maybe this could be a good bridge opportunity for you. Use this podcast, this episode, as an opportunity for you to have a conversation around forgiveness with someone else, so you can say you know what I’m gonna listen to this podcast.
38:43
This one came across my plate. I was thinking about you. I want you to listen to it, and then I like to have a conversation, and this could be a natural way for you to open up the door, to have a conversation around forgiveness for someone that you’ve been putting off. Maybe guys have been just holding back, or maybe guys have been nudging you, but you haven’t had that full nudge. But guess what? Here’s your nudge Take action, use this nudge and move forward. Okay, move forward, Ask for that forgiveness, have that conversation. I’m telling you don’t put it off. Don’t put it off. So use this one, hit that share button, center it out to someone.
39:20
Again, hook up with us on our socials and things like that too. I’ll try to put some stuff out for this particular week of speaking to forgiveness that may help you. Okay, so hook up with us on YouTube, Facebook, instagram all those places you know raise, review, help, donations, help. If you want to be a donor, join the Lion Within Us community. You can visit. Go to belinwithinus. We have our spiritual kickoff community. That’s part of the Lion Within Us as well. We have our leadership coalition.
39:48
So if you’re a business leader and you want to find ways to take lessons just like this, like this right here forgiveness how can I apply forgiveness in business? Hey, this is what we’re going to do. Go unpack guys’ word together. We’re going to see how we can simplify and apply it to our life and help others you know, just come to have it Understand what it means to take this, the good news, god’s Word, and there it works, god, and apply it and actually walk it out.
40:14
All right, fellas, come back for our Fun Friday episode. I got some good dad jokes. I got some good tips for you. All the tips are going to kind of resonate around that idea of forgiveness. So, prayerfully, you will enjoy those. They will serve you well.
40:26
Now, again, I want your feedback. Do you like these types of episodes? We’re doing things a little bit different throughout the month. Usually we do this about once a month. So once you get your feedback, thank you for all the prayers, for all the support, all the things that you guys do for the Lion Within Us. It means the world. Each week, when I get and see how many people listen to the show and feedback, I can express what it means to me. So reach out support at the lionwithinus Again, that support at the lionwithinus, If I can serve you, if I can help you, you just need someone to talk to because you’re having a really tough day. Reach out and let me know I’m here to help. Okay, all right, fellas, get after it. Have a great day. See you back here on Fun Friday. Remember Matthew 1822, keep forgiving and don’t forget guys. Look for it the opportunity you can to unleash the lion with it.
Host
00:03
Welcome to the Lion Within Us, a podcast serving Christian men who are hungry to be the leaders God attends you to be. I’m your host, chris Granger. Let’s jump in. All right, guys, meet time. Hope you’re ready, let’s get into it.
00:15
Let’s look at our verse of the week. Okay, our verse of the week is Matthew 18, 22. It says Jesus said unto them I say not unto thee until seven times, but until seventy times seven, god. Go check out that spiritual kickoff. I’ll unpack that one in depth, okay, because it’s not a mad problem. No, it’s forgiveness, and that forgiveness has no beginning or end, guys. It’s all about forgiving always and all times, so important. So today we’re going to be talking about how to forgive your neighbor and why that’s important, and that’s what is Chris saying about it, because it’s really irrelevant what I say about it. What does God’s word say about forgiveness? We’re going to use that to learn, simplify, to apply. But if you want to get your Bible, go ahead, open it up to Matthew 18. That’s kind of where we’re camping out at, okay, and ultimately, we need to know one thing fellas Love leads us to forgive. You take love out. You’re going to have a hard time forgiving. I’m just telling you you’re just going to have a hard time as we think through forgiveness. I want to just kind of start off with a little bit of a question that kind of gets you going, gets you thinking, as we work through this material together today.
01:31
Well, you’re sick, you want a good doctor, right? You want a good doctor, and think about what separates a good doctor from the great ones. Right, there’s a big difference. There’s also a book called Good Degrees, a phenomenal business book, by the way. Check that out. And what separates the good ones from the great ones is the bedside manner. The bedside manner is huge, really huge. Now we know they got to have the head knowledge. Doctors need to know their medicines, their diagnosis, the different types of prescriptions, the different types of ailments that you have all these different factors. They got to have all this knowledge. But a truly great doctor has a way of connecting with their patients with compassion. They just do right, because it can be scary if you’re facing something serious like physical diagnosis or broken bone or something like that.
02:24
If you have that doctor who just has that equally high EQ, that can increase overall confidence and just your outlook on the situation in general. Right, because we’ve all had those doctors who are terrible with their bedside manner. They’re just super awkward. I mean, they’re really smart, but they’re just terrible when it comes to talking with you or your family and it’s just all it does is it increases stress.
02:50
Right, but we need to remember here as we start thinking about Jesus and what he’s teaching us on forgiveness and things like this is Jesus, he’s the great physician, he’s it and he sees what makes ultimately our hearts sick, and Jesus has never missed a diagnosis. Y’all, I don’t care what your favorite doctor is, how great his bedside manner or her bedside manner is, they are nothing compared to the great physician of Jesus Christ. Okay, and the awesome part, I don’t always see the great physician. He’s the cure as well. Now, how cool is that?
03:25
So one of the sickness that he sees, that Jesus sees all the time, is this disease of unforgiveness. I think you guys can admit you don’t have to look very far to see the unforgiveness is running rampant. It’s out there. Hatred everywhere, fellas. It’s such a just an epidemic in itself of how much unforgiveness exists in this world. Right, and what that does, all it does for us. It robs us. Was it robbing us? Two things love, peace, love and peace. These are two of the things that we need more than anything in this world, and unforgiveness just saps all that out, all that out.
04:12
So we’re going to look at God’s Word today together. We’re going to cover some ground here Matthew 18. And we’re gonna see how we can apply this to our life. The lessons, hopefully yeah, it’s not about what Chris says here, fellas Ultimately, the Holy Spirit has gotta do the heavy lifting and showing you what he wants you to understand and to take away. Okay, so you gotta take some time here to really spend some time in the Word, see what the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, then apply. We’re gonna start off easy. Couple of two easy verses, okay. 21, 22, says then Peter came in and said Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?
04:58
Up to seven times. Jesus said to him I do not say up to you seven times, but to 70 times seven. Okay, so we can think we can all relate to Peter. Okay, peter’s just saying what’s on his mind. That’s why I love old Peter. He just lets it fly right. Sometimes there’s no filter and he’s probably like bro, do you really just say that? I guess I can just relate to Peter. He’s just very direct.
05:19
And so Jesus had talked about conflict resolution within the church and the step one was to go directly to that person, right, because you wanted to go directly to that person, so with the hopes of restoration, okay, and you can’t get that part. You can’t get that restoration without resentment, bitterness and unforgiveness. To raise his head right so often. That’s the reason we can’t get the restoration, because you’re gonna be somebody’s resentful, somebody’s gonna be bitter or somebody’s just gonna be unforgivable, and when that happens you’re not gonna be able to have forgiveness carry. So Peter’s asking this question. Okay, just think about this.
05:55
Peter asked this question after he experienced so many things. He experienced Jesus, not only Jesus himself walking on water, okay, and he was asking for clarification on parables. Peter did this a lot. He was told that Christ would build his rock, his rock on him. After he had a slam-dunk answer that he gave Jesus when he says who do you think I am right? He drilled it right, these four people. I’m gonna tell you what, peter. He didn’t mind stepping in and sharing his opinion, right, and when he started thinking about chapter 18 and looking at what’s going on here in God’s Word. It’s pretty cool because it’s talking about what it’s like to be a servant of Christ.
06:39
Now, we don’t know why Peter asked this one question, right? He could have just been a curious dude who just really wanted to know yo, jesus, you’ve done some incredible things. You’re obviously Messiah, you’re the Son of God. So I’ll finally forget folks. It could have just been a completely innocent question, okay, but really he wanted to know how he could restore that fellowship with a fellow believer when there’s conflict and we know we’re gonna have conflict in this world, right? And he could have known, well, been curious to know what’s the minimal barrier of entry. We all wanna know that sometimes. Right, think about that class in college, like bro, what do I gotta get, just so I don’t have to take this class again. I think you guys can all relate to this.
07:24
Maybe Peter was doing like that, I don’t know, maybe that’s what it was. And look, think about a concert. Sometimes you just want. You want to be in a front row, right, and sometimes you just wanna be in the building. So somewhere in between just being in the building and being in the front row, peter just wanted to know. He just wanted to know nothing wrong here.
07:43
Now, rabionic Judaism actually taught that you had to four times that if after that genuine repentance had not occurred. So really, what was going on here is basically you say, okay, I get that, so if I go seven, that’s pretty astronomical compared to whatever one’s teaching right here these days. Right, and what’s going on really is what we show no mercy are natural response. Think about this for a second, guys, when you think about showing no mercy, our natural response was kind of a big deal. Right, it’s a really big deal. So Jesus shot this stuff down quickly. He’s saying no, bro, I’m not saying that you can do this, I’m saying it up to 70 times seven.
08:33
There’s a couple other verses I wanna share with you guys. You don’t have to turn there, you can’t even do two. But let’s go and look at Genesis real quick. Genesis four look at verse 15, it’s hanging with me while I read this one and it says so. The Lord said to them therefore, whoever kills King, vengeance will be taken upon him. Seven pole and the Lord appointed a sign for King so that no one fighting him would slay him. Now let’s look also at Genesis four 20, 30, 24. It says Lamak said to his wives, ada and Zilla listen to my voice, you eyes of Lamak, give heed to my speech, for I’ll kill a man, wounding me, and that boy for striking me. The King is a then seven fold and Lamak 77 fold, all right.
09:15
So what’s going on here, fellas, as Lamak was bragging about how much more ruthless he was in King that’s what it was, fellas, we talked about and how much more God would value his action. This is some ultimate twisted thinking here, fellas. This is not how we should act. This is not how we should respond. So when Jesus is doing, he’s making a stark contrast right here, very stark contrast to these retaliation stories. We’re not called retaliate. He was teaching mercy, field thinking. That’s it. Not retaliation, mercy, big difference, right? And we need to have extravagant forgiveness as we move forth as Christian men.
09:50
Extravagant forgiveness means doing things that no one else would even consider. Why would you do that? Because you’re more called to do, we’re more to walk in the image of Christ and to be more and more like him. We can’t be of the way of the world. The way of the world is just like. You know what? Just forgive, maybe, if you want to. It’s up to you or you could just count. You know, if you don’t forgive him, maybe that’s all he’s gonna do, that you’re gonna have to talk to this person again.
10:14
That’s not what Jesus is teaching right here. He’s talking about being an extravagant forgiver, and sometimes that is hard, particularly when people have hurt you in meaningful ways or hurt your loved ones or, forbid even like, killed your loved ones. It can be hard for us to actually go out and extend forgiveness. It’s just real. So it’s really important, as we kind of dig into it, to understand that in order for us to be spiritually whole, we gotta let some more forgiveness go, fellas. We cannot let that our forgiveness take root and start growing, because it grows big and it can get out of hand and next thing you know it is pulling you down, it is impacting your walkings, impacting your testimony, and we cannot have that, fellas. Okay, so now we’ll take our first break. We’re gonna come back and we’re gonna unpack some little bigger piece of scripture here to look and see what our forgiveness is all about, how we can actually set the bottom part of this in our life. We’ll be right back, guys.
11:20
Are you enjoying the weekly spiritual kickoff? If so, we are now offering a way to participate in our live, daily spiritual kickoffs that happen Monday through Friday in our community. This is your chance to chat with me directly and other members of our community, to dive into scripture and to leave with practical ways to simplify and apply God’s word to your daily walk. And here’s the best part you get all of this for just $5 a month. So for what most people pay for a breakfast meal, you can join us on this journey of spiritual growth and leadership, which will always lead you full. Our community is dedicated to supporting each other and pushing forward in our faith. Come join me in the lion’s den and become the leader God intends you to be. Sign up now at the lionwithinus and let’s start this journey together. Remember it’s only $5 a month for this amazing opportunity. So visit the lionwithinus so you don’t miss out. All right, guys, we’re back now.
12:20
So we just talked about Peter here and asking the question, and Jesus gives him the answer of forgiving 70 times seven. Let’s pick up and read a few verses here. Let’s read 23 to 27. Says for this reason, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. Now again, jesus, is Jesus talking? When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him 10,000 tablets was brought to him, but since he did not have the means to repay it, his Lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying I have patience with me and I will pay you everything. And the Lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. All right, fellas.
13:12
So what’s going on right here? Jesus is using stories to teach. I think he’s using the stories to teach because he knows Peter, just like me. We gotta break it down for Jesus. Okay, we’re a little slow in the uptake sometimes, so I’m gonna give you some context to help you think about the amount of money that this sermon owed. Maybe you listen to sermons on this, maybe you can. You already know, but when he says 10,000 tablets right there, that was actually about 200,000 years worth of money. Let that sink in. We’re talking billions, pun billions, if not trillions dollars. Right, it would just be like somebody’s staying up. You stood up to work today and say you know what y’all need to chill out. Everybody, calm down, relax. I’m fixing to stroke me a check to US government to pay off the national debt. I got it, don’t worry. Just maybe you wanna hold that check to a payday. But other than that, hey, we’re good to go. Right, this is what it’d be, right, we’re kinda going.
14:15
It’s crazy to think about it, cause we’re gonna dig in and notice how the king didn’t accept this fellow’s crazy terms. No, this is not what this is about. What the king did was he extended forgiveness. Big, big difference here. Okay, verse 23,.
14:33
For this reason, the king of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to have his settled accounts with slaves. All right, now it’s also in some version. It begins with therefore, right, that’s so. Whenever you see, therefore, you gotta see what it’s there for. But Jesus ties this parable to the life of the king. Right, that’s what he’s doing, cause he’s teaching us right here, to all who believe right, you need to settle this, you need to settle this with their slaves. So what’s going on is the principle he was teaching us here is a format that Jewish leaders would often pull Kings, servants okay, kings and servants, and usually, in this format, king would represent God, servants would represent believers. Okay, that’s it.
15:20
So the part about selling accounts that he talks about right here, that actually is referred to how, in time, people were kindly sold in slavery as a way of selling debt. Now it really listed the way we think of it so many times. When we think about slavery, a lot of times you would be in someone’s debt, so you technically would be their quote, unquote slave, but you would just work off your debt. Now, when that debt is worked off, you’re free to go right. So it’s just a little bit different context of what’s going on back then versus what’s going on now. Okay, so this has been a very common occurrence and that the disciples would have very much recognized and been able to connect with. Okay, and probably even related with. Probably there’s no back and forth on this, but who knows, some of these disciples could have been indebted to slaves at some point in their life, right, it was just a very common occurrence, again, much different than the slave training that we think of today.
16:13
Okay, now, when you look at verse 24 and 25, when he had begun to settle them, one who owed him 10,000 talents was brought to him, but since he did not have the means to repay. His Lord commanded him to be sold, while his wife, children all he had and repayment to be made Now. Again, the amount of money here would have been even hard to imagine. I mean, just try to put your mind around the national debt number. It’s just mind boggling, right? And when you think about for a little further context, one talent was about 6,000 denarii, okay, and denarii was one day’s wages, right? So just think about it as 16 million days to sell this debt. Okay, so I don’t know where old Dave Ranji is at when he needed him, but that’s a debt snowball Like you never see. That debt snowball would kill somebody around them, right?
17:04
So look what the King commanded. What did the King command Right here, the King of? So, right here, in verse 24, he was demanding everything that the means be repaid. So he was saying, okay, I get it, but you repay me. You’re gonna have to pay it all, everything, family possessions, your kids, your wife, everything you own. That’s what you’re gonna have to do. Even though, think about this for a second you ever thought about this? Everything the King was asking for right here, or what it asked for, would not even be a drop in the bucket to compare to what this guy owed. Okay, think about that for a second. Guys, I mean, just think about it If they sell everything that you own, would it even come close to selling your national debt? Maybe, but most likely, maybe not. Right, let’s just be real, maybe not, and that’s what’s going on. So it’s pretty interesting that the King would even propose that. That’s an interesting comment when you look at verse 26,.
18:03
So the slave fell to the ground, prostrated himself before him, saying have patience with me and I will pay you everything. Yo bro, desperate times call for desperate measures. I’m gonna say it’s Hail Mary time. Please help me, please help me. Right, he was broken. He was absolutely broken, and the Aramaic word for debt was commonly used in the Hebrew and the Hebrew, but it’s the same word for sin.
18:30
You guys hear me talking about it a lot of times, a lot of the times sin. It was thought of. Just a few generations ago, that debt was actually viewed as sin. Okay, think about the Lord’s prayer give us our debts, right. So it’s basically what’s going on. He was in utter desperation, utter desperation, and he was also pretty dug on, humiliated. Think about what he had to do. One of the boys was doing to keep my dish much debt. He must have had one heck of a weekend at Vegas weekend, right, or maybe Corinth right. There you go. So he was basically at the king’s mercy. He was at the king’s mercy and begging was all he could do, right, and all he could offer saying I can repay. That was a few times. I mean, we talked about drops in the bucket, fellas, and look, you gotta remember debt and sin. They go to Gallow.
19:21
Guys, I’m not trying to make this an episode where I’m talking about why debt is bad. We need to eliminate it. But I’m telling you there’s things, there’s wisdom to be found from God’s word. Now look at verse 27,. And the Lord of debt and the Lord of debt slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him a debt. So think about this, the three things right here you have to master, pity, cancel.
19:49
Okay, the master had all the power. He had all the power. He could do whatever he wanted because he was in charge, he was in control. The master had pity, right, the verb formula that was actually used in the scripture right here in the case that he was deeply moved, right. So this is not just something. He just felt bad like. No, this is a deep within his spirit, it’s in his soul. Something moved him and canceled the debt. Right, the only finnish buts. It’s just canceled, it’s gone.
20:23
It costed the master everything. Right, think about that. It cost him everything. He was never gonna be able to be repaid by that servant. It cost him everything. Now, make that time, do your salvation. That salvation. You can’t work your way in the heaven King, you can’t pay for it. So that penalty for our sins costed Jesus everything, everything. Now. He was thinking about that when he was hanging on that cross. Fellas, I’m here to tell you he was thinking about you and you may not think that, you may not believe that. I’m here to tell you that’s from the lives, from the pits of hell, from the evil one, if you get sent back to where it belongs. He was thinking on you hanging on that cross. That’s the gospel, that. This is a picture of the gospel right here.
21:08
He couldn’t make the payment, so the master stuck himself in and took the payment upon himself. It’s beautiful when you start thinking about this right and seeing how God’s word starts to reveal itself to us as we lean in, as we learn as we listen, as we let the Holy Spirit guide and direct us. Like he look, he felt compassion, released him, forgave debt. I imagine how he felt he owed all this money and all of a sudden it wasn’t there anymore. That burden wasn’t holding him down. He didn’t have that doom overtop him. The stress, the anxiety, the panic attacks probably went away right. Just imagine all the debts you have. Maybe you have a house, car, you know some personal debts. Maybe you got credit card debt, student loans. Think about what that number is. Maybe it’s $100,000. Maybe it’s $500,000. Or getting close to a million, or maybe a couple million. Whenever that number is, think about the impact it would have that number were erased in mine.
22:22
How would you feel the next day? Would you feel a little encouraged? Would you feel a little weight lifted off your shoulder? How many of us would go out and make some stupid decisions the next day and probably be right back in this same situation, right, you just never know. But I like to think about it. What is this man in that moment Before we get to the next verses, because we’ll find out in the next verses he just completely screws up everything. How would you feel? How would you feel? Would you have just ultimate joy and just absolute thankfulness? But it’d just be one of those moments where it’s like you’re shaking because you can’t believe it. I think many of us would Imagine if you didn’t have to make a mortgage payment anymore. How good would that feel. Or a car payment, or a truck payment, or credit card payment or anything. With a payment you don’t have to make them anymore. Everything’s canceled. Everything would be pretty incredible. Right? We’re going to see this memory. This was all canceled. Everything’s taken care of. Let’s see what his response is going to be. Okay, we’ll take a quick break, guys. We’ll be right back. We’ll check out his response.
23:48
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25:00
So Pete is asking look how many times I need to forgive somebody. Jesus is basically saying yo, bro, you just keep forgiving until I tell you what it means. Never. You always can be forgiving. And he’s given him a story.
25:11
Jesus is trying to paint a story to help Peter understand. He talks about this dude who owed basically the national debt for the United States to a king, and king he was like yo, just give me a chance, I’ll pay it back. There’s no way he could pay it back. We’re talking about years upon years, upon years of debt. There’s no way he could pay it back. King was going to take him, take his family, take all his possessions, even though that was a drop in the bucket. He’s going to get rid of him, take it and get him out. And all of a sudden the king felt compassion and forgave the debt. Now, now let’s see how he responds.
25:46
We’re going to read 28-35 together and then we’re going to unpack this. So 28-35 in Matthew 18 says but the slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him 100 in there and he seized them and began to choke him, saying pay back what you owe. So a slave fell down to the ground and began to plead with him, saying I have patience with me and I will repay you. But he was unwilling and went through him in the prison. He should pay back what he was owed. So when his fellow slaves saw what happened, they were deeply grieved.
26:19
It came and reported to the Lord all that had happened. Then, summoning him, his Lord said to him you wicked slave, I forgave you all the debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave in the same way that I had mercy on you? And this, and his Lord moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. My heavenly Father will also do the same to you Eat, if, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart. Woo, I don’t know about you fellows, but that just got real, that just got real quick.
27:01
Now, the servant missed it. He missed it, he missed mercy, he missed grace, he missed forgiveness, all the things that the King just gave to him. He missed it. Forgiveness is a choice and it’s a process. And God fell us. He knows our hearts, he knows them and he will help us with our forgiveness by his spirit, by his word and with other believers. Now we don’t want to mess this stuff. And when you look at the first two verses 28 through 30, the first three verses the slave went out and found one of the fellow slaves, wrote him a hundred and Mary, right. And basically what was going on? He seized him, choked him. The other guy fell to the ground and was basically begging him, right, begging him, look. But he was unwilling to admit to prison and take him paying back. God expects us to forgive, pretty simple. This wasn’t a lesson on finances here, guys, don’t get caught up, okay, it was a lesson on forgiveness, particularly forgiving our brothers and sisters in Christ.
28:06
Now notice the parallels here. You got the guy in charge, who was the king, and the servant, right. In both situations the king was the first guy in charge. The second situation the servant was the guy in charge. You had the guy in debt, you had the servant, who was the first guy that was in debt. Then you had the fellow servant who’s in the second kind of debt, right, okay. Then you have threats made. So the king was making the threats originally right, I want you to repay everything. And the servant was making the threats made right. Basically saying, look, if you were choking him, right. Then you had pleads. Who made the first plead? The original servant was making that plea to the king. The second plead was the other servant to the original servant.
28:48
I know it’s kind of trying to try to follow along with all the guys that tell me Then we have a shift. Here’s the shift. So we’ve had a guy in charge, a guy in debt, threats and pleads. Okay, all that’s been tracking, all that stuff’s been tracking in both stories. You can pretty much line them up side by side and you’ll get the same outcome Until you get the response.
29:11
What’s the response? The king, forgiveness, the servant, imprisonment. Notice how different they are. He was determined to get his 100 in the area. That’s what it said right here 100 in the area. Okay, now, when you think about that, that was about a quarter of a year worth of work. Not a small number. I’m not. I wanted to diminish it. It wasn’t like he was like 50 bucks Now, it was a significant number, but it wasn’t a national debt, the way that he owed Right, pretty small number in comparison. But notice just that shift and their response. So think about your one. What is your response? Okay, there’s an opportunity to extend forgiveness. Are you gonna put your foot down, keep your foot on their throat, not let them up, or are you gonna actually extend forgiveness and walk them out and show them with mercy, with compassion, with love? Very interesting here. Okay, now let’s see how the people around him responded. 31 says.
30:22
When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came reported to the Lord All that had happened. So what did they do? They went and touted on him and to summon him, the Lord said you, wicked slave, I forgave you and all that debt To you not have also had mercy on your fellow slave? Don’t forget that one. In the same way that had mercy on you, the Lord moved with anger, handed over him to the torturers until they should have repaid all that he was owed. My heavenly father also did the same to you. Each one of you does not forgive his brother from your heart. Guys, I’m telling you this is so.
30:57
Dog on a port, and as we read this word together, we don’t know if the servant knew the other guys, if we knew about his debt and the inter-race. We don’t know. We don’t know that right. He doesn’t say that those servants actually saw and had, privy to the understanding, that his debt was erased. So we don’t know that. What we do know is that them boys were hot when they saw what was going on. They were hot. They went straight to the man in charge.
31:28
Right, imagine it’s you sitting right there. Imagine you’re the king. You’re sitting there in your trunk, in your throne, you’re chilling, you’re eating some grapes, you’re maybe sipping on some wine, you’re chilling out with all your peasants that are bringing you stuff that you want. An old boy comes up and says you know what that dude you forgave with, like you know, the trading, the dollars, yeah, yeah, I know that dude. Yeah, well, he just do.
31:55
One of the boys in prison for a couple months worked of money that he owed him, and just think about this. How would you have responded? Would you be, would you? I’m just gonna be straight up. Would you be pissed or would you be chill? Most of us would probably be elevated in that moment. Right, why? Because injustice had just occurred, and we don’t like that. The king didn’t either.
32:24
Right, and think about what. We see this rebuke. We see it in action, right here, guys. Right, the first meeting. You go back to the first meeting, the beginning of this, of this, this part of Matthew. When a slave left that meeting, he was free. He was free. When he left the second meeting, guys, he left with the death sentence. He ain’t gonna ever pay this back. This was a death row sentence.
32:54
Right here, okay, and Jesus makes it very simple for us, fellas, and this is your way to simplify and apply this. Right here, okay, forgetting people are to forgive people. That’s it. Forgiving people are to forgive people. So God has shown us right here, through extravagant forgiveness. He gives us and he expects the same in return. Right, he knows your heart, guys. He knows my heart, okay, I’m not, I’m not excluded here. He knows my heart, and that’s the core. What he desires is that we love others.
33:33
It says right here in Ephesians 4-32 guys be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God and Christ has also forgiven you. Do you walk that out? Do you walk that verse out? Because that should be right there at the hallmark of us as believers, right there we have to walk out forgiveness. We can’t just be walking around bitter and then a curmungent and always got these, these bad thoughts going on. No, walk out forgiveness. Truly, extend it to others. Extend grace, mercy, compassion. We can’t afford not to forgive, fellas, we cannot afford to not forgive. I’m telling you because if your heart is sick with our forgiveness, that’s gonna take you down. The good news is you can be healed, you can be restored to immaculate spiritual health when you lean in on the great physician. But you have to lean in on Jesus, you have to let the Holy Spirit guide and direct you.
34:37
I want you to think about where do you need to start extending some forgiveness? You know who are you hardest on? I know a lot of times for me it’s for my wife, my beautiful wife of back. Well, I can be the hardest on her sometimes because she gets the worst version. A lot of times I’m tired, and when I’m tired, the worst version comes out. So I had to be more intentional about extending forgiveness and asking for forgiveness with her. So who do you need to forget? Who do you need to have that conversation with? But you know what? I’ve been a jerk, I have just been a jerk and I’ve really want to walk out my Christian values and I would really like to ask for your forgiveness. Or maybe you need to extend some forgiveness, right, we all have those situations in our life too, where we need to extend some forgiveness. I’m not sure what your situation is. You don’t the Holy Spirit’s whispering something to you right now? I know you did.
35:37
You know that text you need to send, or that phone call you need to make, or that person you need to go visit. I would highly encourage you to do the last. This world’s the smartphones have taken so much out of us. If you can actually see that person. I bought an eyeball. There’s power with that. This phone call. It’s the second best thing. If nothing else can happen, then I guess the text will be okay. But primarily, we connect better when we see people.
36:04
So do you need extensive forgiveness today? Most likely, yes. Are you going to do anything about it? That’s your question, because if you want to unleash the line within, if you want to take this word and simplify and apply it and understand that forgiving people, forgive people, that means you got to take some action, fellas. You got to take some action. So think about this how can forgiveness extend beyond the limits that we set? We put these limits on ourselves. God doesn’t put those limits on us, but we do. We put those limits and when we put those limits, we’re holding us back. We’re holding ourselves back from the goodness, from the beauty, from the wonderful things that God has planned for us.
36:50
So, fellas, I pray today that you take this opportunity to forgive others, that you lean, that you ask for forgiveness, that you extend that forgiveness and that you let that just permeate all the things that you do as you try to be the leader God intends you to be. Guys, I’m telling you I want to pray for us. I feel the urge to pray. Follower, just thank you for the man listening. I pray that the guy who’s listening right now or the girl, that they know the steps they needed, taking obedience with you to forgive others the way you have called us to God. I pray you give them courage courage to step in and forgive and not worry about what the world thinks or the wrongdoings or they owe me more than I should forgive. Put all that to the side to know that ultimately, what you gave did for us, what you poured out your blood for us, and how you love us, how you forgive us from all the things we screw up and mess up on, how we should extend that same grace and mercy and compassion to others. I pray these guys take action and move forward and be the man you’ve called us to be. In Jesus’ name amen.
38:07
All right, fellas, let me know if you like this. We’d love to know your feedback on these types of episodes. I know we’re doing some things differently, but I just like to know what you think about it, if you get value from this stuff. Again, go check out the website TheLionWithInus. We have all our resources there. Give us a rating, write a review for the podcast, share the podcast out. Maybe this could be a good bridge opportunity for you. Use this podcast, this episode, as an opportunity for you to have a conversation around forgiveness with someone else, so you can say you know what I’m gonna listen to this podcast.
38:43
This one came across my plate. I was thinking about you. I want you to listen to it, and then I like to have a conversation, and this could be a natural way for you to open up the door, to have a conversation around forgiveness for someone that you’ve been putting off. Maybe guys have been just holding back, or maybe guys have been nudging you, but you haven’t had that full nudge. But guess what? Here’s your nudge Take action, use this nudge and move forward. Okay, move forward, Ask for that forgiveness, have that conversation. I’m telling you don’t put it off. Don’t put it off. So use this one, hit that share button, center it out to someone.
39:20
Again, hook up with us on our socials and things like that too. I’ll try to put some stuff out for this particular week of speaking to forgiveness that may help you. Okay, so hook up with us on YouTube, Facebook, instagram all those places you know raise, review, help, donations, help. If you want to be a donor, join the Lion Within Us community. You can visit. Go to belinwithinus. We have our spiritual kickoff community. That’s part of the Lion Within Us as well. We have our leadership coalition.
39:48
So if you’re a business leader and you want to find ways to take lessons just like this, like this right here forgiveness how can I apply forgiveness in business? Hey, this is what we’re going to do. Go unpack guys’ word together. We’re going to see how we can simplify and apply it to our life and help others you know, just come to have it Understand what it means to take this, the good news, god’s Word, and there it works, god, and apply it and actually walk it out.
40:14
All right, fellas, come back for our Fun Friday episode. I got some good dad jokes. I got some good tips for you. All the tips are going to kind of resonate around that idea of forgiveness. So, prayerfully, you will enjoy those. They will serve you well.
40:26
Now, again, I want your feedback. Do you like these types of episodes? We’re doing things a little bit different throughout the month. Usually we do this about once a month. So once you get your feedback, thank you for all the prayers, for all the support, all the things that you guys do for the Lion Within Us. It means the world. Each week, when I get and see how many people listen to the show and feedback, I can express what it means to me. So reach out support at the lionwithinus Again, that support at the lionwithinus, If I can serve you, if I can help you, you just need someone to talk to because you’re having a really tough day. Reach out and let me know I’m here to help. Okay, all right, fellas, get after it. Have a great day. See you back here on Fun Friday. Remember Matthew 1822, keep forgiving and don’t forget guys. Look for it the opportunity you can to unleash the lion with it.
In the heart of this discourse, we grapple with the parable of the unforgiving servant. This story not only underlines the real essence of debt and forgiveness but also mirrors modern society’s struggle with the same issues. We break down the monumental debt of 10,000 talents and illustrate its equivalent in today’s world, highlighting the impossibility of repayment. As our analysis intensifies, we position unforgiveness as a disease, with the ultimate cure lying in Jesus, the great physician.
As we journey towards the end of the discussion, we challenge you to actively seek forgiveness and engage in meaningful conversations about the power of forgiveness. In between, we lighten the mood with our ‘Fun Friday’ segment without losing focus on the all-important lesson of forgiveness. Tune in as we dissect forgiveness through a Christian lens, equipping ourselves to become more forgiving in our everyday lives. This is not just a podcast episode; it’s a call to action. Let’s become the forgiving leaders that God intends us to be!
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