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Good morning, everybody. Another beautiful day in Jackson. Yes. It's a good day to to praise God. It really is.
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I I got a verse I wanna share with you. It's from, Psalm 77. Oh God, your ways are holy. Is there any god as mighty as you? Is there any god as mighty as our God?
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You know, our God is awesome and it is good and it is right and it's fitting that we we praise him and give him give him our all. So, would you stand up with me? We're going to sing the holiness of God. Holy holy.
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Holy holy Lord God almighty early One more verse.
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Amen. Let's pray together. God, thank you. Thank you that you are holy, and you are our creator and our sustainer. We've come to worship you, and I pray that there would be nothing that hinders us from doing such things as this, to to give you our all.
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Amen. Y'all can have a seat.
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Alright. When Ray's gone, I get to do the announcements so you guys are in for a treat. Ray, Tanya's had a cousin that passed away this week. He actually got in a motorcycle accident in Las Vegas. So, they headed down there to be with the family.
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So, keep them in your prayers and I guess they'll be back early next week. So, announcements today, There they are. That's not them. Here we go. Survey.
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We've got a survey that we would like you guys to fill out. I'm just going to read the beginning of it for you so that you guys can decide to put it. Came via Email. Just fill it out right on your Email. Push in and it'll come back to us.
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If you don't get it on your Email, you can always grab a hard copy here, fill it out, drop it in. There's a basket in the back or just give it to Diane but this is the beginning of it. Last fall, the board of trustees convened facility committee to look into any safety issues and ministry limitations resulting from our well loved but well worn building. The kitchen and fellowship hall were mentioned the most as areas in need of attention. First Baptist Church Board of Trustees is prayerfully evaluating if a kitchen and fellowship hall upgrade is necessary for First Baptist Church at this time.
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You may also communicate your views directly with the board of trustees or me. Respectfully Doug Walkup. Don't communicate with me about those. Talk to Doug Walkup. And yeah, we're just trying to get a good idea of what you guys feel like the need of the fellowship hall and the kitchen are.
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So please fill those out. They came, I believe, on Friday to your Emails. If you got them, otherwise, grab a hard copy here. Sunday today, the girls study downstairs in common grounds. That's at 10:00 for middle school and high school girls.
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Monday nights, every Monday night, 06:15 down in the fellowship hall, a meal, music, and message with Carl. Youth Alliance Mixer this Wednesday. It's at the Presbyterian Church from 07:45PM to 9PM and that is for middle school and high school kids. It's where we get together with all the different youth groups here in town and we just kind of hang out and sort of do one big youth group together. So, that's actually this Wednesday, 07:45 to nine and I'm happy to drop any kids off afterwards.
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We'll load up in the church van here at 07:30 and I'll drop them off at home that night since nine is getting pretty late but that is this Wednesday. Fill this up. There are baby bottles in the back and it is a turning point fundraiser. So, there's a bunch of baby bottles. If you guys can put collect change or things like that, we wanna fill those up if you just have a donation, you wanna write a check or drop cash unless you can.
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But that has started up again. Many of you are familiar with that one. There's a family mission trip to Guatemala, May ninth through the sixteenth. The Macuis are heading that up and if there's any interest in that, you guys can get a hold of Brian or Casey and they can give you more information on that but that's May ninth through the sixteenth. Mint Snowmobile Retreat, February twentieth through the twenty second.
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Get a hold of Matt Litzelman or John Micus for that. And the World World Day of Prayer twenty fifteen. We're hosting it here at First B on March 6. It's a Friday and it's at noon. And that's it.
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You guys can get up, welcome one another, and we're glad you're here.
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How great thou art.
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When Christ shall come
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and when Christ shall come, we'll shout some acclamation and take me home. What joy shall fill my heart and then I shall bow in number of adoration in their proclaim my God of great you are. Ephesians sings my soul my savior got to be. How great thou art, how great thou art. What a friend we have in Jesus.
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And what a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and grease to bear. And what a privilege to care, ever with things you've got in prayer and oh, what peace we often warfare won't need this pain we bear all because we do not care we thank you God in prayer have we trials and temptations? Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
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God, you are a great fan a great friend, our heavenly father. And, yeah, God, we do forfeit peace by not bringing our cares and our worries and everything to you and I I pray that it just this song would be a reminder of that. We continue to trust in and lean into you even when we don't want to at times but that we would. And just trust in you for everything. You're a good, good father.
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We love you. Amen. From Colossians three sixteen, let the message about Christ and all its richness fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom that God's word gives and sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. We have the privilege every week of getting into God's word and it's not it's not like what I'm saying or what's Ray saying but what God is saying in his word and it is is amazing.
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It's a life changer, friends. It really is. And this song is is saying saying that. It's an old hymn. It's a hymn Sunday kinda.
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But if you recognize it, jump in.
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And beauty. Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words, wonderful words words, a lot. Christ, the blessed one, gives to all. Wonderful words of life. And sinner, yes, to his loving call wonderful words of life.
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Also freely give the wooingness to hell. The beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life. Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life.
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They sweetly echo the gospel.
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And to
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God, I thank you for these wonderful words that give life, and they do. Life and life to the full measure. And thank you, God, for everything that you give. Once again, I've been thinking about the the the rich man who walked away. He had great wealth and he met you.
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He had an encounter with you and he went away sad and he didn't have to. That's just been just striking me lately. He didn't have to walk away sad if he would have opened his hand and and just simply offered his life, his riches. He could have been the richest man on earth. And it may not have been wealth, but he would have been rich with you, Jesus.
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And that could be us too, God and I'm praying that we would understand that all things they come from you and if we can simply return just a portion of that, I mean, what joy we have in you to realize that everything isn't about material wealth. It's about the things of eternity. The things that really matter, things that last. So, I pray God that in this worship of giving, it just would be an expression of our heart to you and we'd be putting our self in that offering plate. Jesus name, amen.
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You can be seated.
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Woman named Renee Napier wrote to me from Florida and she shared with me about how she has a mission in her life that she never would have chosen for herself and she's been on a journey stepping out of the darkness of bitterness and anger and into the light of forgiveness. She's been asked to do the impossible and the reason she's been asked to do the impossible is because her 20 year old daughter was driving home from the beach one night in Florida when her car was struck by a drunk driver. The drunk driver was a 24 year old kid named Eric who by all accounts was actually a really great kid, but he was out and made some bad decisions one night and for the first time got behind the wheel of his car drunk. Eric took the lives of both Renee's daughter and her daughter's best friend. Both girls died that night.
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And Eric, his life came to a screeching halt. Renee's life came to a screeching halt. Everybody involved was in shock. Eric was sentenced to twenty two years in prison, because of the crime he committed. And here's this grieving mother left to somehow try and pick up the pieces of life after she's had to do what no parent should ever have to do.
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Say goodbye to her child. She said she was in the darkest place that she'd ever been in her life. She was filled with hatred and anger towards the man who was behind bars. And anyone of us on the outside could look at that story and say, well, I I understand that. I get that.
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In fact, when I read her story, I thought about my two little girls, you know, and the first thought I had is if anybody ever tried to harm my children, I don't know that I would have it in me to forgive as God commands us to forgive and yet, as the months, began to pile up, she felt like God was putting it on her heart that, she was the one Even though he was behind bars, she was the one being held prisoner. And, God just began to remind her, hey, I did the impossible and forgave you. I set my son for you. Now, if you want to be free, you need to go and forgive this man. So, she reached out to Eric behind bars and said, hey, I serve a god who commands me to forgive.
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So, I want you to know that I've I'm setting it free. I'm forgiving you. More importantly, I want you to know that God can forgive you too. Little did she know that that would change that young man's life and behind bars, this prisoner, Eric, accepted Jesus into his heart as his own personal savior. Powerful story of what forgiveness can do.
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The story didn't end there though. Renee began to develop an unlikely friendship with this young man and her whole family began to embrace this young man and now they feel like they lost a daughter but strangely, they've gained a son. Renee worked with the courts in Florida and had his sentence cut in half from twenty two years to eleven years. At the time I was writing this song, I had no idea that this was going on. So I'm writing these these songs about setting a prisoner free.
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Little did I know that this November, Eric is gonna be released from prison, and he'll be standing side by side with Renee. Renee goes around the country and shares at schools about the dangers of drunk driving. Now Eric's gonna be out of prison standing next to her. She said they're not just gonna share about the dangers of drunk driving anymore but also about the power of forgiveness. I'll sing that last verse again, and, these words took on new significance when I found out that Eric was free and Renee was free.
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It'll clear the bitterness away. It can even set a prisoner free. There is no end to what its power can do. So let it go and be amazed by what you see through eyes of grace. The prisoner that it really freezes you.
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Forgiveness.
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Isn't that an incredible story of forgiveness? Renee and Eric were both prisoners. Renee was a prisoner of anger and bitterness because she lost her daughter. And Eric was literally a prisoner behind bars, but he was also a prisoner of the guilt that he had for the crime that he committed. And it could have stayed there just like that for a long, long time.
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But through forgiveness, God set both of them free. It is amazing the power of forgiveness and what it could do in a person's life. This morning's message is really all about forgiveness. We're taking a week off of of Corinthians here while Ray and Tanya with her family. As Renzi said, she lost a real close cousin in in Vegas this week in a motorcycle crash and so we said, get down there, be with them, and that's where they are and in fact, I'd like to as a just a church family, let's pray for em right now, can we?
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God, we do pray for for for Tanya's family, for everyone there as they're meeting together. Oh, I pray that love would just fill up fill up their hearts and and the hope of you, the hope of your resurrection would fill up their hearts and their minds and they can love one another well and even find joy and sadness. We pray in Christ name. Amen. Well, on Monday nights, I've been preaching through the book of Matthew and this passage that we're looking at today has really grabbed a hold
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of me
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because so much of life is about forgiveness. Would you agree? Like, we are imperfect people and we live in an imperfect world and we do imperfect things and people get hurt. People get hurt and Peter, well aware of this truth, he comes to Jesus one day and he says, he asked him a really good question. I think it's a question we've probably asked it at one time or another.
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He asked him this, Lord, how often should I forgive? How many times should I forgive someone who sins against me? And Jesus had an answer for me. And then and it's the same answer for us today. The same answer.
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The scriptures on the screen and and there's also bibles in the seats in front of you, but I invite you to look at either on the screen or in the Bible front or your own Bible. Mark up your Bibles. Use your highlighters. Whatever you want to do but let's get this in our in our minds here. Matthew eighteen twenty one to 35.
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Here's what it says. Peter came to him and asked, lord, how many times? How often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven? No.
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Not seven times, Jesus replied, but 70 times seven. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who decide to bring his accounts up to date with a servant who would borrow money from him. In the process, one of his debtors who was brought in, who owed him millions of dollars. He couldn't pay. So, his master ordered that he be sold along with his wife, his children, everything that he owned to pay the debt.
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But the man fell down before his master and he begged him. Please, be patient with me. I'll pay it all. Then his master was filled with pity for him and he released him and he forgave his debt. But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars and he grabbed him by the throat and he demanded instant payment.
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His fellow servant fell down before him and he begged him for a little more time. Be patient with me. I will pay it, he pleaded. But his creditor wouldn't wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.
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When some of the other servants saw this, they were upset and they went to the king and they told him everything that had happened. Then, the king called in the man, he had forgiven and said, you evil servant. Catch this part right here. This is the theme. I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me.
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Shouldn't you have mercy on your fellow servant just as I had mercy on you? The angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he could pay his entire debt. That's what my heavenly father will do if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart. Let's pray together. God, I'm asking that this message, I'm I'm guessing many of us have heard it.
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So many times. This age old message of forgiveness. I'm praying that it would fall in open ears and tender hearts. Would you help us to see first and foremost that you have forgiven us? Fully and freely.
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We did not do anything to deserve it. But you've done it anyway and we can't pay that sin debt and so you step down and you paid it for us and you forgave us and with that in mind, oh, here's the tough part. We need your help to forgive others when they sin against us. None of us, I know that none of us want to live as prisoners to anger or bitterness or guilt or pain. Would you help us to see that we can truly be free?
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Because of forgiveness. Amen. Alright, from the top, here we are. Peter's question, how many times? How many times is seven enough, right?
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That seems like a generous amount. Like seven? Sure. You know, he's probably thinking, I'm going to I'm going to get Jesus on this one. How about seven times Jesus?
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And Jesus says, nope. No, not seven times but 70 times seven. Okay. So four ninety times. At four ninety one, done.
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Who's counting to four ninety one? Right? We get the point. We're not counting to four ninety one so we can stop forgiving. Clearly, Jesus is saying, forgive without stopping.
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Whoo. As Ray has been taking us through first Corinthians first Corinthians 13 is kind of stuck with me and I think back to where it says, love keeps no record of being wrong. Love does not keep a record of being wrong. Substitute the word love for forgiveness because really to love is to forgive and it says, forgiveness keeps no record of being wrong. Isn't that so true?
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If you keep track of every time that you are wrong, every time that you're wrong, you keep track. What do you gain from it? High blood pressure? Anger? Is it worth it?
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Is it living? It's just not. I've heard it said, not forgiving is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Have you heard that before? That's about right, isn't it?
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The parable that Jesus tells us about the unforgiving dinner, debtor is, it is so spot on and if I were put it into a sentence, I would say it like this. By the way, this is the whole thing right here in this one sentence. God has forgiven us. So, we should forgive others. Let me start with the first part of that.
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God has forgiven us. In this parable, the servant, he owed his master millions of dollars. Here's the truth about that guy. He couldn't pay it back. For what he did, he could not pay that wage back.
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It was just impossible. Over his lifetime, he couldn't pay his debt. So, what does his master do? Verse 27, he was filled with pity and he released him and he forgave his debt. Like right there, that is the story of a Christian's life In debt to God, unable to earn our way to heaven but God, in his mercy, sends Jesus as payment for our sin.
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That's the story of a Christian's life right there. Romans five eight, this has been my kind of a a life verse, a favorite verse of mine but God showed his great love by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. It's not God sent Jesus when we became good people. It's not God sent Jesus because we deserved it. It's God sent Jesus while we were sinners.
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Though we were and are in error just like the master forgave the servant who was millions of debt and he could not pay it back. That's what God has done for us by sending Jesus to cancel our sin debt. Did we deserve it? No. Did we earn it?
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No. But God did it anyway. He forgives. Period. Some of you struggle with that and I and I know that reality that you know, how could God forgive me?
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And you look back to that thing or whatever it is or was and I'm telling you, God just does. He's amazing. Another favorite verse of mine right here, but if we confess our sins to him, he's what? Faithful. Faithful.
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And he's just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Bottom line, God stands ready to forgive. Therefore, this is the tough part guys. This is the tough part. We should forgive others.
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The being forgiven part, we love. This part, this part is hard, isn't it? This is probably the simplest sermon I've ever preached in my life and yet it's like the hardest. You know what I'm saying? It is probably one of the hardest.
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In the parable, we think that the servant had just been forgiven millions of dollars of debt would naturally do the same for his fellow servant who owed him a few thousand. But instead of forgiving him, he chokes him and he throws him in prison. When I read the gospels, they become very personal to me and I and I don't, you know, I don't know what you do but like when I read it, I was like, what's up with this guy? I was starting to get angry, you know. How could this guy have such little mercy for a guy who wrote him a few thousand?
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God just, you know, his master just forgave him his millions of dollars of debt. What is going on here? And and then I kind of had as I prayed on it, I sort of had one of those, you are that man kind of moments. Where God called me out in the the unforgiveness of my own heart and the hardness of my own heart. I want to ask you something.
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Have you ever found yourself getting mad even thinking about someone who's wronged you? Just the thought of them and your blood starts to boil. Oh, man. How about this? Do you ever think of things that you would say if you saw them face to face in public?
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Have you ever done that? Oh, if I saw them, I don't know what I'd do. I know what I'd say. You start to to rehearse what you would say in their mind. It things are getting pretty ugly up here, right?
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And in here? Do you ever imagine putting them in this move right here? By the wall, this is called the Walls Of Jericho. I wouldn't advise it. It looks painful.
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There's a name for the bitterness that we hold inside. It's called unforgiveness. There's a name for that. It's called unforgiveness. I remember a time my wife and I were passing through the town that I went to elementary school.
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And as we're passing through this town, we decided to stop and eat. And while we were sitting down to eat, I looked down a few tables and I saw a familiar face and immediately I recognized him. He was the bully from my elementary school. And I'll tell you what, like in that moment, my blood started to boil and I got upset, my face turned red, I didn't want to eat, my wife was like, what is your problem? What is your deal?
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That guy, he moved on. He had no idea who I was. He had no idea what he did but in that moment, I was a prisoner of my own unforgiveness and I was the one drinking the poison of bitterness and anger. Some of y'all have been drinking poison for years. Knock it off.
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I was the servant though in that parable who was forgiven my debt but unwilling to forgive this bully for his debt. Have you been there? Look at verse 33. Shouldn't you have mercy on your fellow servant? Just like I had mercy on you.
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Isn't that the story of this whole parable right here? But that's the ticker, right? That's the kicker. We should have mercy on others because God gives mercy to us. Now, it doesn't mean we want to.
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It doesn't mean we want to but we should. In fact, it's even a command. A command. Look at the supporting verses here. I I always like to look at these verses and go, oh, these are great but hard to follow, right?
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Instead, be kind to each other, tender hearted, forgiving one another just as God through Christ has forgiven you. How about another? Make allowances for each other's faults and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember the Lord forgave you so you must forgive others. A must.
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A must. CS Lewis, he said it this way, to be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. Listen, I want you to know that I stand in front of you as a person who has not figured this all out. I don't have it down. I don't even know why I'm preaching this message to be honest with you.
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Ray was gone. I was like, oh, this one looks good. What am I thinking? You know, like I've I I think I've only begin to scratch the surface of it in my own life. And I struggle with forgiveness as much as anyone else.
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Like it is a really hard thing. But it's a really necessary thing, guys. It's a very necessary thing. First and foremost, look at this. If you refuse to forgive others, your father will not forgive your sins.
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Let that truth sink in for a moment. God is serious about our forgiveness and forgiving others. He's given it fully and freely to us and he's saying now, I want you to give it to others. But another reason and this this really is the the life application part of the message that has struck me. There's a there's so much on this topic.
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I mean, we could go and go and go and go but the one that really struck me is, if we do not forgive, we will live like prisoners. We will live as prisoners if we are unwilling to forgive people. Prisoners anger and bitterness and resentment. I mean, it is not good emotionally or physically. There was a study that I read by Doctor.
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Luskin from Stanford. Listen to the things he says about about it. Holding on to anger for too long can seriously affect a person's emotional and physical health. Physically, the body is in a state of stress. Muscles tighten.
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Blood flow to the joints is restricted. Clenching of the jaws contribute to problems with teeth and jaw joints. Headaches become a problem. Chronic pain may get worse. Blood flow to the heart is constricted.
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This is starting to sound like a commercial. Cholesterol and blood pressure goes up. Digestion is impaired. Breathing may become more difficult. Have you ever experienced some of these things because you were so mad at someone?
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Anger can seriously impair the immune system, increasing the risk of infections and illness. However, this is kind of like a little tag. Forgiveness has been shown to lower blood pressure unnaturally. No kidding, right? But you get the, you get the point.
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Unforgiveness helps no one. Forgiveness not only frees the person who has offended you but it frees you too. I have a small handout on the coffee table in the back. It's called How to Truly Forgive. Just a couple page thing.
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And I think it's really helpful and practical. And you're welcome to grab one on the way out today. If you're in that position right now and you're going, man, forgiveness is hard. And I don't even know where to start. I thought that was helpful and practical.
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But here's the thing, I understand that a handout isn't going to make forgiveness easier. You know, just preaching a message on it doesn't make it easier. I understand the reality of the how hard it is to forgive but It's a real battle and I kind of like it. It's been said it's it's kind of like a boxing match. And you go around after round after round.
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You get back in that ring. You fight a little bit more and a little more and a little more and over time. By God's grace, You know what I'm saying? And some of you have been fighting for years and I I want to encourage you to just keep on. Stay in that ring.
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Forgiveness isn't easy but I do want to say this, like, it is possible. It is possible. And you know why it's possible? Because the same power that raised Christ from the dead is the power that lives in you. You know that?
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That's why it's possible. We're all coming back in first Corinthians to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Everything that we talk about goes back to the gospel, back to the cross. Death, burial, resurrection, Jesus. The power that raised Christ from the dead is the power that lives in you.
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And I don't know a lot. But I do know this. No one wants to live as prisoners to bitter and anger. Nobody does. It's not healthy and it's not living.
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It's not living. Here's the thing, God has shown us a better way. And his way brings freedom. You might be fighting God on this but I'm saying that scripture saying, his way brings freedom. It really does.
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And it brings wholeness. Like to be a whole person, a complete person from the inside out. That's what forgiveness does. The musician Matthew West from the beginning video and the opening clip, he wrote this song called Forgiveness and I just share a couple of the lines that he writes. It's the hardest thing to give away and it's the last thing on your mind today.
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It always goes to those who don't deserve. It's the opposite of how you feel when the pain that they caused is just too real. It takes everything you have to say the word. Forgiveness. It'll clear the bitterness away.
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It can even set a prisoner free. There is no end to what its power can do. So, let it go and be amazed by what you see through eyes of grace, the prisoner that it really sets free is you. Forgiveness. God has forgiven us.
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Therefore, we should forgive others. Got a short video clip here that illustrates this well. I'd like to invite the band up while this clip is being played. We'll close in one song and and one in a prayer if we could. Have it in us, and we need you.
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How generous are you to have forgiven our faults? You've been merciful to us. Would you give us the strength to be merciful to others? We pray this in your son's name. Amen.
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Let's stand together. I'd like to close in one last song. Note the chorus on this song, my chains are gone, and I've been set free. My God, my savior, his ransom.
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Are forever
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From Ephesians three twenty, now all glory to God who is able through his mighty power at work within us to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. That includes forgiveness. God bless you. Walk with Jesus this week. Amen?
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Amen.
