Responsibility to Others
First B Jackson
2022-10-23

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Alright. Good morning, everybody. I've got a good word from, Psalm one zero seven to lead us into worship this morning. It says, thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for he satisfies the longing soul and the hungry soul. He fills with good things.

Praise God for that. Would you stand with me, and we'll start by singing song in my soul.

Y'all y'all can have a seat. I've got a few announcements and a testimony actually, I think too this morning. Let's see what the announcements are. First of all, guessing it's Monday night. Yeah.

Yeah. We're on tomorrow. 06:00. Meal music message, I believe Don and Diana are going to be cooking for us tomorrow. Is this a surprise?

Okay. Anyway, they're gonna be... There'll be food there and we are beginning the book of Mark, the good news about Jesus, the son of God.

Hey. So Amen. Start Mark tomorrow. Cool. That's Monday night.

Happened at the same time as Awana. Awana's back. It's been back since the September 26. We're going strong right now. Lots of volunteers are there.

Lots of kids coming in, and we're pouring scripture into their minds to reach their hearts, and, it's a good thing. I think that we might reference at a time or two in the sermon today. Sisters Saved by Grace is a Bible study that's being led by Nancy Baxter on Thursday evenings in the fellowship hall. They get together and they eat a meal together, study the word together, and hang out together. And it's really, really, really good.

So if you want more information, you can call Nancy Baxter. There's her number up there. Or you can just come on Thursday night. Checking the lost and found. There may be things you lost long ago that are back there.

If you have lost anything, over in the back corner back there up under the bookshelves, there are lots of stuff back there. And winter having arrived, I think this morning sometime, you might want your jacket that you lost two and a half years ago and it's back there. So it's back in the back of the sanctuary. If you would check that, that'd be great. We're also, if you look to the other side of the sanctuary, there's a food drive.

And we're collecting different items for one twenty two. Do you all know what one twenty two is? It's the new name for the community resource center. New as in like five or six or seven years. But that is...

It was started by all of the churches in town trying to have both a food pantry, but also a way of helping folks who were in need. So there's food drive each week. We're collecting different items for one twenty two, and the items are listed out there. They're also listed on our website, and they'll change week to week. But if you would, for the next month or so, we'll be collecting for that.

Operation Christmas Child, I think that KC is gonna come forward and share about that. She has a little box of goodies.

Hi. So we are gonna start collecting items for Operation Christmas Child, and what it is is we send shoe boxes through Samaritan's Purse, and they go all over the world, Christmas gifts for kids. We are doing two things. You can either get a shoebox at the back table and pack it on your own, or we are having a packing party on Wednesday, November 16. Oh, wait.

That's right.

Okay. Yeah. I saw the nineteenth up there too. So we're having a packing party here on Wednesday, and you can just bring a whole bunch of things. If you have a whole bunch of pads of paper or pencils or boxes of crayons, You can just bring items and we can just pack different boxes.

I did a sample box and I'm gonna put on the back table. So they're asking for a wow item. So bigger item that's either a stuffed animal or a soccer ball with a pump, and then different personal items, you know, nail files, toothbrush, things like that, toys, flip flops, whatever. I'm gonna have this box back here as a sample, and then I will also put a poster up during the week of things that they really discourage you from bringing. But this is a great way to bless some kids who would not ever get a gift in any other way except through this this organization.

So... And they take these shoe boxes by by boat and train and camel and airplane and it's really exciting to see. And then they also walk these kids through a booklet that teaches them about the love of Christ. And through that, many families have come to know Jesus just through one little Christmas shoebox. So it's really exciting.

So I hope a lot of people can join us.

Thank you. I'll hold on to it. Thank you. And... Alright.

We've got a little video. Oh, that's fun. Well, that is cool. Oh, are we singing next? Is that what's going on, or is Monique coming forward?

Okay. Monique, will you come on? So we've got from the masses to the individual right here. This is Monique Ibarra. And it looks like she's got a visual aid.

So show and tell.

So just really short. So those boxes, if you just want to pass them around, there's a little candy from Indonesia and some Indonesian money you can have a look at. So I was just there serving, I guess, a week ago today. I came back home, and just wanna thank you guys for praying for me. I would say the highlight was, midweek.

I was teaching three to five year olds, and we had a different Bible lesson every day. And midweek, it was that the Lord... This... Even the son of God did not come to be served but to serve. And if any of you guys have been overseas or actually even just home, right, there's...

A lot of you guys are moms or business owners or just regular people serving constantly and serving in ways that maybe never stop. And so, you know, there can be a tendency to be like, okay, here's my limit. But, yeah, I was just really challenged in a specific situation when I was there. I was in a leadership role and just serving in different aspects. And, yeah, I had a situation come up where the Lord really invited me to take that to heart and to really, I think, commune with him in that to serve in a way that I was a little bit at my limit and someone was demanding something of me.

And so I had a choice in that moment to cheerfully serve or to not. And by God's grace, I did. And so that was just one, I think, highlight that really has stuck with me that I've been pondering and just kind of asking the Lord, like, what does that really mean to to serve beyond what we're comfortable or beyond our capacity or... Yeah. So I'd love...

If anyone wants to talk after I'll be hanging out about Southeast Asia or or anything. And on those little boxes, it does contain peanuts. So if there's any allergies, and I wrote it on the box. So just a heads up.

Thank you. Thank you. Goodness. Would y'all stand with us? Thank you, Monique.

Thank you, Casey. And thank you everybody for continual prayer for those that are going out from here to other places. Gotta ask that your blessing on people right now as we will have an opportunity this week to serve outside of something we're comfortable with. Would you let us recognize the moment and give us the grace to step into it in Jesus name. Amen.

Let's be reminded of of this right here in Psalm 23. It says, even though I walk through the darkest valley, I'll fear no evil. Why? Because you're with me. And your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

God, thank you for your comfort this morning. God, if we are feeling weary or down, wherever we're at, however we're coming to you, Lord, this morning, thank you, God, for the peace that you give us, a peace that passes understanding. Thank you, Lord, for the privilege just to be able to pour our hearts out in song and give you the praise you deserve. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. From first Corinthians, It's a simple verse here. For what I received, I passed on to you as a first importance. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. He was buried.

He was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. You can have a seat here for a moment. This is the worship through giving part of the service, and I'll invite the the ushers to come on forward. We're gonna sing a new song called he is, a song describing who Jesus is, and always the invitation is always extended to come to. But before we sing, Graham, would

you pray?

I will. God, thank you for this morning, Lord. I thank you for your mercies that are new every morning. I thank you for the way that you reveal things to us, Lord, progressively. I I I like that.

Lord, sometimes I feel like we think we get more than we can take at one time. But, Lord, you're so gracious in teaching us. And in the ways that we air, you point it out gently, and then sometimes, Lord, it's right between us. There's no doubt, no mistaking it. Lord, would you help us to understand?

When we look over your word together, would you help us to see what we need to see in it today just for our own personal edification, but more than that, for the building up of the body, Lord. In Jesus' name, we ask that you take these offerings that people are voluntarily placing these plates saying, Lord, we trust you to do what is right. We trust you to advance your good gospel. We wanna be a part of it. We wanna make it, earthly things.

We wanna make it possible on earth. Lord, we wanna be surrendered to you as in heaven. In Jesus' name, Lord, I ask that you do your will in your way among us, Lord, but not just among us, but through us to reach a world that is, Lord, in many, many ways, just plain clueless. Would you help us, Lord, to give them a glimpse of glory. In Jesus' name, amen.

Provider protector of the great I am. Ephesians, begging

Children's church downstairs. That includes middle school and high school guys and gals. Good morning. How are you all? I'm a little overwhelmed this morning.

Lessons on responsibility to others is what we're going to talk about today. I know that you all have heard a lot of what will be said. The different little passages, pericopes we call them. Pericopes is something you can cut around and take out. Right?

You can cut around it and pull it out. And there are about four or five pericopes included in this sermon that people generally just hear about these right here. And we use them for specific applications. Sometimes it's a Band Aid. Sometimes it's an antibiotic.

Sometimes it is to help a specific situation. But I think that if you look at them in a group, it's helpful because it's all about our responsibility to other people, and to ourselves, and to allow them to take the responsibility to speak into our lives too. So that's what we're looking at from the gospel mainly of Matthew. It's mainly the whole eighteenth chapter of Matthew. And also Mark will cosign for him in a couple of places.

Okay? Our last section of Luke, the last time I preached, which was two weeks ago, and thank you, Carl. Last week was great. I was down in Las Vegas for Martha Humphrey's funeral with the Humphrey family. And God Almighty, he is so good.

And to see a life that was so well lived, and to see the legacy of that life was so sweet. But thank you for preaching last week. And that was about responsibility to others, really, and how we get along, and having the same attitude that was in Christ. There's so much that ties all of this together. I'm thankful for the body of Christ.

So the last section I preached on was in Luke where Jesus was teaching lessons to the disciples, and they were failing over and over and over again. And then he turns his face toward Jerusalem. And so when he turns his face toward Jerusalem, I say, there was a significant turning point in the book of Luke. But Matthew and Mark both cover a couple of things that Luke leaves out. So we're going back to that.

So that last section of Luke again ended with repeated failure of the disciples to be able to understand or do anything well. Can I get a witness? Do you feel like that sometimes? Like, just don't get it. Or when I do get it, I'm wrong.

So this was the last passage, and I'm gonna dovetail that with something from Matthew. That argument started among them as to which one of them might be the greatest. It's right there. Which one of us is the greatest, Lord? So this teaching was happening in the gospels of Matthew and Mark.

Responsibility to others. It starts out same story, and it's told almost exactly the same way as Luke did at the beginning. At that time, the disciples came to Jesus, and who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? He called a child to himself, set him among them, and said, truly I say to you, unless you change, change and become like children. I mean, were headstrong and they were trying to be the greatest, right?

And he says, unless you change, you have to get rid of that mentality. And like Monique said, instead of being served, you gotta be ready to serve. Unless you change and become like children, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. So whoever will humble himself like this child, he's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one such child in my name, receives me.

I'm so thankful for Awana around here. I'm so thankful for Sunday school way back when and the teachers that poured into my life and the teachers that are... The volunteers that are pouring into the lives of students here. The combined youth group on Thursday nights at the Tribe Ministry Center is going great, by the way. I'm hearing a lot of really positive stuff about that, and y'all are pouring into.

And Jesus is saying that is what you can do to be greatest in the kingdom of heaven is actually be serving. He goes on from there in Matthew and adds to that. But... Strong. Disjunctive conjunction there.

But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, Whoever leads a child astray, it's better for him that a heavy millstone would be hung around his neck and that he'd drowned in the depths of the sea. Strong words from Jesus. Don't mess with my little sheep. He's presenting the possibility that you could lead someone astray. As a disciple, that's who he's talking to.

So be be humble and be careful, and don't lead them away. Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks. Now, stumbling blocks. The word there is scandalon. What does that sound like?

Scandal. Scandalous. There are all kinds of scandalous things around us all the time. Woe to the world because of all of its scandal, because of its stumbling blocks. For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come.

It's just a part of... You might think we're living in the most scandalous times ever, but it's always been. There's nothing new under the sun. Jesus said in the upper room discourse, in this world, you have trouble... Tribulation.

You will have trouble. No doubt about it. But take courage, I've overcome the world. He doesn't deny that there's struggle, but he does overcome it. Woe to the world because of its inevitable stumbling blocks.

Inevitably, stumbling blocks will come, but woe to the person through whom that stumbling block comes. Be careful with one another. There is a responsibility that we have to other people. There's a responsibility that we have to children, and to teens, and to each other. Don't be a stumbling block.

Don't cause a scandal. Don't use the liberty that you have in Christ to convince other people that they need to take side steps. Right? If possible, so far as it depends on you, Paul says in Romans, be at peace with all people. Keep peace.

Don't be the stumbling block. Don't be the scandalon. Immediately after that, we go into this. Usually, the sermon text stops right there. That's the whole sermon.

The next time you get together, maybe you'll talk about this. If your hand or your foot is causing you to sin, cut it off. Throw it away from you. Get rid of it. It's better for you to enter life maimed or without a foot than to have two hands and two feet be thrown into the eternal fire.

Wow. Again, strong words. That's hyperbole. It sounds like something in Matthew five twenty nine and thirty. Five twenty nine and thirty is definitely talking about lust.

There's no doubt about it. Here it says hand or foot. It actually is gonna say I in just a second. But in Matthew five twenty nine and thirty, he's talking about lust and says, if your eye causes you or your hand causes you to sin. So I think he's talking particularly about pornography, about lust, about viewing other people with with covetousness and with desire.

But right here, he's more general. If your hand or your foot is causing you to sin, cut it off, throw it away from you. It's better for you to enter life maimed or without a foot than to have two hands or two feet be thrown into eternal fire. If your eye is causing you to sin, tear it out and throw it away from you. That's where it sounds like those two.

And you might take that and it's your deal and you just say, Oh, that convicts me that I'm doing something with my eyes or I'm doing something with my hands. I'm doing something that is causing me to sin, and that's my besetting sin. And I've got to get rid of that. Please do. Get rid of that.

I'm not saying cut your hand off. I think that's hyperbole. I will say this, though. Have... Do you ever get...

Ever gotten a little something in your eye, anybody? So I'm praying through this sermon this week, and I know I gotta go up here on Sunday and deliver this message. And on Friday evening, we had an unfortunate event happen in a Jeep. Blew an engine. Threw a rod.

Threw the side of the block. And so I'm pulling the old engine out, planning on putting a new engine in. And as I'm pulling it out, I got something in my eye. Man, it's irritating. It it's amazing.

I'm six six two fifty ish, somewhere in there. I didn't weigh this morning, but I got something that doesn't weigh enough to show up on any scale I'm aware of in my eye. And it caused me such great pain that I cried on Friday night, went to bed at 08:30 because it was... It hurt so bad. I just took as much Benadryl as I thought my body could take.

And I woke up every two hours hurting. And the next day, I had things scheduled I had to do. I went to a breakfast. And I through breakfast like this, had a baptism after lunch. It's something about the adrenaline of the Snake River's cold water this time of year.

I didn't even feel my eye for about thirty minutes. I was about this deep. Everybody else had to go all the way under. But I didn't even think about it really. I got back home.

I started crying again. And I called the doctor and said, Hey, I've either got a scratched lens or I've got something still in my eye. And they said, I'll meet you at twenty minutes at the office. Never has anyone heard better good news. And I went in and the doctor gouged the part of my eye out that needed to be gouged out.

Pulled out a big chunk of rust and the rust ring around it. I don't mean to gross you out. Put in a contact lens. I've never had a contact lens put in in my life ever. That's an unfortunate thing.

I pray for a lot of y'all. Put that in there and put some drops in it. Put numbing drops in as soon as I passed through the door, and I felt better immediately. But she said something to me that I thought this is going to have a sermon application sooner or later. She said the numbing drops help for now, but they inhibit healing.

There are a lot of people who are numbing themselves to the pains of this life. And you're not going to get better if you can't feel the pain, right? And so she said in thirty minutes... She said, Right now you're praising me. Thirty minutes from now you'll be cussing me because I've just taken out twice as much of your eye as was affected by that little piece of rust.

I'm studying this. The other night, Friday night, got in bed at eight or 08:30, and Tanya came in and asked a simple question about a bunny cage. Just a simple little question. Can you fix this thing for... We don't even have a bunny yet.

And I was hurting, and I I barked at her. I grouched out her... At her. I know. I'm not...

That's not a typical response. I don't hope. But, boy, I'm praying about if your eye causes you to sin, and I'm hurting bad. And she comes in and says, can you fix this bunny cage? And I went, I thought, literally my eye just caused me to sin.

Did it? What in the world is this word, Lord, that it reaches into our life every single week if we're paying attention? Read this as more general this week, but it's so specific to whatever it is in your life that's causing you to sin. This body is the place that God has established to help you get that out of your eye. Right?

He's he's helped. Like I said, no better news. I woke up this morning. I literally danced my way in the door this morning because I knew what it was like to feel horrible yesterday. And I was worried about being here right now today.

And I'm so thankful that I didn't have to be. When the the eye of the... Is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body's full of light. But if your eyes are bad, man, the whole body will full of darkness.

And if then the light within you is darkness, your perception, your way of seeing things is off, how great is that darkness? That immediately proceeds that you can't serve two masters portion of Matthew where it's either gonna be God or it's gonna be worldly stuff. Money. Man, if your eyes are off, you're off. If your eyes cause you to sin, tear it out.

Throw it away from you. It's better for you to enter life with one eye than have two eyes and be thrown into the fiery hell. Mark actually backs him up and takes it one sentence further with a quote from Isaiah 66 where their worm does not die and the fire is not extinguished. That's pretty strong language. And then Matthew comes right back to see that you don't look down on one of these little ones.

The people that are insignificant to the world, see that you don't look down on them. Treat them well. For I say to you that their angels there, their angels are in heaven continually seeing the face of my father who's in heaven. This is one of the best passages. I'm not a big angel angel...

Angelology kind of guy, but this is one of the best passages for Sam. We do have guardian angel, at least one. They've got an angel that's before... Pleading for them before the father. And when one of them is being hurt, scandalized, abused, it does not escape the father's notice.

There's a specific angel messenger right there. That's what the verse says. I won't build a theology around it, but that's that's what it says. Don't look down on one of them. Build them up.

Do the best you can to help because they have an angel that has my father's ear. What do you think? What do you think? If any man has a 100 sheep and one of them goes astray, would he not leave the 99 on the mountains and go and search for that one that is lost? Well, yeah.

The 99 that are kind of taking care of themselves, they're all in the same flock. That shepherd will go looking for the one who... And if it turns out that he finds that one, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it. Over that one that went astray more than the 99 that have not gone astray. As a body, if there is one of us or if there are a little small group of us that are wandering off, is it not right for a shepherd to go after the ones who are wandering astray?

In love, bringing them back into the fold, that's the way that it ought to be. That's the way that God does. That's what Christ is saying happened. So it is not the will of your father who's in heaven for even one of these little ones to perish. He doesn't want for anybody to fall off the beam.

He doesn't want for anybody to fall off in the struggle. Certainly doesn't want for anybody to push him off. So we carry on. Now if your brother sins... Oh, this is the Matthew 18 principle.

I've heard this one a lot. This one builds up right around church split time all the time. If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private. That's one on one. One on one.

If you can see some way that your brother is being distracted away from the truth of the center of the gospel, and they're getting off in either ditch, either into the legalistic ditch or into the licentious ditch. If you can see that a brother or sister, a brother or sister, it's important that it's a brother or sister, not just the world. Not just looking out at people all around us all the time and going, Oh, they're sinning. That group is sinning and they're awful. And, Oh, that group is sinning and they're awful.

If you see a brother, an individual, that has fallen into sin, go. Show him his fault in private. It's it's loving. It's gentle. It's caring.

It's not condemnatory, and it's not hurtful, and it's not spiteful, and it's not mean. And may I say once again, there ain't no mean like Christian mean. If he listens to you, you've gained your brother. That's the point of the passage right there. If he listens to you, and if you approach him in a spirit of love and humility, seeking his best, there may be resistance.

But if he listens to you and goes, you know what? Yeah. I see that now. I got pulled aside. Thank you.

Pull him back onto the beam. That's great. You've gained your brother. Now it does go on because they won't always listen if you don't gain your brother there. If he doesn't listen to you, then prayerfully, prayerfully and humbly, you take one or two more with you.

And then it quotes Old Testament, Deuteronomy. So that on the testimony of two or three witnesses, every every matter may be confirmed. Every word, rhema in Greek, but it's quoting the Old Testament, that every matter may be confirmed. It's from Deuteronomy nineteen fifteen. A single witness shall not rise up against a person regarding any wrongdoing or any sin that he commits.

On the testimony though of two or three witnesses, a matter shall be confirmed. So that's a... It's referenced in Corinthians. It's referenced in Hebrews. It's referenced all over the place that two or three people together in one accord, having prayerfully committed the place to God, going in is a way to establish every matter or to establish the facts to understand on this earth and discern what the will of the father is.

If he refuses to listen, tell it to them too, then you tell it to the body, to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, then he is to be he is to be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Now think about this for a second. Jesus is telling this to his disciples. One of those was a tax collector.

Right? He welcomed the tax collector into his group. Several of those were Gentiles, a couple of them at least. He welcomed those into his group. What are we supposed to do with our enemies?

Pray for them and love them. So treat them as a Gentile or a tax collector. Does not say shun them, excommunicate them, move them out, never have anything to do with them ever again. But it is recognizing that whatever that sin is, sin is insidious, and whatever that sin is can creep in. And it can cause a bigger splash.

And so we love them. We pray for them. Hopefully, they will eventually listen. But this passage is in the context of your responsibility to others. It is the goal that we would together unify around the love of God.

And because he has loved us, we can love one another, and that we bring people into humble submission to God. Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. God has given to the church his Holy Spirit, and God does not speak out of both sides of his mouth. Throughout the years, the disunity of the church is the worst witness that we can present to the world. The unity of the body of Christ is the best that we can do.

Unity in the body of Christ in love and bringing people out from the fringes and into the center in humility. That's the best we can do. I believe that the binding and loosing has a lot to do with where the two or three are gathered in my name, in humility, I will express to them my will, and it will be on earth as it is in heaven right there. I already covered it in Luke, if you wanna go back and listen to that too. Again, I say to you, if two or three of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by my father who's in heaven.

We as individualistic Americans for the most part, think very individualistically about our relationship with God. It's just me and the Lord directly, priesthood of believer. But there is something about the gathering of the body of Christ. The called out ones from every tribe, tongue, and nation. The ones who come in that is what God is working through that group.

Where two or three gathered in my name together, I'm there in the midst. I'm present with you as you gather in my name. Thank you, God, that that's true. And God, thank you that it comes up in the context of church discipline. That's the hardest place I can think of it coming up.

In the good times and the bad, you're here with us. You mourn with those who mourn, and you rejoice with those who rejoice. And for those who need a savior, you are it. Jesus, thank you. Amen.

Then Peter came up to him and said, Lord, how many times shall my brother sin against me and I still forgive him? Up to seven times? What's he trying to figure out? How far do I have to go, Lord, really? Jesus said to him, I don't say to you up to seven times, but up to 77 times.

Again, hyperbole. I think he means just keep on forgiving him. Not just 490. For this reason, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves. Look at what it says.

It's a king who has slaves or a master who has servants. For this reason, kingdom heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves. And 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, it's like $10,000,000. I mean, it's a lot.

It's a lot. It's way outside of his reach. But since he did not have the means to repay, the master commanded that that slave be sold. It was his life. It was...

He was trading this guy away along with his wife, and his children, and all that he had, and repayment to be made. It still wouldn't measure up to the amount that the guy owed him, but he was gonna just get rid of him. But the slave fell to the ground, prostrated himself before the master saying, have patience with me and I will repay you everything. Now from his normal servant wages, he would not have ever really had a chance. He probably wouldn't...

Couldn't live long enough to repay him. So have patience with me and I will repay you everything. And the master of that slave felt compassion. One Greek word today and it's this one, The only reason I include it is because is Carl's favorite Greek word. To be moved with compassion, to be moved in the inward parts, to feel compassion, have pity on, to be moved.

It's from which is the nobler entrails, the heart, lung, liver, and kidneys. These gradually came to know the seed of affections. What we would say is the heart, they would say,. So he was deeply moved with compassion in his inward parts, the master of that slave. Think about this.

He's in charge. He's the master of that slave. And he released him. He released him and he forgave that debt. He let him go.

He divorced the debt from him. But that slave went out, found one of his fellow slaves. Fellow slaves, this is slaves of the same master who owed him a 100 denarii. Hundred days wages. And he seized him and he began to choke him saying, pay me back what you owe me.

This guy's just been forgiven a lot. He tracks him down and begins to choke his fellow slave. Pay me back what you owe me. So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him saying, have patience with me and I will repay you. Have we heard that before?

That is exactly what he said except for everything. It's exactly what he said. But he was unwilling. He was not moved with compassion even though the master had been. But he was unwilling and he went and he threw him in prison until he would pay back all that was owed.

Debtors prisons never made much sense to me. How do you pay it back? So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved. They were moved with compassion. They came and they reported to their master all that had happened.

And then summoning him, his master said to him, you wicked slave. I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. You came to me in humility and ask and I granted it. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave? Consider this as a responsibility to others.

If you have been forgiven much, you are to be forgiving your fellow servants. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave in the same way that I have mercy on you? And his master moved with anger this time. Hand him over to the torturers until he would repay him all that was owed him. And Jesus says to his disciples, my heavenly father will also do the same to you.

If each of you does not forgive his brother from your own heart, from your heart. In the Lord's prayer, which we've covered, it says, forgive us our debts as we forgive those who trespass against us. Right? Goodness gracious. It ties how we are forgiven to the way we forgive.

Lord, have mercy. May I also have mercy. Oh gracious, blank slate. Does that mean that's the last of the last? It is, actually.

But I want to cover something else. This is immediately preceding Matthew 18. And it's interesting. It's a weird story. It's a pericope.

You almost always hear it drawn out around tax time. It's an interesting story. Giotto... I should have pulled the painting up. Giotto has a painting when we were in Italy and studying.

We're one of... I was one, Tanya was two of 49 students there. The teacher pops up this picture and it's a fish with something round in its mouth. Might know what this is. It's from this little story right here.

Now when they came to Capernaum, this is immediately preceding '18. So this is the other thing that Matthew discusses in that portion that Luke says that we just kept messing up over and over because we didn't understand. Now, when they came to Capernaum, those who collected the two drachma tax, that is a temple tax, temple tax, came to Peter and said, does your teacher not pay the tudrakma tax? And Peter always ready to defend Jesus. Well, sure he does.

He's a good guy. Yes. He does. And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first and said, what do you think, Simon? Simon, not Peter.

What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect customs or poll tax? Or do they collect it from their sons or they collect it from strangers? And Peter said, well, from strangers. I mean, they protect their own.

Y'all y'all know the song, fortunate son. It ain't me. It ain't me. I ain't no senator, son. He said, it's from the outsiders.

It's from the strangers. And Jesus said to him, okay, the temple tax. Temple is where God lives. Right? Who do the kings of earth collect taxes?

Anybody that can. Jesus said to him, the sons are exempt. Right? Yes. However, Jesus said, so that we don't offend them.

Go to the sea, throw in a hook, take the first fish that comes up. When it opens its mouth, you're gonna find a stater. A stater is exactly the amount of money that was necessary for Peter's tags and for Jesus' tags. He says, take that and give it to them for you and for me. Is that the weirdest story in the New Testament?

It's pretty weird. I mean, there's not another parallel that's like that that I can think of. But it is God providing for Peter, his disciple. It's God providing for Jesus. And Jesus, though he does not owe that temple tax, that's his house.

Right? He does not owe that tax, and he points that out to Peter. And he says, but so that we are not a stumbling block or an offense... I mean, I know the scandal that it'll cause if I don't pay that tax. So God's got this.

Go throw in hooks. The only time we see them fishing with hooks in the Bible or in the New Testament Just go throw in a hook. First fish you draw out, you're gonna have your tax. It'll be covered. Okay.

And he does, and he does, and he does. He goes in and pays the tax. And nobody is harmed. But Jesus didn't owe that tax. But he went ahead and paid it not to cause offense.

There are times when you, in your pursuit of keeping the body whole and hale and healthy and sane. If we're trying to keep each other up out of the ditches, there are times when you are going to be in a position that you don't have to do something, that you might still do it anyway. Does that make sense? Going the extra mile. Are you with me?

I'm getting a lot of blank stares. Sorry. All right. We're five minutes. I'm gonna close it right here and invite the band back up.

But I'm also gonna invite Mark and Lindsey and Nick up for right now. The band can wait. Okay. Let's do that. Mark and Lindsey and Nick.

And while they're coming up, I wanna kinda just close with the benediction. I'll say this. Will you go to the benediction slide, Blake? There it is. So Jesus in John 13 says this, a new command I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you.

So he was willing to take the hit for us. We should be willing to take the hit for those that we love. Does that make sense? Just as I have loved you, so you must be loving one another. By this, everyone will know that you're my disciples.

If you love one another, not if you divide.