Matthew 18:21-35-Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, ‘Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. “But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’ So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me.
Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
You owe a debt to God, for your sins!
Romans 6:23-For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Matthew 6:12-And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.
Let say, a person is going to pay off his debt to God (But remember wages of sin, it doesn’t matter if you have one sin or a million sins, the payment is the same…death!)
But they are not going to sin just once are they?
If you only sinned once a day for 70 years, that still equals 25,550 times you have sinned!
So the debt keeps going up, (So they have to continually die for their sins) so the person says, “God, give me more time to pay the debt I owe!”
Now there are some people who say, “I will start paying on my debt when I get older!” Well they don‘t say it like that, this is the way they say it, “I will get right with God, when I get a little older!” “One of these days I’m going to settle down and start going to church!”
And then God says, “I will give you all the time you need to pay off the debt, if you want to pay it off yourself!”
Unfortunately it will take them forever to pay off the debt…Forever in place called Hell!
One of the bad things about Hell, is you can never forget! You will never be able to forget all the chances, all the opportunities, you had to accept Jesus into your heart!
You’ll always remember that you didn’t have to end up there!!
But there is another option, they could accept that Jesus paid the debt for them, and that they are forgiven of the debt!
Now that we realize how much God has forgiven us, and how much God has been merciful to us, don’t you think we need to pass that kind of forgiveness and mercy on to the people, who needs our forgiveness?
But most of the time our response about someone who has done us wrong is: “They owe me a apology!”
We focus on their debt to us, instead of our debt to God!!
This is hard, it is a hard thing to do, and you can’t do it on your own, you have to let Jesus help you, you have to let Him do His work in you and thru you!!
Let me give you something that will make the process a little easier!
Well, I wanted to watch the super bowl and of course, watch the commercials, so I recorded it, after church it was late, we watched a little of it, but decided to watch the rest the next night, but during the next day I heard who won the game. So we started watching it that night, when my team would fumble, or get intercepted, or the referee would make a bad call, or that they were behind at half time, I didn’t get upset, Why, because I knew that my team won!
Just remember when someone does you wrong, mistreats you, are harms you in anyway, you can forgive, because in the end…All wrongs will be made right!
In other words…You Know What Team Wins!
You can say and totally mean it, what Joseph said to his brothers who had wronged him!
Genesis 50:19-20-Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.
The things that happen to us, (Hurts, sorrows, pain, suffering, trials and tribulations).
God can take those things and use them for our good and His glory!
