So this is a new thing that the EM will be starting...blogging about the messages! Every week one of the leaders will blog about the message. I pray that this will help you all engage with them and apply them to your lives.
The passage for this sermon was Matthew 18:21-35, the parable of the unmerciful servant. Brad spoke about how Peter at the beginning of the passage wanted to get it right, how the other Rabbis would teach for you to forgive three times and so seven should have been enough...in his mind. However, Jesus gives this parable and basically says you should never stop forgiving because God forgave your debt to Him, one that you could never pay off.
The parables were supposed to shock you or give you some sort of uneasy feeling but they are too often explained away in today's society. The passage mentions that if we do not forgive, we are 'wicked servants' and that we will be 'tortured'. This puts into perspective how important forgiveness is, it is not trivial, it is significant. Forgiveness also always comes at a cost.
For me, I was reminded of a particular incident at school. It was lunch time and I was eating my pasta when some guy threw bread into it, being the sensible person I am, I just flicked it off and continued eating. My friend however, defended me and threw the bread back at the guy and in return, I got ketchup squirted all over me. We're not talking about packets here, it's those jumbo sized cheap ketchup stuff. One of the prefects caught him and spoke to him so I just went and cleaned off my blazer. Although I didn't do anything to that guy, I didn't speak to him or shout or whatever...it took a while before I could forgive him. I was completely innocent and he wronged me for no reason at all. It is the same with God, we wrong Him all the time yet He forgives us.
Now because God forgives us, we should also forgive each other because we are all under His household, what we do reflects on Him. If we can receive forgiveness, we have no right not to give it freely to others too. Our debt to God is so great that no wrong against us could ever compare, and that is the extent of God's forgiveness to us.
~Sck
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