Jeremy Utley - Don't Forget the Debt You've Been Forgiven

Jeremy UtleyOctober 12, 202018mWatch on YouTube

In this collectionJeremy Utley130 messages

Speaker: Jeremy Utley Title: Don't Forget the Debt You've Been Forgiven Date: October 11, 2020 Our Goal as Christians is this: To be an exact reflection of Jesus, the Son of God (Romans 8:29) We do this individually by growing in purity in our personal lives (1 John 3:2-3) We do this corporately by becoming fully functioning members of a local Church (Ephesians 4:11-16)

Summary

The central message is the critical importance of remembering and living out the magnitude of the forgiveness received from God. The speaker uses the parable of the unforgiving servant to warn that forgetting one's own immense debt of forgiveness leads to unmercy toward others. He concludes that a failure to appreciate God's grace results in a spiritual blindness and a lack of fruitfulness in one's life.

Outline

The message in plain words, in the order it unfolds. Select a time to jump the video to that moment.

The danger of forgetting the lord's forgivenessReflecting on recent messages about forgiveness, the speaker highlights the parable in Matthew 18 of the servant who was forgiven an enormous debt but refused to show mercy to a fellow servant.Matthew 18:23

Why do we fail to show mercy?Even though the servant was forgiven much, he didn't love much because he made the mistake of immediately forgetting the debt he owed and focusing instead on what others owed him.

Effectively forgiven little by not rememberingIn Luke 7, Jesus notes that she who is forgiven much loves much. When we fail to consider the debt we have been forgiven, our reception of forgiveness ceases to profit us, making us effectively forgiven little.Luke 7:47

Judgment will be merciless to the one who shows no mercyJames 2:13 warns that judgment will be merciless to those who show no mercy, which happens when we take our own forgiveness lightly and harbor resentment or harshness toward others.James 2:13

Blindness and short-sightedness in spiritual growthSecond Peter 1 describes the ladder of spiritual qualities leading to love, warning that anyone lacking these qualities is blind because they have forgotten their purification from former sins.2 Peter 1:5

Look to the rock from which you were hewnIsaiah 51 instructs those who pursue righteousness to look to the rock or the excavation of the pit from which they were dug, reminding us of our profound need and the vastness of God's rescue.Isaiah 51:1

Abraham's repeated mistakesAbraham lied about Sarah being his sister in Genesis 12 and repeated the exact same mistake years later in Genesis 20, likely because he failed to truly consider how mercifully God had dealt with him.Genesis 12:11

Passing unconfessed mistakes to the next generationBecause Abraham did not take his forgiveness seriously enough or learn from his failure, his son Isaac repeated the very same mistake in Genesis 26, highlighting the danger of failing to warn our children about our faults.

Two warnings for fathers and believersThe speaker draws two warnings: repeating mistakes indicates we have taken God's forgiveness lightly, and failing to take forgiveness seriously prevents us from being honest with our children about our flaws.

Forgetting the right thingsWhile Philippians 3 speaks of forgetting what lies behind, Paul was referring to his good deeds; we should forget our own righteousness, but we must never forget the debt that God has forgiven us.

The chief of sinners who found mercyAt the end of his life, Paul maintained the perspective that he was the chief of sinners in 1 Timothy 1:16, yet he held onto the absolute assurance that he had found mercy.1 Timothy 1:16

Balancing a sober estimate with absolute assuranceIt is dangerous to quickly forget our past failures, but it is equally dangerous to look back without the fundamental assurance that we have been justified by faith and viewed by God as if we had never sinned.

Valuing forgiveness to treat others differentlyBy continually looking back to the pit from which we were dug and remembering how much we have been pardoned, we will become more gentle, patient, and merciful toward others.