0:07 Um >> [clears throat] >> today's daily devotion, the title of today's daily devotion message or video was be quick to forgive others or something of that sort. And as I was listening to it, it came as a confirmation of something the Lord has 0:25 been speaking to me personally for uh especially for the last month, but really for several months. Um showing me the importance of always forgiving. Never holding grudges, never holding anything against anybody at any point. 0:43 Always being ready to forgive. And I was thinking about how um there is an idea in the world that >> [clears throat] >> forgiveness is something that that you just give to people even though they don't deserve it. Um forgive even 1:00 if it doesn't make sense. Um like it's some charity that we give to people, you know, even though they wronged you, even though they don't deserve it, still forgive them. But Jesus makes it very clear that forgiveness always makes sense. 1:15 You In fact, it's not only required but demanded of a Christian that we forgive others. And the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18, um there are a few things that the Lord brought my attention to in that parable um afresh this past month. 1:33 Um one of the things is that Jesus actually provides the math for why we should forgive or the logic. Uh he starts that parable in verse Matthew 18 verse 22. He starts it saying, "You have to forgive your brother 70 * 7." First of 1:50 all, we we need to do that math. On a single day, if a brother sins against me 70 * 7, I should still be willing to forgive. And then in verse um 26, so the servant fell on his knees imploring him, "Have patience with me and I will repay 2:08 you everything." And out of pity for him, the master of of the servant released him and forgave him the debt debt. Um and in verse 25, it tells us how much that debt was. Verse 24, it was 10,000 talents. Now, that's equivalent to I 2:24 think hundreds of thousands of years of wages, something like 200,000 years of wages. And then in verse 28, it says, "But that same servant went out. He found one of his fellow servants who owed him 100 denarii. And seizing him began to choke him 2:41 saying, "Pay what you owe." So, his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, "Have patience with me and I will pay you." He refused and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. And notice this notice a difference 2:53 between the talents and the denarii. So, it was 10,000 talents, which is around 200,000 years of wages, and 300 denarii, [clears throat] which was only close to three or four or maybe five months of wages. And 200,000 years of wages, I was thinking, 3:12 how much is that? I mean, mankind has not lived for that many years. It was a picture of It is a picture of eternity in hell. That's what I was forgiven of. I deserve to be in hell for all eternity for the sin for the for my sin. 3:27 But that's what Jesus forgave me. And no matter what anybody else has done to me, I might come to the Lord with so many reasons, "Lord, he cheated me of property. Lord, he he he harmed my family. He harmed my children. Or he caused me great financial loss. Or 3:43 his mistake caused me to be sick, Lord, all my life." And the Lord says, "Come, let's do the math. Why don't you write down everything that somebody else uh else did? What does it add up to? 100 dinari? 1,000 dinari? 5,000 dinari? 3:57 10,000 talents is what I've forgiven you. And the Lord has, even in the past few months, constantly brought me to the cross and shown me how great a debt I've been forgiven. It's the picture I got in my mind was whatever somebody did to me, if I would 4:15 pile all of it up, it might be as tall as a as an anthill. But my sin was as high as Calvary, the mountain on which Jesus died, and that's what I've been forgiven. And I want to constantly come to this point of Lord, always remind me what you did for me, of 4:32 how much I've been forgiven. Forgiveness is not charity that I'm giving out to people. It's demanded of me because I've been forgiven so greatly. And I've heard the excuse about this parable that um it's just a parable, it's not meant 4:45 to be taken literally. I mean, God is not going to take forgiveness back once he's given it, it's given. And I think specifically for that reason, Jesus um added Matthew 18:35. He stops the parable and make sure he brings us back to reality. In verse 34, 5:04 it says, "And in anger his master delivered him over to the jailers until he should pay all his debt." And then Jesus stops. Parable is over, guys. Verse 35, this is reality. "So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive 5:19 your brother from your heart." I want to take those words seriously. I want to do the math. There is no comparison. Forgiveness is demanded of every Christian. It's not suggested, it's not even if it doesn't make sense, go ahead 5:32 and forgive somebody who's harmed you, it's it's required. Um I was thinking about how in um Jesus doesn't only require us to forgive, but he also requires us to love our enemies, to do good to those who persecute us. 5:51 And the teaching of forgiveness in the Bible is never give it to others as charity. It's always you owe others forgiveness because I've given you forgiveness. In Matthew 6, um verse 14, Jesus said, "For if you forgive others 6:08 their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you." There's an if. And then 15, "But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your father in heaven forgive you your trespasses." And also the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4 6:22 and verse 32, um said, "Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you." It's always compared to what you've been given. Look at this great debt that you've been forgiven of. Now, you owe it 6:40 to others to forgive them their debts. And as soon as the Lord reminds me, as um Brother Zach was mentioning in the daily devotion today about as soon as the Lord reminds you or brings to your attention something that somebody did to 6:53 you and you're holding it in your heart, forgive immediately. Don't wait. And he also talked about future forgiveness, how Jesus forgave anybody who ever blasphemed his name um from from then on till the end of the age. 7:06 And we can do the same. I can walk in my savior's footsteps of forgiveness. Jesus didn't have to give anybody forgiveness. He didn't have a debt that he had to pay. But I do because I've been forgiven a great debt. And I was thinking about um 7:21 in Matthew 25, the parable of the of the word 10 virgins, and how uh there's three things that the Lord brought to my attention in that in that chapter. And the first one was uh in verse two of chapter 25, Matthew 25, "Five of them were foolish and five were 7:40 wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them. But the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. And if one of those lamps is forgiveness, being willing to forgive others, five of them didn't have enough oil. 7:55 They didn't have enough in their tank to forgive people. But the other five did. And um verse 8, and when the foolish um and the foolish said to the wise, "Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out." But the wise answered, "Since there will 8:12 not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves." And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast. Having forgiven every single person in 8:27 my life is me being ready. Is my lamp being full of oil and burning bright. Either when Jesus comes or when my life is over. And then finally in verse 12, um sorry, in um yeah, verse 13, "Watch therefore, 8:45 for you neither know the hour or the day of Christ's return, but also of my death." And you know, as we've been as a family been considering my my dad's passing, one of the things that brings us great peace is the knowledge that my dad forgave 9:00 every single person. Uh there was one person on the day of his funeral who told me, um you know, I used to have a heated conversation with your dad, but the next time I met him, I would wonder if he's forgotten about our conversation, 9:12 because he had forgiven me. And that challenged me very much to to live like that. Um even though people caused me harm, there people who caused him harm all his life, but he forgave. And I can be like that. Um in Ecclesiastes 3 in verse 11, 9:30 it says, "He has made everything beautiful in its time." And I've been wondering, how can death be beautiful? There is a time to die. But how, Lord, can you bring beauty in death? And the Lord has been showing me, if you've forgiven everybody, 9:42 if you're if if you hold no grudges against anybody, even in your death there'll be beauty because you died having released every single person. And my forgiveness can be yours. I want to take that seriously um to be one that 9:57 um that constantly forgives. Brother Zacharias it in that um in today's daily devotion, he says it's a basic requirement of a Christian. It's not It's an elementary truth. Forgiving people is an elementary truth and I want to be 10:11 um I want to be founded well on the basics. I want to constantly forgive. I want to constantly bring the wrong that people do to the cross and compare it to what Jesus has forgiven me of. Amen. This is when the time when 10:24 David disobeys the Lord and gets disciplined by the Lord and he sends prophet Gad uh comes to him and tells him, "Go Go up erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of floor of Araunah the Jebusite." And then David 10:40 goes and uh it says that David went up according to the word of Gad just as the Lord had commanded. And then Araunah meets him and tells him uh to take the land for free. And but David says that no, I'll not offer to the Lord that will cost me nothing in 10:57 verse 24. It was his devotion for the Lord that uh showed him that true worship is and sacrifice to the Lord must involve personal cost and not something free or cheap. And um so David buys the land on the Mount Moriah at at 11:13 at a cost and and burnt offering and offers burnt offerings there. Um it says in 1 Chronicles chapter 21 um verse 26, "And he called to the Lord and he answered him with fire from heaven and on the altar of burnt offerings and 11:31 offered and offered burnt offerings. And the same Mount Moriah appears in Genesis 2 and Genesis chapter 22, uh we we hear how the Lord tells Abraham, he tests Abraham's faith, you know, he is so attached to his son, Isaac. The Lord tells him to go and 11:48 offer him on Mount Moriah. And then he says, when he was about to sacrifice Isaac on the altar, he says, "Do not stretch verse 12, uh stretch out your hand against the lad and do nothing, for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld 12:06 your son, your only son, from me." And verse 18, it says, "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice." Um it was the same land where David built an altar to the Lord and not 12:19 willing to offer cheap offerings to the Lord. Um and later in um Second Chronicles 3:1, Solomon builds the temple on the same land. Um and even regarding Ornan too, Ornan is um Araunah, uh is is is mentioned as Ornan in Second Chronicles. 12:37 Um you know, he appears only once connected to the same story, but on his land the Lord built the temple. Um and he was willing to offer to the Lord's work um for free, all the land and and even the oxen and all the materials that are needed for the 12:52 sacrifice. Um and David said he would offer the full price, and it says in First Chronicles 21: 24, it says, "The full price of it is 600 shekels of gold, which Ornan was willing to give freely to the Lord's work." And it's the same principle of 13:08 offering to the Lord that cost them something. And in all these cases I believe the Lord um it was a pleasing and soothing aroma to the Lord. Um the Lord saw Abraham's heart, the Lord saw David's heart, and Ornan's heart, and um and on 13:23 that very place, Mount Moriah, the Lord builds his temple, and the builds his church even today on that same principle with people who are broken and offering themselves to the Lord as a living sacrifice and like it says in Romans 12 13:38 verse one. Recently we heard from brother Zach and how we offer we offer piece by piece by our eyes or hands or ears, everything offering to the Lord and Lord it's yours. Um and may the Lord build such a church with proper working of each 13:56 individual part and me and my family doing my part and encouraging others also to do their part and causing the body growth of the body of Christ like it says in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 15 and 16. I want to close with this poem that 14:11 blessed me that the other day, Judgment Seat of Christ. When I stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ and he shows me his plan for me, the plan of my life as it might have been had he had his way and I see how I blocked him here and checked him 14:27 there and I would not yield my will, shall I see grief in my Savior's eyes. Grief though he loves me still. Oh that he had had me rich and I stand there poor, stripped of all but his grace. While my memory runs like a haunted 14:42 thing down the paths paths I can't retrace and it goes on and this is the part that encourages me. No, Lord, of the years that are left of me, I yield them to thy hand. Take me, make me, mold me to the pattern thou has planned. 14:57 It can be extremely discouraging when we look back and see how we wasted our lives with our failures and disappointments wishing I had given more to the Lord. Um and we can waste more time getting discouraged for the time that we already 15:10 wasted. And the Lord the time that I have left for me on this earth, I want to be faithful valuing the time that was given to me as precious and offering my life as a living sacrifice and doing his perfect will. Um in Philippians 2 15:28 verses 12 and 13, Living Bible translation, be even more careful to do the things good things that result from being saved, obeying God with deep reverence, shrinking back from all that might displease him. For God is at work within you, helping 15:43 you want to obey him, and then helping you do what he wants. May the Lord help us.
