Well, if you would, church, go with me to Matthew 18. Matthew 18, where we've been the last two weeks. We'll finish up this morning looking at verses 21 to 35. Matthew 18, beginning in verse 21. This is the Word of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then Peter came up and said to Him, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times? Jesus said to him, I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, have patience with me, and I will pay you everything. And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, 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 went out and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, you wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you? and in anger his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart." So Lord Jesus, what an incredible word from You. Lord, I pray that it would land on us with weight and that we would see the seriousness with which You take peace and forgiveness among Your people. And I pray that You would grant us power today to forgive, to see all that You have done for us. Bless us this morning. In Jesus' name, Amen. We began this series four weeks ago in Matthew chapter 16, and we saw that the Christian community, the messianic community of Jesus Christ would be a confessional community, a revelatory community, and an apostolic community. community. And then over the next two weeks as we jumped into Matthew 18, we saw what that community would be like. We saw its nature. We saw how Jesus calls his disciples to think about themselves and how to think about one another. And we saw that we are to value one another, not according to worldly standards, but according to one another's discipleship to Jesus Christ. And last week, we saw that Jesus has given His church instructions regarding the discipline of its members and how to go about the pastoral work of pursuing and restoring wavering and straying sheep. And this morning, as we bring this mini-series to a close, we are going to deal with the subject of forgiveness. And it's fitting, it's a fitting conclusion to the series because I've been arguing this entire time that Jesus' thrust in chapter 18 in this fourth of five discourses in the Gospel of Matthew is marked by this calling to be unified and to have peace and to have harmony in the community of Christ. Yet we know that we are sinners. And when sinners do life together, they will sin against one another. And so naturally, forgiveness is an integral part of having this type of community where peace and unity is maintained. And so this fourth of five discourses in Matthew will be about the Christian community. It will close with forgiveness. Reconciliation. Restoration. And He gives a long treatment to this. And so my argument this morning is that the Christian community will be a forgiving community. The Christian community will be a forgiving community. The church of Jesus Christ is and will be characterized by disciples who have received forgiveness and who will extend forgiveness. And I want to unpack that with three points as we work our way through this text. And like last week, I want to use the language of we, and us, and our. Because this text, this inspired word from our Lord Jesus Christ that has endured 2,000 years, is for us, the cross church, today, in Pensacola, Florida, in 2022. So let's jump in. Point number one, we must forgive freely because we have been forgiven freely. Look at verse 21. Then Peter came up and said to him, Lord, how often will I forgive my brother when he sins against Me, and I forgive him as many as seven times?' And Jesus said to him, I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times." There was a tradition in those days, a Jewish tradition, that three times was the sufficient number that one should forgive another. And so the Jews had a few Old Testament texts that they wrongly developed a tradition from. And so here, Peter, in normal Peter fashion, ups the antics to 7 and says, 7 times? And Jesus responds, not 7, but 77. And scholars go back and forth about whether it's 77 or whether we should understand it as 490. if you translate it 70 times seven, but I think all that is beside the point because the point is clearly that Jesus' disciples are to keep no record of wrong. They are not to count trespasses. We don't count all the times a person has sinned against us, and once it gets to a certain number, we cap it. We cap our forgiveness and say, no more. Can't go any further than that. It's not what's happening. And many have pointed out, and I agree, that Jesus may have in mind here Lamech's boast of sevenfold vengeance. Remember in Genesis 4.24, when Lamech said, if Cain's revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech's is 77-fold. And so Lamech's boastful vengeance is reversed in the kingdom and replaced with forgiveness. There is no limit on the number of times we forgive. And then Jesus tells a story, a parable to teach the disciples about forgiveness in the kingdom. And so verse 23 says, therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to. So this is about the kingdom. This is about life under the reign of Jesus Christ. Let me say something about parables, because many throughout church history have wrongly understood parables, which have led to bad interpretations. People have said all sorts of strange and wacky things about Jesus' parables, because they've pressed specific details too far. And they've wanted to make these one-to-one comparisons. And they want to directly relate every detail to something or another. However, parables usually depict from ordinary life that we all can comprehend and understand. And Jesus uses that to illustrate a point about His kingdom. And we get in trouble when we overpress the details of parables and try to square up every detail with our systematic theology terms. We don't want to do that. We don't want to look for hidden meanings in all this. We don't need to slip into mysticism when we read parables and say, what's the hidden meaning here? What's the secret here? Through this parable, Jesus is going to teach His disciples something about life under His reign. And He's done this frequently in the Gospel of Matthew. And this specific parable will be about forgiveness. And guys, the Lord only knows how many and how much forgiveness has been brought about by the text that we're about to walk through. Over the last 2,000 years of history, this parable of our Lord has produced restoration in marriages, and in friendships, and in parent and child relationships, in churches and schools, brought about by this text of Scripture as the Spirit has spoke it to us. And so let's jump in, beginning in verse 23. He says, Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had in payment to be made. There are different ways that people have tried to understand this number, 10,000 talents. And here's what you should know. The adjective used to describe the number is the Greek word myrios. It's our word where we get myriad. It's the highest number in the Greek numbering system. So it could be 10,000, or it could be saying it's an uncountable amount. It's an insurmountable amount. And then talent is the largest possible monetary unit. So you've got Jesus saying the largest possible number, describing the largest possible monetary unit of the day, and that's what this guy owes his master. And the point is not to try to figure out how much money and translate it. I think there's value in that. But Jesus is using a hyperbole to show that this servant owes an insurmountable debt, a ridiculous debt to his master. Unthinkable and unpayable debt to his master. And when we read this, we think, as we're probably the disciples, how did this servant earn this type of debt? What could he have been doing to go this far into debt? What does this debt represent? I'll tell you what it represents. It represents our sin debt. Our transgressions of the law of God. Our failure to glorify God by enjoying Him always. Our failure to use the gifts that He has given to worship Him and instead idolizing them and using them for selfish gain and pleasure. Our unwillingness to love God with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves Every evil thought that we have thought about God or against another, our sin does not simply go overlooked. It has been storing up a record of debt before God that is insurmountable and that we could never pay back. We could never try to do better and think that our good is going to outweigh the bad. Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death. But look at what happens next. Verse 27, and out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. This would have been utterly astonishing to the disciples. The Master has pity on the servant because of his weakness, because of his hopeless and destitute situation. The best translation is, he felt compassion. He felt compassion for the servant. And last week, or it was a couple of weeks ago, I made the statement that Jesus' fundamental disposition toward us is that of compassion. Why did I say that? Well, listen to the testimony of the Holy Spirit just from the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew 9.36, When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. Matthew 14.14, When He went ashore, He saw a great crowd, and He had compassion on them, and healed their sick. Matthew 15, 32, Then Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with Me now three days and have nothing to eat, and I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way. Matthew 20, 34, And Jesus felt pity, or felt compassion, and touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed Him. Jesus moves toward sinners, moves toward us with compassion, feeling pity for us, and comes to us in our broken, helpless, sin-plagued state with a heart of compassion. And He pities us, and He provides a means by which we can be forgiven of our record of debt before a holy God. Brother and sister, think about just for a second, you standing with your sin record before a holy God. Every sin, every thought that's come through your mind that no one else knows, that if we knew about you and you knew about me, that we would be terrified of one another. But God knows them all. The motives of our heart that are impure and ungodly. And God knows them because He's sovereign and omniscient and omnipresent. He knows everything. And your sin record has accumulated an insurmountable record of debt that you cannot pay. That God cannot overlook. And the only right place for you is to suffer. in eternal torment for that sin debt. Yet Jesus Christ takes your sin record with compassion. And God nails it with Him to the cross. And forgives you of all your sins. Freely. That's the gospel. Colossians 2.13-14 And you who were dead in your trespasses, in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross. What happens when God makes us alive with Him? He forgives all of our trespasses. And by what means, if God is just, by what means does He forgive our trespasses? By canceling the record of debt that we have accumulated through sin and setting it aside. On what basis does He cancel it and set it aside? By nailing it to the cross with Christ. and punishing it, punishing it, and putting it away from us. God has moved toward us with mercy, with compassion, and He has removed from us all of our sins when we have done nothing to earn it. Isaiah 1.18, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. Psalm 103, 11-13, For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him. And as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us. And listen to this, As a father shows compassion, to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. You have been shown mercy and compassion that is insurmountable, because your sin debt is insurmountable, and God counts you as forgiven. on the basis of his son. And now having understood the mercy and compassion of the master who represents God, what happens next in this story is unthinkable. Verse 28. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, pay what you owe. So that the servant who the master has had compassion and mercy, has freely forgiven an unpayable debt, he turns around and refuses to forgive a much smaller debt. A hundred denarii, that's about a third of a year's salary. So it's not insignificant. It's not insignificant. But it is nothing compared with the amount of debt that the servant was forgiven by the master. But, whereas the master released him and forgave the servant, the servant turns around and chokes his servant, and throws him into prison, and refuses to show mercy, and demands the debt to be paid. Jesus is teaching that this is exactly what it's like when a disciple of Christ withholds forgiveness, especially from another disciple. This is what's happening. When we withhold forgiveness, instead of being merciful like our Father who has forgiven us our sin debt, we keep those who have sinned against us in much smaller measures in slavery to their debt, and we demand that it be paid back. And obviously this parable is very dramatic. I mean, we all feel outraged over the actions of this servant, and we should. But what about the more subtle responses? What about the more subtle ways and actions that we make toward those who have wronged us? And all the ways that we withhold forgiveness? What about the silent treatment? Or an emotional cutoff? Putting someone in the doghouse until they suffer enough and come back pleading with us, begging, for mercy. What about those sharp words that cut like a knife? Or bringing up the wrong another person has done whenever we need to get our way and using that wrong as a way to bring that person to tap out and submit. What about withholding your body from your spouse as a way to bring him or her into submission to you because of sin? None of us have ever probably or ever will actually choke someone who has sinned against us. But there are much more subtle ways that we, in a metaphorical sense, choke those who have wronged us and keep them in prison until we feel that they've paid back the debt. Notice in verse 29, The servant who owes a much smaller debt says nearly the same thing that the servant who owed the massive debt said to his master. Have patience with me and I will pay you the debt. But instead of showing compassion and mercy as he was shown, it says in verse 30, he refused and threw him in prison until he should pay back the debt. How can we as Christians who have been forgiven so much, who daily We just did it. But daily come to God and say, Father, have mercy on me. Forgive me for this morning's sins and yesterday's sins. Show me mercy. Wipe my record clean. How can we who do that every day and God forgives us? How can we turn and say to our brother or sister who has wronged us, no, what you've done is too much. It's too much pain. That's too wrong. I cannot forgive you. I will not forgive you. You've gone too far. How can we do this? How can we, if we have been truly forgiven, withhold forgiveness? It is a sin. A detrimental sin to withhold forgiveness. We must forgive because it is a sin to withhold forgiveness. That's point number two. We must forgive because it is sin to withhold forgiveness. And I know we don't think about it in those categories. But forgiveness, guys, as we've been reading, and as I've looked through the Gospel of Matthew and the rest of the New Testament, forgiveness is a mark of a true Christian. Just like sexual purity. Just like speaking true words. Just like walking in moral integrity. Forgiveness is a mark of what it means to know Jesus Christ. And to walk with Him and to know Him. Listen guys, I know the dangers of a sermon like this. The danger is that it may seem like I am minimizing sin that has been committed against you. Let me assure you, I am not. Some of you have been wronged in unspeakable ways that have left damaging effects on you. Another danger in a sermon like this is that we could, or it might feel like I'm minimizing the justice that is required when we are wronged, when we are sinned against. As if I'm saying, just let the perpetrator off the hook. Even if it's a legal category. No brothers and sisters, I can assure you justice will be served. Even if someone's wrong in a legal sense goes unpunished, sin will not go unpunished. In Exodus 34, 7, God said to Moses, I will by no means clear the guilty. You can rest assured that God will judge sinners, and He will bring forth justice. Either because that sinner's sin was nailed to the cross of Christ, and justice was met there, or in an eternity of hell. Sin will be punished. And God will pour out the full fury of His wrath either on His Son 2,000 years ago or in eternal torment. This is why we can rest in Romans 12, 19. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. I am not interested in promoting or provoking a false guilt in anyone that says, well, I just have to overlook the wrong that's been done to me and act like it never happened. No, I'm saying that there is freedom because of God's promises. because of the gospel, because of His justice, that you can release that debt and forgive and entrust it to Him. Now let's look at verses 31 to 34. When His fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed. And they went and reported to their Master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, you wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you? And in anger, his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt." Now let me pause here for a second because I'm a five-point Calvinist, as are many of you. I believe that at the moment of justification, at the moment of regeneration, a person is justified completely, legally declared righteous in the eyes of God. Romans 5, when I believe in the perseverance of the saints, that Christ keeps those who are His till the end, and that the Spirit preserves those who are His till the end. John 10.28, and that those who are justified will be glorified. Romans 8.30, I believe that Christ's vicarious death on the cross was sufficient to atone for all sins, for the elect, for all time. Hebrews 10.12-18, past, present, and future. All these doctrines are biblical. They are relevant and they are true. And so I know that when we read a text like this, questions immediately start to rise in our minds. How does that make sense in light of this doctrine and that doctrine? And if we're not careful, we can miss the point of the parable by too quickly bringing our systematic theology onto the parable. That is a real danger. Remember, this is a parable. Jesus is not wearing his systematic theology hat. He is making a shocking point about forgiveness in the kingdom. It's illustrative, it's shocking, and it's confrontational because Jesus wants this to land deep in the hearts of His people. If you do not forgive others, God will not forgive you. That's what He's saying. And your debt will remain and you will suffer an eternal judgment as a consequence. Now, some understand the judgment of verse 34 more as a disciplinary measure rather than an eschatological judgment. And so the idea is that God disciplines us when we don't forgive, and He opposes us to bring us to repentance. And I think that's a fair reading, because it does seem that the master actually forgives the servant. But then when the servant does not forgive, the master proceeds to punish the servant by throwing him in prison and torturing him until he can pay back the debt. And we know, as I said earlier, that those who have been justified, filled with the Spirit of God, cannot lose their salvation. No truly regenerate Christian can become a non-regenerate person. We know these things. We know that our sins have been nailed to a cross. Romans 8, 1, that there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So in order to make sense of all this, they would say that, no, this judgment is a disciplinary judgment rather than condemnation. I think it's much more likely, however, that the judgment in 34 does depict an eschatological judgment. And Jesus is not intending, again, to raise every theological issue under the sun with this parable. He's making a point about forgiveness. And then also back in Matthew 6, when Jesus teaches on prayer, and He has that part about forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. There's the language of debt again. After concluding the prayer, Jesus says in verses 14 and 15, for if you forgive others their trespasses, Your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But listen, but if you do not forgive their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. That doesn't seem to be about discipline to me. That seems to be about an eternal ramification for withholding forgiveness. And I think it's clearly in view here also. So how do we square that verse in verse 34 with the biblical doctrine of the perseverance of the saints? It's a question we need to think about. I think we see this passage in the same way that we see the five warning passages in Hebrews. It's the same idea. It's not that the verses teach that you can genuinely, if you're regenerate, genuinely lose your regeneration or your salvation. These verses are a warning that true Christians heed to and obey because they love God and want to be with Him forever. They obey them. They heed them. They want to be with God in eternity. So like the other warning passages, the Holy Spirit uses these in the lives of believers to rot the fear of the Lord in our lives. So that we eradicate anything that would cause us not to get there. Doesn't mean that we can be in and be out. But the Spirit uses these to keep us in. When we understand a text like that this way, it actually fits very nicely with the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. The Holy Spirit uses means to keep us in the faith. Now, lastly, point number three. We must forgive not only in word, but from the heart. not only in word, but from the heart. Verse 35, so also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. Now I need to land right here and say some things about the nature of forgiveness. It's become clear that Christians must forgive. It's become clear that they will forgive. But now we need to talk about what forgiveness looks like when we grant it. Because when Jesus says, forgive from your heart, clearly He does not mean forgiveness as mere words. And although oftentimes it is an oral declaration, I forgive you, it transcends that. It goes beyond that. Biblical forgiveness has flesh. It has weight. It is seen and felt. So what does it mean to biblically forgive someone? I confess that Ken Sandy, the author of The Peacemaker, has had a tremendous impact on my thinking in this regard. And he says that biblical forgiveness is neither a feeling, nor a forgetting, nor an excusing, but that it may be described as a decision to make four promises. And I'm gonna have these behind me. I will not dwell on this incident. I will not bring up this incident again and use it against you. I will not talk to others about this incident. And I will not let this incident stand between us or hinder our personal relationship. These are conscious commitments of the will. They're not feelings. When we forgive, we are actively choosing to abide by these four promises. Now the question arises, when do we forgive? There's some disagreement on this among evangelicals and particularly biblical counselors. Some argue that one can grant forgiveness only to a person who has confessed and repented and asked us for our forgiveness. And they would cite verses like Luke 17, three to four. If your brother sins, rebuke him. And if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day and turns to you seven times saying, I repent, you must forgive him. So they would argue that the perpetrator's repentance is necessary if one is really going to forgive. Others argue that one can grant forgiveness that's unconditional upon the perpetrator repenting. And they would see forgiveness more as a heart posture. an attitude. And so which is it? Well, I think there is biblical warrant for what is known as a two-stage forgiveness. Two levels of forgiveness, right? The first being attitudinal forgiveness, which is unconditional. This is a heart posture that begins with God. As we lean into God's grace in prayer, as we meditate on what He's done for us in His forgiveness toward us, we from the heart in prayer before God, we release that debt that is owed to us because of someone's sin. And we release them from that metaphorical prison. And we do this whether the person has repented or not. Mark 11.25, and whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. So here the person is in prayer to the Father, presumably alone, and Jesus is saying, if God brings to mind, if you know you have unforgiveness in your heart towards someone, release it, forgive them in prayer. Release them from the debt in your heart. And this makes perfect sense, again, in light of the Lord's Prayer where Jesus teaches us to pray, forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors. And not only is this taught, but Jesus embodies this. What does Jesus pray in Luke 23, 34 as He's being crucified? Father, Forgive them, for they know not what they do. Or what about Stephen following in the example of his Lord as he's being stoned to death? What does he say? Lord, do not hold this sin against them. What is their heart toward those who are putting them to death? To forgive. I mean, surely the Roman centurions were not confessing their sins to Jesus as they're crucifying Him. Surely the Jews are not repenting before Stephen as they are stoning him. But they are choosing not to be bitter, not to hold a grudge, but to ask the Father to forgive them. Let me say something about what we today typically call bitterness or resentment. Guys, bitterness is like poison. It will destroy you. Bitterness has destroyed marriages, families, churches, you name it. and ultimately, it destroys the person's soul. Here's the thing, being bitter is not neutral. It's not like you can say, well, I'm gonna withhold forgiveness and be bitter, but just not let it show. That's impossible. Bitterness shows itself in our words and deeds. Either we withdraw from a person and do not love them, which is a sin of what? Omission, or we commit sinful acts and words, against someone who has wronged us. Evil thoughts, sharp, sarcastic remarks, words that cut like a knife. And obviously this needs to be unpacked wisely depending on the situation. But as we continue to harbor bitterness in our hearts, our condition worsens and worsens until ultimately we apostatize. We become delusional and more deceived and more unreasonable. Guys, there are people who go to church week after week and hear sermons and go to meetings and go to small groups, yet their hearts have long departed from the Lord. Because their whole worldview, they process everything through the lens of someone's offense against me. Proverbs 18, 19, a brother offended is more unyielding than a strong city. and quarreling is like the bars of a castle. But Jesus calls us to imitate our Father. And how can we more reflect our Father's character than by forgiving those who have sinned against us and by releasing them from their debt? That's what this stage of forgiveness is all about, forgiving from the heart, choosing not to dwell on how you've been wronged, choosing not to gossip, being ready that as soon as that person takes a step toward me and wanting to be reconciled, I will embrace and I will forgive verbally if he repents. But then you also have transactional forgiveness, or what we call granted forgiveness. And this can only take place when the person who has sinned against another acknowledges that, approaches the person they've wronged, confesses it, repents, and asks for forgiveness. That can only happen if that person repents. And when that happens, we grant forgiveness, we forgive the debt, we release it. There's a transaction that takes place when the offender says, I'm wrong, I offended you. And where we say, I accept your forgiveness, I forgive you. And when we do that, again, we are committing not to dwell on this person's sin all the time, so as to harbor resentment, but we are willfully choosing to see that that sin is nailed to the cross of Christ as is ours. We are not gossiping, and we are not using the person's sin as a power move when we need to pull it out. You know, every time there's a future conflict, as I've done marriage counseling, and I've seen this in my own life, this is one of the reasons people withhold forgiveness. like this, because they know if I'm going to release that debt, I'm letting go of the biggest and greatest weapon I have. Next time a fight or a conflict breaks out, I don't have that weapon that I can always pull out and say, you did that to me to bring that person to his or her knees. We are surrendering that and letting it be nailed to the cross of Christ. When we grant forgiveness biblically, We are surrendering the ability to use past and present sins as a power move over that person. We're promising not to bring it up in such a way that would do harm to this person. or get leverage on them, and we are not allowing that sin to hinder our relationship ongoing. Now, does that mean there doesn't need to be some changes in accountability? Does that mean there doesn't need to be a discussion about how we relate? No. All those things need to be discussed, but we're saying, I am not going to let this offense hinder me and you from having a godly relationship. Granting forgiveness is not pretending the sin never occurred. It's committing not to let the sin cause ongoing damage to the relationship in the body of Christ. And as we labor to forgive our brother from the heart, we glorify our Father who has forgiven us. So as we bring this little mini-series to an end, I hope that if we have seen anything from Matthew 18, it's that Christ's vision for His church, for His community, is that it be a community of people at peace, a community of people who value one another because the Father values them. a community who pursues one another in love, who does not reject each other and cause each other to stumble, but receives one another as we receive Christ. And I pray that we have seen that Christ has called his people to live in unity and in harmony, and that the discipline of the church and even the work of excommunication is ultimately has the end goal. It ultimately has the end goal of restoration and peace in the body. So as we come to the table, brothers and sisters, I would encourage you to begin vertical and examine your own sin before the Father. But pray and ask Him. Examine your heart and see if you have bitterness or resentment. or withheld forgiveness in your heart toward another. And I would encourage you to entrust that to God. And to release that debt in your heart. And give it over to the Father. And if that person has repented and asked for forgiveness, grant it. Grant it. And commit to forgiving in the way that we just talked about. Jesus has made peace with us through the blood of His cross. So brothers and sisters, may we have peace with one another. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we pray that we would receive your word with gladness and rejoice that you have truly dealt with our sin debt, put it away and forgiven. And so may we be people who are merciful, that we would be shown mercy. May we be a forgiving people. I pray for Your Spirit's power to work in the hearts of all of us as we wrestle with these things. And grant us the power to see that every sin will be paid for and that we can entrust them all to You and that we can live above bitterness and resentment and walk in peace. And I pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.