Calvary Chapel Fort Mill Sunday Service

that if the enemy is pounding on you, take those thoughts captive and tell yourself the truth and we will worship the Lord this morning from wherever we are in the mountains or in the valleys. We can rejoice with those who rejoice and we can mourn with those who mourn and grieve with those who grieve, can't we? We can do all that.

But let's pray this morning. Ask the Lord to be with us this morning. Would you join me in a word of prayer?

Heavenly Father, we thank you for all that you do. The sun is shining this morning. And Lord, that always puts me in a good mood.

It helps me. It It lifts my spirit. It lifts my soul.

But Lord, your word says the sun shines on the just and the unjust. It's you. You You cause that sun to rise every day, even upon the wicked of the world.

Your grace is amazing. Your provision is amazing. Your hand at work in the world is seen and known, and we glorify you for it.

Lord, we're so thankful for your grace and your mercy that's been poured out upon us. We pray, Lord, that you would be with us this morning. Lord, whether we're in the valley or on the mountain, Lord, would you be honored and glorified as we bring a sacrifice of praise to you.

Pray that you would be with us as we study your word and that you would illuminate it, light it up, help it to do the work that you've intended it to do. I pray that your word would be like a surgeon's scalpel. That it would cut away the things, the disease within us that needs to be cut away and removed and that it would encourage us like and wash over us like water and refresh our hearts and our souls this morning.

Lord, be with us. We pray in Jesus name. And all God's people said, >> amen.

>> Amen. Well, in way of announcements, we've got uh the Lackey Home Fellowship. Um if you have if you don't know the Lackeyis, Andrew is right over here.

Andrew and his wife Heather and his two sons uh they host a home fellowship at their home. Uh they provide a light meal and provide just a a wonderful living room. Great great place to just come hang out and fellowship.

If you are looking for connection, you're looking for fellowship. I encourage you go out meet with them. Uh it's an awesome time.

They they do a nice meal and everything. So you don't have to worry about that. You just come out and fellowship.

The address is on the flyer. It's also in the announcements that we send out. If you are not receiving those announcements, fill out that little piece of paper in the front and give us your information.

We'll make sure that you are on the email list to get those announcements because we'd love to have you participate in that. Overflow is meeting for their final time before the summer break and they'll be meeting at the Stouse uh household and so Chuck, would you raise your hand? This is Chuck Stouse if you haven't met him yet.

uh they will be uh celebrating on Friday night at 7 o'clock at their house and so be prepared to come for a fun time. It'll be our last uh scheduled event. They might have some uh little events scheduled here throughout the summer but it'll be our last one for the summer.

Sisterhood Ministry, their prayer night is going to be Thursday, May 28th. Uh we invite you to come out ladies. It's special time of connection and prayer.

Uh that is going to be also at the Stouse House but Chuck will not be there. he'll be hiding somewhere in a room or or off doing something else. So, so encourage you ladies to come come out for that.

Uh first Tuesday, of course, is our first Tuesday night prayer for everybody in the church to come gather here at the church, pray over your personal needs, and to come together corporately and to pray for the world, pray for our church, all of that. And I really encourage you to come out for that on our first Tuesday of the month. And men's breakfast was yesterday.

Uh they had a great time. Joe taught on the tabernacle. I heard it was really insightful and good and it was a great time of fellowship.

I couldn't be there because I was coaching my son's flag football, but hope to be there for the next one. Uh that'll be that'll be great. So, I really enjoy the men's breakfast and miss being a part of that.

Um the DIB family annual spring recital is coming up May 24th at 2 PM uh here at the church and we encourage you to come be a part of that if you want to come see Micah and Renee uh play. Uh Rene's back here. Micah's back in the sound booth.

He won't be playing the sound booth. He'll be playing an instrument. Um, but uh they're very talented and would love to be able to share their gifts with you uh in that regard.

And if uh you need more info, uh contact Anesa over here, that's mama. And she will give you all the information you need on that. That's it in way of announcements.

If you would stand and say hello to somebody you haven't seen in a while and uh give them a hug, a fist bump or headbutt, whatever you want to do. Strength will rise as we wait upon the word. We will wait upon the Lord.

We will wait [music] upon the Lord. Strength will rise as [singing] we wait upon the Lord. We will wait upon the heart.

We will wait upon the Lord our God. You reign [music and singing] forever, our hope, [music] our strong deliver. [music] You are the [singing] everlasting God.

the everlasting [music and singing] God. You do not fake you growing. >> Strength will wait upon the Lord.

We will wait upon the Lord. We will [music] wait upon the Lord. Strength will rise as we wait upon them.

We will wait upon them. We will wait upon them. Our [music and singing] God are you reign forever, our hope, our [music and singing] strong deliver.

You [music] are the everlasting [singing] God. The everlasting God. You do not fake.

You won't grow weary. You're the [music and singing] defender of the we need. You left us [music] on wings like our God, you reign [singing and music] forever.

Our hope, our strong deliverer. You are [music and singing] the everlasting God. The everlasting [music and singing] God.

You do not [singing] think you want to grow weary. You're the defender of the comfort in lift us up on wings. like eagle.

Give God a hand. Thank you, Lord God. You, Lord, who made the heavens and the earth and everything in them, Lord God, we praise your mighty name.

You Lord will always accomplish your will. You cannot be stopped. We love you and praise you in Jesus name.

The dog [music] tried to hide you and steal [singing] your way. Death tried to keep [music] you inside of the grave. The [singing] enemy fought you.

He tried but he lost. You cannot be stopped. When we [music] cried for [singing] freedom, you tore down the walls.

The weight [music and singing] of our burdens. You carried it all. Our fears [music and singing] and our failures ain't dead on the cross.

[music] You cannot be stopped. [singing] [music] Mover of mountains, breaker of chains. Jesus has triump over [singing and music] the grave.

Sing hallelujah. The battle [music and singing] is won. Nothing can stand against [music and singing] our God.

We stand [music] on your feet. We shout [singing] out your praise. Miracle [music] maker.

Some mighty to say. [music] >> Awesome in [singing] power, relentless in love. [music] >> You cannot be stopped [singing] for [music] mountains.

Breaker of chains. Jesus [music and singing] has tri over the grave. Sing hallelujah.

The battle [music] is won. Nothing can stand against our God. >> There's [music] nothing that can stop our God.

There's nothing that can stop our God. There's nothing [music and singing] that can stop our God. There is nothing.

[music] There is nothing. >> There's [music and singing] nothing that can stop our God. [music] >> There's nothing that can stop our God.

>> There's [music and singing] nothing that can stop our God. There is nothing. [singing] There is nothing.

No, there's nothing [music and singing] that can stop our God. >> There's nothing that can [singing] stop our God. >> There's nothing that can stop our God.

There is nothing. >> Over a mountain, breaker a chains. Jesus has died over [music] the grave.

Sing halleluah. The [music] battle [singing] is won. Nothing can stand against [music and singing] our God.

Sing hallelu. The battle [singing] is won. Nothing can stand against [singing and music] our God.

Thank you Lord God. Let [music] praise be a weapon that silences the enmy. Let praise be a weapon that conquers alliety.

[music] Let it rise. Let praise arise. We sing [music] your name in the dark and it changes everything.

We sing with [music and singing] all we are and claim your victory. Let it rise. [music] [singing] Let praise arise.

We'll see [music] you break down every wall. We'll watch the giants fall. Fear cannot survive [music and singing] when we praise you.

The God of breakthroughs on our [music] side. Forever lift him [singing] high. With all creation cry, God we praise [music] you.

Oh, [singing] we praise you. Oh, [singing] [music] let faith be the song [singing] that overcomes the raging sea. Let faith be the song [music] that calms the storm inside of me.

Let it rise. [music] Let faith arise. We'll see you [music and singing] break down everyone.

We'll watch the giants fall. Fear cannot [music and singing] survive when we praise you. The God of breakthroughs on our side forever.

[music] Lift [singing] him high with all creation cry. We praise you. [singing] Oh, we praise you.

Oh, [music and singing] we praise you. >> [music] >> Oh, [singing] we praise you. Oh, [music] put [music] your hands together for our Lord.

This is what it is. This is what [music and singing] living. This is what freedom feels like.

This is what heaven sounds like. We praise you. [singing and music] We praise you.

This is what living looks like. This is what freedom feels like. This is what [music] heaven sounds like.

We praise you. We praise you. This is what living looks like.

This [music] is what [singing] freedom feels like. This is what heaven sounds like. We praise you.

We praise you. This is what living. [music and singing] This is what freedom feels like.

This is what heaven sounds like. We praise you. We pray.

We'll see [music and singing] you break down every wall. We'll watch the giants fall. Fear [music and singing] cannot survive when we praise you.

The God of breakthroughs [music] on [singing] our side forever. Lift him high with all creation [singing] cry. God [music] we praise you.

Oh, we praise you. Oh, [music] oh, we praise you. Oh, [music] we [singing] praise you.

Oh, we praise [music and singing] you. What an awesome God we have that our praises will go on forever. Amen.

Ah, thank you Lord God. In Psalm 103, [clears throat] excuse me, verse 20 says, "Praise the Lord, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word." That's it. That's all.

Those are the only ones who get to praise the Lord. Wrong. Verse 21 says, "Praise the Lord all his heavenly hosts, you his servants of the Lord who do his will." Verse 22, "Praise the Lord all his works everywhere in his dominion.

Praise the Lord, my soul." Lord God, how wonderful it is that we get to praise you for all eternity. Forgive us, God, for when we focus on ourselves or on this world and we lose sight of you. Help us remember, God, how great is our God.

The splendesty. Let all the earth rejoice. All the earth rejoice.

[music] He wraps himself [singing] in life. And darkness [music] [singing] tries to hide and trembles [music] at his voice. Trembles at his voice.

How great [music] is our [singing] God. Sing with me. How great is our God.

[music and singing] And all will see how great. How great is our [music and singing] God. Age [singing] to age he stands and [music and singing] time is in his hands.

Beginning and the end, [music] beginning and the [singing] end. The Godhead three in one. >> Father, [music and singing] spirit, son, the lion and the [music] lamb.

The lion and the lamb. How great [music] is our [singing] God. Sing with me.

How great is [music and singing] our God. And all we'll see how great how great is our God. [music] >> You're the name.

>> You're the name above all [music and singing] names. You are worthy of all praise. And my [music and singing] heart will sing.

How great is our [music] God. [singing] You're [music] the name [singing] above all names. You are worthy of all praise.

And my [music] heart [singing] will sing. How great is our God. How great is our [music and singing] God.

Sing with me. How great is [music] our [singing] God. And all will see how great how great [music] is our [singing] God.

>> Think about how great he is. Tell him how great from your heart to his splender of the kingsty. [singing] [music] Let all the earth rejoice.

All the earth rejoice in [music] darkness. It trembles at [singing] his voice. Trembles [music] at his voice.

How great is our [music and singing] God. Sing with me. How great is our God.

And all will see [music] how [singing] great how great is our God. How great is our [music and singing] God. Sing with me.

How great is [music] our [singing] God. And all will see how great how great is our God. [music and singing] How great [music] is our God.

Sing with me. How great is our God. And all [singing] we'll see how [music] great how great our God.

>> Amen. Give our great and awesome God a hand. God, it's moments like these I just want to be in heaven.

I just want to see you face to face. I want to fall at your face and I want to worship you and I want to bless you and I want to praise you for the great God that you are. >> You are so incredible and so awesome and so worthy of our praise.

Lord, we know you deserve more than we can give, but this morning we give our hearts and we give what we can to you. And I pray that it was received, Lord, as a worthy offering before you. Thank you for the sacrifice of this team up here who comes on Saturdays and rehearses.

And Lord, accept that as a as a worthy offering before you, Lord, and for their they're leading us into your presence this morning, Lord. Thank you for them. Bless them, Lord God, for that.

Thank you for everyone that's here, Lord God, to worship you and to bless you and to praise you. You are worthy, Lord God, of it all. And Lord, one day we long to be in heaven where our voices will be perfectly in tune.

We'll be able to sing with all our might, unencumbered by sinful thoughts and and distractions, Lord, but just to focus on you, Lord. Our heart is there, our desire is there to worship you, Lord. And so please Lord in our our humble offering before you I pray that you are glorified and you are honored this morning.

We love you and we thank you for all you do in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated and children you may be dismissed to your classes.

>> [clears throat] >> Well, if you would, would you turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5? Matthew chapter 5. And the section we're going to be in is Matthew 25 or Matthew 5:es 21-48.

[snorts] We're continuing our study in the book of Matthew where we teach chapter by chapter, verse by verse. So, we're trying to go through the whole book and give you the whole council of God. Now, not everything is going to be uncovered or discovered or taught as we go through this.

That's why it's important we rego through it and we go through it again. Sometimes the Holy Spirit highlights certain things and then other times he highlights other things within scripture. We try to hit as much as we can uh as we go through it.

But your study of the book of Matthew is important. I heard a a podcaster, and I won't mention her name, but uh she had a guest on her podcast that uh said that uh the Bible wasn't meant to be read individually, that you need to read it corporately. And at the end of her podcast, uh this lady re-emphasized what this guy was teaching, that uh it's only meant to be read corporately and not personally.

I soundly reject that. It is meant for both. It is meant to be read like we are.

Remember Ezra reading the scripture over the people when they when they rebuilt the temple and he was he was proclaiming the word of God and they stood and they were weeping and they were crying because it was a public dissertation as a public reading of scripture. The public reading of scripture is absolutely necessary for us to come together as a church to learn and to devote ourselves to the apostles teaching and all those things important for us to do. But the word of God is also for you individually.

You are to spend time with the Holy Spirit. Why would why would scripture say you have no need of a teacher the Holy Spirit can teach you if it was only meant to be done corporately? It's it's individual and corporate.

God can speak to you through his word wherever you are. And I hope that he does. And so just wanted to soundly reject that uh that uh only corporately.

It is both. I don't reject corporately. We we need to do that.

We need to read it together. We need to study it together. We need to be able to have conversations about it as well.

Shouldn't just come from one teacher, but we should be able to talk amongst ourselves in the areas that we disagree. There are areas that you are going to disagree with me and there's areas I'm going to disagree with you. That's okay.

We can do that. But it's a in-house argument. Does that make sense?

In-house means that we're in family. We're it's it's in family dispute. We dispute those things and we talk about those things.

Sometimes they can be heated. Sometimes they can be just just working iron sharpening iron. But we want to understand and know that we can talk about them corporately.

We can teach them corporately. And we can also be taught individually by the Holy Spirit at home in the word. And so I hope that you're doing that.

Uh, but I just wanted to kind of hit that. We're studying the book of Matthew and we're going through this together. Uh, Matthew's Gospel is a book written by a Jewish Levite rejecting tax collector turned radical follower of Jesus or Yeshua to the very Jews he formerly rejected.

I know that's a mouthful, but this is who Matthew was. Matthew was a Jew. He was a Levite called to serve in the temple.

He was called to do that. his his calling was based upon his lineage, his heritage, who he was. He was of the tribe of Levi.

There was he was supposed to be there helping. My opinion is that he rejected that. That's my opinion based on what I see happening in his in his gospel and in his life.

It it appears that he would have seen something that caused him to wonder and caused him to reject what we would call the church today or for him the temple. He saw this in the in the church in the temple I believe in the leadership and he said you know what if that's what serving God is like I don't want any part of it. I'm going to go after the world and all that is there.

Now maybe he just was enticed by the money and he was pulled away by the money he could make as a tax collector. That's a feasible possibility. But I see all of these things that Jesus hits him with.

And you're going to see some of this directly hitting him uh today as we go through this scripture uh today. You're going to see him dealing with tax collectors and bringing up tax collectors. And he's the one that's even writing about this.

It's really interesting to see. But Matthew is turned. He's done a 180.

He was seeking after money. All of a sudden, he's rejecting that and he's turning and he's going after Jesus with all of his heart. He follows him.

Amazing. Just one statement from Jesus, looking into Jesus's eyes, and he knew in an instant, this was Messiah. This was Yeshua.

I'm going to follow him. Now, last week we learned about Matthew 5 and verse 17-20. Uh we we dove into this uh the sermon on the mount.

We dove into all those things and and looking at all the different aspects in the very beginning of this. But now we're going to see how to fulfill the law. Jesus said that he doesn't come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.

And then he's going to go in these next few passages and showing us how we are to fulfill this law that's been given to us. So [snorts] we want to start there because it helps to make sense of why he's doing what he does next. So, we're going to go back to Matthew 5:1 17 and through through 20.

We're just going to read that. We're not going to teach through it again, but I just want to read through it because I want you to understand what comes after this and why the things that come after this come after this because of what he says here. It says in verse 17, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.

I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, nor the least stroke of the pen will by any means disappear from the law, until everything is what? Accomplished.

That means there's something that needs to be done. And Jesus will do it all. All of the law and all of the prophecies about him.

So any prophecy you see about the Messiah, it will be fulfilled. Whether it has been already in his coming or it will be in his second coming, all those things will be fulfilled. They will be accomplished.

Verse 19, therefore, anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Do not teach people something that the word of God does not teach. Don't teach them to ignore something that the word of God is saying.

It may be a difficult verse. It may be a difficult thing, but you do not avoid it because you don't like it or because it might be offensive. We need to teach the whole word of God, however difficult it is.

Jesus taught many things and he lost followers because of it. Was Jesus trying to gain followers or teach the truth? He was trying to teach the truth and to please the father.

Now, did he want to gain them? Yes. But that wasn't his main goal.

And you'll see in some churches, they will preach easy gospel. They will preach easy things. They will preach prosperity.

They will teach the things that ears want to be itched and and tickled and they want to hear those things and they do it for the gaining of people. Jesus didn't do that. He taught the truth.

[snorts] Verse 20 says, "For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." If that's the case, who's got a chance? Pharisees grew up in their lineage knowing that they would be who they were going to be. And they grew up in the temple.

They grew up learning. Their their very learning from the beginning was in the law and in the in the exercise of that. How would you surpass that?

By accepting the one who did surpass it and accepting his fulfillment of those things is how you do that. You take on Jesus's righteousness. Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets.

He would live a life of obedience to the law in his actions. He would also fulfill the prophecies about his life. In the next few verses, Jesus will break down the law and give us a greater understanding of what God had in mind when he gave the law.

Starting in Matthew 5 21, it says, "You have heard it said to the people long ago, you shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment." Is this true? >> Yes, it was in the law, wasn't it? But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.

Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister raqa, which means fool, is answerable to the court. And anyone who says you fool will be in danger of the hell of the fire of hell. Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar.

First go and be reconciled to them, then come and give your gift. Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison.

Truly, I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny. Jesus takes one of the laws given in Exodus 20:13, which says that you shall not murder. The word used for murder in the Hebrew is rasha.

In the Greek it is fo. Both of these mean murder. Both words are used for murder and for killing.

We all know that there's a major difference between premeditated murder, which means that you what? You planned it, right? You thought about it.

You were thinking about it. You were so angry and so upset. You thought about how you were going to kill the person.

Whether that was a gun or poison or whether that was pushing them off a cliff or whether that was blowing them up or whatever those things are. You can tell I haven't ever thought about those things. No, just you thought about those things.

You're thinking in your heart and in your mind, how am I going to kill this person? How would I do it? Premeditated.

Second degree murder is premeditated. Manslaughter is another category. It's or manslaughter is divided into two categories in our law.

Voluntary manslaughter, often called a crime of passion, which is the intentional killing that occurs after a sudden intense provocation that would cause any reasonable person to lose self-control. That is a crime of passion, so to speak. you catch your husband or your wife doing something with someone else that they weren't supposed to be doing and all of a sudden rage just grabs you and you you do something you you create you you murder somebody because of that.

That's because of this losing of self-control. Then there's involuntary manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide. This occurs when death is completely unintentional but results from extreme recklessness, negligence, or an unlawful act like a a DUI.

You're driving under the influence and you couldn't control the vehicle. You swerve off and you hit somebody and they die because you were intoxicated. You weren't intending to kill somebody, but because of your negligence, you killed somebody because you didn't get a ride and you didn't turn in your keys or whatever the case may be.

So there's different forms of of murder and there's different forms of killing that we we have to kind of wade through and work through. So what is the difference maker? What is the what is the differencemaker between maybe someone who who drove and sped down the road, you know, trying to see what their new car could do, how fast it could go because it's a it's a whatever it is, a brand new Corvette, and they just wanted to open it up and see how it do.

And all of a sudden, they lose control and hit somebody and kill somebody. And what's the difference between that and someone planning to kill somebody and shoots them with a gun? What's the difference maker?

It's the intent, isn't it? The intent of the heart. The intent of the heart.

Now, in our court system, they try to see where the intent of the heart lies by looking at the evidence, don't they? They look at and see if there's any evidence that would point to an intent. Point to planning this out.

Point to to to looking at the fact that you were planning this. You could have stopped because you were planning it and you could have said, "No, I don't need to do this. This is wrong." But you continued in your planning and you fulfilled it.

There was an intent and they could see the intent of the heart based upon the evidence. Right? Now with God, does God need evidence?

God sees our heart, doesn't he? He knows it. Man looks on the outside, but God looks on the heart.

God can see the intent of our heart. He can know in an instant what's going on. Because sometimes we will plan things and not walk it out.

Isn't that true? How many people have you planned to kill and you didn't do it? I'm grateful you didn't, but you you might have planned it.

Okay, it's possible and likely in almost everyone's heart, but courts try to figure that out. However, God gets it right all the time where courts sometimes miss it. Jesus knew that sin starts in the heart.

Anger [snorts] is this seed or this root cause of murder. The Bible also says that bitterness is like a root that defiles, doesn't it? So this anger when you're angry with a brother or sister develops into bitterness.

Bitterness defiles you to the point where you might contemplate what? Murder. Because there's anger still in your heart.

And so you need to be very careful with forgiveness. You need to make sure that you are giving forgiveness so that it does not turn into bitterness which will ultimately defile you. It affects our relationships with each other and it also affects our relationship with God.

If you would turn to Matthew chapter 18, Matthew chapter 18, we're going to start in the 21st verse. Most of you will recognize this as the parable of the unmerciful servant says [snorts] in verse 21, "Then Peter came to Jesus and asked,"Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me?" You can tell Peter went to Sunday school because of his response, right? He tries to answer his own question up to seven times.

Seven's a godly number. I know it's in the Bible a lot. That's my Sunday school answer.

I I think I'm being gracious. I think I'm being generous. I'll probably get to put a gold star on the board because I gave this nice Sunday school answer.

Jesus answered, I tell you not seven times, but 70* 7. I take this to mean until the 77s are fulfilled in Daniel. What happens at that fulfillment?

Everything's made new, right? Everything's changed. Everything's done.

Completely forgiven. In other words, we're we're done with this world. We're done with this sinful flesh.

So until this is done away with, until this is over, you keep forgiving. It's not a number, it's a continuation until sin is done away with completely. You keep forgiving.

How often do you how long how long do you want God to forgive you? a number. I far surpassed that number.

I want God to continue forgiving me until he takes me up and out and redo this flesh that I I am struggling to overcome. And that's what he wants us to do for all of our brothers and sisters, anyone. We want to forgive them and keep on forgiving them.

Verse 22, Jesus answered, I tell you not seven times, but 70 times seven. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man owed him 10,000 bags of gold.

Your version may say something else. And it was brought to him. Since he was unable to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had to be sold to repay the debt.

At this, the servant fell on his knees before him. Be patient with me, he begged, and I will pay back everything. Servants mastered took pity on him.

Cancelled the debt and let him go. That is a lot of gold. That is a lot of debt that this man had.

And he let him go. Cancelled the debt. Didn't even make didn't even say, "Yeah, I'll wait for you to repay it." He canceled the whole debt and said, "You can go free." This was huge.

But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. Gold and silver are much different in value, aren't they? And a hundred coins could probably fit in one bag.

This guy owed far more than this other servant. But he grabbed him and began to choke him. "Pay back what you owe me," he demanded.

His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, "Be patient with me and I will pay it back." But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.

Then the master called the servant in. "You wicked servant," he said. I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.

Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you? In anger, his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he should pay back all that he owed. Verse 35 is the key.

This is how my heavenly father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your what? Heart. Now this is only if they come to you and they fall on their knees and they beg for forgiveness, right?

And they ask you please forgive me. I was wrong. Then we are required to forgive, right?

Oh, when Jesus was standing there hanging on the cross being crucified by the Romans because of the Jews setting him up. Both are guilty of crucifying our Lord. But while he is dying, while he is in pain suffering, while they are still mocking him and saying he saved others, why doesn't he save himself as they pass by mocking him, ridiculing him, probably spitting on him in his dying moments?

What does he say? Father, if they repent and they fall on their knees and say, "I'm very, very, very, very sorry." Then forgive them. He didn't say that.

He didn't wait for an apology. He didn't wait for repentance. He said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." That is amazing.

I want the apology. I want them to acknowledge what they did to me. And I want them to come and I want them to say, "I am sorry for what I did." That is what is right to do.

No doubt. But Jesus exampled, "It's not what I'm asking you to do. You don't wait for the apology.

You forgive them because they really don't know what they're doing. They're sinning against a child of the most high God. And you are the apple of his eye." Can you imagine the rage of the father?

If I saw someone defile my daughter, can you imagine my rage? If I saw someone doing something against my son, can you imagine my rage? That's the importance of us forgiving because we want God to forgive also.

We don't want the rage of God against any human being. We want forgiveness. We want him to be merciful.

They don't understand what they're doing. They may understood what they did, but not ultimately who they did it to and the effects of that. Is it important for us to ask for forgiveness and to go to those people and acknowledge our sin?

Absolutely, it is. But it is not the hinge point for your forgiveness of others. Now, do you trust again?

That's a whole another issue. Trust is earned, isn't it? It's developed.

It's grown over time. You begin to trust again. When that trust is broken and violated, doesn't mean you instantly go back to full trust again.

That needs to be built up over time. Forgiveness is not saying, "I fully trust you again." Forgiveness is saying, "I forgive you, but you're going to have to show me that you can you're trustworthy to walk this back out after repentance." So, there's a lot within that that we can't really dive into this morning. But I want you to know that we need to forgive from the heart because we have been forgiven.

Never forget all that you have been forgiven of. Never forget the debt that was canceled and give that grace to others. Let God sort out their repentance.

Let the Holy Spirit work on their heart to bring them to repentance. And if they do come back to repent, man, that is wonderful. That's awesome.

Relationship can be restored and those things can happen. But we need to remember that we need to forgive others. Let's get back to Matthew chapter 5.

Jesus indicates that if you call a brother rocka or fool, you're in danger of hellfire. I can't tell you how many times I've been in danger of hellfire as [clears throat] a Christian driving down the road and some guy flies by me swerving in and out of traffic and I what a idiot. What a What a fool.

comes out of my mouth and I'm angry at him for for being so reckless because he's taken everybody's lives for granted, including his own. The amount of people he could destroy their day because of a overturned vehicles and all that stuff, people late for work and not being able to get through and people in the hospital and people hurt and all that. You just you just go, "What a is what I'm thinking in my mind.

But Jesus says, "I'm in danger of hellfire." Now, is it true that the person was being foolish? Yeah, it's true. But then the Holy Spirit reminds me, do you remember, Gary, when I saved your life when you almost got in a head-on collision because you were being foolish in your car and you were speeding down the highway passing somebody with not enough space and you were milliseconds from death and possibly killing other people.

I spared your life and I was being very foolish. So instead of going to judgment, I should be recognizing the mercy that was shown me in my foolishness and say, "Lord, would you help that person? Would you convict them?

And would you help them to stop? Would you protect them from destroying their lives and others rather than going to judgment upon that person?" I tell you that's a struggle in my life when I'm driving like that and people are being foolish and and they're cutting me off and that sort of thing. My wife will tell me, "Why don't you slow down?" Well, they have to know that that that they cut me off so I I stay right on their butt so they feel the pressure.

That's what teachers do, right? We teach all the time. Even in our cars, we teach.

You just want to teach teach. And but it's sinful and it's wrong. But it's, oh, I want to do it, you know, kind of thing.

And it's like, I'm just grateful that God is gracious with me and he's not always trying to teach me, teach, you know, kind of thing. He does teach me, but in a gentle, loving way. When that doesn't work, then he puts the pressure on.

But, but we need to be cautious and careful with the words that come out of our mouth because that judgment is basically the same thing, isn't it? It's not providing forgiveness. It's not being merciful and showing the mercy that we have been shown.

And we need to be careful because it doesn't display what God intended to be displayed in our lives. [snorts] Verses uh 27 through30 show Jesus shows us again the true intent of the law. You shall not commit adultery, which is a voluntary act of intercourse involving a married person and someone other than a lawful spouse.

Basically, having sex outside of marriage. It's wrong. It is sinful.

But Jesus brings it to a heart level. He brings it back to the heart. Where did it start?

How did it start? How did it initiate? It says anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Men and women, do not try to justify what you look at and wink at it as if it's just being human. It's not being human. It is being human.

It is fleshly, but it's not what God wants. It starts in the heart. The adultery is committed here.

We need to be very careful with this. He's so serious about it that look at the body parts mentioned in conjunction with this sin. [snorts] the right eye and the right hand.

Most people are right-handed in the world. So, if you're left-handed, just consider it the other side. [snorts] And most people are right eye dominant.

If you're a shooter, you understand what that means. You you you aim with your right eye. You close your left and or you set up your your sights of your both eyes open and your right eye is going to be the dominant one that that projects what you see.

And so Jesus is saying, "Look, if you're watching stuff, you're looking at stuff and you're committing these sins, you need to stop. It's better that you gouge your eye out, your right eye out, and enter into the kingdom of heaven with one eye or with one hand the things that are committing these sins." He says, "It's better that you do that." But surely Jesus was just joking, right? He was just overstating something to get you to do something right.

Does God overstate? No. Does God threaten with no recourse?

No. God is not like man that he should lie. He's truthful.

[snorts] Is he merciful? Absolutely. Is he forgiving?

Absolutely. So if you've done those things, will God forgive you? Absolutely.

But you need to make provision to stop it. Or as the Bible would say, make no provision for the flesh. What is a pro provision for lust?

This could be one. This could be one. just looking and driving out around and seeing things, watching TV, all of those things could make provision for the flesh.

If we are not able to put blinders on our eyes, to do as Job said, to make a covenant with your eyes, not to look lustfully upon a woman. This can indeed turn for a woman as well, not to look lustfully upon a man. We are not to look with lust upon others.

This stirs up what will ultimately happen. Affairs and unfaithfulness. 1 [snorts] Corinthians 10:13 says, "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind.

And God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

Sometimes you've made every provision. You've tried not to look at those things and all of a sudden something pops up on the screen that you did not initiate and you did not invite and it pops up on the screen. Sometimes at a commercial on TV or sometimes it's a woman jogging down the road or a man jogging down the road.

Whatever the case may be, temptation comes and what do you do with that? The Bible says we can take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ Jesus. Right?

We can turn our face away. We can turn and look in another direction. But dwelling on those things, it's like a gateway.

The eyes are the gates. The ears are the gates. You need to guard your gates.

You need to guard what you watch. You need to guard what you hear. You need to start the day setting that up and saying, "You know what, God?

I want to guard what I see. Maybe you're on a computer. Maybe you're online researching something and ads are coming.

You need to guard what you see. You need to get rid of those things. You need to scroll past those things.

You need to you need to take thoughts captive through the obedience of Christ Jesus. You need to fight against these things that are waring for your attention. The enemy knows your weaknesses and you need to know them as well and you need to guard against them.

Guarding your gates is important, especially men with regard to visual things. But women with regard to what you hear, what you see, what you feel, all those things. We need to guard against those things because it will destroy marriages.

It will destroy your life. It will destroy someone else's marriage in the future. Those of you that have had a past of sexual experience before marriage, you're going to take that wound.

you're going to take that into your next marriage. If you decide to to to just experience those things because you want to ahead of marriage and you ignore God's direction in your life, you're going to experience the byproduct of those things. It's going to be hard to overcome and to deal with.

Can God overcome it? Absolutely he can. Can he heal you?

Absolutely he can. But those things damage future relationships and we need to be careful with it because it can destroy us. God will not put you in a situation that you'll be tempted beyond what you're able.

But you need to be willing to look for the escape route in it and look for those things. It's very, very important. So, [snorts] guard your gates.

Make sure that you make a covenant with your eyes. [snorts] Matthew 5:31, we'll jump back there. Matthew 5:31-32 deals with divorce.

And Jesus says, "It has been said, anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce. But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her a victim of adultery. And anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery." The Bible clearly states that God hates divorce.

Marriage is seen as the most holy covenant between two people. And it reflects in an earthly way what God intends to do with the church and with the Jews in a spiritual way. It is meant to represent his relationship with us.

God being the bridegroom of Israel and Jesus being the bridegroom of the church. It's to represent that. It's to show that to our children.

This is what the relationship with God and you is going to look like. How I treat your mother, how your mother treats me. You're going to see Jesus in that.

You're going to see the church in that. It's very important that we represent that rightly. So God takes marriage very seriously.

God is also represented in scripture as a God of what? Reconciliation. He's a God that reconciles, right?

He brings back together. He restores, right? He forgives.

He looks to get the relationship back. He wants that relationship to be restored if it's broken. And we if we have experienced that brokenness in our marriages, if we've experienced that tragedy in our marriages, look to be restored.

Look for hope for restoration. Sometimes the other person is unwilling and that's okay. God understands it takes two.

But you should be looking as a representative of God to say, I want to restore. I want this to be brought back. This is a very difficult topic because it takes two people and there is wounds and there are hurts that are difficult to overcome and some marriages no never overcome them.

But many of the Jews were using this ability to give their wife a certificate of divorce for stupid things. I shouldn't say stupid dangerous. Forgive me a lot.

for acting stupidly. [laughter] They would get a bad meal and not like how their wife cooked or wouldn't cook. Divorce over cooking.

And of course, in those days, women were largely dependent upon the man as the bread winner to bring to bring in income and they were out on their own. So women had to live in fear of their husband offering this certificate anytime he could threaten them anytime he wanted to. It was horrible.

They were using this in a wrong way. Jesus comes on the scene and explains how it was intended to be used. Divorce was only permissible for marital unfaithfulness.

Now, what if your spouse wants a divorce and you don't want to? You can't stop them in our country. You can't.

If they want to divorce you, they can divorce you. So, does that make you guilty? No.

But there is a possibility and a hope because you have a God that can touch hearts. There's a God that can change hearts. Can you have a heart of reconciliation?

Can you have a heart that prays and prays for your spouse to change their heart and their mind? Can God resto God has restored many marriages from divorce back to reuniting. The spirit of God can do that.

Now, if the other spouse remaries again, then there might be gone. But our heart should always be for reconciliation where we can get that forgiving and showing grace and mercy. >> [snorts] >> Jesus deals with divorce again in Matthew 19:es 1-12.

And if you want to study that topic further, you can look into that. You can read Matthew 19 1-12 and he will uh clarify a little bit more there. Divorce is devastating to both the marriage but also in its representation of God's intended purpose.

And that should be our greater concern. God's name's sake goes with it. And so when we marry, our vows are not just to the spouse, but it is before God, isn't it?

And we take those vows very seriously. Jesus then then deals with oaths. He [clears throat] said, "Do not swear by anything.

[cough] Excuse me. Simply let your yes be yes and your no be no. Then he said anything beyond that yes or no is from the evil one.

Think about that for a minute. Why would someone swear if I were to tell you there was a lion outside? And then I said, "No, I swear there's a lion outside.

Why would I have to? I swear because there's not just a lion outside, there's a lion inside. There's a lion speaker inside.

Right? I'd be if I'm a liar, then I have to overemphasize that I'm no longer being a liar because I'm swearing, right? I have to swear this oath, you know, that sort of thing.

Make it even more secure because I have lied in the past or because I have an experience of lying, you know, that sort of thing. So it comes from the evil one who is of course the father of lies. Jesus said let your yes be yes and your no be no.

And it should always be yes and it should always be no. Right? We should be honest and we should be truthful.

We should be known that we are honest and truthful people and not need some sort of swearing or some kind of oath. Very simple. We need to be men and women of our word.

Let's look at the next uh section, the verses 38 through through 42. [clears throat] He's dealing with the eye for an eye. He said, "You have heard it said, eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth.

But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them also the other cheek. And if anyone wants to sue you to take your shirt, hand [snorts] over your coat as well.

If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you and do not turn away from one who wants to borrow from you. God in the Old Testament did not want people taking vengeance beyond what was lawful or just.

That's why he said eye for an eye or tooth for a tooth. I can remember my brother would sometimes punch me and I would punch him back equally as hard, just perfectly equal. If you believe that, I'm a liar.

No, I I make it point to whail on him twice as hard as he wailed on me because I want him to know what you did was not right and you deserve more than you gave. But God made a law, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. So if he knocked out my tooth, I get to knock out one of his.

That's it. That's fair and that's equal. But that's vengeance.

If we get hurt, what do we want to do? We want to seek revenge. We want vengeance.

And we always seek a little more than was done to us so that they will not do it again. So that they'll be scared not to do it again. Jesus indicates here that we are not to resist an evil person.

And he says if anyone slaps us on the right cheek, turn to them also the left, right? Or the other. When you think about this, most people in the world are what?

We talked about it earlier, right-handed, right? Some are left, but most people are right-handed. If a right-handed person was to stand in front of me and hit me on the right cheek, are they punching me or backhanding me?

Imagine I'm still here. I'mma punch you on the right cheek. I'm gonna knock you out.

No one punches like this normally. Maybe your pastor, but normally you don't do this to punch somebody. You're going to uppercut them.

You know, you're going to take it from the right side and continue through the left. But if you were to backhand someone, where would you strike them? On the right side.

A backhand is an insult. A backhand is a insulting you, trying to get your attention, trying to slap you, so to speak. But if they insult you, let them insult you again.

It's an insult. They didn't punch. They weren't trying to kill you.

They were insulting you. By human standards in our courts, we have the right to defend ourselves, don't we? If you're offended, well, you get offended.

But if they were striking you to kill you, according to our laws, you have the right to defend yourself, don't you? If they were coming at you with a knife, do you just hold your cheek up, let them stab you, slice you? If they come at you with a gun, do you not duck or hide?

You know, we have the right to defend ourselves. If someone comes at you to with intent to kill you, according to our laws, you have the right to defend yourself. There are some Christians that do believe that you have the right to defend yourself if someone's coming to attack you.

There are some Christians who believe that you don't. When they came to kill Jesus, did he defend himself? He did not.

He willingly laid down his life and he died. No one took it from him. He willingly gave it.

So, these are questions that are difficult to work out, and I'm going to let you work that out with the Lord. He could have called a legion of angels down, he said. But he laid his life down willingly.

Now, the other issue is, what if they come after someone else? What if someone breaks into my home with a gun and is threatening to kill my children and my wife? As the father and as the protector, I have a right and I have the responsibility to defend my family.

That may cost me my life in doing so. But in that case, I'm laying down my life for someone else and not for myself. And so, fathers, you have a responsibility to protect your home.

Someone breaks in, you have a responsibility to do so. However you deem necessary with those means, you deem necessary with those means, but you protect your family. I believe I have the the right and the responsibility that if someone comes through those doors yelling Allah Akbar with a pistol in his hand that I have the right to take him out to defend you.

If I die in the process, so be it. But we need to defend those that th the others and ourselves. You decide through reading the scripture and through praying in the Holy Spirit whether you should engage in self-defense and use lethal force in that process or whether you shouldn't.

That's going to be something you're going to have to to work out with the Lord. The last section we're dealing with this morning in verses 43- 48. Jesus said, "You have heard it said, "Love your neighbor." Hello neighbor.

Won't you be my neighbor? Reminds me of Mr. Rogers.

And hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those that persecute you that you may be children of your father in heaven. When he refers to us as children of God, he is indicating that we are what?

We're mini me. You know, we're we're little little gods. We're reflections of the father.

We are imitators of our dad. We are like him. We need to express God's love just as he did.

The scripture says that he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, on the righteous and the unrighteous. God reveals his love to the evil and the good. And so we being God's children should do the same, should we not?

God provides oxygen, provides water, provides food, provides sunlight, provides all these things for all of the world, the good and the evil and the wicked. Showers them with all this love. We should do the same.

It is hard to love your enemy, isn't it? Very difficult. Sometimes forgiveness is a choice and the feelings follow later.

You can choose to do something that you don't feel like doing, can't you? That's called discipline. Those of you that run, you understand that you discipline yourself to get up and do something that you really don't want to do.

And you do it because you know it's the right thing to do. It's a good thing to do. And you you go and you do that.

This is a spiritual discipline to love someone who is your enemy. Jesus goes on to say, "If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even tax gatherers doing that?" Ouch.

This one hurts. Keep in mind who's writing this book. Matthew tax gatherer.

Even tax collectors love those that love them. This had to hit him pretty hard. Jesus said, "If you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others?

Do not even the pagans do that?" He says, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect." When you look back on this list, it's seemingly impossible, isn't it? How can we possibly do all these things that Jesus is asking us to do? We need to recall that with God all things are possible.

The key there is with God in your own strength impossible. With Emmanuel, God with us all things are possible. The son of God who hung on that cross and said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do has the strength to do that and he lives and dwells within you.

Therefore, you have all the strength that he had to be able to do the very same thing. You can forgive. As difficult as the thing is you might be thinking of right now, you can forgive.

He did and so can you. We need to rightly reflect it. How do we do this?

We need to be in the presence of God every day. Your devotional life, and I preach this all the time, and I know you're probably tired of hearing it, but I hope and I pray that you are spending time with God before you begin your day every day, even on the weekends. Because every day is important.

Fights happen on the weekends. Difficulties happen on the weekends just as much as they do during the week. Spend time with the Lord.

A disciplined, set, structured time in your life, but keep it fresh. That's hard to do. Maybe you're structured and you're there and you've got that, but you're not keeping it fresh and it's just become rut and routine and you're really not sensing God's presence in in the morning.

You need to shake it up a little bit. Maybe go for a walk, take it outside, take it somewhere else, in another room, or do something different. But you need to get in God's presence every day.

Get filled with his presence and his power so that you can walk these things out. If you're struggling with unforgiveness, it comes up in your devotion. Comes up while you're talking to him.

And he goes, "Hey, hey, hey, deal with this. What's this unforgiveness you got here against your brother?" You can confess it. You can ask him for your help for help.

You can you can profess forgiveness and then the feelings come later. But you can begin walking these things out, but you need to be spending time with Jesus to do it. He was able to fulfill the law and the prophecies and he's able to give you the strength to do the same thing.

Amen. I love you guys. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your word. Thank you for your living word, Jesus. Thank you that he lived it out.

He didn't just preach it from a pulpit and then didn't do it. He walked it out. He lived it out in front of us.

People testified to all that he did. Not all that he did, but most of what he did. Lord, I pray that you would help us.

Help us to overcome this flesh, to walk in the spirit. Lord, would you meet us in the morning times? Would you meet us in the evenings when we spend time with you and even in the afternoons or throughout the day when we connect with you?

Lord, we need your Holy Spirit to empower us and we need your presence in our lives to walk these things out so that the world can see and the world can know. When Matthew saw Jesus, he turned. Lord, we want people to see Jesus in us in turn.

But Lord, that can only come through spending time in your presence because our flesh is not enough. We fail a lot. So Lord, empower your church and help them.

Be with us this week. Go before us. Set up divine appointments for us.

People that we need to speak to and people we need to live in front of. And help us to accomplish all that you want us to do in Jesus name. Amen.