My Easter Story The Unmerciful Servant 4/15/18 -Announce: -We ve been talking about life change for the last several weeks. -That s what Jesus, the Resurrected Christ, does and is still doing today. -He supernaturally changes lives. -One of the ways that we declare that is through the act of Believer s Baptism. -It is a symbolic picture of transformation and new life. -April 29 at Maxine Barrett Park at 5:30pm. -If you have placed your faith in Jesus and have declared to follow Him, your first step of obedience is in the act of baptism. -If you have yet to do that, put Baptism on the back of your CC. -I will be teaching at class at 4pm on that day. -------------------------------------------------------------- -We have a special guest with us today, Mrs. Joni McLendon. -I ve asked her to share her story today publicly. -She is a licensed Christian counselor and a woman who walks with God. -Before we get into her story, Why are we telling all of these stories? -We started a new teaching series on Easter Sunday, My Easter Story -How Jesus Christ is still changing people s lives. -It is evidence that Jesus has been raised from the dead. -Because of that: -It means that Jesus Christ is Lord, above all, victorious over sin and the grave. -It means that Jesus is currently alive and present today to save you from your sin and from the judgement that is to come. -It also means that Jesus is alive today and available to you in your present situation and your present circumstance no matter what you are going through. -It means that Jesus is not about empty, ritualistic RELIGION but about a real RELATIONSHIP with a real God. -Who has the ability to enter into your story and TRANSFORM it in a way that you never thought imaginable. -Just like He did in Joni s life. -Joni, thank you for being willing to share your story with us. -I know that it is difficult to walk back through some of the things that you experienced in your life. -But we know that Jesus has the powerful ability to WALK INTO that story and meet you in it. -Can we give Joni a round of applause today?
-Joni: I grew up in what looked like a Christian family. My parents attended church all the time. My dad was a deacon and taught Sunday School. Both my parents were in the choir at our local Baptist church. However, at home was another issue. My dad is a manic depressive and was an alcoholic. Every night when he came home from work he screamed at us three girls and said I m going to beat you till the blood runs down your legs and he did on a nightly basis. He cussed us and told us we would never amount to anything. There was one time he came home really drunk and got a hold of a riffle he had in his closet. He loaded it and screamed as he came down the hall that he would kill us all. Fortunately, he passed out before he got to the children s room. I learned very early that I needed Jesus. I prayed all the time as a child for protection. I was very afraid. When I was 9, I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior. Physical and verbal abuse continued even into high school. I developed a growing hatred and rage internally for him, but I didn t know how to get free from it. I wished he would die. I knew every day I needed Jesus to make it. I poured myself into church and school activities when I was older so I didn t have to be at home. I would drive my car to the beach at night and sit in the sand dunes at Tybee beach and cry out to God. I was excited when my parents dropped me off at college but the internal turmoil of hate for my dad was still there. I graduated from college, married and joined Randy at Southwestern Theological Seminary where he received his master s degree in Theology. In the late 90 s God called me to get my master s in counseling. While I was in graduate school I was struggling with my hate for my father. In a Bible study one morning this Scripture came alive to me. Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of God. I knew I was saved but I was not experiencing the Kingdom of God. Then the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, Joni you can t take anyone further than you are yourself. Conviction and desperation lead me to go down into a room in my basement and fast and pray for 3 days. It is there that I really met God. In crying out to God to forgive me for hating my father, the shackles broke. I felt them come off. When I came up from the three days of being with God, my husband said to me, You are different. I was different. I was free. Then the Lord told me to go find my father in Savannah and tell him, I forgive you. I didn t want to do this, but the conviction of God was so strong that I did. I took my father down to Tybee beach. We walked on the beach a while. He was at a very low point. He had lost everything to drinking. I turned and looked at him and said, I forgive you for every time you beat me and cursed me. I didn t know what to expect. He suddenly began to weep like a baby and said, How could you forgive me for what I ve done to you. I answered, Because Jesus Has forgiven me, I can forgive you. Forgiveness broke my father, and I now have a relationship with him. What I couldn t do, God did. The unforgiveness and
hate has never come back. My name is Joni McLendon and this is my glorious Easter Story! -There is a story that Jesus tells in the Gospel of Matthew that illustrates forgiveness perfectly. -Matthew 18:21 (NIV) Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times? -Legitimate question. -The religious leaders of the day had set a limit on forgiveness 3 times. -Peter instead chooses the perfect number 7. -Forgive 7 times and then you don t owe that person forgiveness anymore. -Surely, in his mind, that would be enough. -Then Jesus says something to Peter and the other disciples listening that dumbfounded them. -Matthew 18:22 (NIV) Jesus answered, I tell you, not seven times, but seventyseven times. -Some translators have translated this to mean 70 x 7=490 -The point is the same -It is not a number that you can count. Forgiveness should be an unlimited, uncountable action. ------------------------------ -Hurt comes to all of us in some way, shape or form. -Because of that hurt, we begin to be filled with all kinds of emotions. -When someone that is supposed to love you, care for you, and protect you, instead hurts you, manipulates you, and uses you, it can be very overwhelming. -How on earth can you just look at someone who hurt you and extend forgiveness? -Seems counterintuitive and it is. -Misconceptions: (1) Forgiveness Is Denial -Maybe you ve been hurt by actions -Someone abused you -Someone sexually assaulted you -Someone physically beat you -Maybe you ve been hurt by emotions -Someone has attacked you -Someone has let you down -Someone has mistreated you -Maybe you ve been hurt by words. -Someone has ridiculed you -Someone has belittled you -Someone has publicly humiliated you -And you don t know what to do the hurt and the pain that is so real.
real. -Forgiving someone doesn t mean that you deny the pain or that the pain is not -IT IS REAL, IT HAPPENED. IT IS NOT DENIAL. (2) Forgiveness Is Natural - I ll just naturally forgive them or get over it. -Every time you are hurt, you will run towards anger, hurt, bitterness, rage, and payback -It is our natural, human tendency. -Holding on to our hurts feels good. It gives us emotion and energy. -We play the offense over and over in our minds. -How we would pay them back -How we would retaliate now -How wrong they were for what they did -This is what is natural and feels right. -But as the wound festers, it destroys because forgiveness is not natural. -It must be dealt with. (3) Forgiveness Is Approval - If I forgive them that means I approve of what they did. NO -God never approves of any sin you commit against Him, yet He freely offers forgiveness. -Jesus talks about forgiveness with a story: It s a story about extremes as you will see. -Matthew 18:23-35 (NIV) Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. 26 At this the servant fell on his knees before him. Be patient with me, he begged, and I will pay back everything. 27 The servant s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. -The servant owed his master 10,000 talents -A talent was worth about 20 years of a day laborer s wages. -Estimated worth today would be a billion dollars. -What the Bible emphasizes is not an amount but an UNPAYABLE debt -He did not have anything close to that to be able to pay it back. -Because of that, the master had every right to punish him. -The only thing he had was the ability to ask for mercy. -The Master had pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. -This is a clear picture of salvation.
-The billion dollar debt is a picture of every person before a holy God with a sin debt that cannot be paid off. -Think about our bad deeds, our selfish actions, our neglect of God, our pride, our lust, our bitterness, our hate, our lies and the list could go on and on. -All of it is before a holy God and done in offense to Him. -God said, Be perfect as I am perfect and be holy as I am holy. -Just one sin keeps us from that standard. -We committed way more than that. -It s a staggering debt against God that we have NO way to repay on our own. -God has every right to punish us. -The only thing we can do is beg for mercy, just like this servant in the story. -You can receive mercy and complete forgiveness -God can cancel the debt and let you go. -How? Because of the love of God displayed on the cross of Christ. -God took the record of wrong against us and nailed it to the cross. -Cancelling the charges and setting us free. -How can you receive it? -You admit you need it. -That you have a sin debt, that you can t do anything on your own and you ask for the mercy of God. -He will give it! He longs to give it! --------------------------------------------------------- -Let s say you receive it. -What should the response be to that kind of forgiveness that lasts throughout eternity? -Joy, Praise, Worship, Rejoicing, Singing... -Notice what happens next in Jesus story, -Matthew 18:28-30 (NIV) But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. Pay back what you owe me! he demanded. 29 His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, Be patient with me, and I will pay it back. 30 But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. -After he has been forgiven and relieved of his unpayable debt, he demands payment from someone else. -The forgiven servant was owed 100 denarii by someone else -A denarius was equivalent to a laborer s full day s wage. -Owed 100 days wage. His debt against his master was 20 years -This debt owed to him is for a few months pay.
of. -A miniscule amount compared to what he has just been forgiven -Literally pennies by comparison. -Yet he demands to be paid in full. -Had he forgotten what had been done for him? -Jesus is wanting us to read this story and say, That s absurd. -And it is... on paper. -But living in the reality of everyday life is a different story. -It s symbolic of offenses done to us. -How do you know if you are living with an unforgiving spirit? -You can be a Christ-follower or not and still have an unforgiving spirit. -The symptoms are the same: -What are the symptoms? Look at the servant s reaction: -Remember - He found one of his fellow servants that owed him... -This wasn t an encounter where they just happened to cross paths. -NO, he sought him out. -Play it over and over in your mind. -Rage - Grabbed him, choked him and said pay back what you owe me! -Retaliate - He had the man thrown in prison. -irrational - Until he could pay off the debt. -How could he pay off the debt in prison? Irrational -Matthew 18:31 (NIV) When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. -The response was so irrational to the other servants. -They were outraged and told their master, EVERYTHING. -Notice next. -Matthew 18:32-35 (NIV) Then the master called the servant in. You wicked servant, he said, I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you? 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. 35 This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart. -Notice the Consequence: -Bondage
-Instead of forgiving and being in good standing with his master, what happened instead? -He was handed over to the jailers to be tortured. -It is not an understanding of salvation but a picture of where unforgiveness leads: a tortuous prison sentence. (A fractured relationship with the Master). -You think the other person is suffering. -It is you that is in prison. -The world s worse prison is not on this earth physically but inside the heart of man that lives in unforgiveness. ------------------------------------------------------------ -What do you do? (1) If you have yet to receive the Lord Jesus Christ, receive Him. -He will come in, forgive your sin and heal your heart and give you the ability to forgive. (2) If you have been forgiven by Jesus, remember that forgiveness. -How can we who ve been forgiven of so much withhold forgiveness of something so small in comparison? (3) Take your hurts to Jesus - Lord, forgive me for not forgiving. - Lord, I want to be right with you. - I don t know how. Forgive through me. -This is the power of the risen Christ. -He will forgive through you if you have a relationship with Him. ------------------------------------------------------- -Bridge Group Questions: 1. What stood out to you most about this week s message? 2. How did you feel during Joni s story? What would your response have been to her situation? 3. What are some misconceptions people have when it comes to forgiveness? 4. God compares our sin against Him to others sins against us. Why are we so prone to forget about our sin against God and zero in on others sins against us? 5. Jesus compares unforgiveness to a tortured prison. Have you ever visited that prison in your heart? How did you get out? 6. What can we do to better remember our enormous sins against God that He has chosen to completely forgive? What difference would it make if we did that on a consistent basis?