The Expository Word

TMP Matt 6:12 / Forgive Us Our Debts

March 21, 2023 Kimber Kauffman Season 96 Episode 49
The Expository Word
TMP Matt 6:12 / Forgive Us Our Debts
Show Notes Transcript

Matthew 6:12. This message originally delivered on June 23, 1996.

Kimber Kauffman:

This most familiar passage of scripture was one that men like Luther and Agustin present day men like Wiersbe, every day of their converted life spent time praying through this prayer. It has been said that nothing you can pray is not mentioned in this prayer. And as Jesus teaches us how to pray in this passage, the first thing he tells us, starting with verse five, of Chapter Six is what not to do. And notice verse five of chapter six. And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues, and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they've received their reward in full. And we're going to study Forgive us our debts this morning. Just that phrase, but just to help us understand what Jesus says not to do by a quick way of reviewing I'm trying to be new and and in our review, so it won't be boring for you. But please notice this. D Martyn Lloyd Jones makes this comment. The air of the hypocrite is selfishness. Even in his prayers, He is obsessed with his own self image and how he looks in the eyes of the beholder. Here's the hypocrite. Jesus said, Don't pray like those guys. They love to be seen of men. They love to stand on the corners, everyone see them. The fear of man brings a snare the Bible says. So don't be like them. That's the dope pray with selfish motives. And then, in verse six, Jesus says this, but when you pray, go to your room, close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen, and your Father who sees what isn't seen will reward you. But Jones goes on to say but in the Lord's Prayer Christians are obsessed with God. Friends, please. This has been one of the emphasis we've made here during this month on prayer. Who should be first on your prayer list? According to the teachings of Jesus, God should be you pray for his name for His Kingdom and for his will to be done. First and foremost in your thoughts towards prayer is God. And then please notice this the Christian prayer is always pre a preoccupation with God and his glory. It's therefore the exact opposite of the exhibitionism of the hypocrites who use prayer as a vehicle for their own glory. Then verse seven, Jesus gives another warning about what not to do in prayer liquid, he says, And when you pray, don't keep on babbling like pagans where they will they think they'll be heard because of their much words. Now, remember, the air of the hypocrite is selfishness. But the air of the heathen is mindlessness. And there are many, many people that may or may offer many, many prayers, but if they're mindless prayers, they're not getting through to a personal father. And notice Joan says the air of the heathen is mindlessness. He just goes on babbling and giving voice to his meaningless liturgy. He does not think about what he is saying for his concern is with volume, not content. God is unimpressed with his verbiage. So don't just keep babbling on certain kinds of words. That isn't real prayer, according to our Lord. But what is real prayer is this over against this folly, Jesus invites us to make all our needs known to our Heavenly Father, with humble thoughtfulness. And so express daily dependence on him. Humble thoughtfulness, taking time and not just battling, and not just trying to show off about how spiritual you are, you've prayed so much, but instead humbly, going secretly and meeting God and pouring out your heart to Him. This is what it means to really pray that Jesus Christ is saying, look, it's really a relationship. You're really talking to somebody who listens. And that is why friends, we have taken this view, again and again. And we've asked ourselves this, does your view of prayer is your approach your prayer? Is it man centered, where God is revolving around you? Or is it God centered where you're there to revolve around him? This is a basic misunderstanding in American Christianity, and so many people are frustrated with their prayer life because of this. Jones goes on to say this Christian prayer is seen in contrast to its non Christian alternatives, selfishness and mindlessness. It is God centered concern for God's glory, in contrast to the self centeredness of the Pharisees, preoccupied with their own glory, it is intelligent, expressive of thoughtful dependence, in contrast to the mechanical incantations of the heathen. Therefore, when we come to God in prayer, we're gonna come like hypocrites, like play actors, seeking the applause of men, nor mechanically like picking babblers, whose mind is not in their prayers that we go with, with our minds in full gear, going to a father and expressing thoughts to a father as a child expresses them to human father. That's one of the illustrations that Jesus uses all throughout his teachings in regards to prayer. And so when Jesus don't pray like this, but do pray like this, and as he as he tells us how we are to pray, we need to see that he breaks this down very simply and as follows. So we've looked at this for several weeks now, but there is an address our Father in heaven. Now watch. And we talked about how that is really supposed to shape our prayers were besieging our father, where is he he's in heaven. Second thing I want you to see, there are six petitions given the first three, as we've already mentioned, has to do with God. And then there's just three that have to do with us. Notice this, our necessities, our sins and our temptations. We studied last week, our necessities Give us this day, our daily bread. But concerning this half these three that we're on now, remember what it's about. It has to do with our past, or present in our future, our past, our present, excuse me, Give us this day, our daily bread that's about our physical needs. The very wisdom of God, who knows that to live in this world, we need to have physical strength and abilities. So he goes, he says, Pray this first. But notice today, what we're going to study, forgive us our debts as we forgive those indebted to us. What is next important is to understand is we deal next with our past, you're gonna be dealing with past sins. Are you ready for this? On a daily basis, you're gonna be dealing with your past sins. That's what Jesus Christ teaches. Now, please understand this friends are our present, or past. And now here in the future, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us. Notice this is our bodies. This is our mental or conscious, you could say, and this is our spiritual the future. Now, that may be a way of helping you understand what we're really going after. But in regards to this, you see the brilliance of Jesus Christ. And we've talked about this, Joan says, this comment, our whole life is found there. And these three requests, these three about ourselves, our whole life is found in these. Notice, that is what makes this person utterly amazing. It's such a small compass or Lourdes covered the whole life of the believer in every respect. Everything you need to beseech God for is found in this prayer. I hope this inspires our faith. Now, by way of quick review, on this very point. And this is something new again, that you have not seen. Let's just review it. We're supposed to be thinking through this prayer, not mindlessly going through it. It's not taught that you're just gonna say Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. That's not the way you're supposed to do this. You're supposed to approach this prayer thoughtfully. And you can take each one of these phrases and expand on them on a daily basis. For instance, our is On Being unselfish. Think of the whole family, what is best for all, now tell you stop and think of how many people make a mistake. Because there is a catch out there in our society that says this, you got to do what's best for you. You've got to be happy. You've got to think of yourself. Know, when you go to God and prayer, the first thought is our I'm a part of the family, God's family. I'm also a part of the corporate family, I've got to think of what's best for everybody. Notice this next, our Father, this is the essential foundational mindset that generate faith in our hearts, we're not going to some judge that you have to go through a secretary and wait three months to get a appointment with them. You're going to your father who cares about you and knows his children's name. And so we go to him on a regular basis. And so when you say Our Father, Your heart should be inspired with faith. He's in heaven, this should bring reverence to our prayers. Where is he? He's in heaven. There's another place in this world we need to be sending our things, in our hearts on things above in our minds on things above. This is very important. And then how would be your name here's the first request. The first thing as a believer goes to prayers Lord, May your name be set apart is wholly may you be given the preeminence then we consider quickly Your kingdom come May you rule over us more and more May your calls go further. May the church succeed is preaching the message may missionaries go forward and power in in my own life may you rule over me more every single day when you rule over my family over my kids over the pit other people in College Park and other friends around the world. And then notice your will being done. I have this thought I deal with people this has been a tough week around College Park. But I'll tell you something, you'll deal with people when you say here's God's will go do it and people who will give me so in Europe and new goods will you stop and think about this? You can't leave your house without joy abounding in your heart if you've prayed this prayer why because you get to this part your will be done on earth as is in heaven as the angels joyfully delight to carry out your command. So today, Lord here I am I'm not gonna just go to your willows Goo go to LA my wife got to be nice the kids can't kick the dog you know can't do anything fun. No, I'm excited about living for you. They may Your will be done in my life as the angels do it joyfully in heaven, man. It's an honor to do Your will. That of course Give us this day our daily bread. Now you get to the petition on our side of the ledger, we start praying for things for ourselves. And we say, Lord, give us this, this the physical needs that we have today, not luxuries, but needs. A reminder of our dependence on God, even if your freezer is full, and your wallet full of money, you still realize all of that has come from God. And so it's a reminder of all that God has given you. And then this morning, we're going to study this, forgive us our debts, and this evening as we forgive others. Now, friends, let's just break this down. Very simply. There's not too many words here. Forgive us our debts. Let's start with foreign forgive. What is that? The second petition that you are to come to God with, as you beseech Him in prayer, that have to do with your side of the ledger, is that you would be forgiven. Now, there shouldn't be a little bit of turmoil in your hearts right now. Because you said Kim, I thought I was forgiven. I thought I was forgiven once and for all in Christ. Why would I need to continually ask for this? Oh, first off, let's find out what is the word Forgive me here. It means to leave or to send away. It's used to the husband to voice divorcing his wife or he sends her out. It's a bid to bid to go away or to depart to leave me alone is the way it's translated one place. And this is a key word. If you look at this passage, everybody listen from Matthew chapter six, verse nine through Matthew chapter six, verse 15, this word forgiveness found six times. This is the heart of this passage. Forgive, send away my debts. So as you become, listen, now, stop with me and think about this. Listen to everybody. You're getting to the part where you're praying concerning yourself. Jesus knows better than we do. Because some of you're gonna go you know, I don't like this prayer. You're trying to remind me of my sins all the time. I don't like it. But friends, listen, who knows more about what's best for us, you are Jesus. And Jesus says, Give us this day, our daily bread and forgive us our debts. Daily, this prayer is to be made every single day of your life. You are to beseeching God for forgiveness. I'm gonna build my case. More on that in just a second. What about debts? Let me show you something that's very, very interesting. In regards to forgive us our debts. This word debts let's look at it's one of five New Testament Greek words for sin. It's a word for sin. Let me just show you quickly this that there's the word hom RTO, which is the word the root idea is to miss the mark of God's standards. It's like you got a bow and arrow and you shoot you miss. And that is we all fall short of doing all that we could do and that's considered sin. There is the word para pathoma which is the idea of a trespass the sin of slipping or falling. The idea is that you sin by being careless rather than intentional disobedience. So one is you missed the mark, you don't get it all done. The other is you're sort of careless and that's considered sin in the Bible. Then there is the word power basis, which is the word to step across the line. It's the word to go beyond the limits prescribed by God. It's often translated transgression, it's conscious sin it's intentional sin where God says don't do this and you go tough I'm doing it anyway. You just step across the line no trespassing. Oh yeah, watch me cross it and then there is a sin of the Bible which is the word really know me I'll where you get the word law in an hour before it. So it's the word lawlessness, even more intentional and flagrant sin, it's direct and open rebellion against God in His Word. Then the word Jesus uses for this is refers to the moral and spiritual deaths Jesus is clearly referring to sin not money. The one of the reasons we know this is Luke's translation of this prayer is Forgive us our debts and he uses the word Hama tear hamartia are here. It was clearly referring to sin. But it's the kind of sin and so it's a sense that we're we're behind payments. In other words, we're it's not it's a sense of God, forgive me, I'm behind on my, on my walk with you, I have not fully lived up to what I'm supposed to be in my relationship with you. Now, right now, I know there are some people in this church because we've had people get so mad at me over when I'm teaching right now. And some have even left the church mad. And so said, Kim, you don't know what you're talking about? How can we be once and for all forgiven by God in Christ Jesus? How could you know about the wonder of that salvation, and then get up in front of us and tell us we need to ask God for forgiveness every day. Because Jesus taught that. I was that for one reason. Because Jesus taught it. And not only that, but it's taught in other places. Please understand something those who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, have received God's pardon for sin and are saved from an eternal hell. And since we have seen this prayer is given to believers very clearly Jesus Christ is talking to his disciples when he teaches this sermon. It's referred to that Christian Is or to deal with sinned in regards to their Heavenly Father on a daily basis. Now immeasurably more important than daily bread is our need for continual forgiveness. Now, again, this is amazing to me, we would never dream of this, we would never begin to think and see and understand the wisdom of what our master, our gracious Lord taught us in regards to this. Prince, this is important this is for believers, it's for those following Jesus Christ, here's how you should pray, that God's name would be set apart as holy, that his kingdom would be furthered. That his will would be done on earth, that you'd be given your daily bread, and that you would be forgiven. Forgive us our debts, send away our debts, Lord, those things that we've done to hurt you send them away. The friends, it's very important to know that Jesus Christ says, when you go to prayer, there's only six requests here. There's only six petitions. And there's only three that have to do with you. And two of them have to do with your sins. Forgive us our past sins, and lead us not into future sins. Now, let me ask you something is your prayer life, reflect the heart of what Jesus teaches here is your prayer about sin. Give us our daily bread provide for us our basic necessities, and then the last two had to do with sin. And the first three have to do with him. I'm afraid we have to stand back and sort of hang our heads and sort of go like this, Oh, Father, forgive me, we have failed so badly because we have not really paid attention to what Jesus says about prayer. And please understand, because I'm afraid somebody's not going to really get me on this one. And I want to make sure you do understand this. So much so that I'm going to put it right here, you can't miss it. Watch. As a believer, you have experienced through Jesus Christ the once and for all judicial forgiveness which has received the moment you believe upon the Lord Jesus. When you come, and he understand the gospel message, there's a time where you come to believe it. For some, it's a very specific point in time. For others, it may be a general area where you came in, in a period of a year or so you came to believe or something. But you've come to believe in the moment you believe you are declared righteous by God, all your sins were put upon Christ, and all his goodness was put upon you. And that's called being born again. That's called knowing that your sins are forgiven. That's what it means to enter the Christian life. You've come to believe and to know that. In fact, what it means is this friends, it means that there's no condemnation, there is therefore now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. And it means that there's no wrath. Stephen has read this verse, He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world. It also means this that we've been made righteous, the judge says about you, when you become a Christian God, the judge, the sovereign judge brings the gavel down in the courts of evidence says, Not guilty, forever, declared righteous in my eyes, all the goodness of my son have been put upon him or her. And we ought to rejoice in this, you want to dance about this, you ought to be thrilled about this. This is what it means to be declared righteous. The Bible talks about there'll be no more fear of death or hell, that you can know that your sins are forgiven. The Bible says you've received adoption. what a what a wonderful thing it is to be called the sons of God. John writes. You don't want to tell your friends though, all that is true. What I just showed you, I do not back down. I'm not saying it's any less true. I'm saying it's not it's not. It's something that that we now forget about. But I am saying this, we still as believers sin. And there is a teaching in our land today, which says, Don't worry, you've been judicially forgiven once and for all, never bring it up. Again. You don't have to do it. You can do whatever you want. You can just keep living like you are and you don't have to worry about your sins. Very in a very kind way, a lady very, very anxious last Sunday, after the service ran up to me. I had not met this lady before. And she says, How could you have taught this? I just alluded to this prayer. She was how could you say this when we when you know that, that we have been forgiven once and for all by Christ. And here's the problem. Everybody listened to me. There's a teaching land that says All you ever do is you your relationship to God based on the judicial declaration of the judge, but it's more than that all through this prayer all through the teachings of Jesus in this sermon is that you have a father and it is not the judicial aspect of Jesus talking about his the parental aspect that he's talking about, and you can offend your heavenly Father Your judicial position will not change. But you can offend them. In fact, Jesus says this every single day, regularly and continually throughout your life. You beseech God for forgiveness, your father for forgiveness of things you've done that have offended him. People have tried to tell me and I know they mean well, they tried to tell me that first John was not written to believers. At all, John says, all through the book, and now little children I write unto you. He is the propitiation for our sins. John has written to believers and it's to believers that he says if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Christians, we need to understand this, that one of the great illustrations is Peter being having his feet washed by Jesus. And there's Peter, and he's at the least the last supper, you know the story. And there's Peter and he says, Lord, you're not going to wash my feet. No, you're not going to wash my feet. And Jesus, if I don't wash your feet, you have no part with Me. And he doesn't wash my whole body and he's he starts to strip. No one Peter. I mean, it's just typical Peter, wash me over. And Jesus says, No, if you've had, you're the person that's had their entire body wash doesn't need their entire body washed again, you just need your feet washed. And the point is, this is the picture of salvation to be judicially declared righteous by God, we are entirely made clean, and then our feet get dirty as we walk through the world. And as our feet get dirty, it's the constant cleaning of our feet that is being talked about. We need to continually remember that. Friends, do you understand how important this is? This is not something you're gonna like. I mean, you go to church and says, what did the pastor say? He said, we're supposed to pray, forgive us our sins every day. It was most about sin. Just like you take a bath every day, you're supposed to be the Lord's prayer according to Jesus. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts. Every day you're to be cleaned before God the scriptures are full of this. Let's know what Solomon says. He that covereth essential not prosper. But whoever confesses and forsaketh essential find mercy. Let's know what John Stott says. One of the surest antidotes to the process of moral hardening is the discipline practice of uncovering our sins of thought and our work as well as word indeed, and the Ripon forsaking of the same friends, do you listen to me? One of the surest antidotes to the process of moral hardening is the disciplined practice of uncovering our sins. Do you want your heart to get hard? We talked last week about the continual renewing of your heart like a car with a bad oil leak. And you got to keep putting the oil in and so our hearts kept holding and they keep getting emptied. Do you want to stay tender towards God? Do you want to really be close to your father, then you keep short accounts with him. And you go back to him again. Again, Father, I have sinned against you. Oh, Lord, forgive me for what I said yesterday. Forgive me for that attitude that I had. Listen to what Spurgeon says, I love this. I can't always pray as a preacher. I can't always pray as a saint. But praise God, I can always praise the center I believe this with all my heart. We've had a week here I have struggled as part of my conclusion, but I'm going to jump in and I'll say it again. And my conclusion I have struggled with this. This series. The only reason I'm preaching this sermon first, rather than the second half of the sermon, which I'm going to preach tonight, is because I'm committed to expository preaching, and this comes first in the text. We've had a week of people breaking up a week of have all kinds of hard, terrible things happen in between people. And I sit around and sometimes I wrote a friend this week, I said, how he closes the letter with when the Son of Man returns will He find faith on the earth. And what's really in the heart of this pastor this morning is to tell you, you must forgive those around you. And I would love tonight I'm just going to absolutely preach with all of my heart the importance of this, Father, forgive us our debts as we forgive those around us. And one of the reasons you see so many people not getting along, arguing, fighting marriages Breaking up is because of this, my friends, people are not praying Father, forgive us our debts, because to come before God and to humble yourself on a regular basis and say I have sinned come and and Bible says he gives grace to those that are humble. And what happens is this if we don't keep saying this, if we don't keep short accounts with God, our hearts get hardened. That's why the Bible says in the book of Ephesians, don't let the sun go down upon your wrath, or you'll give the devil a foothold in your life. I know of couples that don't talk to each other for weeks, couples that don't have intimate relations that are married for long periods of time. couples that are already there, you just see it, you see that they're at home. So clearly I'm telling your friends is because we have not listened to our Lord, teach us how to pray, pray is a big part of our life. And regularly daily here to be going to God forgive me and my debts. And as you says, His grace and His love and His kindness forgive you. Right away. You're ready to be gracious and kind with those around you. But stop and think about this. Do you remember our study in Second Samuel, there was David adulterer and murderer. About a year goes by remember that about a year goes by? And what happens? Nathan tells him a story about a sheep stealer. Damon's guilty of murder and adultery and he tells a story about a sheep stealer. And David goes, good guy will die. I mean, he just he goes crazy. You want to know why David did that? Because my friends, we are all deceived and you want to be deceived. don't confess your sins to God. David had not confessed his sins for over a year. We know that for sure. Psalm 51 wasn't written until after Nathan approached him. He was hardcore and away from God for about a year. And if you don't regularly confess your sins before God, my friends, you're gonna look at someone else's engineer and go oh my goodness, look at them. Look how bad they are. I'll never forget listening to a guy in our church. He's a good friend of mine. Actually. This was a few years ago and I I listened to him and I thought, Oh, that guy has got a terrible problem with pride. Oh my goodness. I remember thinking this is terrible. I can't share that with everybody. So I share it with my wife and at home. I know Connie was there then we tell you what happened. Oh, this guy has got a tremendous problem for I'm just a Paul, I can't believe that guy. You've got so much pride in his life. Now I very seldom do this but that very week I happen to be listening to one of my own tapes. I only do that about once or twice a year I get sick, actually. But I was listening to one of my own tapes. And the very thing that that guy did which I thought was such a horrendous thing and pride I did two or three times in that message. See, we can look at sin if we're not regularly keeping our hearts right with God. We don't see sin in our own lives and it's like Jesus says you've got a huge log sticking out of your own eye but you see the little splinter someone else's eye oh help me let me help you with that you got a terrible problem he's because we're not keeping these short accounts. Jesus now listen to me is abundantly clear his disciples those who follow Him are to make forgiveness of sins a regular part of their prayer life is to be a big part of your everyday life. Let me explain show it to you in a way that may help us even more. Patrick Morley help us with this look here. What we're talking about here is the difference between judicial forgiveness and parental forgiveness. Now watch this the judicial This is justification this is only become a Christian has in view our relationship with sinners before God the Judge of all the earth. The Parental forgiveness has view our relationship as children before God, our heavenly Father. See the difference? Now look here. Matthew six is over on this side you see friends, look here, the lack of it means eternal torment in hell. If you are not judicially forgiven by God, you go to hell. The Bible teaches that the lack of that needs loss of fellowship with God and chasing on Earth. This is once and for all once and for all and not repeatable you are declared righteous once and for all. The judge brings down the gavel and you are glorified even the Bible says. But this is needed continually every day and is repeatable that is parental forgiveness. This covers all sins past, present and future this covers only the past and the present sins of omission and commission which we confess and forsake. Once received we never again need to ask for it. It is immutable and eternal. I do believe that. But we need to ask for this daily it's mutable and needs constant renewal and revival. Christians are so confused today because we haven't thought biblically concerning these issues. Because God has declared you righteous in the courts of heaven and because all of your sins have been forgiven doesn't mean that you don't deal with them anymore friends you have offended your father see when you sin against your you don't lose the relationship but you do lose fellowship. When you sin against your father you don't lose your justify Keisha but you have hurt your heavenly Father. And according to Jesus, in this sermon, your relationship with your father is front and center at the heart of your Christian life. And at the heart of your prayer life, you are to be concerned about your relationship with your father. Every day. The last Sunday was Father's Day. And my wife was visiting her father in Michigan. And I had relatives down. And I've worked all day Sunday is the only day pastors work as you know. And I worked all day and and I was busy. And then after the service Sunday night, I had some serious conversation with somebody that lasted a while. Didn't get home till late and dawned on me on Monday, I never called my dad on Father's Day. I hadn't sent him a card or a letter present, either. But that's normal. But it usually he gets a call at least. And so things happen throughout the weekend. And finally, it was Wednesday or Thursday, I called him up. And I sent him a letter out earlier in the week that he knew he'd get into day or two and told him how much I loved him and thought of him and all that. And when I got the phone call, you know, I could tell when I when I got the phone call, I could tell that there was a little bit of a hurt there. I could see that. I mean, you know, when you don't blame him. I could see a sense that and he told me about how all my other brothers and sisters had called. Thank you. But I had, but you know what he didn't do? He didn't pick up the phone ago, Kim Kim, who? I don't know when he Kim. No, he didn't do that. You know, a couple of years ago, I had a very big fight with my dad, I take responsibility as being the one that was guilty. And I'm telling you when I left, and we had not reconciled. We did we have core sense, but I had not reconciled. I'm gonna tell you there was a deep, deep sense there is something so wrong. And I did not have the freedom for one of the first times in my life just to pick up the phone and talk to him because there was something between us. You see friends in Christ, here's what I'm trying to get you to see. In Christ. We are a new creation, but we are not a perfect creation. We have a new heart capable of renewal and growth, but it's also capable of decay. If you read the Bible at all older New Testament, you'll see that Christians are capable of doing anything that the last person can do. Sin is not eradicated and we are not to stop confessing our sin against our father until we get to heaven. The Bible is so clear that we have a problem with sin. As Christians listen to what some of the verses say. We all stumble in many ways. James says what causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? How about this Hebrews says this in your struggle against sin, you have not resisted to the point of shedding your own blood. First, Peter says Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul, we still have these sinful desires. The Book of Galatians talks about the spirit less than against the flesh and the flush against the spirit. And real Romans seven, Paul goes through a great deal. He says that which I want to do, I don't do and that which I hate that I do. He's talking there as a Christian. And we still struggle. It's in this sense in the sense that as Christians who've been judicially declared righteous, but it's still offended our father have grieved, the Holy Spirit have quenched the Holy Spirit's. It's in that sense that this verse is written, that we have to go back and regularly continually daily keep that relationship with God. And you say to me, but Kim, if this is true, and this is typical, this is the flesh responding this is your flesh responding if this is your response, but you're telling me I've got to keep this before God at mealtime. That's gonna be so discouraging. Oh, yeah. Who knows better you are Jesus. People today we live in America, you just want you you just want it your way. But Jesus way is best and sometimes you have to pay a price to really endure that and understand it, but his way is best. Friends, I've said that. It's been a tough week. I I am so concerned. I get concerned about my own life. But you see, here's the thing I want you to know. between you and God, you may not notice everything because he's invisible and you have to live for him by the eye of faith. But this way, you feel it a lot a little more. And when you're not getting along with somebody you know it and so you may not be keeping Short accounts here. And then all of a sudden you start having trouble this direction and you start going, Oh, what am I gonna do, and you're mad and you're bitter. The people hate each other, the people who talk to each other. Well, friends, I want you to look down with me to verse 14. Look what it says, For if you forgive men, when they sinned against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, their sins, your father will not forgive your sins. You know what someone said to me this week, someone said, I know what I'm doing is wrong. But I'm going to do it anyway. Because I've been promised eternal life. And therefore I know I've got it. And I know this is something that's going to maybe hinder my fellowship with God a little bit, but nevertheless, I'm gonna do it. You know, you can't believe you would not believe how much I hear that. But friends, I want to tell you something. If you if that's gonna be your approach, then you can just write write it down, you are out of fellowship with God, until you forgive the person that you're mad at. You can say, but I feel so close to him, or I feel my life is so much better since I've gotten away from so and so. Doesn't matter. You're not going to fellowship with God. Look at verse 1415. If you don't forgive, man, God's not gonna forgive you. That's also found in chapter five, verse 23, and 24. And all through this passage I was really encouraged Friday morning, we have an a, an amen group that meets on Friday morning. And the thing that most encouraged me was they asked me they go over last Sunday sermon, and we'd sit and talk and it was a good group of guys there. And, and they said, Kim, when you talk about, forgive us our debts, as we forgive those notes, are you going to bring in that Matthew 18 story about the guy that will deliver million dollars and $15? And I sort of hung my head? And I said, Well, yeah, it's actually in my notes to bring it but I'm sort of embarrassed because I just use that almost every Sunday, you know, this church? In which they said, no, no, Jim Williams particular said, No, go ahead and do it. We need to hear it. So I did a little research after that, you know what I found? You know, the word dead here. It's the same word found in that parable. And can I tell you, friends, listen, to me, the heart and soul of getting along with other people is to never lose the gratitude that God forgives you of your sins. Think about this, think about this, let's get very practical. Everyday. This week, the Christians from College Park are receiving their heavenly father crying out for his cause to go forward for his name to be set apart as holy for his will to be done for asking God to provide the daily needs. And then think of this. We're saying, forgive us our debts. What we've done against you, how we've hurt you, how we failed you, as your children, forgive us our debts as we go about forgiving those around us. You talk to mission boards, what's the greatest problem people don't like each other on the Mission Board. You got to find out about church splits who as if people don't like each other, everyone's mad, I'm going to tell you it's nothing but sheer carnality and a refusal for people to deal with what Jesus says here. And there's a call from the Holy Spirit to you to be very gracious with others. And remember, if you're not being gracious, the problem probably isn't with the other person. The problem is that you have not fully realized your own sin before the Heavenly Father in rejoice that he has forgiven you. Spurgeon said to be forgiven, is such sweetness, that honey is tasteless in comparison with it. But yet there is one thing sweeter still and that is to forgive. As it is more blessed to give than to receive so to forgive rises to a stage higher and experienced than to be forgiven, to be forgiven as the root to forgive as the flower. And that's how we can close this sermon. What better news, stop and think about it. You've come to church, he's a Oh, he's one of the pastor preach on confessing our sins. But listen, what better news they know that Jesus Christ was God's son came to earth to teach us how to live. He gets up and he teaches us on prayer. And he says this, every day you say, Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts. as we forgive those in the US, incorporated in this prayer, if people would make it sincerely and live by it, you won't see all of the conflict and the turmoil and the trouble that you're going through. It will change your life. Let's pray. Father in heaven we pray right now that you would forgive us of our deaths. In the name of Your Son Jesus Christ, we say make us understand more, fill our hearts more. With this desire to daily seek you for forgiveness of our debts, as we continually keep in check our relationships with others. We pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.