Matthew 18: 21-35 7/21/15

²¹ 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?” 

Earlier in this chapter Jesus talked about how to deal with those who sin against you. Most at that time, believed you should forgive someone 3 times.  So Peter doubled it, added one to get to the number of completeness and proposed the number 7 to Christ.   He and the other disciples were probably surprised by the answer.

²² Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Christ was not telling us to count out 77 times and stop at 78...but instead, limitless forgiveness.
He then follows with a parable to illustrate how ridiculous  it is for us to withhold forgiveness from anyone. (Mathew 18:23-35)

We can take allot from these verses but the point this morning is that we must learn to TRULY forgive.  For those who offend you, and for yourself.   Un-forgiveness does far more  harm to the "un-forgiver" than the "un-forgiven". "Being bitter toward others is like eating rat poison and hoping the rats die".

As Christians we rely on grace that God has shown toward our sin against Him .  In light of this, our holding a grudge against someone else would be laughable, if it was not so damaging.

We should take the same caution as I  am sure his disciples did when Jesus ended the parable like this:

³² “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.”

 We all have people who have hurt us...take this week to inventory that list and unload your burden of bitterness, make sure you have forgiven them from your heart.

Bernard Meltzer once said "When you forgive, you in no way change the past - but you sure do change the future."

 Because of  your past you owe forgiveness to others.....because of your future you owe it to yourself.