Building Up the Church Part 3, Dealing with Sin (Luke 17:1-10) | Pastor Peter Kim

Thank you. Thank you.

Good morning, church family. After this day, we're going to go ahead and begin our service with this first song, Turn Your Eyes. As we come before God, we want to focus all our attention upon Him. Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look full in his wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of His glory and grace Turn your eyes to the hills of prayer Where justice and mercy embrace.

There the Son of God gave his love for us. And all measureless debt was erased. Jesus, to you we lift our eyes. Jesus, our glory and our proud We adore you, behold you Our Savior ever true Oh Jesus, we turn our eyes to you Turn your eyes to the morning And see Christ the lion away What a glorious song Fear of death is gone For we carry his life in our veins Jesus, to you we lift our eyes Jesus, our glory and our pride We adore you, behold you Our Savior ever true Oh Jesus, we turn our eyes to you Turn your eyes to the heavens Our King will return for His own Every knee will bow Every tongue will shout All glory to Jesus the Lord Jesus, to you we lift our eyes Jesus, our glory and our pride We adore you, we hold you Our Savior ever true

Oh, Jesus, we turn our eyes to you Jesus, to you we lift our eyes Jesus, our glory and our prize We adore you, we hold you Our Savior ever true Oh Jesus, we turn our eyes to you Oh Jesus, we turn our eyes to you All right, good morning. Welcome to Bering Community Church. As you know, we had our VBS this week, and we had so many people on campus the whole week, and we're so thankful for what God has done and being able to share the gospel with the children. But along with that, we need to have a follow-up, or we need to clean the church. And so All Church Maintenance Day is scheduled for July 18th at 9 a.m.

And so if you're able to come, please come help us. We do need to get the church back in order on July 18th. So you can sign up for that online and just let us know. And then even if you can come only part of the day, we'll appreciate it if you're able to come. Starting this Wednesday, we have Berean Distinctive Seminar. So these are eight different doctrinal positions that we have at church. And the reason why we're doing that is we're trying to bring the whole church together. And these are things that we're not normally able to cover this way during the regular Bible study. And so different pastors are going to be going over different doctrines that we hold. And so this coming Wednesday, we're going to be going over open but cautious view of the spiritual gifts.

And so I'll be teaching a portion of that. And then we're going to have a Q&A session where you can bring your questions and we'll be able to interact with you to clarify whatever doctrinal positions that we have. So this happening, this starting from this Wednesday, and it will be every Wednesday for about eight weeks. So just keep that in mind. So whether you signed up for all of it or you signed up for part of it, it's starting this coming Wednesday at 7 p.m. And then our next session of membership class is happening on July 5th at 940. So if you are planning or desire to become a member of the church, it is an eight-week course that happens during this service. And so at 940 in the youth group room across the courtyard, and so if you sign up, they'll give you instructions, and then you'll either come to first service or third service, so if you need to do that, please sign up for that and let them know that you're able to come, and the first class is starting on July 5th at 9 40 a.m., okay? All right, I think that's it for the announcements. I'm going to pray for the offering, and after our pray set, our brother Matthew Mobley from our youth group is going to come give his testimony, and he'll be baptized this morning. All right, let's pray.

heavenly father we want to praise you and thank you for who you are i pray father god that you would bring to remembrance all that you have given all that you are doing that our hope our sight will be firmly placed in you that our worship may simply be a reasonable response to your grace in our lives i pray that you would bless us that we may be a blessing to you, that we may worship you in spirit and in truth. I pray that this giving that we give, that we would give cheerfully, thankfully, as an act of worship to you, and may it be multiplied for the sake of your kingdom. Thank you, Father, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you.

Church family, let's all stand together, and while you're standing, why don't we say, greet someone around you, say hello. Thank you. Sing together, man of sorrows. Man of sorrows, what a name for the Son of God who came, ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah, what a Savior Very shame, very shame As God may rule in my place Contempt Easter Seal my pardon With His blood Hallelujah What a Savior Guilty, helpless, lost were we Blameless lamb of God was he Sacrifice to set us free Hallelujah, what a Savior He was lifted up to die

In His finish was His cry Now in heaven, exalted high Hallelujah, what a Savior Hallelujah, what a Savior

When He comes When He comes, our glorious King All is ransomed home to break Then anew this song will sing Hallelujah, what a Savior See you there The great I am A crown of thorns Upon His hand The Father's heart Displayed for us Oh God We thank you for the cross Lifted up On Calvary's hill We curse your name And even still, you bore our shame And paid the cost Oh God, we thank you for the cross Behold the land The story of redemption And written on his hands Jesus, you will reign forevermore The victory is yours We sing your praise And this hallelujahs to your holy name Jesus, you will reign forevermore

The victory is yours Offer the ground The sacrifice For every sin Our Savior died The Lord of life Can't be contained Our God has risen from the grave Behold the Lamb The story of redemption Risen on His name Jesus too will reign forevermore The victory is yours We sing your praise Endless hallelujahs to your holy name Jesus, you will reign forevermore The victory is yours When the age of death is done We'll see your face bright as the sun We'll bow before the King of kings O God, forever we will sing Behold the Lamb The story of redemption Written on His hands Jesus, You will reign forever Hope and victory In which I behold Behold the Lamb The story of redemption It's written on his head Jesus, you will reign forever, boy Victory is yours We sing your praise

Endless hallelujahs to your holy name Jesus, you will reign forever, boy The victory is no dream forevermore, the victory is no dream forevermore, the victory is no dream forevermore. Hello, my name is Matthew Mobley, and this is my testimony. Like many, I was born into a Christian family and went to church almost every week. I grew up with a head knowledge of the gospel and its truths, but I never really had any personal response or feeling towards it. I agreed with the morals of Christianity, and I acknowledged that God existed, but I had no conviction of my own.

In seventh grade, I graduated into youth group and was met with sermons that were more detailed and challenging, small groups that wanted well-thought-out and sincere answers and not just my presence, and teachers that were dedicated to witnessing for God. At this point, I found myself either going to church simply for surface level things like friends or because it was just what me and my family did, or I would gain momentary superficial conviction such as I need to actually read my Bible instead of just skimming it. This conviction was usually promptly lost after a day or so by drowning myself in books of fiction to distract myself from reality. In 8th and 9th grade, I started falling deeper into the sins of lying, lust, and laziness, along with withdrawing away from my family.

Instead of loving the people God put in my life and stewarding what he has given me, I was self-absorbed, chasing after what I deemed as bringing joy. In the end, I found the things I chased after brought nothing of substance and left me feeling empty. This led to apathy towards my life because I saw no purpose and withdrew into merely doing what I wanted to do. For example, I saw no point in school and did the bare minimum to say that I did it. I tried to fix my sin thinking of what other people would think, but there was no true repentance. I just wanted to avoid getting in trouble. I admired Christian morals but had no power or genuine will to obey. for example in lying even if i came up with the conclusion that i should stop lying so that i wouldn't get in trouble i'd quickly fall into the sin again because i had no genuine motive to obey this continued until the end of last year during christmas break my sister and her boyfriend were visiting and took me out for some time together they asked me questions about my belief in god i said that i believed in god that the bible is true that i'm a sinner and i needed a savior telling them this made me quite uncomfortable much of my life had been focused on running away from the uncomfortable truth of the gospel but in this moment i was forced to come to truth to terms of the truth and recognize what i knew to be true but still even after praying even

but still even after this conversation all i had was intellectual agreement and was reluctant to make a personal decision later that night i believe god moved me to conviction of my sin and i started praying confessing my sins and asking for forgiveness i confessed all the things that i knew before but now believed acknowledging him as creator as savior and as lord I told God that I believed in what he did, such as that he sent his son to die for me, and that he is alive today and resurrected. I think that God answered my prayers and helped me trust in him at this point, instead of just the knowledge of the truth like before. He granted me a faith in the truth, bringing peace and rest in him.

This felt relieving after so long chasing after purposeless things in the pursuit of peace. This true peace was shocking. It almost went wrong because of my constant lack of it. But it was not wrong. Instead, it was true peace coming from faith. Romans 10, 9-10 says that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. Since then, though I'm far from perfect, my life has changed drastically. I am now empathetic towards my family, where before my heart seemed hardened to them. I now have more of a focus on them and what they need.

My sense of purpose has changed. Instead of meaningless apathy and seeking after what brings temporary pleasure, but new, real, lasting joy, I now have a purpose, and that is for God's glory. Because of all this, I believe that God has given me a new heart, Not one apathetic to Him, but sensitive and desiring to know Him. My prayer for the future is that God continues to change my heart to see how He is truly precious and how everything else is rubbish compared to Him, and thus to chase after Him with all my heart. Thank you. I think you understand when you're going to the water you're uniting with Christ and his death and when you're coming out you're being united to his resurrected life in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

- All right, thank you so much, Matthew, and congratulations to the Mobley family. And they are longtime members of our church, and so we saw them when they were very little. And being able to see them grow, mature, and standing here giving their testimony is extra special. So thank you. And again, congratulations to the Mobleys. If you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke 17, and I'll be reading from verse 1 through 6.

Luke chapter 17, verses 1 through 6. He said to his disciples, it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to him through whom they come. It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and we were thrown into the sea, than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble. Be on your guard if your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times a day and returns to you seven times saying, I repent, forgive him. The apostle said to the Lord, increase our faith. And the Lord said, if you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and be planted in the sea and it would obey you. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for your living word. I pray that your word through your spirit would speak to us. Open our eyes that we may have illumination, Lord God, toward your will and your heart. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

As I said last week, we started out with Jesus giving instructions to his disciples to rebuke sin. This is in the context of Jesus preparing his disciples for his departure. He's going to be headed toward the cross in about three to four month period. He's going to be in Jerusalem, and he knows that his disciples are going to be tested. So he's going down the list of things that they need to watch out for. And in the previous passages, he says, watch out for the 11 of the Pharisees. They present themselves to be leaders. They present themselves as to know how to come to God, but they do not know. And then this series that we're looking at in chapter 17, he's giving them instructions and warning about how to deal with people, right? And so the title that I place for the series of study that we're doing in chapter 17 is Building God's Church, right? Building God's Church. Building God's Church is not simply about having the right doctrinal statement, which is very important, or having certain programs or how certain things are organized or certain leadership is established. At the end of the day, building the healthy church is building healthy people.

people with healthy relationships. So if you look at the totality of church history and see where the stumbling came from, majority of it came when the people could not get along. Certain things would happen and they couldn't come into an agreement or certain movements would come in and it would divide the church and because they don't handle what's happening within the church well, the church ends up splitting or having caused damage. So it's within that context, he says in the beginning of chapter 17, that make sure that you're not the source of stumbling, that we're not to determine everything by, you know, it's okay with me, it doesn't bother my conscience, but am I being a stumbling block to other people? And then the text that we're looking at, starting from last week, is how to deal with sin. So last week we started by saying that we need to take sin seriously. When he says, if a brother sins, rebuke him, which is a very foreign concept in our generation.

Rebuke you for any reason, because the way that the gospel has been presented, because God is merciful, is gracious, God loves you no matter what you do. And so, the idea of rebuking just doesn't sit well with a lot of people. And again, it's because of the way that the gospel has been presented, that the door has been so widely opened and made the gospel acceptable to the lowest common denominator, whether they repent or don't repent, you're welcome into the church. And so as a result of that, the idea of church discipline, the idea of dealing with sin has become a foreign idea in our culture. But we need to take sin seriously because the Bible says that God allowed 1,500 years of the law to permeate into the Jewish culture in Israel so that sin would become utterly sinful. Sin would become utterly sinful because if you jump from what the Bible teaches and from your sin and not understanding what sin is and And the damage that sin does, and you just claim grace, I'm just going to give Jesus a chance.

Just raise my hand. I went to church to become a member. Grace doesn't become utterly gracious, so you worship out of obligation. You go to church. You go through the motion, but there's no true worship happening within. There's a reason why God allowed time to pass for 1500 years so that sin would become utterly sinful, because without understanding the ugliness and the damage of sin, the cross is just a beautiful picture, but it's not a necessity. Because sin, when sin becomes utterly sinful, it causes us to realize how desperate we are for a Savior. Not simply a helper, not simply somebody who's going to answer our prayers because life is hard or we're having difficulty raising our children or paying bills. So it'd be great to have a God who we can pray to or He can come alongside and help us with our life. And it becomes nothing more than a helper that is more powerful than us to help us to live this life. But that's not why Christ came. Christ came to deliver us from our sins. So if we don't recognize the sinfulness of sin, our Savior just simply becomes a helper to help us in this difficult life. The whole gospel message is contingent upon us understanding the damage of sin. As you guys know, when you study the book of Romans, Romans is the most thorough presentation of the gospel. But the first three chapters is dedicated to understand what sin does. Whether you are under the law, whether you are without the law,

all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So, if you don't understand the ugliness of sin, the gospel message itself becomes very superficial. In fact, even for our own sanctification, if sin is not utterly sinful, you just have an idea like, you know, sin because God said not to, we shouldn't do it. You know, that sin is something that we keep each other accountable in order to become a member, be a part of this community, I shouldn't sin. But if we don't understand the ugliness of sin, the utter sinfulness of sin, it affects our sanctification. Because we're not turned off by sin. We're constantly tempted by sin because sin gives us pleasure. It makes things easier. It helps us to cut corners. But we don't see sin as utterly sinful.

our sanctification depends upon us seeing sin as sin as utterly sinful not just a mistake not just something that our community or something that the bible teaches but because it is sinful because we learn to detest sin we struggle to conquer sin but when sin is not utterly sinful the only time we confess sin is when we get caught or maybe you're part of a community where you're sharing, oh, these are weaknesses, just because that's what your community does. But you're not fighting sin. You're not struggling to the point of shedding blood against sin. So it is essential. Every part of what we believe, what we practice, requires that we understand the sinfulness of sin. Grace isn't a get-out-of-jail card.

Grace is the fuel that empowers us to live godly lives. So if sin is not utterly sinful, grace isn't utterly gracious. Worship is when sinners are delivered from the penalty of sin and the power of sin, causes us to see who God is and what He has done, and then we break out into worship because of that. But when sin is not utterly sinful, grace becomes cheap grace. It's just like you knock on the door, somebody opens the door during Halloween, they give you candy, oh, thank you for that candy, and then it's over, and then you just move on. So again, it's, it's, I can't exaggerate how important it is for the church of God, for the people of God to take sin seriously. But having said that, the second part of that is, after you have rebuked sin, he says, if If he repents, to forgive him.

I mean, very simple, right? We can just read this and move on because this is something that we hear all the time. If he repents, forgive him. But there's a condition to forgiving. He says, if he repents, in other words, he changes his mind, right? He sees the error of what he's doing. And because you love the brother enough that you confronted the person and he changes his mind he says then forgive him you know the scripture says or not scripture but john maxwell in his book on leadership says there's three things that causes somebody to change one is they will change if they learn enough that they are inspired to right and that's part of what we do every week when we get it gathered together we open up the scriptures and we expound and say this is what the bible says so if they learn enough and see things through god's perspective hopefully, that would cause them to repent or change. People change, number two, if they receive enough that they are able to. In other words, that they are disciples, that the discipleship is modeled. And so, as a result of that, it causes them to be able to change because they know what direction to go. Or third, they hurt enough that they have to. They hurt enough that they have have to. They see the consequence of their sin. And as a result of the consequence of their sin, whether it happened to them directly or whether because it was brought to them by the church,

it causes them to repent. And that's where church discipline comes in. That's where the church is responsible if an individual does not see the consequence of his sins. And he only sees, it doesn't bother me, it doesn't bother my conscience. And I hear people say that all the time. They endeavor many things. Oh, it doesn't bother my conscience. Well, that's where the church comes in. It might not bother your conscience, maybe because you've seared your conscience. You've allowed yourself to be in sin repeatedly. Now it no longer bothers you, and you don't realize how dangerous it is for a sinner to be in sin and not to have it bother you, and that's where the church comes in. That he hurts enough that it forces him to change. Paul himself writes this in 2 Corinthians 7, 8 through 10. If you know Paul's letters, the two letters are probably the harshest letter, right? Like if you do quiet time through 1 Corinthians, you get a smack every single morning you open up the scriptures, right? What has gone wrong with this church? Starts out with them being divided, and the division has led to all kinds of sin. The worship is in chaos.

Even the spiritual gifts that they have is being used and stumbling other people. It bothered their communion table. They were coming and eating, and the poor people were not able to participate. I mean, all kind of chaos broke out into this church. So he writes this harsh letter rebuking this one particular sin of this man whose sin was more egregious, he says, than even the Gentiles, even the pagans. Even the pagans don't allow this in the church. How can you do that? Then he says, command, I command you, I command you to discipline this man. So I'm pretty sure that caused a stir in the church. They didn't like what he had to say, but there were enough people who obeyed his teaching, and they got together, and they ended up following through. But this is what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7, 8 through 10, as a follow-up letter to 1 Corinthians.

for though I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. He's kind of going back and forth, like he's, I don't regret it, but I do regret it, for I see that the letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while. I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance, for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but sorrow of the world produces death. Now, as a pastor who preaches for a living, I know exactly how he feels, right? Especially like last Sunday, you know, I prepared a sermon to give you a punch, and it was supposed to end with grace of God, but I didn't have time to get to it, right? So I already told you, I'm very aware that when I give sermons that are very strong, and I saw many of you squirming in your seats, and usually after sermons like that, I don't get thank yous, right? Usually I walk out and they're not making eye contact, you know, they walk pretty quickly to get by, you know, they're afraid that maybe I'm gonna stop them and and confront them about something usually and I'm a human being right I prefer people coming up to me saying wow that was so good you know the love of God is so wonderful you know I'd rather hear thank yous and say how I lifted them up and how the

burden was lifted because of what I said you know so I understand exactly what I said I do not regret it though I did regret it for a period you know every time I give a sermon like that you know not every time, but sometimes I would ask my wife, do you think that was too strong, right? Most of the time she would just say, oh, it was okay. But every once in a while she'll say, yeah, you know, at least from her perspective. So I know exactly what he's saying, but he says, I don't regret it because what he did caused them to repent. And that was the point. The point is until there is sorrow that leads to repentance, there is no deliverance. So if all we do in the church is make people feel comfortable and nice and live their life exactly what they're pursuing and never being challenged of the way that they're living, the values that they have, then there's no sanctification and God is not glorified. And so whether it is through learning, whether it is through modeling, whether it is because our sins have hurt us. He said, we need to take sin seriously. But once we have done that and they repent, he says, now we need to take grace seriously. We need to take grace seriously, just as much as we need to be vigorous in fighting against sin. We need to be vigorous in applying grace in our lives. He said, if he repents, forgive him. And the word forgive in Greek is aphiemi. And the word literally simply means to abandon something. So that same word aphiemi is

Revelations 2.4 when Jesus tells the church of Ephesus, you have left your first love. That word is aphiemi. You have abandoned your first love. And then some other parts of the Bible where the word aphiemi literally means to just physically go somewhere. When the disciples, when they says they left everything, father, mother, to follow Jesus, the word for leaving everything is a fee of me, to forgive. So when he says, if he repents, don't linger there. Don't go there and say, you know what, I'm going to forgive you, but I'm never going to forget. And we have a tendency to do that. It's like, you know, I'm not going to be vicious to you, but I'm never going to forget. So we have some people who've heard us, you know, and said, you know what, I'm a Christian, so I'm going to practice this, but we never go all the way. We always stiff-arm them, right? We're going to be acquaintances from them, but we're not going to be friends. But the word forgive literally means to abandon, to walk away from whatever has bound you. God Himself says in Psalm 103, 12 to 13, as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

In other words, when he forgave us, he walked away from that. We're no longer in the same place. He doesn't keep the count of what has been done. He says, even though I forgave you, I'm never going to forget this. He says, no, I'm going to walk away. Jeremiah 31, 34. For I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more. He said, I'm going to have amnesia. I'm not going to bring up what happened 20 years ago or 10 years ago or even last night. If you are forgiven, a phiemi means to move on. Let me ask you, is it harder to rebuke or is it harder to forgive? Is it harder to rebuke sin or is it harder to forgive sin and move out? You're probably thinking of something very specific in your head.

So if you're living in peace and you don't have any problems with anybody and you don't want to rock the boat, rebuking sin is harder. because rebuking sin means that you have to break the peace you don't know how they're going to respond if you knew they're going to say thank you i repent it's like yes i'll do it but you don't know how they're going to respond and so in fear of disturbing the peace if that's where you're at you have no problem with anybody but you know that there's certain people certain things that people are doing is that you know what i don't think that's that's glorifying to god but you're kind of keeping quiet because you don't want to disturb this peace. So if you're in that situation, it's probably harder to rebuke sin. But if you are in a situation where somebody has wronged you, and maybe they've done it multiple times, and you have a very specific thing in mind, I can't believe that guy keeps doing that. You know, I let him do it once, that's my fault. If I let him do it twice, that's my fault. Well, I said that wrong, right? At some point, it's your fault and then it's my fault, right? So, depending on what situation you're in.

You know, what's interesting is 1 Corinthians was written rebuking the church saying, "You need to deal with this sin." And then 2 Corinthians he writes because some of them looks like they listen. But as a result of that, they were having a hard time forgiving this brother. So he writes 2 Corinthians. This is what he says, 2 Corinthians 2:6-8, "It is sufficient for such a one," that he was referring to in 1 Corinthians, "is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority." And I'm not sure if the whole church participated in this because the church was divided. But Paul's letter came with authority and enough people listened to him. They got together and it looks like they practiced church discipline. One person went, according to Matthew 18, and then another person went, and he wouldn't listen, and they brought it to the church, and they ended up disciplining him. And because he was hurt, he repented it seems like. And he says, "Inflicted by the majority, so that on the contrary, you should rather forgive and comfort him. Otherwise, such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow, wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. So it's interesting. So 1 Corinthians is written, rebuking them for not dealing with sin. And 2 Corinthians, at least a portion of it is written to tell them, now that he has repented, now you need to practice grace. 1 Corinthians takes sin seriously. 2 Corinthians take grace

seriously. And you can't pick one over the other. You can't choose, say, you know what, I'm going to be about grace and we're going to let other people rebuke sin. Or maybe some of you say, you know, I'm good at rebuking. I'm not good at grace. So we'll let the other people practice grace. You cannot have one without the other. Truth spoken in love, always. Up to this point, I don't think there's anything new. I know the application is difficult, but what he says here goes way beyond what you and I could possibly understand. How many times should we do this? They don't ask that question in this text. They ask that in chapter 18 of Matthew. But Jesus says it anyway. You should forgive him seven times a day.

Remember Matthew, Peter asked, how many times should I forgive my brother? Seven times. Jesus said seven times 70. Seven times 70, 490 times. This is way more than 490 times. This is seven times daily. Do you know anybody that sins against you seven times a day? Right? If there is, you probably have friends telling you to cut it off, right? First time, my fault. Second time, your fault, right? Third time, definitely your fault. Fourth time, what's wrong with you? Fifth time, what's going on with you? Seven times, something has happened. Do you know anybody that sins against you seven times a day, and then Jesus says to forgive? In fact, Jesus goes even further than that in another text, and He says, love your enemies.

These are people who may have sinned against you and have repented, and then to forgive them seven times is hard enough, and He says to love your enemy. These are people who may have accidentally or maybe deliberately have done something wrong to you, but enemies are people who are conniving, planning, desiring, and rejoicing for your fall, and yet he says to forgive them or to love them. What Jesus tells them to do is beyond understanding. Does he really think that we are able to do this? Does he actually want us to do this? Or is he just saying some hyperbole, just exaggerating, just to make a point? But he doesn't really expect us to apply this. I think the disciples were thinking the same thing because the way the disciples respond is increase our faith.

Basically, when he says increase our faith, it's like we don't have enough faith. That's what it means. And to go even further, make it even more simplified, when he says increase our faith, it's not within me. This is too hard. How can you possibly think that we can do this, increase our faith? In other words, this is a subtle way of saying, I can't do this. right one time maybe seven times but every day every day you want me to do this right increase our faith jesus in response to them says if you have a seed if you have faith of a mustard seed those of you who know what a mustard seed looks like mustard seed looks like a lint if you saw it on a table you would just flick it it was just that's how tiny it is you wouldn't didn't even know it's a seed. So he's illustrating a tiny little seed. He said, "If you have faith of even something that small, that you can tell a mulberry tree." Mulberry tree at that time was known for having deep roots. So it's very, very difficult. You could say it's almost impossible to uproot that. You can chop it off, but to uproot and to plant it somewhere else is impossible. So he's deliberately using that illustration saying, "If you have a faith even a mustard seed, you can do what seems impossible. That's the point that he's trying to make. But here's what I think that he's really trying to say. We can look at that and say that they don't even have faith of a mustard seed. If you have even that little faith,

you'll be able to practice this. But I don't think that's what Jesus is saying. What I do believe Jesus is saying is that you have that faith. you have that faith. You're telling me, basically saying, I can't do it because you didn't give me enough faith. He says, no, if you have even a tiny little faith, there is no Christian who doesn't have faith. There is no Christian who doesn't have faith. Every single born-again Christian, whether it is small, whether it is big, we are connected to our mighty God because of that faith. And if you do have that faith, every Christian has been baptized by the Holy Spirit. so that that holy spirit is indwelling in me and you so to say that i don't have enough faith is turning the table back around that you didn't give me enough i can't obey because i don't have enough and i believe what jesus is saying even if you had a tiny little bit you're able to so what he's saying is if you are saying that i can't obey and ultimately because you didn't give me enough? He says, no. Even if you have a little bit. So the problem is that it's not that you need to have increase of faith. The problem is you need to practice your faith. And that's why Apostle Paul says in Philippians, I can do all things through him who gives me strength.

He doesn't say I can do it. He says, no, because he strengthens me. Because he gives me power. What I cannot do, God has done by the Holy Spirit. I believe that that's what he's trying to say. Because faith, even a tiny little faith, connects us to the all-powerful God. So it is not me. I don't have it within me. You don't have it within you to love your enemy. Because our natural inclination is to practice justice, not mercy. We don't have people marching in the street saying, no grace, no peace. No grace, no peace. because that's not our natural inclination and when we say justice we're usually talking about vengeance you hurt me so it's only fair that they get hurt you rip me off so it's only fair that they get ripped off you sinned against me it's only fair that that they get punished for that because that's our natural inclination so it is not within us to practice this but when we have faith of a must receive, which every Christian does, it causes us to be connected to an all-powerful God who gives us the power to do what we are not able to do on our own. You see how if you say, increase my faith, and you threw it back to Jesus, and Jesus doesn't somehow give you more, send you more. How oftentimes do we say, if I had that guy's faith, you know, I see these missionaries who abandon it if God gave me their faith we're challenged by people who are doing courageous things that oh man if I had your faith and we use that as an excuse sometimes to become

passive clearly God did not give me that gift God has given him God has given them but not me see that's why I believe what Jesus is not saying you don't need more faith even a small mustard seed of faith that you may have that you're able to move mountains only when you have faith that you believe and you can trust that whatever you do whatever outcome that comes from that that's in his hand you know sometimes we have a hard time forgiving because we're afraid if we allow this guy to come and keep keep doing this what if he does it again tomorrow what if he hurts me what if he takes advantage of me so in fear and say you know what i'm not going to be vicious to you but i'm not going to be have you near me so our idea of forgiveness is we're not i'm not going to take vengeance on you but you're never going to be my friend again so we never practice a fear me we're always lingering we say the right things but in our hearts we have never forgiven them you're never truly reconciled but only when you have faith that you have complete trust in a sovereign god that if he told you to do something obeying him is the best path to be no matter what that produces if obedience leads to poverty poverty is the safest place for you to be if obeying him causes you to be persecuted persecution is the best and the safest place to be. That if you believe that, then you can practice that. Only by faith. Only those who believe that their great sins have been forgiven can practice this. This is

not something that we muster up because this is not what we normally practice in humanity. Only people who have been affected by his great love for us. We love because he first loved us. so an individual who's not walking right with god would never even consider to practice this because this is not normal no one is going to praise you if you are gracious and you forgive him one time maybe people will applaud you you do it twice and he said oh man you're you're like jesus you do it three times you'll start to hear from people say what's wrong with you you do it four times? What's wrong with you? I mean, can you imagine that if you're going to, you're walking around and becoming a doormat to everybody around you? They're not going to praise you for that.

Only someone who has been deeply affected by God's grace toward us can we even practice this, or even want to practice this. See, a self-righteous person will never even think that this should be practice. A self-righteous person, naturally, because he feels like he earns some part of where he's at. Because I worked hard, made the right decisions, and I fought against sin, and I did this, and why aren't they doing that? So naturally, a self-righteous person isn't going to be merciful, isn't going to be gracious. But when we truly understand where you and I stand, Worshippers who worship in spirit and in truth, naturally, the natural disposition is grace. Because you and I are only here by the grace of God.

Remember the parable that Jesus gives? He's a rich man who was forgiven a thousand talents, which would be equivalent to millions of dollars. And then he lets him go. He is given mercy and he turns around and he sees one of his servants who owes him a few bucks. And he's angry at him and puts him in jail. Remember what Jesus calls that man who is ungracious? How can you be so ungracious after everything that you've been given? And then he calls him a wicked, a wicked servant. Every single Christian stands because of the mercy of God. Because he's been gracious to us. You know, in Philemon, verses 18 and 19, Paul is writing a letter to a former slave owner who became a Christian. in order to reconcile him to a former runaway slave, Onesimus.

And in that letter, he's pleading with Philemon to receive him back, not as a slave, but now as a brother. So can you imagine, humanly speaking, right? I mean, the power of the gospel in Philemon. This is something that you would never think. A runaway slave, if he goes back to his master, legally, he can kill him. As he's walking through the door, he had every right. He can kill him. But Paul tells Onesimus to go back home, to reconcile with the man who has the power to kill you. And he's pleading with Philemon to receive him. But look at what he writes. But if he has wronged you in any way or owes you in anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will repay it, not to mention to you, that you owe to me even your own self as well.

I always kind of chuckle whenever I read that. He said, you know what? I hope I don't have to say this. You know, I hope for your benefit that you would have enough sense to know that you owe your life to me. But I don't want to say it, even though I just said it. I don't want to say it. I hope, you know, you understand the only reason why I'm writing this letter is because you got saved by the mercy of God. And the only reason is somebody that could have completely judged you and killed you and I brought the gospel to you. You owe me your life. But I'm not going to say it. Right? I hope you do it voluntarily. Right? Every single person in this room, every time we come before God, we are standing in the same position.

You and I are only here because God has been merciful to us. You are only here because God has been gracious to us. So how can an individual, how can a church filled with people who every week stands and sits and praising God for his mercy toward us to be so ungracious to others who are in need of mercy and grace? In fact, even when we pray the Lord's Prayer says, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. As we stand before God in need of his mercy, all God is doing is telling us to practice that mercy with us. Now, let me conclude with this. Because I've never had to practice this. Yes, be merciful, gracious, yes. Seven times in one day. I don't have anybody in my life that literally sins against me seven times and then do it again Tuesday and do it again Wednesday and then Friday.

I don't have anybody. I might have some people just kind of stretched out a long period of time. They just don't get it. You know what I mean? Anybody who's raised teenagers, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Sometimes the people that need the grace the most are the people who you love the most. But I do know somebody. I do know a relationship where this happens all the time. The only relationship that I know where somebody sins seven times, gets forgiven seven times, and then does it again, forgiven seven times, is us with God. It's 1040, so some of you have been up four hours, five hours. If I ask you to list something that you've done this morning, and it doesn't have to be egregious, any sin.

against a holy God is sinful. Can you think of one? I don't think it's that hard. Maybe you woke up groggy, and then you sinned. You know what I mean? Maybe your wife did something. It's like, why do you keep doing that? And you sinned. Maybe we're driving, and somebody cut you off, right? And you want to speed up. It's like, how dare you? And they say, oh, I'm going to church. I should be gracious.

If this happened after church, you know, it'd be different. We've only been up four or five hours, and I'm sure you can think of maybe two or three or four, maybe more. It may not seem like much, but any one of those sins, any one of those sins is an egregious sin against the holy, holy, holy God. And if He doesn't forgive us for even one of those sins, we're going to be under condemnation. He said, every careless word will be judged. So if He's not gracious to us for every one of those sins, if He doesn't forgive us for every one of those sins, every single one of those sins can lead to eternal condemnation. So the only relationship that I know where a sinner sins seven times and ask for forgiveness seven times, but we are forgiven over and over, is a sinner's relationship with God. He's not simply telling us to do something as a hyperbole. He's describing himself to us because he practices it with us. He says, I want you to practice what I practice with you.

And you know what's really interesting? Because in Matthew 18, Peter asked, if a brother sins against me, how many times should I forgive me? He said, seven times. Should I forgive him seven times? Because seven is the number of completion. So I said, surely Jesus is going to praise me for that, right? Peter, you have a tendency to put your foot in your mouth, but this you got right, seven times, at least seven times. No, he says, no, not seven times, seven times 70, right? So if you took it literally, some of you guys who take everything literally, that's 490 times. So 491st time, he's in trouble, right? Is that what he meant? Obviously, that's not what he meant. But that number, 7 times 70, isn't a random number.

One, 7 is the number of completion. So in other words, he's saying as long as he asks for forgiveness, forgive him. But that number, 490, is a very specific number. Because if you read the Old Testament, when Israel goes into captivity, he says they will go into captivity for 70 years. And then he explains why it's 70 years. He says, for every year that they did not obey the Sabbath, every seventh year they were supposed to rest the land. So for 490 years, they disobeyed God, did not rest the land. So he says, I'm going to forcefully rest the land for 70 years, for every year that you disobeyed. So 490 years they disobeyed. You know what 490 years, if you go backwards, when that was? Was the establishment of Saul.

Remember the book of Judges? at the end of Judges they say oh we're going to get into all this problem because we don't have a king and God says I am your king and he tries to convince them if you get a king like everybody else your king is going to be like everybody else they're going to use their power for themselves they're going to abuse you and they're going to lead you astray and despite that they said no we still want a king so the king gets established 490 years and just like God said was going to happen. The kings led Israel astray for 490 years. So when Jesus tells his disciples, forgive them seven times 70, 490 years, he's telling him what he did with Israel. That despite their sins, he forgave them. Despite what they did, he was patient with them. You and I would not be here if God wasn't gracious with us. We love because He first loved us. But not only is this dependent upon God's grace toward us, there's not a single relationship that you have today that you had more than a few days or a few months where if you did not practice grace that you would have a relationship with Him. You know, there's some people in our room that maybe have been married for 20, 30, 40, 50 years, and maybe you have a great marriage, so the young people look at you and say, man, if I can find a soulmate like you guys did, you know, it'd be so awesome to share our lives, that you finish each other's sentence, and life would be so great. You sit down and talk

with them, every single one of them will tell you the heartaches that they went through. And it was years and years of forgiving, being gracious, having conversations, misunderstanding, and heartaches that they worked through because they practiced grace with each other that they were able to build. And it's not just in marriage. There's not a single relationship that you have that you've had more than a few years, that you don't have a story at some point where you had to practice mercy and grace. Some of your best relationships is because you practice grace. Just like our relationship depends on grace, God to be gracious with us, it is not possible to build any meaningful relationship without grace.

And that's why Jesus is telling us, if you have to take sin seriously, but you also have to take grace seriously. A church cannot be built if we don't practice this grace. You and I live in a fallen world. It's so easy to misunderstand. You don't know how often I'm in the middle of two people in conflict, and I hear from one person, and I hear from the other person, it's like, "Did you guys ever even talk?" It doesn't even sound like the same conversation. So much of the conflict comes because of misunderstanding, they get hurt, and because they got hurt, now they're going to hurt them, and they go back and forth, and then you sit down and try to sift through all of this stuff, and you realize all it is, it was a response to what you thought that they did.

I say 90% of the conflict comes because you interpreted something that was said and done, and then you ran with it. You cannot build a church without grace. You cannot have a church if we don't take sin seriously. But equally, you cannot build a church until you practice the grace that God practices with us. This is why we worship God. right this is not a normal community this is not normal right no other community practices this or will even teach this they say you know what hey we should be generous in giving it's like oh they hurt you it's like you know what try to understand you know step into their shoes they do they did it twice i don't know about that third time hey break it off they don't value you so get out of there right go somewhere where they're going to value because that's the wisdom of the world, right? You keep a close, you know, keep your friends close, but you keep your enemies even closer. It's not teaching to love them. It's like, watch them. I mean, make sure if they make any wrong move that you're ready to pounce before they do anything wrong to you, because that sounds wise. Only a community that has been deeply affected by the love of Christ.

Only people who on day to day, week to week, year to year, live knowing that everything that I have I did not deserve is because God's been merciful to me. I know that I didn't work my way up here by the mercy of God. I could personally tell you how many times in my own memory, I say, I shouldn't be here. That's why I said, if you're able to lose your salvation, you would have lost it already. You would have lost it already. For by grace, you have been saved through faith. It is not of your own. It's a gift of God so that no one may boast. And that is the foundation of every Christ-centered community. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, help us, Lord God, to have a clearer vision of what it is that we have in you, that our worship, Lord God, will be an overwhelming response to who you are.

Help us to see sin as utterly sinful, that we may practice grace deeply, that our community, Lord God, as we have tendency to misunderstand, as we have tendency to hurt one another and stumble one another, as we have tendency to say things that are insensitive, we have a tendency to be divided to feel isolated and we are in desperate need of your mercy we are in desperate need to practice mercy and grace that we may honor and glorify you in all things that the world will know that there is hope in the name of Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. Let's sing it together.

Who breaks the power of sin?

Who breaks the power of sin and darkness? Whose love is mighty and so much stronger? The King of glory, the King of all things.

Who shakes the whole earth with holy thunder, who leaves us breathless in iron wonder, the King of glory, the King above all. Sing it, this is amazing. This is amazing grace. This is unfailing love. That you will take my place. That you will bear my cross You will lay down your life That I will be set free Oh, Jesus, I sing All that you've done Who brings that chaos back into order?

Who makes the orphan a son and daughter? The King of glory, the King above all peace.

Who rose the nations with truth and justice Shines like the sun in all of its brilliance The King of glory, the King above all means This is amazing grace This is unfailing love That you would take my place That you will bear my cross I'll ask you to lay down your life That I will be set free Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me Worthy is the Lamb who was slain Worthy is the King who conquered the grave Worthy is the Lamb who was slain Worthy is the King who conquers the grave Worthy is the Lamb who was slain Worthy is the king who conquers the grave Worthy is the lamb who was slain Worthy, worthy, worthy This is amazing grace This is unfailing love That you will take my place That you will bear my cross I ask you will lay down your life That I would be set free Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me Let's recite the Lord's Prayer together.

Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. God sent his son, they called him Jesus, he came to love, healed and forgive, he lived And I, to buy my partner, an empty grave is there too, my Savior lives. Because He lives, I can face tomorrow Because He lives, all fear is gone Because I know, he holds a future.

And life is worth the living just because he lives. Amen.