Sunday Setup – Matthew 18:21-35

Welcome to the Sunday setup. This is our time each Thursday at 2 o'clock where we digitally gather together as a church family to pray through a piece of scripture that we'll be studying this week in order to prepare our hearts for what God has. This Sunday we'll be diving into Matthew 18 looking at verse 21. And we're continuing on in our series through the parables of Christ and looking at what does Jesus teach through these little stories that reveal these secrets of the kingdom. And in verse 21, we dive into the story and it says, "Then Peter approached him being Jesus and asked,"Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me?" "As many as seven times." I tell you, not as many as seven, Jesus replied, but 70 times seven. For this reason, the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle accounts, one who owed 10,000 talents was brought before him. Since he did not have the money to pay it back, his master commanded that he, his wife, and his children, and everything he had be sold to pay the debt. At this, the servant fell face down before him and said, "Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything." Then the master of that servant had compassion. He released him, and he forgave him the loan. That servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him 100 dinari. He grabbed him, started choking him and said, "Pay what you owe." At this, his fellow servant fell face down and began begging him, "Be patient with me, and I will pay you back." But he wasn't willing. Instead, he went and he threw him in a prison and he could pay what he was owed. When the other servants saw what had taken place, they were deeply distressed. And they went and reported to their master everything that had happened. Then after he had summoned him, his master said to him, "You wicked servant, I forgave you all the debt because you begged me. Shouldn't you have also had mercy on your fellow servant? As I had mercy on you?" And because he was angry, his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he could pay everything that was owed. So also my heavenly father will do to you, unless every one of you forgives his brother or sister from your heart. In this passage, what we're going to see is at the start and the end, it really deals with this topic of forgiveness and grace that we receive from God and we pass on other people. But as we begin in here, I want us to just get our mindset right of the God we have and then the people around us. And I first want to start and I I'd love this near the beginning of this. Jesus starts in verse 23 and he says the kingdom is compared to a king who wanted to settle accounts. And we think of our God, our king. He doesn't want us to sit in our sin. He wants to settle the accounts of our lives. He wants to settle the unrest that is in us. And let this be our first prayer prompt is Lord, thank you for settling blank. Maybe thank you for settling my sin in the price that is paid. Thank you for settling my anxiety. Thank you for settling my depression. Thank you for settling blank in my life. Think of how God pursues you. He's not okay with the brokenness that you are in, but he wants to make it whole. Pray those prayers to our God. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Lord, thank you that you are willing to step down into our messiness. Lord, to not just pursue judgment with us when it is the right thing to do. But Lord, instead you cover our sin. You settle our accounts. You pay the debt that we cannot pay. And Lord, we are not often thankful enough for how big our debt is to you and how the sacrifice and the grace of Jesus Christ covers it and gives us the opportunity to live in your light. God, continue to settle the other things that cause an unrest and a brokenness and discomfort in our life. Lord, let us give those to you that you can settle as the great healer, as the great king, as the one who reigns over all. But Lord, we not only ask that you settle our accounts, but this also pushes to us now to action of how do we treat other people? How do we live this out? And I after this servant is forgiven, we see the hypocrisy is he doesn't do the same thing to another servant. And in here as we continue in verse 29, the other servant asks the servant who has just been forgiven by the king. He says, "Be patient with me." He says, "But he wasn't willing." And this Sunday, as we're going to talk about forgiveness, you can't forgive until you are willing to start to be patient with the hurting people around you. And this is where I want us just to begin to plant the seed in our heart. Now, there are people who have legitimately hurt us that are hard to forgive. But maybe the first step is we need to be patient in seeing them and not writing them off. So, we are grateful and we thank God that he has settled our accounts. But here's the next prayer prompt. This prompt of preparing our hearts for action is Lord, let me be willing to be patient with blank. Lord, let me be willing to be patient with blank. Name people specifically that maybe you are impatient with. Maybe it's your kids, maybe it's your spouse, maybe it's a someone who you works for you or someone you work for. Who do you need to be willing to be patient with that you can see as God sees them and it can open the door and crack the door to be able to forgive them as our father forgives us? Just take some time, name people that you can be willing to be patient with that God soften your heart. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Lord, give us a willing heart, a willing heart that is patient with those around us. Cuz Lord, you are patient. You are slow to anger. You come to the table and you seek us out to settle accounts. God, you don't rush to judgment even though we deserve it. You don't judge us in the middle of our sin even though we deserve it. Instead, you are patient with us and you're patient with this generation, hoping that all come to a saving knowledge of you. Lord, let us be willing to have that heart to be patient with the ones around us, especially those that have hurt us. And Lord, let it put in our heart a seed that can lead to true forgiveness of the people around us. God, we thank you for this time. Please prepare our hearts as we gather together on Sunday to praise the fact that you have settled our accounts and then Lord to go out and settle the accounts with the people that are in our spheres of influence. God, we thank you for all this and we lift it up in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for joining us today. Can't wait to dive in to this sermon, to pray through it this Sunday, to praise through it, to preach through it, so that we can put it into practice this week and beyond. We'll see you Sunday. Heat. Heat.