# The Math of Grace

Sermon transcript from Cross Church Surprise.
Series: Parables
Date: July 12, 2026
Watch: https://crosschurchcares.com/surprise/episodes/the-math-of-grace

## Summary

What if the grace we've received is meant to flow through us? Are we keeping score of others' wrongs while forgetting our own debt? Discover how the math of grace challenges our hearts and relationships. Let's dive in together!

## Transcript

0:00 · You're like, I'm not as bad as that guy.

0:01 · Like I've made some mistakes, I've done some things,

0:03 · but like there are way worse people out there.

0:06 · When we have that attitude, when we compare

0:09 · and be like, hey, my debt might be big,

0:10 · but it's not as big as that guy.

0:11 · We prove that we have no clue

0:14 · as to the extent of our own sin.

0:16 · Church, our sin is not three months behind.

0:18 · Our debt is not three months behind.

0:20 · Our debt is infinitely deep.

0:23 · It is 10,000 talents.

0:24 · It is 200,000 years.

0:26 · It is $12 billion.

0:28 · It is unpayable.

0:36 · But today we are diving in to continue

0:40 · in our series through the parables.

0:42 · And if you've been with us,

0:43 · we've been kind of tracking this summer

0:45 · through the miracles of Jesus that answered this question,

0:49 · who is this man?

0:51 · And constantly pointed to over and over again,

0:53 · Jesus is God.

0:55 · And to continue down that line,

0:57 · the parables, these short stories that Jesus loves to tell

1:01 · that are just packed with truth,

1:03 · they begin to answer this question,

1:04 · well, what does he teach?

1:06 · It's one thing to know that Jesus is God

1:08 · and say, yes, he's God, I acknowledge that.

1:11 · I said this, I'll even go to church every now and then.

1:14 · But to know what he actually teaches,

1:17 · not what I want him to teach,

1:18 · not what I think he teaches,

1:20 · not what culture is put on him to teach,

1:23 · but what does Jesus actually teach

1:25 · that propels my life forward?

1:28 · And as we've dug into the parables,

1:29 · we've seen that Jesus has had these stories

1:32 · that have just gripped at the heart

1:35 · in the life of us personally.

1:38 · And up to this point,

1:38 · every story has been personal, personal, personal.

1:41 · We looked at the scattering of the seed

1:44 · and the different soils and Jesus challenged us

1:46 · at what does the soil of your heart look like?

1:48 · How are you receiving the word of God?

1:51 · We continued on and looked like the wheat in the weeds

1:54 · and the challenge that Jesus presented

1:56 · is there will be evil in our world,

1:58 · but do we trust him with the judgment and not ourselves?

2:04 · And last week we looked at the treasure and the pearl

2:07 · and we challenged ourselves as our dreams,

2:09 · are we chasing after what we can achieve

2:12 · or are we seeing Jesus as greater and bigger

2:15 · than all the dreams we could ever imagine?

2:18 · Well, today Jesus shifts our perspective.

2:22 · My wife, she's out of town today, she's in Oklahoma,

2:26 · she might be watching in the live stream

2:27 · or ignoring me as she continues on.

2:30 · But let me tell you something about my wife.

2:32 · She is a competitive athlete in a very special sport,

2:36 · the sport of thrifting, all right?

2:39 · You guys, some of you are trying to level up

2:42 · and become out of the amateur level.

2:44 · But we have four little kids at home,

2:46 · so they're all in the rooms by seven o'clock.

2:48 · It's summer, so we're pretty lenient, 7.15.

2:52 · And as they're in their rooms,

2:54 · I'm sitting down watching the Diamondbacks,

2:55 · we're watching Messi in the World Cup,

2:58 · watching Conor McGregor for 30 seconds last night.

3:00 · But as I'm sitting on the couch,

3:02 · she'll FaceTime me and she's at Goodwill

3:05 · and we'll kind of start talking to me

3:07 · about stuff that's there.

3:08 · And I'm like, all I can see is you,

3:10 · this is just this conversation we're having.

3:11 · And then she flips it and I see the wealth,

3:15 · using that term loosely, of Goodwill.

3:19 · And she's starting to show me, should I buy this,

3:20 · should I buy that, should I buy this?

3:22 · And I'm like, are you just gonna return it anyway?

3:23 · And she's like, yeah, probably.

3:25 · But as we see that and we kind of have that view to it,

3:28 · today, we've been having this FaceTime chat with Jesus

3:31 · where he's been exposing the stuff of our heart.

3:34 · But today, he flips the camera

3:37 · and he shows us the world and gives us a challenge

3:41 · for how do we see the world the way he does

3:44 · and actually live this out.

3:47 · And this comes full force to us in Matthew chapter 18.

3:50 · If you have your Bible or your phone

3:52 · and your sermon notes, we encourage you to flip there.

3:55 · Matthew chapter 18, we're gonna be starting in verse 21.

3:59 · And I love in this passage is Jesus stops asking

4:04 · this road that we've been going down

4:06 · of what's in your heart towards me.

4:09 · And he starts asking what's in your heart

4:11 · towards them, the world around us.

4:15 · And what I love is he does it with math.

4:19 · Now, show of hands, who actually enjoys math?

4:22 · Yep, 10 of us, just like for a service, all right?

4:25 · Maybe you don't like math,

4:26 · but today Jesus gets into numbers and math.

4:29 · And actually, as I was going through this,

4:31 · I titled this sermon, The Math of Grace.

4:35 · And I love it because it comes to this question

4:37 · that we need to deal with is

4:39 · how does this whole math of grace actually work?

4:44 · How does this math of the fact that Jesus has forgiven us

4:47 · and has taken away our sin?

4:50 · And we might say that, we might sing that,

4:52 · we might say we believe it in our heart,

4:55 · but how do we actually live it out?

4:58 · And as we dive in here to Matthew chapter 18,

5:01 · starting in verse 21, this story opens with Peter,

5:04 · a guy who devoted his life to following Jesus,

5:07 · Peter, who I love so much because he always says out loud

5:10 · the things everyone else is thinking inside

5:13 · and wants to keep inside.

5:15 · But in verse 21, he asks Jesus this question,

5:18 · says then Peter approached him, being Jesus, and asked,

5:21 · Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother

5:25 · or sister who sins against me?

5:29 · And then he gives a caveat, as many as seven times.

5:34 · Now, we go into this story,

5:35 · and Peter asks a very real question,

5:38 · a question that maybe you have asked time and time again,

5:41 · how much do I keep on forgiving this person

5:44 · who keeps on making mistakes over and over again?

5:46 · You've asked how many times you keep forgiving

5:48 · your spouse when they do the same thing

5:51 · over and over and over again.

5:54 · And Peter here, as he asked this question,

5:56 · I love it, he, from the start,

5:58 · loads his question with generosity towards himself.

6:02 · You see, in that day, the Jewish rabbis,

6:04 · they taught that you forgave a person

6:07 · for the same offense three times,

6:09 · and after the third time, you were done.

6:12 · Doesn't sound, some of you are like,

6:13 · I'm gonna become, follow the Jewish rabbis right now.

6:15 · Some of you are shaking your head, you're like,

6:17 · I've cut people off before three.

6:19 · You had permission to write them off after three.

6:22 · So Peter's like, I'm gonna double it,

6:23 · and I'm gonna add one.

6:25 · And Peter in his mind is like,

6:26 · man, Jesus is gonna be so proud of me.

6:28 · Like, he's gonna beam with excitement.

6:31 · Like, he's been waiting for that Jesus high five,

6:33 · and he's like, it's coming here.

6:36 · But here's the problem with Peter.

6:38 · He's not really asking for a specific number.

6:40 · It's actually, there's something underneath his question

6:43 · that he's asking.

6:45 · Is Peter's asking, when do I get to stop forgiving people?

6:50 · Where's the line?

6:52 · At what point am I finally free to keep score

6:56 · and say no more to hurting me?

7:00 · And if we're honest, every one of us has asked that

7:03 · because you have a person that you know exactly

7:06 · who they are that is popping in your head right now.

7:10 · And somewhere in your heart, there is a ledger,

7:12 · and maybe their name is at the very top,

7:14 · and you have been keeping a very careful count.

7:17 · You have been keeping receipts in your back pocket

7:20 · for that next confrontation

7:21 · that you are going to bring out.

7:23 · But Jesus answers this question,

7:26 · and his answer leads to our very first number

7:29 · in this story.

7:30 · And here's our first number,

7:32 · and hopefully you said you didn't like math,

7:33 · but you're gonna like math, all right?

7:34 · We're gonna all like math together this morning.

7:37 · But here's the first thing we see is 70 times seven.

7:41 · 70 times seven.

7:42 · When Jesus asks, in verse 21,

7:44 · how many times must I forgive?

7:46 · As many as seven times,

7:47 · Jesus then senses the heart of Peter.

7:51 · And here's his response in verse 22.

7:52 · I tell you, not as many as seven, Jesus replied,

7:57 · but 70 times seven.

8:01 · Now some of you, you guys said you didn't like math,

8:03 · but maybe you know how to do math.

8:04 · Anyone wanna venture, what is seven times 70?

8:08 · 490, I'm glad, I heard all the right answers.

8:10 · Someone in first service starts at 500.

8:12 · I'm like, you know you have a calculator on your phone.

8:17 · But 490, and I promise you,

8:21 · somewhere out there, someone this morning,

8:23 · sitting in these chairs or watching online,

8:25 · probably has a forgiveness ledger

8:28 · that is getting higher and higher,

8:29 · and they're waiting for that.

8:30 · They're like, man, it's getting close to 490.

8:32 · That's what Jesus said, he said 490.

8:35 · 491, you're done.

8:37 · I'm really grateful my wife doesn't have that ledger

8:39 · that I know about.

8:41 · But I think I've already passed the 490 mark.

8:45 · But here, people think, well, Jesus gives a number.

8:48 · But here's what Jesus was doing is he was actually,

8:50 · this is exact opposite of the point,

8:52 · to give a hard line.

8:53 · Instead, he isn't raising the limit from seven to 490.

8:57 · Instead, he's deleting the limit altogether.

9:01 · You see, he picks a number so big

9:03 · that you cannot keep track of that number in your head.

9:07 · That think about why you keep a count in the first place

9:10 · is to know when you've hit the ceiling.

9:13 · And Jesus picks such a big number

9:15 · that it's not something you remember like,

9:16 · oh, we're on 392, let's keep going.

9:18 · He picks a number that you're gonna lose track

9:20 · at some point.

9:22 · And at some point, before you get there,

9:25 · you won't know where you're at,

9:26 · and that's the whole idea.

9:28 · Jesus isn't handing you a bigger number to count to,

9:30 · he's taking the calculator out of your hand.

9:34 · And the point of the number today

9:36 · means that ultimately, this seven times 70

9:41 · is it really equals a stop keeping score.

9:44 · That we stop keeping score,

9:46 · that we don't all of a sudden

9:47 · just continue down this line of I know how you've wronged

9:50 · and I'm making sure I remember it.

9:54 · Here's what all of us need to hear this morning

9:56 · is forgiveness and score keeping

9:58 · cannot live in the same heart.

10:00 · The moment you're still counting,

10:02 · you haven't forgotten.

10:04 · You've just filed it away,

10:05 · you've got a receipt in a drawer

10:07 · and you're waiting for the day

10:09 · that you can pull it out again.

10:12 · But Jesus tells us something totally opposite.

10:14 · He says to burn the receipts,

10:17 · to stop keeping score.

10:19 · And here's the deal,

10:19 · all of us can fall into this trap.

10:22 · If you're married,

10:22 · you've probably kept score to some degree

10:24 · and maybe you haven't kept score

10:25 · and that number keeps rising.

10:27 · But usually know who's tied

10:29 · or who's ahead at the moment, right?

10:32 · Like husbands, we do something stupid

10:34 · and we know we're usually in the negative.

10:36 · But as soon as our wife does something like ha ha,

10:38 · we're even, right?

10:40 · We've leveled the playing fields.

10:42 · And then you're waiting until like,

10:43 · hey, is she gonna do something

10:44 · that I can then up her from

10:46 · and I can be ahead of the game?

10:48 · And Jesus blows that logic up

10:50 · and here's why,

10:51 · because when you are concerned

10:54 · with keeping score,

10:55 · what you are trying to track

10:56 · and what you're truly asking

10:58 · is who is winning at this time.

11:01 · And when we ask in our relationships

11:03 · and our marriage and our friendships

11:05 · of who is winning in that relationship,

11:07 · the problem is we are both losing very quickly.

11:10 · And here's where this first point

11:12 · brings some conviction into our life.

11:14 · And I think there's this calculated conviction,

11:17 · you like that pun,

11:18 · that we have underneath this point

11:21 · is there is no limit to the forgiveness that we give.

11:26 · When Jesus gives us 70 times 70,

11:28 · He's not doing it so we can skip score.

11:30 · He's doing it so that we say

11:32 · there is no limit that I'll keep forgiving.

11:34 · And we're gonna see why in a second

11:36 · because of what is behind that,

11:39 · but we don't get to a certain number

11:40 · and cut someone off,

11:41 · but there is no limit to how we continually

11:44 · need to pour out and forgive those who have hurt us.

11:49 · Now there are some skeptics

11:51 · and there are some cynics

11:52 · that are in this room

11:54 · that when you hear that,

11:55 · you're like, well, okay,

11:58 · but does that mean I let people run over me?

12:00 · Does that mean I just become a doormat

12:02 · and I just keep on saying,

12:04 · like, that's right, keep hurting me

12:05 · and I'll keep forgiving you

12:06 · and I wanna say no,

12:08 · hold onto that thought

12:09 · because Jesus is going to protect you

12:11 · on that before we're done.

12:13 · But before we talk about what to do

12:16 · with the people who owe us,

12:18 · this story continues beautifully

12:20 · because then we are reminded

12:23 · of something that we forgot

12:24 · and Jesus wants us to remember our own number

12:28 · and that's the second number we see in this story

12:30 · and let me tell you,

12:31 · it is a punch to the face

12:33 · and the second number is 10,000 talents worth.

12:37 · 10,000 talents worth.

12:39 · In verse 23, after Jesus gives his answer

12:42 · and says this 490 number,

12:44 · he's saying, hey, there's no limit

12:45 · to how much you forgive,

12:46 · he then starts to illustrate his point

12:49 · with this parable we see

12:51 · and in verse 23, he begins

12:53 · and he says, for this reason,

12:55 · the kingdom of heaven can be compared

12:57 · to a king who wanted to settle accounts

13:00 · with his servants.

13:01 · When he began to settle accounts,

13:03 · one who owed 10,000 talents,

13:06 · we'll talk about the significance

13:07 · of that number in a second,

13:08 · was brought before him

13:10 · since he did not have the money

13:12 · to pay it back,

13:14 · his master commanded that he,

13:17 · his wife and his children

13:18 · and everything he had be sold

13:22 · to pay the debt.

13:24 · At this, the servant fell face down before him

13:26 · and said, be patient with me

13:29 · and I will pay you everything.

13:33 · Then the master of the servant had compassion,

13:36 · he released him

13:38 · and he forgave him the loan.

13:42 · See, Jesus at this point of the passage,

13:44 · he starts to tell a story

13:46 · and he tells a story of a king

13:48 · who decides to settle his accounts

13:49 · and they bring a servant who owes him,

13:52 · get this and this number is important,

13:56 · 10,000 talents.

13:58 · Now we read this and that means nothing to us,

14:01 · so I want us to do a little bit of math together

14:03 · because the math of this changes everything.

14:05 · One talent for a working class man at this time

14:10 · was about 20 years wages.

14:15 · Feel the weight of that?

14:16 · 20 years you work and you get one talent,

14:19 · 20 years you work and you're paying your bills,

14:22 · maybe putting some in savings,

14:23 · there's no stock market then at that time

14:26 · so you can't even exponentially hit big

14:28 · on a stock and you're good,

14:29 · 20 years of grinding,

14:31 · you get one.

14:34 · This servant owned 10,000 of them.

14:39 · Anyone want to run that multiplication a little bit,

14:41 · any guesses how many years of labor that is?

14:47 · Nope, you don't have your phones out ready,

14:49 · I got some more math coming later.

14:50 · Here's the number of that, 200,000 years.

14:55 · 200,000 years.

14:57 · This dude owed 200,000 years of work.

15:00 · The Bible tells us the oldest person

15:02 · in our world that ever lived was Methuselah,

15:05 · he lived for 969 years.

15:07 · Methuselah couldn't even work enough to pay this

15:09 · or even begin to scratch the surface.

15:13 · 200,000 years of working day by day

15:17 · and this guy couldn't even scratch

15:19 · the surface of his debt.

15:21 · In today's money,

15:22 · if we make this a little bit more down to earth,

15:24 · if you go by the state and national average,

15:26 · that average salary is roughly about $60,000 a year.

15:30 · You take $60,000 a year

15:32 · and if you do that math for a wage of 200,000 years,

15:36 · anyone know what number you get?

15:42 · 12 billion.

15:44 · That's with a B.

15:47 · Church, that is not a credit card you maxed out,

15:51 · that is not a car payment you fell behind,

15:53 · that is not a mortgage you are underwater on,

15:56 · these are not hospital bills that are stacked up,

15:58 · this is a national debt size number.

16:03 · Some commentators believe this might have been more money

16:06 · than Rome had in circulation in that day.

16:10 · That is a debt so large

16:12 · that no bank on earth set up a payment plan,

16:14 · they just stamped the file uncollectible

16:16 · and they closed it forever

16:18 · and that was exactly Jesus' point.

16:21 · Because that is your number and that is my number

16:25 · when we stand before the holy God of the universe.

16:32 · Jesus is showing us spiritually talking

16:33 · when we bring our sin in front of Christ,

16:37 · our debt is unpayable, our debt cannot be wiped clean,

16:41 · it is so large, it is so big and we hear that

16:44 · and you're like, well okay,

16:45 · but like maybe my buddy Jerry's debt,

16:48 · but my debt's a little smaller than that.

16:50 · You're like, I'm not as bad as that guy,

16:52 · like I've made some mistakes, I've done some things,

16:54 · but like there are way worse people out there.

16:57 · One commentary put it perfectly

16:59 · that when we have that attitude,

17:01 · where we compare and be like, hey my debt might be big,

17:03 · but it's not as big as that guy,

17:04 · we prove that we have no clue

17:07 · as to the extent of our own sin.

17:10 · Church, our sin is not three months behind,

17:13 · our debt is not three months behind,

17:15 · our debt is infinitely deep,

17:17 · it is 10,000 talents, it is 200,000 years,

17:20 · it is 12 billion dollars, it is unpayable.

17:28 · But watch what the king does in this story.

17:33 · The servant fell flat on his face

17:35 · and he says, be patient with me

17:36 · and I will pay you everything,

17:38 · which is funny, you think of the first audience,

17:40 · now that you know how big that number is,

17:42 · they were probably like smirking,

17:43 · like this is ridiculous, like that's crazy,

17:46 · like why would he even ask the king of that?

17:47 · There's no way the king would forgive that,

17:51 · he couldn't pay it back in thousands of lifetimes,

17:54 · but the king doesn't set up a plan,

17:57 · instead the text says that the king had compassion,

18:01 · he released him and he forgave him the loan.

18:05 · He didn't reduce the debt,

18:07 · he didn't refinance the debt,

18:08 · he didn't bundle the debt,

18:10 · he canceled it, he erased it,

18:12 · 12 billion dollars gone

18:13 · because the king was moved with compassion

18:16 · and I think here's the calculated conviction

18:18 · in this point that needs to move in us

18:20 · and we need to understand fully,

18:22 · is there is no comparison to the forgiveness

18:26 · that we've received.

18:28 · There is no comparison.

18:30 · People have forgiven you in your life, that's great,

18:32 · but there's no comparison to the forgiveness

18:34 · we have received from Jesus Christ.

18:38 · There's no comparison to the forgiveness

18:39 · that we give to others when we compare it

18:42 · with all that God has done.

18:44 · You have lied, you have cheated,

18:46 · you have lusted, you have swindled,

18:49 · you have ascend against the holy God of the universe

18:52 · time after time after time again in your life.

18:57 · And your debt is insurmountable.

19:00 · Let me show you what this looks like

19:02 · in the financial world.

19:03 · There's a profit called undue medical debt

19:05 · and here's what they do, I love this,

19:08 · is there's hospitals and collection agencies

19:10 · have piles of debt that they've given up collecting

19:12 · and they usually bundle it up

19:14 · and they sell it off for pennies on the dollar

19:16 · and other people will buy it

19:17 · and then try to collect that debt.

19:19 · But this non-profit will buy that debt

19:23 · but they don't collect it.

19:25 · Instead, they cancel it.

19:27 · On average, through their ministry,

19:29 · one dollar wipes out $100 of somebody else's debt.

19:33 · And churches have gotten hold of this.

19:34 · One church in Cincinnati erased $46 million

19:37 · of medical debt for 45,000 strangers in their community.

19:44 · A little congregation of 200 people

19:46 · wiped out $3 million and I love this,

19:50 · they threw a debt burning ceremony to celebrate.

19:53 · Dave Ramsey would be so proud.

19:56 · And here's the part I can't get past.

19:59 · The woman who runs that organization

20:01 · was asked how it works,

20:02 · how a few thousand dollars erases millions

20:04 · and her whole answer was six words.

20:06 · She says, it's not magic, it's just math.

20:11 · Church, the gospel is not magic.

20:14 · The gospel is the math of grace.

20:17 · The gospel is the math of grace that's your debt.

20:21 · It got sold on a hill called Calvary

20:26 · and Jesus brought that whole bundle.

20:29 · He took your sin.

20:30 · He saw how messy and underwater

20:33 · and how overwhelmed you were.

20:35 · He saw how you could never repay it

20:37 · and he brought it on himself on the cross.

20:40 · He died in your place.

20:42 · But here's the thing is he didn't pay pennies

20:44 · on the dollars.

20:46 · Jesus bought it, but he bought it with his own blood.

20:51 · And then, I love this, he burned the receipts.

20:55 · You didn't get a payment plan after your salvation

20:57 · and said, all right, here you go.

20:59 · Like Jesus paid your debt

21:00 · but here's the things you need to do after.

21:02 · All of a sudden you gotta work it up.

21:03 · Like it's gonna take a eternal life plan

21:06 · of doing good works and all of a sudden

21:07 · you're gonna earn the salvation of God.

21:09 · You didn't get a payment plan.

21:10 · You got a letter that when it comes to your sin

21:12 · because of the death and resurrection of Christ,

21:14 · it is paid in full.

21:18 · And here's the deal, the story ended there.

21:21 · We'd all go, I'm happy.

21:22 · I'd give an invitation right now.

21:24 · We'd get out of church early.

21:25 · We know we don't do that at Cross Church

21:27 · because I preach way too long.

21:31 · Two people are happy, I appreciate you.

21:34 · They're waving themselves with fans.

21:36 · It's the humidity, I'm sorry.

21:38 · Our ACs do work, just they might have broke this morning.

21:42 · But it doesn't end there because this forgiven man

21:44 · walks out of the throne room

21:45 · and he runs straight into the third number

21:47 · and the last number that we need to see

21:49 · is 100 denarii at a time, 100 denarii at a time.

21:53 · Check this out as this story keeps going.

21:56 · This servant who has been forgiven

21:58 · this insurmountable amount,

22:00 · something we can't even imagine, verse 28,

22:02 · it says that servant then went out

22:04 · and he found one of his fellow servants

22:07 · who'd owed him 100 denarii.

22:10 · We're gonna come back to that number.

22:12 · He grabbed him, he started choking him

22:14 · and he said, pay what you owe.

22:19 · At this, his fellow servant fell down

22:21 · and began begging him, be patient with me.

22:23 · Does this sound familiar?

22:26 · Be patient with me and I will pay you back.

22:30 · But he wasn't willing.

22:31 · Instead, he went and he threw him into prison

22:33 · until he could pay what was owed.

22:35 · When the other servants saw what had taken place,

22:37 · they were reportedly distressed

22:39 · and they went and reported to their master

22:42 · everything that had happened.

22:45 · You see the man who was just forgiven $12 billion

22:48 · walks outside and finds a fellow servant

22:51 · who owes him, as the text says, 100 denarii.

22:55 · Now let's do a little bit more math here.

22:57 · A denarii was about a single day wages.

23:00 · So 100 denarii would probably be about 100 days,

23:03 · some say maybe a little bit less.

23:04 · Probably about three months worth of work.

23:08 · Three months worth of work.

23:11 · Now let's continue to do the math we use

23:13 · to get to the 12 billion.

23:14 · If we take that average salary of about $60,000 a year

23:18 · before taxes, do you know how much

23:20 · about three months work would be

23:23 · before the government takes their cut?

23:25 · Y'all need to go back to school.

23:27 · Or you know how to, you have a calculator on your phone.

23:30 · I love how couples, there's a thing,

23:31 · it's like you don't wanna give your phone to your spouse

23:34 · and it's not because you have anything to hide

23:35 · but you don't want them to go to calculator

23:37 · and see you did eight plus three

23:38 · and have the answer on there, right?

23:46 · But three months of work and today's day and age

23:50 · would be about $15,000.

23:53 · Now hear me carefully.

23:55 · Because this matters.

23:57 · $15,000 is not nothing.

23:59 · I have never loaned anyone $15,000

24:01 · and if you come to church after,

24:03 · I will not loan you $15,000.

24:06 · I need that money for my kids' college fund

24:08 · that I am not funding at the moment.

24:12 · A hundred denarii is a very real debt.

24:15 · This was a very genuine wrong

24:17 · and I never wanna stand up here and tell you

24:19 · that what has happened to you is small.

24:21 · The betrayal was real.

24:22 · The wounds landed.

24:24 · The wound is real.

24:25 · A hundred denarii is a real debt.

24:30 · But just think of what Jesus is doing here for a second.

24:33 · But you take that and you set it next to the first number,

24:38 · 12 billion against 15,000.

24:43 · All of a sudden doesn't look so big.

24:46 · You wanna know the actual ratio of that.

24:49 · The ratio is 800,000 to one.

24:53 · Meaning the way people wrong you,

24:55 · you times it by 800,000.

24:57 · That is the way that you have wronged Jesus

25:00 · and God of the universe.

25:03 · And here's the picture.

25:04 · If your debt, if the debt you were forgiven

25:06 · was the height of Mount Everest,

25:09 · the debt somebody owes you

25:10 · would be about the width of your thumbnail.

25:14 · Both are real.

25:15 · Both are debts.

25:17 · But one is a mountain and the other is a fingernail.

25:20 · And this man, forgiven the mountain,

25:21 · grabs his neighbor by the throat over the fingernail.

25:24 · He starts choking him, demanding, pay what you owe.

25:28 · And when the man falls down and begs him

25:31 · the exact same words he had just used

25:34 · with the king come out, be patient with me.

25:39 · But he refuses and he throws him in prison.

25:45 · We read this and we're like, man, that dude's a jerk.

25:51 · What's wrong with that guy?

25:53 · Like, that's terrible.

25:54 · How dare he?

25:55 · Forgiven $12 billion and he can't forgive $15,000?

25:59 · And that church is the trap of this parable

26:03 · because the second you're outraged at that guy,

26:06 · you've just described yourself every time you refuse

26:09 · to forgive the people who have wronged you.

26:13 · Every time we clutch our $15,000 wound

26:17 · while standing in the shadow

26:18 · of a $12 billion cancellation,

26:20 · we are that servant.

26:24 · The other servants see it and they're sick over it.

26:26 · They report to him, the king calls him back

26:28 · and here's the whole hinge of this story in verse 32.

26:33 · It says, then after he had summoned him,

26:34 · the master summons that first servant back.

26:37 · His master said to him, you wicked servant,

26:40 · I forgave you all the debt because you begged me.

26:43 · Shouldn't you have also had mercy

26:44 · on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you?

26:47 · And because he was angry,

26:50 · his master handed him over to the jailers

26:53 · to be tortured until he could pay

26:54 · everything that was owed.

26:59 · The king says, as I had mercy on you,

27:03 · that's the whole sermon in five words there,

27:05 · the mercy that came down to him

27:08 · was meant to flow out of him.

27:11 · And here's the problem,

27:12 · when the mercy that flows down to us,

27:14 · the grace that flows down to us

27:16 · does not flow out of us.

27:18 · Here is the warning that Jesus gives us in verse 35.

27:23 · And in verse 35, he says this,

27:25 · so also my heavenly father will do to you

27:28 · unless every one of you forgives his brother

27:30 · or sister from your hearts.

27:34 · And Jesus teaches us throughout scripture

27:36 · in the Lord's prayer, he tells us to pray

27:39 · to forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

27:43 · We are to forgive just like we are forgiven.

27:48 · We are asking God to forgive us

27:50 · the exact same way we forgive the people around us.

27:53 · And here is this conviction this points us to

27:57 · is that there is no forgiveness for us

28:00 · when we refuse it to others.

28:04 · That is a weighty statement.

28:07 · And that is a hard statement.

28:09 · And now let me be careful and clear here

28:10 · because maybe depending on your background,

28:12 · maybe you grew up in a legalistic environment,

28:14 · maybe you got some Catholic guilt in you

28:15 · and be like, I knew it.

28:17 · Like I gotta work for my salvation.

28:18 · I gotta go do this.

28:20 · But this is not what he is saying.

28:21 · Jesus is not saying we can earn God's forgiveness

28:23 · by forgiving other people.

28:25 · But he's saying something deeper than that.

28:28 · What Jesus is telling us is a heart

28:30 · that actually received $12 billion of grace

28:33 · cannot turn around and choke a neighbor over $15,000.

28:38 · It's not that the forgiveness we give

28:40 · pays for all the forgiveness we get.

28:42 · It's that the forgiveness we give

28:44 · proves the forgiveness we got.

28:49 · Church grace that is received but is never released

28:53 · was grace that we never understood in the first place.

28:58 · And if we're honest, all of us can fall into this trap

29:01 · and maybe you hear that and be like,

29:02 · but you don't know.

29:04 · You don't know the people in my life.

29:06 · You don't know what my brother did

29:08 · or my sister did or my friend did

29:10 · or my parents did or my ex-husband or wife did.

29:13 · You don't know how much I've been wronged.

29:18 · During World War II,

29:20 · there was a woman named Corrie Ten Boom.

29:23 · She and her family hid Jews from the Nazis

29:24 · in their home in Holland

29:25 · until the day that they were caught

29:28 · and Corrie and her family were sent to Ravensbruck,

29:31 · one of the most brutal concentration camps

29:33 · of the entire war.

29:35 · Her sister Betsy would die in that camp.

29:39 · Corrie barely survived and years later,

29:42 · after the war had ended,

29:44 · Corrie was traveling and speaking

29:46 · about the forgiveness of God

29:47 · and one night in a church in Munich,

29:50 · she finished speaking and a man came forward

29:53 · to shake her hand and she froze

29:57 · because she recognized him.

30:00 · This man had been one of the guards at Ravensbruck

30:05 · and he was one of the cruelest ones.

30:08 · And now here he was beaming with a smile on his face,

30:14 · a hand outstretched to her,

30:17 · telling her what a wonderful thing it was

30:20 · that God washes our sins away.

30:25 · And it is wonderful that God washes our sins away

30:29 · but put your feet in the shoes of Corrie in that moment.

30:34 · She describes and she says her blood ran cold.

30:37 · She said this man had helped kill her sister

30:42 · and as she stood there, she said she felt paralyzed.

30:45 · She couldn't lift her hand up to meet his.

30:47 · She said the most vengeful thoughts

30:49 · started coming in her mind.

30:50 · She wanted to leave that hand hanging in the air.

30:52 · She wanted to curse him and run off.

30:56 · So she prayed silently, desperately,

31:01 · something like Jesus, I cannot forgive him.

31:04 · Give me your forgiveness.

31:08 · And she said that as she forced her hand into his,

31:12 · a warmth ran down her arm

31:15 · and she was able to say and mean

31:18 · by the grace and the spirit of God

31:20 · that I forgive you, brother, with all my heart.

31:26 · Here's why that story matters.

31:29 · Because Corrie Ten Boomfer gave that guard

31:32 · not because the wound was small.

31:36 · Her 100 denarii was the size of a murdered sister.

31:39 · Was probably bigger than something

31:42 · any of us will ever experience.

31:46 · But she forgave him because she had stood

31:48 · at the foot of a 12 billion dollar cross

31:51 · and she knew her number.

31:53 · One commentator puts it plainly for a Christian,

31:56 · forgiveness is not easy.

31:58 · Church, it is not even natural, but it is Christian.

32:03 · We forgive not because we have to,

32:07 · but because grace compels us to.

32:13 · So here's the banner over this whole text.

32:16 · And this parabolic truth that just rips the hearts

32:22 · of our callous sin apart.

32:26 · That we should be wise and not allowing others

32:29 · to hurt us and people will hurt you.

32:35 · But we should be generous in offering forgiveness

32:39 · when they do.

32:41 · I love this passage because actually right before it,

32:43 · I didn't even get into it,

32:44 · but in verses 15 through 20,

32:46 · I encourage you to read it this week.

32:48 · Jesus gives them a guide on how you deal with people

32:51 · and brothers and sisters who hurt you.

32:53 · He says, first go and confront them.

32:55 · And then if they still don't take it,

32:56 · then take a couple of witnesses with you.

32:57 · And then if they still don't say sorry and reconcile,

33:00 · then bring it before the church.

33:01 · And if it doesn't work when you bring it

33:03 · before the church, he says then,

33:04 · he says this treat them like a Samaritan

33:06 · or a tax collector.

33:08 · Meaning don't hate them, don't swear them off,

33:11 · don't kick them to the curb, love them,

33:14 · but don't let them into your inner circle.

33:16 · Don't let them be your best friend.

33:17 · Don't let them be a part of your innermost family.

33:20 · Meaning set up appropriate boundaries

33:23 · so that people do not hurt you,

33:26 · but be generous when it comes to forgiveness.

33:31 · Be wise with your boundaries,

33:33 · generous with your grace,

33:35 · and that balance only holds

33:38 · when you remember your number.

33:41 · Church, your number is large

33:43 · when you think about the cross

33:46 · and the ways you have harmed

33:48 · and you have sinned against the God of the universe.

33:53 · And I love Paul when he talks about this

33:55 · throughout the gospels.

33:56 · Paul refers to himself as the chief among sinners.

34:00 · The guy who you could argue was the best leader

34:03 · and maybe one of the most holy guys next to Jesus.

34:05 · He said he was the chief of sinners

34:07 · because he knew his sin

34:08 · greater than he knew everyone else's sin.

34:12 · And you know the darkness in your heart.

34:16 · You know the way you hurt other people,

34:18 · the way you've sinned against God time and time again.

34:24 · But here's the good news is that he has wiped that away.

34:29 · That no longer the math of grace shows us

34:31 · that we have to be bound by our sin,

34:33 · but that because he loves us so much,

34:36 · we are forgiven so that we can forgive others.

34:41 · I'm gonna close us our time today

34:43 · and I want you to pull out your phone.

34:45 · Some of you are like jokes on you.

34:46 · I've had my phone out

34:48 · checking World Cup scores the whole time.

34:50 · See if it's even on yet.

34:52 · America's eliminated, so it doesn't matter.

34:55 · But here's what I want you to do.

34:56 · As you pull out your phone,

34:57 · I want you to go to your contacts.

34:59 · Some of you don't even know you have contacts

35:01 · or that's a separate area, all right?

35:03 · Search contacts on your phone.

35:06 · And in your contacts, you have a list of people.

35:10 · People out there who you've communicated with,

35:13 · family members, friends, coworkers.

35:17 · And if you're honest,

35:20 · I bet there is someone on that list

35:23 · that you haven't forgiven

35:25 · or that you're keeping receipts,

35:28 · that you're waiting until they mess up

35:31 · to pull it out and to say,

35:35 · I told you, you'd do this again.

35:38 · And you've never truly burned the ledger

35:40 · towards them in your heart.

35:42 · And there is an unforgiveness that is holding you back.

35:47 · Here's what I want you to do.

35:47 · I want you to go to that name.

35:49 · And I'm not gonna make you FaceTime.

35:50 · I'm in church, I promise.

35:52 · But I want you to just go to that name.

35:55 · I want you to just hover on that name for a second.

36:02 · And I want you to pray

36:05 · that God start moving in your heart.

36:09 · A prayer similar to maybe what Corey did.

36:12 · He was like, God, I can't forgive this person.

36:15 · But I know you can.

36:17 · You have.

36:19 · And Lord, let me accept your grace

36:22 · and let it flow to the world around me.

36:30 · And here's what I want you to do this week.

36:34 · That you keep that person in the front of your mind.

36:39 · That you keep praying for that person

36:44 · that you need to forgive,

36:47 · that you need to pass on

36:49 · the cleansing of the debt that God gave you.

36:54 · And I hope sometime this week

36:57 · that you put into practice the math of grace

37:02 · because you recognize how much our great God

37:04 · has forgiven us.

37:07 · And in comparison to the $12 billion

37:10 · mountain of debt we have,

37:14 · that old 100 anari,

37:16 · that 15 grand don't look so big no more.

37:21 · But maybe that's not you yet.

37:25 · So maybe you're like,

37:25 · I can't give something I don't have.

37:29 · You can't forgive someone, extend that grace,

37:33 · because you've never accepted it fully yourself.

37:37 · And as we close out today,

37:38 · I want to give you an opportunity

37:40 · that you can say yes to Christ.

37:43 · You can say, my debt is clean,

37:45 · and you can walk without weight this week.

37:51 · Church, we have prayed through,

37:53 · we have praised through,

37:54 · we have preached through this parable.

37:58 · Let's go practice the math of grace this week.