Thank you so much. I've got my son Isaac here. Give Isaac a hand. Young parents, they grow up very fast.
So enjoy the ride. Enjoy the process. Sometimes you don't. It doesn't make sense.
You don't know what's happening, but it's good. It's going to be good. I just want to say up front to the young parents out there that maybe you still have your kiddos with you. It's not going to bother me at all.
I'm a father of five. So their coups and their cows are affirmation of my teaching. Their cries are, I need to step it up. So it's totally, totally OK that they're crying.
It doesn't bother us as a family in this church. It doesn't bother me. Don't worry about it. Just rest in that.
Last week we kicked off our nine part summer series. It's called Love Illuminated. And starting today, if you open up your Bibles, please open up your Bibles. If you don't have one, I know you have electronic one and your phone.
It's called the Bible app. It's there. Open it up. We're going to be in the first John.
It's in the back of the book. Go back to Revelation and hang a little bit. And we're going to be in chapter two, verse three. And we're going to pick up right where Ryan left off last week.
And so today we're going to be covering 14 verses, verses three through 17. That's where we're going to be covering today. And if there was a title of today, it's Walk in Obedience. Walk in Obedience.
And if I framed it even smaller than that, it's obey God, remain in God, and then you'll love God more than you ever have in your life to this point. As Ryan told you last week, we're going to be looking at 10 different tests, 10 different questions from the Apostle John scattered through 22 different passages over these next nine weeks. And the points of these tests are to find out, am I an authentic real Christ follower? Am I really a Christian?
Or am I just playing Christianity? And so last week, Ryan kicked off with two questions that we looked at. The first one was, am I walking in the light? The second one is, do I see myself as a sinner?
You see, at salvation, no matter where you're at, when you said, Lord, I need you, that may have been 10, 20, 30 years ago, it's still true today that without Jesus, you are a sinner. And today we're going to look at the next three questions, the next three questions that we should ask ourselves. And so the Apostle John says, if you want to know who really knows God, I mean, you know that you know God. You're going to ask yourself these three questions.
Here we go. Are you obeying his commands? Is there a brother or sister you will not forgive? Are you primarily pursuing eternal or earthly rewards?
These are three very powerful questions. And so we're going to dive into it. But most importantly is I'm going to personalize them for you, for us, because you have to ask these questions for yourself, before you can ask of others. You have to make sure you can stand on firm foundation to ask these for yourself if ever asked.
And so what we're going to see is that obedience dictates that you and I do each of these things. Obedience dictates that you and I obey God's commands, that you and I forgive a brother and sister no matter what. And that you and I primarily pursue eternal rewards versus the earthly temporary decaying expiration date earthly rewards. So let's dive in.
Number one, am I obeying his commands? Let's look at the first three verses together. In 1 John chapter 2, verse 3 through 6, we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, I know him, but does not do what he commands is a liar and the truth is not in that person.
What you're going to find with John, I'm going to pause, is he's like that wise old grandpa that is not messing around. He's going to tell you exactly how it is. And he's being very direct here. And he's saying, look, I love you enough that I'm going to be direct with you.
I'm not going to hold back, so we should really pay attention to this. Let's move on. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him.
Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. And so in verse 3, we unpack that John says, the evidence of a man or woman knowing God, having fellowship with him is the one who keeps his commitments. Very clear. Well, Mar, what does that look like?
What do you mean? You can see it. When someone is abiding in God daily, praying to God daily, reading scripture daily, having faith greater than a mustard seed, you can see, you can smell, you can experience from that person before they open up their mouth. There's a saying that says, preach the gospel always at all times, but if you must use words, it's that person.
And a simple way to say it is those people that have a simple loving obedience, when it happens, the natural result is fellowship with God. And so a simple loving obedience is a natural result of fellowship with God. And if you're wanting to know an example of what that looks like, if you wanted to talk to people who that looks like, here's just a couple of examples in this room of people who eliminate love, couples that illuminate love, couples that have simple loving obedience. And so afterwards, grab one of them and say, what are you doing?
We love to talk to you. And so when it says fellowship with God, you're asking, what does that mean? What does fellowship with God? It really means experiential knowledge.
It's meaning firsthand knowledge with God. So think of it. It's like your spouse, right? I've known Jamie for 30 years.
I've been married to her almost 23 years in August. I love her more today than I did 23 years ago. Now I loved her 23 years ago, a lot. And some of that love may have been a little less.
Let's get real men, OK? And I loved her. I mean, I was like Will Ferro and Elf, where I love him and there's no one right? Like I was that guy.
I was that was me. I was head over hills. But then you have experiences. You lose a child.
You lose a job. She said, God told me to stay home. And we said, yes. And then I lose my job for a month later.
God, what are you doing? And then you go into a financial debt. Come on. What are you doing, God?
I'll beat you. I know she has my back because I have experience with her because we've been through it. We've been through it. Valleys, creeks, hilltops, mountaintops, we've been through it.
So I know she's for me, no matter what. That's a picture of your fellowship with God. No matter what, he has your back. To know him, to know him.
Comes from the Greek word, gnosco. In the context of this verse, here's the idea. It is to know the nature of God the Father, especially the holy will and affection by which he aims to sanctify and redeem men and women through Christ. You see, God loves you and he loves me so much that he isn't satisfied with you staying where you're at right now.
And that's good because he wants to purify us internally by reforming our souls, redeeming us from our sinful ways so that we can have an active relationship and a fellowship with Jesus Christ, the way, the truth, and the life. You can't get to the Father unless you go through Jesus. John 14, 6, write it down. Write it on your heart.
Write it on your mirror. Write it on wherever you look at every morning. Because when we live our lives abiding in Jesus, we will obey his commands. And here's the good news today.
Omar, I hear you, but I'm not saying that. It's because you and I have done it in our own strength. And we're not supposed to. You see, we have this Holy Spirit, this paraclete, this advocate and the power of God's grace to help us through it.
Simply put, you cannot not obey Jesus when you are walking in step with him. You see, your obedience to Jesus' commands is a natural byproduct of having fellowship with Jesus. And again, I'm being empathetic here because some of us in here, and I, hello, I have my days and I was there. Some of us are saying, but Omar, when I hear the word obedience, man, I get checked out.
That's a struggle for me. It's difficult, it's hard. Can I tell you with authenticity, it becomes progressively easier and simpler as you're chasing after Jesus in your life. And the best example I can give everyone is riding a bike.
We all know, most of us, maybe not all, know how to ride a bike or get the concept, right? Think about your walk with Jesus, your walk in obedience, your faith as riding a bike. When you said yes to Jesus, you got a bike. It's this beautiful white bike.
But what did you need when you got that bike? You needed training wheels in the beginning. Because you're teetering a little bit. You don't know this balance, this is new, right?
So it's catching you, it's catching you. And it's not going to let you fall. OK? But then what happens?
You take off those training wheels, and the person helping you ride that bike, they push you, right? They give you that extra bump, that push, and you're riding. And you're like, oh, this is awesome. But wait, now I have to turn.
So you're like wobbling, and you're like, no, no. And the person helping you, pedal, pedal. And so you're wobbling because it's scary. This is new.
This faith, this falling after Jesus, this obedience is new to me. I'm still figuring this out. But then you figure out how to turn, because you're going to need to turn when it matters and it counts. And then you learn how to turn.
And then you are flying down a hill. Wait, there's a downhill, sweet, I guess. And so you get to the downhill, and you're like, ah, yeah. And you're holding on.
And you're holding on. You're gripping so tight because you think you're in control of those handlebars. Come on. And then you figure out time after time when you fall off that bike and you get back up and you work on that bike and you tinker with it, you trust the equipment.
You know what it is? You have experiential knowledge with it. And then you get so accustomed to that bike that you're riding with your hands up. You don't need to hold those grips.
You don't need to hold those handlebars. I'm not advocating for that, kids. Michael, I'm not advocating for that. But you get the point.
There's a spectrum in this room. Some of you haven't got the bike because you haven't said yes to Jesus yet. Say yes. You only have one choice.
If you say, well, I don't need to have a choice. I'm not going to follow the Satan or God. You're following Satan by following God. You're making that choice by not making a choice.
Come on. Can I tell you before I move on? I can't move off this. Can I tell you if you're that person that just said yes to Jesus.
Where's my, let's see if they're still here. There you are. My Rhode Island buddy back there. There you are.
I was just in Rhode Island last week. Beautiful state. Beautiful weather. So fun.
You just said yes to Jesus, didn't you? So proud of you. Praise God. Give my hand.
Let me encourage you. We were all with you with your new training wheels. So it's not us saying, look at that guy in the training wheels over there. It's us saying, we're for you.
We're with you, man. Hey, man. You need us to tighten up those training wheels. We got you, man.
Hey, hey, you're doing great, man. Hey, I know you're wobbling. I know it feels uneasy. You get to do equipment.
Don't worry. Jesus has you. That's what this church does. And in verse four, it says, if you say you know him, you don't obey him.
You're a liar. You're a hypocrite. That's hard. No one, no one likes to be called any of those words.
And can I tell you say, I know Jesus. So does Satan. Oh, I know scripture. So does Satan.
He gave Jesus the scripture that Jesus overrode him with scripture to say, ha, you took that out of a context. No, sir. But you have to know scripture in order to battle against scripture. Of the say, from Satan.
That's what I meant. Don't hear what I'm not saying. OK? You see, if you don't live a life marked by obedience in Jesus, your claim to fellowship with God can and should be challenged.
We should challenge ourselves to that always. In verse five, it says, obey his word for God is made complete in them or made perfect in some translations. The takeaway here is made mature, made mature. We all know that maturity in life brings change.
Amen? It brings change. And once you get to a level of maturity, do you want to go back to who you were? You don't.
You don't. As much as I miss the days of my training wheels, I'm headed towards towards the front right now. OK? I'm like going.
I don't want to go back. That's not who I am. That's not my identity. And so when it says God is made complete, it's made complete as having assurance with him.
And just want to make sure we don't miss the beginning of the sentence. If we obey his word, what was lacking in our love for God has been made full, complete, and perfect. You have to read his word. Some of you have been praying for a word.
God give me a word. God give me a word. And he says, I have. Why would he give you another one outside of this?
Come on. Come on. Verse 6, I'm going to read out of the New King James Version. He who abides in him, ought himself ought to walk just as he walked.
Jesus walked. Whoa. That's a tall order because Jesus walked on water Omar. Peter tried.
He sunk. What are you saying here? Thankfully, we aren't called to walk on water. It's not what we're called to do.
But we are called to imitate his walk with God, the Father, every single day. You see the spiritual power, the evidence in life that Jesus shares with us in scripture, this faithful, regular, disciplined life, this fellowship and obedience with his Heavenly Father. We get to see it in the Bible. In fact, 30 plus times it's recorded that he goes away to speak and to talk to his Father, to pray to his Father.
Before his ministry, at his baptism, he prayed. Alone in the desert in wilderness, he prayed to his Heavenly Father. All night, didn't sleep one minute, all night before he chose his 12 disciples. Jesus prayed.
And before feeding the 5,000, he gave thanks to God. And here's the beauty of this. I don't want you to miss this. Jesus was a 100% human man, correct?
He was also 100% God, correct? We humans tend to get it wrong, don't we? Because we have these finite minds. I want you to see the example of Jesus Christ.
He modeled that glory and guidance comes from God and God alone, not from his human finite mind. Because if he did, then Jesus's man, his man ego, his man flesh, his giftings, not God's giftings, his giftings would have got the glory and not God. I mean, can you imagine? How was your day today?
Oh, 5,000. No big deal. But somebody did, because he went to his Heavenly Father to give thanks so that he got the glory and not his human flesh, that he was. So Jesus is showing you and me, hey, you can't do it with your finite mind.
But oh, I've got a PhD. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. The source of your heart beating right now that you cannot control, wants you to come to him and say, I will help you if you ask me.
So ask me. James Boyce says the point here is the one who knows God will increasingly lead a righteous life. For God is righteous. It does not mean that he will be sinless.
John has already shown that anyone who claims their sinless is lying. It simply means that he will be moving in a direction marked out by the righteousness of God. It simply means that he or she will be moving in a direction marked out by the righteousness of God. If he does not do this, if he has not increasingly dissatisfied with or distressed by sin, he is not God's child.
Right now, and I'm not going to pick on anyone out here, but right now, there's a part of my life as I chase after Jesus every day. When I hear something or see something in the news or I hear a conversation, it really upsets me. It upsets me because it's not a part of Jesus' kingdom. It's culture, whatever that is.
I want nothing to do with it. But when you first become a Christian, you start prioritizing sin. And you start justifying as an attorney would, well, I don't do these sins anymore. It's not pretty good.
I'm pretty good. There is no priority. Sin is sin is sin is sin. And sin breaks that intimacy and that fellowship that Jesus and you are starting to build together.
Can it be repaired? Absolutely. That's why he died on the cross. He's asking you, just tell me what you did.
I know what you did. Just tell me what you did. Confess with your mouth, repent. And I've got you.
I'll restore you. Repent just means 180 degree, turn away from it. It's like when you're walking towards something, you're like, oof. And you just walk away.
That's what sin is. And you know what it is. You feel it. You know when you're about to make a decision.
You know when you're about to step into something that you're like, I should not be here. Let me do you a favor. Walk away. You'll sleep better.
Right? Come on. Titus 1 16 says, they claim to know God, but their actions are walk. They deny him.
They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for doing anything good. Let me say it this way. Those who know God obey him even when it's inconvenient. Those who know God obey him even when it doesn't make sense.
And those who know God obey him even when it brings temporary pain. Look at this. Take a picture of this. Write it down.
That's hard. I mean, who likes pain? Financial pain, emotional pain, physical pain. You like that?
No. No. If the church had a 12-week introductory pain course, you think anybody would sign up? No.
No one likes pain. But then I'm reminded that our God is a consuming fire. Fire, the elements of fire, warms you. It consumes you.
It purifies you. It clears when it's clearing forests. It removes dead underwood and releases nutrients back into the forest. That's what fire does.
It transforms you. When it does that, it illuminates you. It's not even about you anymore. Because you're chasing so hardly after Jesus, because you know what he did for your life.
You're just showcasing his light. But it's painful. I know, son, hang in there. I got you.
But it's painful. I know. I know. But it's temporary.
But it's temporary. It's just a season. I don't like this season. No one does.
But it doesn't make sense. This is hard for analytical's. Type A, this is hard. It doesn't make sense.
For Abraham and Sarah, waiting 90 or 100 years old to have his son. It didn't make sense. But then he came. His name was Isaac.
Isaac grows up. And God says, hey Abraham, I need you to sacrifice Isaac. I'm sorry. What?
I need you to sacrifice Isaac. What do you mean? God, I waited 100 years for this. I mean, Isaac, no.
Yeah. I need you to sacrifice Isaac. OK, God, you will be done not mine. So you read that he's walking with Isaac up the mountain.
And you read this account of Isaac. And I can just see my Isaac. And I can see my packs because they're inquisitive boys. And Isaac is very inquisitive.
And so he's asking questions to Abraham. He's like, Dad, we're going up the mountain. We're going to do a burn offering. But where's the lamb?
And I can just sense Abraham as a father. Like, please, I've asked you questions. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't want to.
Isaac, God will provide. Don't worry. Don't worry. God will provide.
And he's telling him. God will provide. God will provide. And he gets up to the mountain top.
And he lays the wood down. And he places Isaac on top. Can you imagine the fear in that child? Can you imagine the fear in that father?
And so Abraham in his obedience raises the knife. And he knew, God knew in his heart he had to do it. He knew he was going to do it. And he raises his knife.
And he's fearful. He's probably scared. He's crying. And the angel stops him.
And what appears in the bush? What appears in the bush? A ram. Because God revealed the blessing when Abraham was obedient.
God revealed the blessing when Abraham was obedient. Here's the beauty of us in this room. All the tests that you're going to face in this life. We've been blessed.
Like earlier brothers and sisters that went through the same test. It's documented in here. We get the answers. We knew the ram was there the entire time.
It's like watching the movie again. It's like, it's in the bush. It's like, don't stab them, right? Like that's us.
That's us. But sometimes we're Abraham. And we don't know this book. And we don't trust this book.
And we don't read this book. And we don't trust in Jesus. And so we're Abraham freaking out and crying. Because we're supposed to do something that doesn't make sense.
And God is saying, just be obedient. And I'll reveal the blessing. We can say with 100% certainty that obedience is always the right thing to do. Even if it's not the easiest thing to do.
Number two, is there a brother or sister? I will not forgive. First John 2, 9 through 11. Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness.
Anyone who loves their brother or sister lives in the light and there's nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they're going because the darkness has blinded them. I think we need something here to connect the dots.
And why this is about forgiveness. You see John is contrasting darkness and light. He does this in the Gospel, John 2. Those who are of the faith, you will walk in the light.
Those who are not in the faith will walk in darkness. And you cannot call yourself a Christian or you, let me say it this way. You can't call yourself a Christian and hate and not forgive another brother or sister. Can't do it.
It's an oxymoron. Can't do it. And so what does the hate come from? Well, I mean, there's so many options.
But maybe it's something someone said to you. Maybe it's someone somebody said about your family. Maybe it's a text message you got that you didn't read with context. It could be something so simple that flames that bitterness and unforgiveness.
And I think we read the scripture and scripture sometimes we read this and we say many times John's talking about other people. He's talking about our neighbors. He's talking about people who don't know the Lord, you know, outside the church. He's talking about two thirds of the people who live in our planet.
One third are brothers and sisters, are Christians in Christ. Two thirds are not their neighbors. Here's a Bible pro tip. When you see the word neighbor, it means anyone who has not accepted Jesus in their heart.
And here's the beauty of your neighbor. I just want to read this real quick. In Matthew 22, 37, Jesus replied, love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as your self. And we like ourselves a lot. We have to love them.
But Omar, they get on my nerves. We all be people and okay, relax. We have to love them. People love you at one point, right?
Let's get real. We're in church here. But clearly, that's not who John's talking about. He's talking about Christians, brothers and sisters.
Henry Alfred says it seems plain that the expression here is not the same as his neighbor. Seeing that John is writing to Christians in the regarding of their fellowship with one another. We see John is examining us according to our love for other Christians as a measure of our walk with God. He's talking about GCF right here in these walls, family.
We're talking about family, right? So just real quick, look to your left. Look to your right. He's talking about us.
Okay? And sometimes we don't get to pick our family. We got to work it out though. We got to work it out.
Iron sharpens iron. Yeah. He's referring to the family of the big sea church of Jesus Christ, that GCF gets to be a part of. The ones that live closest to you, the ones you have relationships with, the ones you do life groups with, the ones you have discipleship series with, the ones you do coffee with, the ones you hang out with.
He's talking about these people that you love very deeply. If we love our brother and sister, it shows because we are abiding in the light and here's the good news, you won't stumble. You won't stumble. But I got to say, this is particularly difficult measure given to us because what do we often do?
What do we often do? I'm guilty. We expect more from our Christian friends than we do our non-Christian friends, don't we? We expect more of them.
We expect, because you know, it's like, hey, you and I, we have had time together, right? Yeah. We were both in discipleship series together, right? Yeah.
Oh, you and I, we've been to CRTC together, right? Like, you know, you know better, right? We do that. We do that.
Instead of, hey, Michael, it's okay, man. It's okay. Go back to your roots. Let's go back to where your foundation was, to that scripture that we worked out together.
Remember that two years ago? Let's just go back and do it. I'm with you, man. I'm with you.
It looks like that. It looks like that. We should be forgiving. Because what ends up happening is all this unforgiveness and bitterness and judgment, the best example of bitterness is drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.
Guess what? They're not going to die. You're going to die. Sally Sweeney, Matt told me that she would say, the way you are in home is the way you'll be outside the home because it's a heart condition.
And I say the scripture every time I teach as much as possible, it's Proverbs 4, 23, guard your heart, your heart above all else, for it is the source of life. We must be real at home church. We must be real here. If we're not real here, how are you going to be real out there?
You can't do it. And so I look at this slide that I've got to give kudos to Taylor out there. Where are you, Taylor? Thank you so much.
I had this vision of Taylor's like, what about this? Genius. We have to get it right here to illuminate this room authentically first and forgive our brothers and sisters and to love and to support us in here in order to export that in the community. We can't go to the community and say, come to our church.
We're loving and we're great. And when it's not the truth, the strategy isn't, well, honey, tell you what, honey, we'll go to first service because we know he's in second service. We'll go to first service. No, that's not it.
You know that every time that, every time personally, I can speak for myself, every time I've reconciled with a brother in this room. And I know who they are and they know they don't talk about them. We have reconciled. It was, oh, wait, you didn't mean that?
It's a lot of bad, man. I'm like, I love you, dude. Hey, grace upon grace. And it was like that because it's not about us.
It's about Jesus being illuminated through us for each other as fathers of children and spouses to wives that we are supposed to sacrifice for them the way Christ sacrificed for the church. That's who I'm supposed to be. So I need brothers who forgive me because I be people and too. I'm human too.
And there are days that I don't go to God immediately. And I need my brother to look at me and be like, Omar, did you pray about this? No, I didn't. Okay.
Hey, why don't you pray about it? Why don't we meet up tomorrow? Thanks, man. Love you.
The point is clear and plain. If you lose love, then you lose everything. There's nothing left. You see, listen to me.
Please, you can do all things right. You can check all the heavenly boxes. You can believe all the heavenly truths. You can know scripture.
You can know the Bible. Yay. But if you do not love, if you do not love your brothers and sisters, then all is lost. This isn't a game.
We don't play church around here. We don't play Christianity. This isn't a game. You have only have two choices.
Follow after Jesus or follow after Satan. It's only two choices. That's all you have. There is no middle ground.
There is no gray. Verse 11 says, you'll be in the darkness and walking around in the darkness. Let me be very blunt right now. GCF, we do not want you to walk in the darkness.
We want to help transform your life for Christ. That's it. What's this church all about, honey? These people sing a little off.
We are off. We're chasing the perfecter because we're not perfect. We have victory because we chase the victor. And we want you to do this thing.
Now the interesting note, this is going to be good for a lot of us. I know it's good for me to go through this. The interesting note is while clearly the apostle John learned the truth and lived it out, remember, he's riding first and second John at the end of his life. He's built up a lot of wisdom.
But was John always that guy? No. He had training wheels too. He just got his bike.
In Luke chapter 9 verse 51 through 56, it says, that the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven Jesus, resolutely set out for Jerusalem. He sent messengers on ahead who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him. The people there did not welcome him Jesus because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, Lord, you want us to call down fire from heaven to destroy them?
Right? I got him. You talk about you? Shoot.
I got him. Right? And we get like that early on, especially when we have this just passion for Jesus. We just get mad.
Like, don't you talk about Jesus, right? We get all right. And so that's what he's showing. And what's interesting is in Mark 3 17, James, son of 70 and his brother John, to them, he gave the name Bo Energies, which means sons of thunder.
Can you imagine your social media handle, daughters of lightning, sons of thunder? I'm quick tempered. I react to everything. Whoo.
No. No. Let's go back to, but Jesus, I love scripture. You got to always underline where it says, but Jesus, but Jesus, but Jesus turned to them and rebuked them.
And I can see in a fatherly love saying, boys, what are you doing? What are you? We're not going to call them fire. Relax.
Tone it down. I came to heal the sick, not the healthy. The only way we're going to be attracted to those sick is by being a servant and by washing their feet and by getting down in the mud and by making sure that I go back to my roots and what made me get that bike and what made me push back through those training wheels and what made me stop wobbling. I got to go back and help that brother.
He had to learn in his life. He had to learn to do it the heavenly father's way, the way the heavenly father requires. Not his way. Stop doing it your way.
Has it worked out this far? Come on. The best well-known passage of forgiveness is in Matthew 18, 21 through 22. Then Peter came up to him and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him up to seven times?
Jesus said to him, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to 70 times seven. Some of you know this story, some of you don't. Peter has been with Jesus for a while now. He's been agreeing and in unity in past verses, you see this in his life.
So now he's acting real big, right? Because he knows at that time the Jewish rabbis, the forgiveness of that time was three times. Jewish rabbis just say three times, that's good. Four times?
I don't know. Taking their books. I don't know what they did. But he's saying, Jesus, seven times.
He's trying to show these extremely generous. Try to show off a little bit. And Jesus says, no, no. 70 times seven.
One Bible commentator said, Jesus is replied, does away with all limits and calculations. Jesus replied, we are to forgive because you, we are repentant people, an unlimited number of times. I'm not tracking. He said 70 times seven.
I am a mathematician. I know that's 490. Oh, you're wrong. I'm not wrong.
Jesus was saying unlimited. But can I say this? This is not what Jesus said. I'm going to verify this a little bit.
I challenge you to forgive the person you haven't forgiven 490 times. What would happen to your heart? I think it would be softened. Just guessing.
But what Jesus is showing is that I'm going to forgive you and you and you. I'm going to forgive you unlimited number of times. What gives you the right to not forgive your brother and sister? I forgive unlimited number of times.
Who are you? Well, I'm, you know, right? No. I mean, my, I don't, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not paid by the church.
I'm just a leader. I'm just a dad, a five beautiful wife. Like that's who I am. And the workplace, I'm a senior vice president of a large insurance company.
Ooh. It means nothing. My people mean everything to me at my office. Without them, I am nobody.
And so we got to reverse that is what God says, I forgive you. I'm here to forgive others because God has forgiven you so much. And he goes further and he says, and he tells this story, I love Jesus in his stories. He said there was this debt owed by a servant.
It was 10,000 talents. That's equivalent to hundreds and hundreds of million dollars, basically an unpayable debt. And the master calls the servant puts the servants family in jail. He comes to me, you owe me my money.
The servant, please and please, wait, please forgive me. Please leave my family alone. Please forgive me. The master has mercy on the servant and lets him free.
Not only lets him free, but wipes the entire debt free. An unpayable debt that he doesn't know anymore. And so you think, well, duh, he would walk out saying hallelujah, I'm free, no more debt. Whoo.
But he doesn't do that. He walks out, he sees a servant that owes him 100 denari, which is equivalent to like a couple of hundred bucks, maybe a thousand dollars. He doesn't just question him. He goes to him and chokes him and says, where's my money?
And the servant does what he did earlier and says, please forgive me. Please don't touch my family. Please forgive me. The master, him, the servant that just got his debt repaid said, nope, throw me jail.
No mercy, throw me jail. We pick back up in Matthew 1831-35. When the other servant saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. Then the master called the servant and you wicked servant, he said, I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.
Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you? In anger, his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly father will treat each of you and me unless you forgive your brother and sister from your words, from your text messages, from your letter, from your email, from your phone call. It says from your heart, you can't fake that.
You can fake everything else that I mentioned. You cannot fake your heart. It says from your heart. And I want to end on this and just move to number three by saying, I think we don't get it because we don't realize how much we've been forgiven.
I think we're blind to the high cost of bitterness and we're blind to what God wants for us. Here's the end of this. Number two is we must. You must forgive your brother and sister.
Last one, am I primarily pursuing eternal or earthly rewards? If you want to know who really loves God, just ask one simple question. One simple, here it is. What are you chasing after?
What am I chasing after? First John 2, 15 says, do not love the world or things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. James 4, 4 says, you adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is enmity against God, therefore anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
Now this could be confusing since we are to love the world but at the same time not be a friend of the world. Let me be very clear, John is not seeking to confuse you nor does the Bible confuse itself. That's not how this works. Jesus intended us to be in the world but not of the world.
Another way of saying it is a ship belongs in the water but the water doesn't belong in the ship. You are able to be in the world but the world should not be in you. John is speaking of worldliness. This is different because remember as Ryan pointed out God made the earth and it was good.
And John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave one and only son that never believed should not perish but have eternal life. So when it says don't love the world, it's saying the world's systems, the world's way of doing things. Two nights ago, Major League Baseball, the San Francisco Giants had a game and it was Pride Night. And the starting pitcher, his name is Landon Rope.
He wrote Genesis 9, 12 through 16 right on his hat next to the rainbow colored San Francisco logo. He said not in my house. For me and my family, we will serve the Lord. That's what this guy said.
And reporters, of course reporters asked him, what is this? An act of hate, you're in San Francisco. What are you trying to say here? Here's his quote.
As a believer, if someone says I was trying to hate, I would push them to read the Bible. There is no hate at all. God has blessed me in so many ways. I would not be here right now if it wasn't for him.