This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to day four of our look through Matthew chapter 18. We
started a discussion yesterday of forgiveness, when Jesus began to talk about
what to do when someone sinned against you. And Peter continues that discussion,
the follower of Jesus, Peter, in verse 21, when he asks a question.

Verses 21 to 22. Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall
I forgive my brother when he sins against me? " Up to seven times?

Jesus answered, "I tell you not seven times, but seventy-seven times. " Now
first, I want to remind you that having faith does not take the struggles with
relationships away. It gives you the faith to face those struggles.

Jesus' followers, they face these struggles all the time. That's why Peter asked
Jesus this question. And if you think this is a rhetorical question, you don't
know Peter.

He was a very practical man. So he says, "How many times shall I forgive my
brother? " Many people think he's talking about his literal brother here,
Andrew, who is one of the disciples.

How many times do I have to forgive Andrew? He's certainly talking about a
fellow believer. And he says, "Up to seven times?

" Peter is so practical, you can almost bet someone had just sinned against him.
He counted it up. Eight times now.

So he's hoping that he doesn't have to forgive him an eighth time. It's an
interesting number. The law in that day, some of the teachers of the law, the
rabbis taught that you had to forgive someone three times.

Well, Peter takes that number and he doubles it and he adds one. And Jesus says,
"Not that, not just seven, seventy-seven. " It can also be translated "seventy
times seven.

" Either way, it's a big number. It's a number that's out, somebody's going to
sin against me seventy-seven or seventy times seven, the same sin, and I'm going
to keep forgiving them? How am I going to do that?

And I've always thought about this as a sort of a spiritual high jump test. When
you do a high jump, you could set it at three feet and think, "Well, I could
probably make that. " And Jesus, and Peter here is talking and says, "No, I'm
not going to set it at three feet.

I'm not going to set it at three times to forgive. " Or you could set it at
seven feet, which would be really difficult. The world record, you might know,
is just over eight feet now.

You could set it at seven feet and say, "Well, almost impossible, but if I try
and try and try and try, maybe I could do it. Or maybe if I couldn't do it, I
could be part of a team of people that could do it. I could be part of getting
it done.

" He doesn't let us stay at the place where we could do it on our own power or
even where we might be able to do it on our own power. It's as if with this high
jump bar, Peter says, "Not three feet, but let's try setting it at seven feet. "
And Jesus says, "No, let's set it at seven miles.

" Why would Jesus set it so high? Not to discourage us, but to direct us. He's
saying at seven miles, seventy-seven, seventy times seven, you can't make it
there on your own power.

And that's the very point. You see, the answer to why Jesus is saying this might
surprise you. Jesus does not want you to try your hardest to be a good
Christian.

Jesus wants you to learn to trust in Him. And so Jesus set the bar so high that
the only way it could be reached was by living and thinking in an entirely new
way. Christianity is not trying harder.

Christianity is trusting Jesus. Now, make no mistake, it's not a passive trust,
sitting and waiting for God to act. It's a real trust involving your whole heart
and soul and mind and strength.

Every one of us has felt this sense of desperation that can come when you're
running faster and getting nowhere, trying harder and harder and seeing no
results. The greatest difficulties of life, like someone sitting against you
again and again, they offer us the greatest opportunities to trust. So I highly
recommend this simple prayer based on the words of Jesus here.

"Father, I don't have the strength to do this on my own. And so I am trusting in
your strength to enable me to believe and to think and to say and to do the
right thing. " Now, let's get practical here with what Jesus is teaching.

Someone in your family spreads some ugly gossip about you to other family
members. Now, that's totally hypothetical. That would never happen in a family,
I'm sure.

Let's just say that happened in a family and you find out about it and you
forgive them. You may talk to them about it. It may go well.

It may not go well. I don't know. But whatever happens, you forgive them and
then they do it again and you forgive them and then they do it again and you
forgive them.

Do you have to keep on forgiving them? If they keep on doing the same sinful
thing, do you have to keep on forgiving? Yes, that's what Jesus is teaching
here.

But it does not mean you have to keep trusting them in that area. You have to
realize the difference between forgiveness and trust. And so you may not be able
to be involved in the same kind of relationship with them, but that doesn't mean
you don't forgive.

If you don't forgive, it's going to eat at your soul like acid. So you forgive,
but you don't trust them in the same way. Let me give a simpler, kinder
illustration of what I'm talking about.

There's a chocolate chip cookie jar in the kitchen and you've got a
four-year-old boy and mom has said, "Do not eat any of those cookies. "
Mid-afternoon, the little boy comes up to his mom and says, "Mommy, forgive me.
I took a cookie out of the cookie jar and I ate it.

" And it's sort of cute. I mean, you sort of laugh at that. But then an hour
later, the little boy comes back and says, "Mommy, forgive me.

I took another cookie out of the cookie jar. " You don't laugh this time. You
say, "Do not take any more of those cookies out.

" Half an hour later, he comes back, "Mommy, forgive me. I took another cookie
out of the cookie jar. " Well, you forgive them the third time or the fourth or
the fifth time, but at some point, you've got to do something else, right?

You've got to move the cookie jar. You've got to stop trusting him with the
cookie jar being in a place where he can reach it. And so when it comes to
forgiveness, you've got to keep forgiving, but you don't have to keep trusting
them in the same way.

Trust has to be earned. Forgiveness must be freely given. Now, I want to take a
moment to talk to God about this because I know for some of us, this is the most
important spiritual issue in our lives.

Is there someone that you need to forgive? Is there someone who has asked for
forgiveness that you've withheld it? Is there someone you need to ask to forgive
you?

Let's take a moment to talk to God about it. Lord, 70 times 7, a height I could
never reach on my own. Forgive me for trying to forgive on my own power.

Thank you for reminding me, Jesus, that I can only do this in your power. And so
I ask for your power to do something I can't do on my own. I don't have it in
me.

You might just admit to the Lord, I don't have it in me if you don't feel you
have it in you. But Lord, I know you do. I know you have the power to forgive
anyone, anything.

So give me your strength to forgive. I don't want this to eat away at me
anymore. I don't want this to ruin other relationships.

So Lord, give me the wisdom to know how to trust and who to trust, to stop
trusting in ways that are hurtful to me and others, but then to start trusting
again when someone has earned it, someone has begun to change. Give me that
wisdom, but alongside of that, give me the power of your forgiveness to do what
Jesus taught, to keep forgiving no matter what. I need your strength for that,
Jesus, and I ask for it.

In your name. Amen. Tomorrow, Jesus keeps talking about this.

He tells a parable about forgiveness.