February 27, 2024 • 18 mins
Matthew 5:21-24, 18:21-35
Looking at these 2 teachings about Jesus forgiving someone multiple times and the servant who does not forgive the debt of his fellow servant, we will start to understand how refusing to forgive is to continue to judge others and carry hate in our own hearts. This keeps us from being able to fully love.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Matt Nelson (00:04):
Welcome to the sermon podcast from First United Methodist
Church in downtown Bentonville.
If you have questions related to whatyou hear today, or just want to find
out more about the ministries at FirstUnited Methodist Church, please visit us
online at FUMCbentonville.org, or checkus out on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok.
Rev. Dr. Michelle Morris (00:24):
Good morning.
I add my welcome to Pastor Ray's.
I'm Reverend Dr.
Michelle Morris, and I'm thelead pastor here at First United
Methodist Church in Bentonville.
It is a joy to welcome youin worship with us today.
We are starting the season of Lent,which is a season of fasting and
reflection, of taking on new disciplines.
(00:44):
And so in this season, we're going to befocusing on the theme of foolish love.
Now that comes from the fact thatLent started on Ash Wednesday, which
was also Valentine's Day and it endsthe day before April Fool's Day.
So it seems as though our calendaris inviting us into this reflection.
And, with that though, I want usto think about our discipline.
(01:07):
This Lenten season beingthe discipline of love.
And so each week we will be lookingat a different aspect of what it
means to love in the foolish waysthat Christ calls us to love.
So to frame that up for us todaywhen we are looking at foolish
love for gifts, we're gonnahear two passages from Matthew.
The first one here from Matthew chapter 5.
(01:28):
You have heard that it was said to thosewho lived long ago, don't commit murder.
And all who commit murderwill be in danger of judgment.
But I say to you that everyonewho is angry with their brother or
sister will be in danger of judgment.
If they say to their brotheror sister, "You idiot!"
they will be in danger of beingcondemned by the governing council.
(01:49):
And if they say "You fool!"
they will be in danger of fiery hell.
Therefore, if you bring yourgift to the altar and there,
remember that your brother orsister has something against you.
Leave your gift at the altar and gofirst, make things right with your
brother or sister, and then come back.
And offer your gift Then Petersaid to Jesus, "Lord how many times
(02:15):
should I forgive my brother orsister who sins against me should
I forgive as many as seven times?"
" Jesus said not just seven times butrather as many as 77 Times therefore
the kingdom of heaven is like a kingwho wanted to settle accounts with
his servants When he began to settleaccounts, they brought to him a servant
(02:35):
who owed him 10, 000 bags of gold.
Because the servant didn't have enoughto pay it back, the master ordered that
he should be sold along with his wife andchildren and everything he had, and that
the proceeds should be used as payment.
But the servant fell down, kneeledbefore him, and said, Please be
patient with me, and I'll pay you back.
(02:56):
The master had compassion on that servant,released him, and And forgave the loan
when that servant went out he found oneof his fellow servants who owed him 100
coins He grabbed him around the throatand said pay me back what you owe me Then
his fellow servant fell down and beggedhim be patient with me and i'll pay you
back, but he refused Instead he threwhim into prison until he paid back his
(03:21):
debt when his fellow servant saw whathad happened They were deeply offended.
They came and told their master allthat happened His master called the
first servant and said you wickedservant I forgave you all that
debt because you appealed to me.
Shouldn't you also have mercy on yourfellow servant just as I had mercy on you?
(03:44):
His master was furious and handedhim over to the guard responsible
for punishing prisoners untilhe had paid the whole debt.
My Heavenly Father will also do thesame to you if you don't forgive your
brother or sister from your heart."
This is the Word of Godfor the people of God.
Thanks be to God.
Let us pray.
(04:05):
Lord, open our hearts, our minds, andour eyes that we might see and know
the word you have for us this day.
In your holy name, we pray.
Amen.
Routines are things that often we quitpaying attention to after a while.
That's part of the pointof a routine, right?
You don't even have to think about it.
You just do it.
(04:25):
It's so rote.
It's so ingrained in who you are that youdon't even put that much Thought into it.
I am getting back into aroutine that I used to have.
I've started going to Zumba classesover at the, at the community center.
I missed Zumba.
I had a routine of going to Zumbawhen I was in Texas, and I loved it.
I was the only person in theclass who was an English speaker.
(04:48):
Everyone else spoke Spanish,but you didn't have to speak
the same language to move.
It was great.
However, one day the song came on thatwas very much part of our routine that
we all did all the time and just wentthrough the motions and did the routine.
And all of a sudden the roombroke up in, in revolution.
(05:11):
Like they just stopped andstarted shouting and yelling.
And I didn't know what was going on.
Cause I don't know Spanish well enough.
And so I'm just confused by this moment,but then as I'm listening really intently,
I realize that they're objecting tothe song whose lyrics main chorus was
La Vaca Moo, which is the cow moo.
(05:35):
And I gathered that the songwas calling us all cows!
And the ladies were objecting to this.
And so eventually I objected, too, onceI caught up with the revolution, but,
um, But anyway, we, it had been somethingthat was so routine to us, we hadn't
even really noticed what was being said.
And then when we stopped and tooknotice, we had, we had to object,
(05:57):
and so we never did that song again.
It reminded me of the time, asa kid, when I finally listened
to the words of Rock A Bye Baby.
Rock A Bye Baby on the treetop, whenthe wind blows, the cradle will rock.
When the bough breaks, thecradle will fall, and down
(06:20):
will come baby, cradle and all.
How is that a lullaby?
What kind of sleep are wetrying to give our kids?
Worry about if you're gonnafall out of a tree, kid.
You know, I mean, but it wasso natural to my childhood.
It was something that I wassaying over and over and over.
I didn't even really think about it.
That was the reason for disruptingcommunion in here and having us
(06:44):
do the Wesley Covenant Prayer.
In part, it was to give us a newroutine, a new set of words for us
to remember that shapes us, but itshould also help us to remember what's
powerful about the Lord's prayer.
And maybe as we, we've returned to ittoday and pray it today, maybe we'll pay
(07:04):
attention to what we're actually praying.
I want to draw our attention to some ofthat prayer that we pray, and I don't
think we think about what we're saying.
And that is, forgive us our trespasses aswe forgive those who trespass against us.
(07:31):
Do we know what we're saying?
That as there means just like.
Forgive us our trespasses just like weforgive those who trespass against us.
That's great if you'veforgiven everyone in your life.
(07:56):
But if not, do you realizethat we pray for God to treat
us just like we treat them.
We pray this parable of the unforgivingservant every time we lift up the
Lord's Prayer and we stand potentiallyin the place of the unforgiving
(08:20):
servant that if we cannot forgive,can we receive God's forgiveness?
It puts an urgency on forgiveness.
We gotta square up.
We gotta get ourselves right with othersbefore we come to this altar and bring
(08:43):
the same treatment down on ourselves.
Now, I recognize that forgivenesscan be tremendously difficult.
There can be a lot of hurt and painsurrounding places that, I mean, it's
kind of at the base of what is required offorgiveness is facing that hurt and pain.
If you're following along in thevideos that go along with this
(09:04):
series, you know, Pastor Ray mentionsthat you, you only are called to
forgive that which is unforgivable.
If it's forgivable, it's easy.
If it's unforgivable.
That's when forgiveness isrequired, and I know it's hard.
And so I want to give us a formulafor how to approach forgiveness.
(09:27):
I looked up the words in Greekand Hebrew for forgiveness, and I
thought it was going to be two words,one Hebrew word, one Greek word.
I was wrong.
It was a sea of words.
There were so many words thatI thought, Ah, see, this is
the reality of forgiveness.
It involves so many differentaspects of what we have to do.
But there were three that I focusedin on and I thought, These are a
(09:48):
good pattern for us to understandwhat it takes for forgiveness.
So one of them is the wordthat basically means loosen up.
And what it's calling us to is torecognize that our way of doing
things is a good way, but so are theways that other people do things.
Our way of understanding things canbe really a good way of understanding
(10:09):
things, so can someone else's way ofunderstanding things be a good thing.
The reason why when I have couples cometo me who are going to get married,
I give them a quiz that they have totake, and they take it separately so
I can compare their answers, and thelast question is, Who is responsible
for doing the dishes in your house?
(10:32):
And I ask that because a lot oftimes it reveals some undercurrent
of, of anger around dishes.
Like, well he does the dishes but hedoesn't load the dishwasher correctly.
Well, she does the dishes, butshe doesn't unload the dishwasher
fast enough for me, right?
(10:53):
There are expectations that we have,and a lot of times it's the little
things that really hang up with us andthey snowball into bigger and bigger
and bigger things, when in realitywhat it is, is people doing things or
understanding things in a different way.
That's not bad or good.
It's just different.
(11:13):
And so what we're called todo in forgiveness is make
space for that difference.
to allow for that difference.
The next thing is the word thatmeans lift up, lift the person
you need to forgive up in prayer.
(11:34):
Now, when I say that I do not mean theSouthern, I'm gonna pray for you, right?
Although you may start there.
I'm gonna pray for you.
What I mean is gradually making space inyour prayers to seek good for that person.
(11:56):
To lift them up to God out ofa deep place in your heart.
Now, I want to stop right inthis moment and talk about
this process of forgiveness.
I think it's important here.
It's important because this, um,forgive them 77 times is sometimes
used in a weaponizing way.
(12:18):
So forgiveness is reallytruly about your heart.
being put right and beingable to take that to God.
Sometimes that means you go tothe person and have a conversation
and offer that forgiveness.
You cannot control their response,but you can offer that forgiveness.
Sometimes that's what'sinvolved in forgiveness.
(12:41):
Sometimes, however, the personthat you are seeking forgiveness
around has abused you.
Sometimes that person is notsafe for you to be around.
You are not called to put yourselfin danger for forgiveness.
(13:01):
And I affirm that by what alsohappens in the Lord's Prayer.
Lead us not into temptation,but deliver us from evil.
If that person might be temptedto continue to hurt you, Don't
create that space of temptation,and get out of that place of evil.
You do not have to go every time beforethe person that you need to forgive.
(13:28):
Sometimes it's between you andyour heart, and you and God.
And that is the holy space.
Don't; listen...
I've heard too many pastors say,You gotta forgive your abuser
and you gotta go back to him.
No.
No.
You do not.
(13:48):
The last of the three that I think is agood formula for forgiveness is let it go.
And it's not just asong from Frozen, right?
Letting go is a choice that you make.
Faith is a choice you make.
Forgiveness is is a choice you make.
(14:09):
It's a choice to let go of thathate, of that anger, of that anxiety.
And again, I acknowledge thatthis is not something you can
just flip a switch and it's done.
Sometimes it takes therapy, sometimesit takes deep study, sometimes it
takes going to your friends andwalking through all of this and
getting to a place of forgiveness.
It can be a journey.
That is fine.
(14:30):
Just go on the journey.
Whatever it takes to get there and anddo pay attention to Jesus instruction
may forgiveness be from your heartFrom the depth of your heart when I
was preparing for this sermon I cameacross an article done by researchers
at Johns Hopkins and they are actuallystudying forgiveness from a medical
(14:56):
perspective and this is how they definedforgiveness: a conscious decision to
let go of negative feelings Whether theperson deserves it or not, it's your
choice of letting go, your choice toset your heart free from that burden.
(15:21):
And what happens when you setyour heart free from that burden?
Well, Johns Hopkins has found a lotof things happen as a result of that.
It lowers your risk of heart attack.
It improves your cholesterollevels to forgive.
You get better sleep.
You reduce your pain.
You lower your blood pressure.
You reduce anxiety anddepression and stress.
(15:47):
It's almost as if we arehardwired to forgive.
It's almost as if the creator ofall things made us to be a people
who in forgiveness would findhealing and wholeness and peace.
Shalom.
So when we are invited.
(16:09):
Instructed to seek forgivenessbefore you come to the altar.
Let us remember that once we have donethat work, and we do come to the altar,
we think we are bringing a gift to God.
But what we are actuallyreceiving is a gift from God.
There's a reason that the unforgivingservant finds himself in a prison.
(16:33):
That's what unforgiveness is.
It's a prison.
God is here to give youfreedom from that prison.
God is here to restore you - heart,mind, body, and soul in that forgiveness.
Receive the gift that God is giving you.
(16:56):
Lent is a season in whichwe disrupt our routines.
We give something up.
We take something on.
It's a season that callsus to pay attention.
So as we are paying attention, as weare giving up in this season, maybe
what we need to give up is anger.
(17:17):
Maybe what we need togive up are our grudges.
Maybe we need to give up hate, and whenwe do, we will be given the gift of love.
Amen.
Matt Nelson (17:33):
Thanks for listening to the Sermon podcast from First United
Methodist Church in downtown Bentonville.
If you would like to let us know you werehere, follow the link below to connect.
To participate in worship through giving,you can give online at FUMCbentonville.org
or on Venmo @FUMCbentonville.
. FUMC Bentonville welcomes all.
Because we believe the communiontable is God's table, we invite
(17:57):
everyone into our church family.
We welcome and celebrate every race,gender, gender identity, sexual
orientation, marital status, age, physicaland mental ability, national origin,
economic station, and political ideology.
We come together in action andoutreach, aspiring to follow Jesus
example of radical hospitality.
(18:19):
and grace as a transformativemovement in our community.
Please join us for worship onSunday mornings at 9 and 11 a.
m.
both in person and on Facebook live.
All are welcome and we'dlove to have you with us.
Grace
and peace.
Welcome to the sermon podcast from First United Methodist
Church in downtown Bentonville.
If you have questions related to whatyou hear today, or just want to find
out more about the ministries at FirstUnited Methodist Church, please visit us
online at FUMCbentonville.org, or checkus out on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok.
Rev. Dr. Michelle Morris (00:24):
Good morning.
I add my welcome to Pastor Ray's.
I'm Reverend Dr.
Michelle Morris, and I'm thelead pastor here at First United
Methodist Church in Bentonville.
It is a joy to welcome youin worship with us today.
We are starting the season of Lent,which is a season of fasting and
reflection, of taking on new disciplines.
(00:44):
And so in this season, we're going to befocusing on the theme of foolish love.
Now that comes from the fact thatLent started on Ash Wednesday, which
was also Valentine's Day and it endsthe day before April Fool's Day.
So it seems as though our calendaris inviting us into this reflection.
And, with that though, I want usto think about our discipline.
(01:07):
This Lenten season beingthe discipline of love.
And so each week we will be lookingat a different aspect of what it
means to love in the foolish waysthat Christ calls us to love.
So to frame that up for us todaywhen we are looking at foolish
love for gifts, we're gonnahear two passages from Matthew.
The first one here from Matthew chapter 5.
(01:28):
You have heard that it was said to thosewho lived long ago, don't commit murder.
And all who commit murderwill be in danger of judgment.
But I say to you that everyonewho is angry with their brother or
sister will be in danger of judgment.
If they say to their brotheror sister, "You idiot!"
they will be in danger of beingcondemned by the governing council.
(01:49):
And if they say "You fool!"
they will be in danger of fiery hell.
Therefore, if you bring yourgift to the altar and there,
remember that your brother orsister has something against you.
Leave your gift at the altar and gofirst, make things right with your
brother or sister, and then come back.
And offer your gift Then Petersaid to Jesus, "Lord how many times
(02:15):
should I forgive my brother orsister who sins against me should
I forgive as many as seven times?"
" Jesus said not just seven times butrather as many as 77 Times therefore
the kingdom of heaven is like a kingwho wanted to settle accounts with
his servants When he began to settleaccounts, they brought to him a servant
(02:35):
who owed him 10, 000 bags of gold.
Because the servant didn't have enoughto pay it back, the master ordered that
he should be sold along with his wife andchildren and everything he had, and that
the proceeds should be used as payment.
But the servant fell down, kneeledbefore him, and said, Please be
patient with me, and I'll pay you back.
(02:56):
The master had compassion on that servant,released him, and And forgave the loan
when that servant went out he found oneof his fellow servants who owed him 100
coins He grabbed him around the throatand said pay me back what you owe me Then
his fellow servant fell down and beggedhim be patient with me and i'll pay you
back, but he refused Instead he threwhim into prison until he paid back his
(03:21):
debt when his fellow servant saw whathad happened They were deeply offended.
They came and told their master allthat happened His master called the
first servant and said you wickedservant I forgave you all that
debt because you appealed to me.
Shouldn't you also have mercy on yourfellow servant just as I had mercy on you?
(03:44):
His master was furious and handedhim over to the guard responsible
for punishing prisoners untilhe had paid the whole debt.
My Heavenly Father will also do thesame to you if you don't forgive your
brother or sister from your heart."
This is the Word of Godfor the people of God.
Thanks be to God.
Let us pray.
(04:05):
Lord, open our hearts, our minds, andour eyes that we might see and know
the word you have for us this day.
In your holy name, we pray.
Amen.
Routines are things that often we quitpaying attention to after a while.
That's part of the pointof a routine, right?
You don't even have to think about it.
You just do it.
(04:25):
It's so rote.
It's so ingrained in who you are that youdon't even put that much Thought into it.
I am getting back into aroutine that I used to have.
I've started going to Zumba classesover at the, at the community center.
I missed Zumba.
I had a routine of going to Zumbawhen I was in Texas, and I loved it.
I was the only person in theclass who was an English speaker.
(04:48):
Everyone else spoke Spanish,but you didn't have to speak
the same language to move.
It was great.
However, one day the song came on thatwas very much part of our routine that
we all did all the time and just wentthrough the motions and did the routine.
And all of a sudden the roombroke up in, in revolution.
(05:11):
Like they just stopped andstarted shouting and yelling.
And I didn't know what was going on.
Cause I don't know Spanish well enough.
And so I'm just confused by this moment,but then as I'm listening really intently,
I realize that they're objecting tothe song whose lyrics main chorus was
La Vaca Moo, which is the cow moo.
(05:35):
And I gathered that the songwas calling us all cows!
And the ladies were objecting to this.
And so eventually I objected, too, onceI caught up with the revolution, but,
um, But anyway, we, it had been somethingthat was so routine to us, we hadn't
even really noticed what was being said.
And then when we stopped and tooknotice, we had, we had to object,
(05:57):
and so we never did that song again.
It reminded me of the time, asa kid, when I finally listened
to the words of Rock A Bye Baby.
Rock A Bye Baby on the treetop, whenthe wind blows, the cradle will rock.
When the bough breaks, thecradle will fall, and down
(06:20):
will come baby, cradle and all.
How is that a lullaby?
What kind of sleep are wetrying to give our kids?
Worry about if you're gonnafall out of a tree, kid.
You know, I mean, but it wasso natural to my childhood.
It was something that I wassaying over and over and over.
I didn't even really think about it.
That was the reason for disruptingcommunion in here and having us
(06:44):
do the Wesley Covenant Prayer.
In part, it was to give us a newroutine, a new set of words for us
to remember that shapes us, but itshould also help us to remember what's
powerful about the Lord's prayer.
And maybe as we, we've returned to ittoday and pray it today, maybe we'll pay
(07:04):
attention to what we're actually praying.
I want to draw our attention to some ofthat prayer that we pray, and I don't
think we think about what we're saying.
And that is, forgive us our trespasses aswe forgive those who trespass against us.
(07:31):
Do we know what we're saying?
That as there means just like.
Forgive us our trespasses just like weforgive those who trespass against us.
That's great if you'veforgiven everyone in your life.
(07:56):
But if not, do you realizethat we pray for God to treat
us just like we treat them.
We pray this parable of the unforgivingservant every time we lift up the
Lord's Prayer and we stand potentiallyin the place of the unforgiving
(08:20):
servant that if we cannot forgive,can we receive God's forgiveness?
It puts an urgency on forgiveness.
We gotta square up.
We gotta get ourselves right with othersbefore we come to this altar and bring
(08:43):
the same treatment down on ourselves.
Now, I recognize that forgivenesscan be tremendously difficult.
There can be a lot of hurt and painsurrounding places that, I mean, it's
kind of at the base of what is required offorgiveness is facing that hurt and pain.
If you're following along in thevideos that go along with this
(09:04):
series, you know, Pastor Ray mentionsthat you, you only are called to
forgive that which is unforgivable.
If it's forgivable, it's easy.
If it's unforgivable.
That's when forgiveness isrequired, and I know it's hard.
And so I want to give us a formulafor how to approach forgiveness.
(09:27):
I looked up the words in Greekand Hebrew for forgiveness, and I
thought it was going to be two words,one Hebrew word, one Greek word.
I was wrong.
It was a sea of words.
There were so many words thatI thought, Ah, see, this is
the reality of forgiveness.
It involves so many differentaspects of what we have to do.
But there were three that I focusedin on and I thought, These are a
(09:48):
good pattern for us to understandwhat it takes for forgiveness.
So one of them is the wordthat basically means loosen up.
And what it's calling us to is torecognize that our way of doing
things is a good way, but so are theways that other people do things.
Our way of understanding things canbe really a good way of understanding
(10:09):
things, so can someone else's way ofunderstanding things be a good thing.
The reason why when I have couples cometo me who are going to get married,
I give them a quiz that they have totake, and they take it separately so
I can compare their answers, and thelast question is, Who is responsible
for doing the dishes in your house?
(10:32):
And I ask that because a lot oftimes it reveals some undercurrent
of, of anger around dishes.
Like, well he does the dishes but hedoesn't load the dishwasher correctly.
Well, she does the dishes, butshe doesn't unload the dishwasher
fast enough for me, right?
(10:53):
There are expectations that we have,and a lot of times it's the little
things that really hang up with us andthey snowball into bigger and bigger
and bigger things, when in realitywhat it is, is people doing things or
understanding things in a different way.
That's not bad or good.
It's just different.
(11:13):
And so what we're called todo in forgiveness is make
space for that difference.
to allow for that difference.
The next thing is the word thatmeans lift up, lift the person
you need to forgive up in prayer.
(11:34):
Now, when I say that I do not mean theSouthern, I'm gonna pray for you, right?
Although you may start there.
I'm gonna pray for you.
What I mean is gradually making space inyour prayers to seek good for that person.
(11:56):
To lift them up to God out ofa deep place in your heart.
Now, I want to stop right inthis moment and talk about
this process of forgiveness.
I think it's important here.
It's important because this, um,forgive them 77 times is sometimes
used in a weaponizing way.
(12:18):
So forgiveness is reallytruly about your heart.
being put right and beingable to take that to God.
Sometimes that means you go tothe person and have a conversation
and offer that forgiveness.
You cannot control their response,but you can offer that forgiveness.
Sometimes that's what'sinvolved in forgiveness.
(12:41):
Sometimes, however, the personthat you are seeking forgiveness
around has abused you.
Sometimes that person is notsafe for you to be around.
You are not called to put yourselfin danger for forgiveness.
(13:01):
And I affirm that by what alsohappens in the Lord's Prayer.
Lead us not into temptation,but deliver us from evil.
If that person might be temptedto continue to hurt you, Don't
create that space of temptation,and get out of that place of evil.
You do not have to go every time beforethe person that you need to forgive.
(13:28):
Sometimes it's between you andyour heart, and you and God.
And that is the holy space.
Don't; listen...
I've heard too many pastors say,You gotta forgive your abuser
and you gotta go back to him.
No.
No.
You do not.
(13:48):
The last of the three that I think is agood formula for forgiveness is let it go.
And it's not just asong from Frozen, right?
Letting go is a choice that you make.
Faith is a choice you make.
Forgiveness is is a choice you make.
(14:09):
It's a choice to let go of thathate, of that anger, of that anxiety.
And again, I acknowledge thatthis is not something you can
just flip a switch and it's done.
Sometimes it takes therapy, sometimesit takes deep study, sometimes it
takes going to your friends andwalking through all of this and
getting to a place of forgiveness.
It can be a journey.
That is fine.
(14:30):
Just go on the journey.
Whatever it takes to get there and anddo pay attention to Jesus instruction
may forgiveness be from your heartFrom the depth of your heart when I
was preparing for this sermon I cameacross an article done by researchers
at Johns Hopkins and they are actuallystudying forgiveness from a medical
(14:56):
perspective and this is how they definedforgiveness: a conscious decision to
let go of negative feelings Whether theperson deserves it or not, it's your
choice of letting go, your choice toset your heart free from that burden.
(15:21):
And what happens when you setyour heart free from that burden?
Well, Johns Hopkins has found a lotof things happen as a result of that.
It lowers your risk of heart attack.
It improves your cholesterollevels to forgive.
You get better sleep.
You reduce your pain.
You lower your blood pressure.
You reduce anxiety anddepression and stress.
(15:47):
It's almost as if we arehardwired to forgive.
It's almost as if the creator ofall things made us to be a people
who in forgiveness would findhealing and wholeness and peace.
Shalom.
So when we are invited.
(16:09):
Instructed to seek forgivenessbefore you come to the altar.
Let us remember that once we have donethat work, and we do come to the altar,
we think we are bringing a gift to God.
But what we are actuallyreceiving is a gift from God.
There's a reason that the unforgivingservant finds himself in a prison.
(16:33):
That's what unforgiveness is.
It's a prison.
God is here to give youfreedom from that prison.
God is here to restore you - heart,mind, body, and soul in that forgiveness.
Receive the gift that God is giving you.
(16:56):
Lent is a season in whichwe disrupt our routines.
We give something up.
We take something on.
It's a season that callsus to pay attention.
So as we are paying attention, as weare giving up in this season, maybe
what we need to give up is anger.
(17:17):
Maybe what we need togive up are our grudges.
Maybe we need to give up hate, and whenwe do, we will be given the gift of love.
Amen.
Matt Nelson (17:33):
Thanks for listening to the Sermon podcast from First United
Methodist Church in downtown Bentonville.
If you would like to let us know you werehere, follow the link below to connect.
To participate in worship through giving,you can give online at FUMCbentonville.org
or on Venmo @FUMCbentonville.
. FUMC Bentonville welcomes all.
Because we believe the communiontable is God's table, we invite
(17:57):
everyone into our church family.
We welcome and celebrate every race,gender, gender identity, sexual
orientation, marital status, age, physicaland mental ability, national origin,
economic station, and political ideology.
We come together in action andoutreach, aspiring to follow Jesus
example of radical hospitality.
(18:19):
and grace as a transformativemovement in our community.
Please join us for worship onSunday mornings at 9 and 11 a.
m.
both in person and on Facebook live.
All are welcome and we'dlove to have you with us.
Grace
and peace.
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