August 9, 2025 • 20 mins
Jesus confronts our worldly understanding of greatness by teaching that the greatest in the kingdom of heaven are those who humble themselves like little children and truly trust God.
• Being like a child means trusting God completely rather than striving to be better than others
• Humility isn't thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less often
• Biblical conflict resolution follows a clear process: address sin privately, then bring witnesses, then involve church leadership
• Social media call-outs violate God's intended pattern for resolving conflicts among believers
• Forgive others because you have been forgiven much, as illustrated in the parable of the unmerciful servant
• When others cause offense, intercede for them in prayer before taking action
• In church relationships, we should lower expectations of people and raise expectations of God
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, everybody, welcome back to the Bible
Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon.
Today, matthew, chapter 18, andtoday's title is the Greatest
in the Kingdom.
The Greatest in the Kingdom.
If you're a sports fan at all,then you have probably heard of
the phrase the GOAT, and that isan acronym which means the
greatest of all time, and youhave these debates in like every
(00:23):
sport, and probably the mostfamous is who is the greatest
basketball player?
You know, you've got likeMichael Jordan, lebron James,
kobe Bryant, all the differentones and there's always this
idea of wanting to be great andthinking that if you can achieve
the top, you can be the mosttalented, you can be the best at
your craft, whatever it is,then you will achieve greatness,
(00:45):
and then the goal is to be thegreatest of the greats, right?
Well, when it comes to sportsand business and all those kinds
of things, of course that'swhat you want to do, but when it
comes to the kingdom of God,jesus challenges us to think of
greatness in a very differentway, and I can't wait to talk to
you about it.
So we're going to get into allthat in just a moment.
So we'll get your Bibles out.
(01:06):
Turn with me to Matthew,chapter 18.
While you're doing that, makesure you take just a moment and
like, share and subscribe to theYouTube channel and the podcast
.
I've been seeing so many of youstarting to rate our podcast
and all of that.
I love you.
Please give us a five-starreview and then tell us what it
is about engaging with God'sword that you love so much.
When I go to podcast, I willread the comments and it helps
(01:28):
me to understand what I'mexpecting, so make sure you do
that for us.
Also, make sure you're going toFacebook, to the Bible
Breakdown discussion.
There's an amazing group ofpeople doing a wonderful job and
you can get links to all ofthis by going to
thebiblebreakdowncom, becausethe more we dig, the more we
find.
Well, as you are getting yourBibles out and ready, remember
that the overall theme ofMatthew is that Jesus is the
(01:53):
King, king Jesus.
And the overall goal of thiswhole book is Matthew is telling
us, and he starts off inchapter 1 with just kind of
blowing our hair back by sayingI have proof that Jesus is at
least the rightful king of ourearthly kingdom, but then he
spends chapter 2 through 28saying but he is so much more
(02:14):
than simply an earthly kingdom.
And as we have been walkingthrough, we see the kingdom of
heaven slowly being justgrounded and the foundation
being laid for the kingdom ofGod.
That continues even until today.
But what we're going to seetoday is this idea of what it is
to be the greatest in thekingdom, and if you've never
(02:36):
read this before, I'm reallyinterested to hear.
I want you to let me know downin the comments below if you
have any idea about what thegreatest in the kingdom of
heaven is before you read it.
And then we want to read, andthen let's see what it is.
So let's read together.
We're going to read the wholechapter.
We're going to come back tothis greatest in the kingdom
idea because it is so verydifferent than what we expect
(02:59):
you ready.
Here we go.
Chapter 18, verse 1, says thisabout that time.
The disciples came to Jesus andasked who is the greatest in
the kingdom of heaven?
Jesus called a little child tohim and put the child among them
.
Jesus said I tell you the truthunless you turn from your sins
and become like little children,you will never get into the
(03:22):
kingdom of heaven.
So anyone who becomes as humbleas this little child is the
greatest in the kingdom ofheaven.
So anyone who becomes as humbleas this little child is the
greatest in the kingdom ofheaven.
Anyone who welcomes a littlechild like this on my behalf is
welcoming me.
But if you cause one of theselittle ones who trust in me to
fall into sin, it would bebetter for you to have a large
millstone tied around your neckand drowned into the depths of
(03:45):
the sea.
What sorrow awaits the worldbecause it tempts people to sin?
Temptations are inevitable, butwhat sorrow awaits the person
who does the tempting?
So if your hand or your footcauses you to sin, cut it off
and throw it away.
It is better for you to enterinto internal life with only one
hand or one foot than to bethrown into eternal fire with
(04:08):
both your hands and feet.
If your eye causes you to sin,gouge it out, throw it away.
It is better for you to enterinto life with one eye than to
have two eyes and to be throwninto the fire of hell.
Beware that you don't look downon any of these little ones,
for I tell you that in heaven,their angels are always in my
presence, in the presence of and.
(04:29):
So, once again before we moveon and we're going to come back
to this at the end Jesus isusing hyperbole.
He's not saying that you shouldgo and cut something off.
He is saying be radical withyour resistance of sin, but
radical as in like makeimportant decisions, not cut
body parts off.
Okay, make sure.
Disclaimer.
The Bible breakdown podcastsaid do not cut your hand off,
(04:53):
just stop doing the bad things.
All right, here we go.
Verse 12.
If a man has a hundred sheepand one of them wanders away,
what will he do?
Won't he leave the 99 others onthe hills and go out to search
for the one that is lost?
And if he finds it, I tell youthe truth, he will rejoice over
it more than the other 99 thatdidn't wander away.
(05:13):
In the same way, it is not myheavenly Father's will that even
one of these little ones shouldperish.
If another believer sins againstyou, go privately and point out
the offense.
If the other person listens andconfesses it, you have won that
person back.
But if you are unsuccessful,take one or two others with you
(05:36):
and go back again so thateverything you say may be
confirmed by two or threewitnesses.
If the person still refuses tolisten.
Take your case to the churchand then, if he or she won't
accept the church's decision,treat that person as a pagan or
(05:56):
as a corrupt tax collector.
I tell you the truth whateveryou forbid on earth will be
forbidden in heaven.
Whatever you permit on earthwill be permitted in heaven.
I also tell you this if two ofyou agree on earth concerning
anything you ask, my Father inheaven will do it for you, for
where two or three gathertogether as my followers, I am,
and there among them.
We're going to come back tothat one at the very end as well
.
Then Peter came to him andasked Lord, how often shall I
(06:19):
forgive someone who sins againstme?
Seven times, no, not seventimes.
Jesus replied, but 70 timesseven.
Therefore, the kingdom of heavencan be compared to a king who
decided to bring his accounts todate with servants who had
borrowed money from him.
In the process, one of hisdebtors was brought who owed him
millions of dollars he couldn'tpay, so his master ordered that
(06:41):
he be sold, along with his wifeand his children and everything
he owned, to pay the debt.
But the man fell down beforehis master and begged him.
Please be patient with me, Iwill pay it all.
Then his master was filled withpity for him and so he released
him and forgave his debt.
But when the man left the king,he went to a fellow servant who
owed him just a few thousanddollars and he grabbed him by
(07:03):
the throat and demanded instantpayment.
His fellow servant fell downbefore him and begged for a
little bit more time.
Be patient with me, I will payit, he pleaded.
But his creditor wouldn't waitand he had the man arrested and
put into prison until the debtcould be paid in full.
And when some of the otherservants saw it, they were very
upset.
They went to the king and theytold him everything that had
(07:25):
happened.
Then the king called the man inthat he had forgiven and he
said you, evil servant, Iforgave you that tremendous debt
because you pleaded with me.
Shouldn't you have had mercy onyour fellow servant, just as I
had mercy on you?
Then the angry king sent theman into prison to be tortured
until he had paid the entiredebt.
(07:46):
That is what my heavenly fatherwill do to you.
If you refuse to give, forgiveyour brothers and sisters from
your heart.
Wow, there's so much in thischapter that I want to talk
about the three main things, andthat is the kingdom of heaven,
the greatest in the kingdom.
Then I want to talk about whatit looks like to deal with
conflict in the kingdom ofheaven and then, at the very end
(08:08):
, I want to talk about whatwe're supposed to do when we see
evil in the kingdom of heaven.
So here's the first one.
Notice how and Jesus is goingto talk more about what it looks
like to have kingdom leadershipin chapter 20.
But in this chapter he saysokay, you want to be the
greatest in the kingdom ofheaven, don't strive to be
better than anybody else.
Strive to trust God more thananybody else.
(08:31):
Because see, that's whathumility is.
Humility is not thinking less ofyourself, it's thinking of
yourself less often.
In other words, you'reself-aware, but you're not
self-obsessed.
You know who you are, you knowwho you're not, and that's now
settled.
And so, therefore, your faithis like a little child.
And if you think about it,think about the faith of a
little child, the way it'ssupposed to be anyway.
(08:54):
And that is the faith of alittle child.
They just trust.
Children are just naturallytrusting of things.
If you tell a child somethingis so, they believe it.
It's just the way it is, andthat's good and bad at the same
time.
And so Jesus is looking at allof these grown men and women all
around him and he's saying youknow how.
You know what it is to be greatin the kingdom of God.
And he's saying you know whatit is to be great in the kingdom
(09:16):
of God.
To be great in the kingdom ofGod is to absolutely trust me.
Completely, to trust me as alittle child with trust that's
how much.
And to be humble, in otherwords, to not think of yourself
all the time, but to think ofyourself less often.
You're so secure in who you are, in me that you don't have to
sit here and focus on me.
(09:36):
We don't have to define therelationship all the time, but
we know.
You know who you are in me.
You trust me.
That's what it is to be great.
So it's got nothing to do withwhat you achieve.
It's got all to do with who youbecome and you become a
(09:59):
trusting child of God.
I just trust the Lord.
That's what it is to be great.
When you are great in thekingdom of God, you trust God
the most.
So trust is what we should bestriving for.
The second thing I love isMatthew 18 actually outlines for
us what it looks like to dealwith conflict in the kingdom of
heaven.
And that is this that Jesussaid if you have a believer and
they sin against you, the firstthing is to go to them privately
.
Now let's put this in today'scontext.
(10:19):
Jesus is saying go to themprivately, then if they don't
listen, then you take one or twoothers, and then, if they don't
listen, you take the casebefore the church.
Now what does this mean inmodern context?
That means when somebody sinsagainst you, you go to them
privately.
Can I just say something realquick?
All right, social media is notprivate.
(10:40):
I think some people think thatsocial media is not like putting
it out there for the wholeworld.
But especially if your accountis not private, the world sees
what you put on there.
Therefore, if somebody, let'ssay, let's say somebody lies
about you, somebody gossipsabout you, and you go on social
media and you say something, ifsomebody let's say, let's say
somebody lies about you,somebody gossips about you, and
you go on social media and yousay something, you know there
(11:01):
are people out there who lieabout other people and I just
think that's wrong.
You know what that is.
That's a sin.
That is directly not what Godtells you to do.
Jesus says if somebody sinsagainst you, gossips of sin.
So if someone gossips againstyou sins against you.
That does not mean that you goair out your dirty laundry on
social media.
(11:21):
That means you go to thatperson privately.
If you're not brave enough togo to them privately, then
you're not brave enough to dealwith the sin.
It does take bravery, but isthe relationship worth it?
So let's just say somebodygossips about you and you find
out about it.
Then what you do is and thatcreates a whole nother problem
of whoever tells you most of thetime people will tell you
(11:42):
something then don't want you todo anything about it.
I'll be honest with you.
I tell people now, hey, beforeyou tell me something, I may
have to do something about it.
So be careful.
If you tell me something, right.
So you have to be careful withthat.
You find out someone's lied toyou.
According to the Bible, the nextstep is you go to that person.
(12:02):
Let me use an example.
Let's say I'm a completelyfictitious name.
Okay, listen, if your name isJoe, I am not talking to you.
But let's say I find out that aguy named Joe has been talking
bad about me.
My job, according to God's word, is to call Joe on the phone.
Hey Joe, can I meet with you inperson?
Can I meet with you privatelyin person?
Okay, we don't send them a textmessage, we don't air it out
(12:24):
over a phone call.
We go meet with them in personand we point out the offense.
Hey Joe, I have heard that youhave been saying that I don't
wash my feet.
I don't know, I'm just makingit up that you, that you don't,
have been calling me stink.
Okay, listen, I just need toknow if that's true and if the
Bible says that that personlistens.
Yeah, I was saying that I gotmad about something.
(12:45):
Hey, listen, I was wrong, I'msorry.
You know what you're supposedto do.
We're supposed to forgive.
Hey, it's fine, I do wash myfeet.
Now you know that I do.
We good?
Yes, we're good.
Now it says you've won thatperson back.
They feel better, you feelbetter, it's good.
But then here's the thing whathappens if you go to Joe
privately and you say hey, man,you've been gossiping.
(13:08):
And then they don't know.
No, that wasn't me.
That wasn most likely theperson who first reported.
It is one of them.
You take one or two others andthen you go back again in person
and you say, hey, joe, rightover here, susie and Ashley
making up names Okay, listen,they are the ones who told me
that you say I've been notwashing my feet.
Okay, listen, here we are.
I'm not mad at you that you sayI've been not washing my feet.
(13:29):
Okay, listen, here we are.
I'm not mad at you.
It did hurt my feelings.
I just want to make this rightman.
And then he says then okay,confirmed by two or three
witnesses about what happened.
And then, if he repents andthen you say you know what?
I don't know, whatever's goingon here, I'll take my ownership,
part of it, then everything'sgood.
Then, if that person stillrefuses, then you take the case
(13:53):
to the church.
I would recommend church leadersand say hey, listen, church
leader, my pastor, joe, joe,been talking about my stinky
feet.
I don't have stinky feet.
Ashley and Susie are the oneswho told me about it.
I've been talking to Joe aboutit.
Joe doesn't want to repent ofit.
It's really embarrassing to me.
What are we going to do?
And then they go to Joe andthey say Joe, come on man.
And they try to talk sense intoJoe.
(14:15):
And then the Bible says that ifJoe will still not stop talking
about your stinky feet, wellthen you know what you do.
You treat that person as apagan or a tax collector.
You know what you do to thosepeople.
You don't throw them out.
You just start over and starttalking to them about the gospel
.
Hey, you know what it is to bea Christian.
It's to follow Jesus.
Jesus says we don't gossipabout people.
In other words, it doesn't meanyou throw them away.
It means you then start sharingthe gospel with them.
(14:35):
You start over with them.
Okay, so let's review thatagain.
Go to them privately.
Then you take one or two andthen you take that case to them
before the church.
Can I tell you, as a pastor wetry to walk this out that we
will go to someone privately andI will tell you.
There have been times whenpeople have come to me as a
pastor and they will say, hey,so-and-so's doing this.
I will tell them have you wentand talked to them?
(14:57):
No, I haven't.
Okay, well, the first step ofchurch discipline is that you go
talk to them.
I'm not willing to go talk tothem, well then, I'm not gonna
do anything about it right now.
You need to give them the honorof going to talk to them, and
then we go to the next step.
Okay, well then we'll bring it.
And so that is how you bringpeace and joy and order into the
(15:17):
house of God is by privately,two or three, and then before
the church, and then finally.
I love how the final story ofJesus is now talking about what
forgiveness looks like and he'ssaying the reason why you are
supposed to forgive is becauseyou have been forgiven of so
much.
Remember, he said that he goes,this guy goes to this king and
(15:40):
he owes millions of dollars, andthe king forgives him, but
instead of then forgivingsomeone who only owed him a
little bit, he doesn't forgivehim.
So that is a parable of sayingGod has forgiven you of so much.
Then you should be willing toforgive someone of a slight to
you.
But then what do you do if yousee that?
Here's a question I get all thetime as a pastor.
(16:00):
What do you do if you seesomebody not walking in
forgiveness, holding grudges,doing this kind of stuff?
Well, notice what it says thatthe bystanders did.
The bystanders, when some ofthe other servants saw this it
says in verse 31, they wereupset.
In other words, they grievedtheir heart and they went to the
king and told him what happened.
(16:21):
So you know, what your firststep is Is, first of all, to be
grieved in your heart and to goto the king.
Go to the one who's done allthe forgiving, in other words,
take it to God.
Your first step as a Christfollower is to intercede for
that person.
Watch what God will do when youdo that.
Can I tell you I've seen thathappen so many times in my life
that when I hear of someone whois holding grudges, who is
(16:45):
gossiping about somebody else,who's doing whatever, can I tell
you, as a pastor, a lot oftimes I will get so much
pressure to kind of lay thehammer down on people and I will
say you know what we're goingto do.
First, we're going to intercedefor them, because I want
forgiveness as well, and sowe're going to intercede and
we're going to pray, and I can Itell you, a lot of times, as a
pastor, I've gotten like a lotof grief for that.
We shouldn't be praying, weshould be doing.
(17:06):
Well, what do you think prayeris?
I'm not saying that's all we'regoing to do, but it's the first
thing we're going to do.
Prayer is to be our firstresponse, not our last resort.
And can I tell you, it isamazing to me what happens when
we start to pray and seek Godand watch what he does.
So in all of this, can I tellyou something that is true In
this life, there's going to beconflict.
(17:27):
Can I say this to you as well?
For all of my friends out therewho have been hurt in church,
can I tell you, one of thenumber one reasons why you were
hurt is because you lowered yourexpectation of God and you
raised your expectation ofpeople.
You thought and that's okay,but you thought that because
people were in church andbecause people were claiming to
(17:50):
be Christians, they were nevergoing to sin.
They were never going to sin,they were never going to be
wrong.
Can I tell you, we're all at adifferent growth rate in the
kingdom of God, and the kingdomof God is full of sinful people
trying to walk out theirsalvation.
That doesn't mean that that'san excuse.
That doesn't mean that it'sokay.
It just means we should alwaysbe careful to realize that in
(18:10):
the kingdom of God, bad peoplehurting people are going to hurt
people.
Therefore, we lower ourexpectation of people and we
raise our expectation of God,and so when bad people do bad
things, sometimes with badmotives, we don't blame it on
God.
Instead, we are part of thejustice of God and we start to
intercede for them.
We offer forgiveness for them,we take steps and boundaries
(18:33):
where it is necessary, but we doit in a God honoring way, just
like we want them to do for us.
It's a heavy chapter, but it'san amazing chapter to understand
what the greatness of thekingdom of God is, and that is
that we just trust God, that heis going to work it all out for
his goodness.
Let's pray together right now.
God, thank you so much fortoday.
Thank you, god, that you knowthat we are sinful people and
(18:58):
that we are going to bump headswith one another from time to
time.
However, instead of throwing usaway, you give us kind of
action steps on how we are ableto walk together.
My prayer today, god, is ifthere's someone listening or
watching this and they'restruggling and they're dealing
with the sins of others, god,that you will give them the
grace to take the next step andto realize that the grace that
you show that other person isthe same grace that's being
(19:21):
extended to them as well, andI'm thankful that you lead us
through the hard things.
In Jesus' name, we pray Amen,in the name of what God's word
says in Matthew 28, verse 19,.
It says all authority in heavenand on earth has been given to
me.
Go, therefore, jesus says, andmake disciples of all nations.
That's my prayer, for me andfor you.
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow.
(19:41):
For Matthew, chapter 19.
Well, everybody, welcome back to the Bible
Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon.
Today, matthew, chapter 18, andtoday's title is the Greatest
in the Kingdom.
The Greatest in the Kingdom.
If you're a sports fan at all,then you have probably heard of
the phrase the GOAT, and that isan acronym which means the
greatest of all time, and youhave these debates in like every
(00:23):
sport, and probably the mostfamous is who is the greatest
basketball player?
You know, you've got likeMichael Jordan, lebron James,
kobe Bryant, all the differentones and there's always this
idea of wanting to be great andthinking that if you can achieve
the top, you can be the mosttalented, you can be the best at
your craft, whatever it is,then you will achieve greatness,
(00:45):
and then the goal is to be thegreatest of the greats, right?
Well, when it comes to sportsand business and all those kinds
of things, of course that'swhat you want to do, but when it
comes to the kingdom of God,jesus challenges us to think of
greatness in a very differentway, and I can't wait to talk to
you about it.
So we're going to get into allthat in just a moment.
So we'll get your Bibles out.
(01:06):
Turn with me to Matthew,chapter 18.
While you're doing that, makesure you take just a moment and
like, share and subscribe to theYouTube channel and the podcast
.
I've been seeing so many of youstarting to rate our podcast
and all of that.
I love you.
Please give us a five-starreview and then tell us what it
is about engaging with God'sword that you love so much.
When I go to podcast, I willread the comments and it helps
(01:28):
me to understand what I'mexpecting, so make sure you do
that for us.
Also, make sure you're going toFacebook, to the Bible
Breakdown discussion.
There's an amazing group ofpeople doing a wonderful job and
you can get links to all ofthis by going to
thebiblebreakdowncom, becausethe more we dig, the more we
find.
Well, as you are getting yourBibles out and ready, remember
that the overall theme ofMatthew is that Jesus is the
(01:53):
King, king Jesus.
And the overall goal of thiswhole book is Matthew is telling
us, and he starts off inchapter 1 with just kind of
blowing our hair back by sayingI have proof that Jesus is at
least the rightful king of ourearthly kingdom, but then he
spends chapter 2 through 28saying but he is so much more
(02:14):
than simply an earthly kingdom.
And as we have been walkingthrough, we see the kingdom of
heaven slowly being justgrounded and the foundation
being laid for the kingdom ofGod.
That continues even until today.
But what we're going to seetoday is this idea of what it is
to be the greatest in thekingdom, and if you've never
(02:36):
read this before, I'm reallyinterested to hear.
I want you to let me know downin the comments below if you
have any idea about what thegreatest in the kingdom of
heaven is before you read it.
And then we want to read, andthen let's see what it is.
So let's read together.
We're going to read the wholechapter.
We're going to come back tothis greatest in the kingdom
idea because it is so verydifferent than what we expect
(02:59):
you ready.
Here we go.
Chapter 18, verse 1, says thisabout that time.
The disciples came to Jesus andasked who is the greatest in
the kingdom of heaven?
Jesus called a little child tohim and put the child among them
.
Jesus said I tell you the truthunless you turn from your sins
and become like little children,you will never get into the
(03:22):
kingdom of heaven.
So anyone who becomes as humbleas this little child is the
greatest in the kingdom ofheaven.
So anyone who becomes as humbleas this little child is the
greatest in the kingdom ofheaven.
Anyone who welcomes a littlechild like this on my behalf is
welcoming me.
But if you cause one of theselittle ones who trust in me to
fall into sin, it would bebetter for you to have a large
millstone tied around your neckand drowned into the depths of
(03:45):
the sea.
What sorrow awaits the worldbecause it tempts people to sin?
Temptations are inevitable, butwhat sorrow awaits the person
who does the tempting?
So if your hand or your footcauses you to sin, cut it off
and throw it away.
It is better for you to enterinto internal life with only one
hand or one foot than to bethrown into eternal fire with
(04:08):
both your hands and feet.
If your eye causes you to sin,gouge it out, throw it away.
It is better for you to enterinto life with one eye than to
have two eyes and to be throwninto the fire of hell.
Beware that you don't look downon any of these little ones,
for I tell you that in heaven,their angels are always in my
presence, in the presence of and.
(04:29):
So, once again before we moveon and we're going to come back
to this at the end Jesus isusing hyperbole.
He's not saying that you shouldgo and cut something off.
He is saying be radical withyour resistance of sin, but
radical as in like makeimportant decisions, not cut
body parts off.
Okay, make sure.
Disclaimer.
The Bible breakdown podcastsaid do not cut your hand off,
(04:53):
just stop doing the bad things.
All right, here we go.
Verse 12.
If a man has a hundred sheepand one of them wanders away,
what will he do?
Won't he leave the 99 others onthe hills and go out to search
for the one that is lost?
And if he finds it, I tell youthe truth, he will rejoice over
it more than the other 99 thatdidn't wander away.
(05:13):
In the same way, it is not myheavenly Father's will that even
one of these little ones shouldperish.
If another believer sins againstyou, go privately and point out
the offense.
If the other person listens andconfesses it, you have won that
person back.
But if you are unsuccessful,take one or two others with you
(05:36):
and go back again so thateverything you say may be
confirmed by two or threewitnesses.
If the person still refuses tolisten.
Take your case to the churchand then, if he or she won't
accept the church's decision,treat that person as a pagan or
(05:56):
as a corrupt tax collector.
I tell you the truth whateveryou forbid on earth will be
forbidden in heaven.
Whatever you permit on earthwill be permitted in heaven.
I also tell you this if two ofyou agree on earth concerning
anything you ask, my Father inheaven will do it for you, for
where two or three gathertogether as my followers, I am,
and there among them.
We're going to come back tothat one at the very end as well
.
Then Peter came to him andasked Lord, how often shall I
(06:19):
forgive someone who sins againstme?
Seven times, no, not seventimes.
Jesus replied, but 70 timesseven.
Therefore, the kingdom of heavencan be compared to a king who
decided to bring his accounts todate with servants who had
borrowed money from him.
In the process, one of hisdebtors was brought who owed him
millions of dollars he couldn'tpay, so his master ordered that
(06:41):
he be sold, along with his wifeand his children and everything
he owned, to pay the debt.
But the man fell down beforehis master and begged him.
Please be patient with me, Iwill pay it all.
Then his master was filled withpity for him and so he released
him and forgave his debt.
But when the man left the king,he went to a fellow servant who
owed him just a few thousanddollars and he grabbed him by
(07:03):
the throat and demanded instantpayment.
His fellow servant fell downbefore him and begged for a
little bit more time.
Be patient with me, I will payit, he pleaded.
But his creditor wouldn't waitand he had the man arrested and
put into prison until the debtcould be paid in full.
And when some of the otherservants saw it, they were very
upset.
They went to the king and theytold him everything that had
(07:25):
happened.
Then the king called the man inthat he had forgiven and he
said you, evil servant, Iforgave you that tremendous debt
because you pleaded with me.
Shouldn't you have had mercy onyour fellow servant, just as I
had mercy on you?
Then the angry king sent theman into prison to be tortured
until he had paid the entiredebt.
(07:46):
That is what my heavenly fatherwill do to you.
If you refuse to give, forgiveyour brothers and sisters from
your heart.
Wow, there's so much in thischapter that I want to talk
about the three main things, andthat is the kingdom of heaven,
the greatest in the kingdom.
Then I want to talk about whatit looks like to deal with
conflict in the kingdom ofheaven and then, at the very end
(08:08):
, I want to talk about whatwe're supposed to do when we see
evil in the kingdom of heaven.
So here's the first one.
Notice how and Jesus is goingto talk more about what it looks
like to have kingdom leadershipin chapter 20.
But in this chapter he saysokay, you want to be the
greatest in the kingdom ofheaven, don't strive to be
better than anybody else.
Strive to trust God more thananybody else.
(08:31):
Because see, that's whathumility is.
Humility is not thinking less ofyourself, it's thinking of
yourself less often.
In other words, you'reself-aware, but you're not
self-obsessed.
You know who you are, you knowwho you're not, and that's now
settled.
And so, therefore, your faithis like a little child.
And if you think about it,think about the faith of a
little child, the way it'ssupposed to be anyway.
(08:54):
And that is the faith of alittle child.
They just trust.
Children are just naturallytrusting of things.
If you tell a child somethingis so, they believe it.
It's just the way it is, andthat's good and bad at the same
time.
And so Jesus is looking at allof these grown men and women all
around him and he's saying youknow how.
You know what it is to be greatin the kingdom of God.
And he's saying you know whatit is to be great in the kingdom
(09:16):
of God.
To be great in the kingdom ofGod is to absolutely trust me.
Completely, to trust me as alittle child with trust that's
how much.
And to be humble, in otherwords, to not think of yourself
all the time, but to think ofyourself less often.
You're so secure in who you are, in me that you don't have to
sit here and focus on me.
(09:36):
We don't have to define therelationship all the time, but
we know.
You know who you are in me.
You trust me.
That's what it is to be great.
So it's got nothing to do withwhat you achieve.
It's got all to do with who youbecome and you become a
(09:59):
trusting child of God.
I just trust the Lord.
That's what it is to be great.
When you are great in thekingdom of God, you trust God
the most.
So trust is what we should bestriving for.
The second thing I love isMatthew 18 actually outlines for
us what it looks like to dealwith conflict in the kingdom of
heaven.
And that is this that Jesussaid if you have a believer and
they sin against you, the firstthing is to go to them privately
.
Now let's put this in today'scontext.
(10:19):
Jesus is saying go to themprivately, then if they don't
listen, then you take one or twoothers, and then, if they don't
listen, you take the casebefore the church.
Now what does this mean inmodern context?
That means when somebody sinsagainst you, you go to them
privately.
Can I just say something realquick?
All right, social media is notprivate.
(10:40):
I think some people think thatsocial media is not like putting
it out there for the wholeworld.
But especially if your accountis not private, the world sees
what you put on there.
Therefore, if somebody, let'ssay, let's say somebody lies
about you, somebody gossipsabout you, and you go on social
media and you say something, ifsomebody let's say, let's say
somebody lies about you,somebody gossips about you, and
you go on social media and yousay something, you know there
(11:01):
are people out there who lieabout other people and I just
think that's wrong.
You know what that is.
That's a sin.
That is directly not what Godtells you to do.
Jesus says if somebody sinsagainst you, gossips of sin.
So if someone gossips againstyou sins against you.
That does not mean that you goair out your dirty laundry on
social media.
(11:21):
That means you go to thatperson privately.
If you're not brave enough togo to them privately, then
you're not brave enough to dealwith the sin.
It does take bravery, but isthe relationship worth it?
So let's just say somebodygossips about you and you find
out about it.
Then what you do is and thatcreates a whole nother problem
of whoever tells you most of thetime people will tell you
(11:42):
something then don't want you todo anything about it.
I'll be honest with you.
I tell people now, hey, beforeyou tell me something, I may
have to do something about it.
So be careful.
If you tell me something, right.
So you have to be careful withthat.
You find out someone's lied toyou.
According to the Bible, the nextstep is you go to that person.
(12:02):
Let me use an example.
Let's say I'm a completelyfictitious name.
Okay, listen, if your name isJoe, I am not talking to you.
But let's say I find out that aguy named Joe has been talking
bad about me.
My job, according to God's word, is to call Joe on the phone.
Hey Joe, can I meet with you inperson?
Can I meet with you privatelyin person?
Okay, we don't send them a textmessage, we don't air it out
(12:24):
over a phone call.
We go meet with them in personand we point out the offense.
Hey Joe, I have heard that youhave been saying that I don't
wash my feet.
I don't know, I'm just makingit up that you, that you don't,
have been calling me stink.
Okay, listen, I just need toknow if that's true and if the
Bible says that that personlistens.
Yeah, I was saying that I gotmad about something.
(12:45):
Hey, listen, I was wrong, I'msorry.
You know what you're supposedto do.
We're supposed to forgive.
Hey, it's fine, I do wash myfeet.
Now you know that I do.
We good?
Yes, we're good.
Now it says you've won thatperson back.
They feel better, you feelbetter, it's good.
But then here's the thing whathappens if you go to Joe
privately and you say hey, man,you've been gossiping.
(13:08):
And then they don't know.
No, that wasn't me.
That wasn most likely theperson who first reported.
It is one of them.
You take one or two others andthen you go back again in person
and you say, hey, joe, rightover here, susie and Ashley
making up names Okay, listen,they are the ones who told me
that you say I've been notwashing my feet.
Okay, listen, here we are.
I'm not mad at you that you sayI've been not washing my feet.
(13:29):
Okay, listen, here we are.
I'm not mad at you.
It did hurt my feelings.
I just want to make this rightman.
And then he says then okay,confirmed by two or three
witnesses about what happened.
And then, if he repents andthen you say you know what?
I don't know, whatever's goingon here, I'll take my ownership,
part of it, then everything'sgood.
Then, if that person stillrefuses, then you take the case
(13:53):
to the church.
I would recommend church leadersand say hey, listen, church
leader, my pastor, joe, joe,been talking about my stinky
feet.
I don't have stinky feet.
Ashley and Susie are the oneswho told me about it.
I've been talking to Joe aboutit.
Joe doesn't want to repent ofit.
It's really embarrassing to me.
What are we going to do?
And then they go to Joe andthey say Joe, come on man.
And they try to talk sense intoJoe.
(14:15):
And then the Bible says that ifJoe will still not stop talking
about your stinky feet, wellthen you know what you do.
You treat that person as apagan or a tax collector.
You know what you do to thosepeople.
You don't throw them out.
You just start over and starttalking to them about the gospel
.
Hey, you know what it is to bea Christian.
It's to follow Jesus.
Jesus says we don't gossipabout people.
In other words, it doesn't meanyou throw them away.
It means you then start sharingthe gospel with them.
(14:35):
You start over with them.
Okay, so let's review thatagain.
Go to them privately.
Then you take one or two andthen you take that case to them
before the church.
Can I tell you, as a pastor wetry to walk this out that we
will go to someone privately andI will tell you.
There have been times whenpeople have come to me as a
pastor and they will say, hey,so-and-so's doing this.
I will tell them have you wentand talked to them?
(14:57):
No, I haven't.
Okay, well, the first step ofchurch discipline is that you go
talk to them.
I'm not willing to go talk tothem, well then, I'm not gonna
do anything about it right now.
You need to give them the honorof going to talk to them, and
then we go to the next step.
Okay, well then we'll bring it.
And so that is how you bringpeace and joy and order into the
(15:17):
house of God is by privately,two or three, and then before
the church, and then finally.
I love how the final story ofJesus is now talking about what
forgiveness looks like and he'ssaying the reason why you are
supposed to forgive is becauseyou have been forgiven of so
much.
Remember, he said that he goes,this guy goes to this king and
(15:40):
he owes millions of dollars, andthe king forgives him, but
instead of then forgivingsomeone who only owed him a
little bit, he doesn't forgivehim.
So that is a parable of sayingGod has forgiven you of so much.
Then you should be willing toforgive someone of a slight to
you.
But then what do you do if yousee that?
Here's a question I get all thetime as a pastor.
(16:00):
What do you do if you seesomebody not walking in
forgiveness, holding grudges,doing this kind of stuff?
Well, notice what it says thatthe bystanders did.
The bystanders, when some ofthe other servants saw this it
says in verse 31, they wereupset.
In other words, they grievedtheir heart and they went to the
king and told him what happened.
(16:21):
So you know, what your firststep is Is, first of all, to be
grieved in your heart and to goto the king.
Go to the one who's done allthe forgiving, in other words,
take it to God.
Your first step as a Christfollower is to intercede for
that person.
Watch what God will do when youdo that.
Can I tell you I've seen thathappen so many times in my life
that when I hear of someone whois holding grudges, who is
(16:45):
gossiping about somebody else,who's doing whatever, can I tell
you, as a pastor, a lot oftimes I will get so much
pressure to kind of lay thehammer down on people and I will
say you know what we're goingto do.
First, we're going to intercedefor them, because I want
forgiveness as well, and sowe're going to intercede and
we're going to pray, and I can Itell you, a lot of times, as a
pastor, I've gotten like a lotof grief for that.
We shouldn't be praying, weshould be doing.
(17:06):
Well, what do you think prayeris?
I'm not saying that's all we'regoing to do, but it's the first
thing we're going to do.
Prayer is to be our firstresponse, not our last resort.
And can I tell you, it isamazing to me what happens when
we start to pray and seek Godand watch what he does.
So in all of this, can I tellyou something that is true In
this life, there's going to beconflict.
(17:27):
Can I say this to you as well?
For all of my friends out therewho have been hurt in church,
can I tell you, one of thenumber one reasons why you were
hurt is because you lowered yourexpectation of God and you
raised your expectation ofpeople.
You thought and that's okay,but you thought that because
people were in church andbecause people were claiming to
(17:50):
be Christians, they were nevergoing to sin.
They were never going to sin,they were never going to be
wrong.
Can I tell you, we're all at adifferent growth rate in the
kingdom of God, and the kingdomof God is full of sinful people
trying to walk out theirsalvation.
That doesn't mean that that'san excuse.
That doesn't mean that it'sokay.
It just means we should alwaysbe careful to realize that in
(18:10):
the kingdom of God, bad peoplehurting people are going to hurt
people.
Therefore, we lower ourexpectation of people and we
raise our expectation of God,and so when bad people do bad
things, sometimes with badmotives, we don't blame it on
God.
Instead, we are part of thejustice of God and we start to
intercede for them.
We offer forgiveness for them,we take steps and boundaries
(18:33):
where it is necessary, but we doit in a God honoring way, just
like we want them to do for us.
It's a heavy chapter, but it'san amazing chapter to understand
what the greatness of thekingdom of God is, and that is
that we just trust God, that heis going to work it all out for
his goodness.
Let's pray together right now.
God, thank you so much fortoday.
Thank you, god, that you knowthat we are sinful people and
(18:58):
that we are going to bump headswith one another from time to
time.
However, instead of throwing usaway, you give us kind of
action steps on how we are ableto walk together.
My prayer today, god, is ifthere's someone listening or
watching this and they'restruggling and they're dealing
with the sins of others, god,that you will give them the
grace to take the next step andto realize that the grace that
you show that other person isthe same grace that's being
(19:21):
extended to them as well, andI'm thankful that you lead us
through the hard things.
In Jesus' name, we pray Amen,in the name of what God's word
says in Matthew 28, verse 19,.
It says all authority in heavenand on earth has been given to
me.
Go, therefore, jesus says, andmake disciples of all nations.
That's my prayer, for me andfor you.
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow.
(19:41):
For Matthew, chapter 19.
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