Seize the Moment – Day 336
The Promise of Joy!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, February 16.
A quick update: Due to the impact of the winter storm the church office is closed today. Additionally, the Celebration of Life Service for our beloved sister Sharon Meade has been postponed to this Saturday at noon, with the calling from 11-12.
If you trust someone and know their heart, it is easy to give them the benefit of the doubt or to lovingly read between the lines on what they are saying. That is why I love reading the Bible, and especially the letters of John. His heart is beautiful and his desire for us is so clear in all that he writes.
John expresses his motives for writing his first letter in 1 John 1:3, “These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.”
John is writing his letter to us so that we may experience the fullness of joy promised by Jesus Christ. Listen to the promise of Jesus from John 15:9-11,
Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
Seize the moment and trust the heart of God for you and your life. Jesus wants our joy to be complete so let’s obey Him!
Let’s recite this week’s memory verse, Romans 8:38-39: “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
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Seize the Moment – Day 335
Grace to Your Neighbor!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, February 15.
Listen to Peter in 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”
God has promised; therefore, the Father will keep His promises to His children. God desires for all the families of the earth to be blessed with His eternal life in Heaven and abundance in this life.
Jesus Christ was crucified, resurrected, and ascended to the right hand of the Father where today He is interceding for us until the day of His imminent return. His return is no reason to fear, but to rejoice! We are to live in praise to God and anticipation of His coming glory.
Seize the moment by bringing God’s blessing of grace to all Jesus calls your neighbor. The beauty is that we can lose nothing that God has given us and give away all that God has called us to steward. The time is short and the harvest is plentiful. Live out of the abundance of your assurance!
Let’s recite this week’s memory verse, Romans 8:38-39: “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
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Live Like a Champion – (Week 7)
Live Like a Champion: Victory Through the Promises of God!”
“The Promise of Security!”
Romans 8:37-39 (NAS95)
In this sermon series, we are learning how to live like a champion by learning how to live according to the Victory of the promises of God. Our guiding image for this series is being a member of an NFL team who wins the Superbowl. Never forget, the Superbowl celebration is in our future and we are invited to play like a championship team, today.
Through January, we established the foundation for this series by teaching through 2 Peter 1. Then, last week, I taught the first promise of the series—the promise of forgiveness and its corresponding memory verse of 1 John 1:9. Today, I will teach you the promise of security from Romans 8:37-39.
Never forget the larger vision of why we are learning these lessons: We live like champions so that others will come to know the One who gave us His Victory—Jesus Christ, crucified, risen, and coming again!
STEP #1: Know God’s playbook—the Bible—by learning the promises of God. Our promise for this week comes from Romans 8:37-39, with emphasis upon our memory verse for the week, verses 38-39:
But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Please memorize our play of the week because there is great reward from God in doing so. By focusing your mind, you will saturate your heart, and in doing so join with King David’s testimony from Psalm 19:7-11:
The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Your servant is warned; In keeping them there is great reward [emphasis added].
Friends, we must do more memorize Romans 8:38-39. The promise of security was given to us to become our assurance of salvation, which then dictates how we live our lives—how we think and feel!
An example of this is found in the everyday practice of parenting. Whether the child feels secure or insecure in his or her parents’ love will determine and shape the child’s ability to trust his or her parents and respond to their discipline and instruction. But not only the parents—all authority figures through the child’s life.
How much more with God and how we view our Heavenly Father and learn the promise of His security!
STEP #2: Train in godliness by learning to live according to the promises of God. Now we are going to learn how to apply this promise to ourselves. For the promise of security this is called “assurance.”
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
Eternal life is just that—eternal, which means lasting or forever; it endures! It’s not temporary life, insecure life, intermittent life, or potentially eternal life if you do everything right and be a good boy or girl.
“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
You live like a champion because you are secure in God’s perfect love and that security is unthreatened by God’s creation! Never forget that “there is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18).
It is so important that you know this—God’s love is secure! God is never insecure and He is never threatened by any created thing, including you and your insecurities and fears! Never forget that your death has been swallowed by His life, your fear has been cast out by His love, and your condemnation is forever gone! As Paul said in Romans 8:1, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
With that context in place and explanation in mind, listen again to Romans 8:38-39, our memory verse for this week,
“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Step #1 is knowing the promise (head) and step #2 is learning to live with it as an assurance (heart). This is God’s covenant faithfulness us, which then invites us to be faithful to others. Let’s check out Step #3.
STEP #3: We are invited to learn how to listen to the Coach’s voice so that we play the right play at the right time. God has secured us in His love so that we can be safe people to shine His light as the beloved of God.
We live in an insecure, divided, fearful, and hateful world. Do you believe that love works in the real world?
Please think about this question at the practical level of your everyday responsibility: Does love work?
“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.”
Love that is given to another person is evidence of your faith in God and His power to forgive sins! Apart from love, is there any evidence we can offer beyond our addiction to words and arguments with them?
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
“We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.”
This is the practical proof and this is the hardest work of being a Christian. Christianity is not a life of rules, does and don’t, religious activities, or intellectual beliefs. Christianity is about the God who is love saving us through His love for the sake of being love to the world!
If you are not loving, you are missing the whole point, because this is not just a play in the Playbook, this is God’s strategy of the whole Playbook. This is the banner over God’s Team—we are the beloved of God, chosen and called to show the world His love!
Start by loving those immediately around you and then those you encounter directly in your days. Yes, love moves us to the ends of the earth, but love must begin and end wherever you are.
And we gather as the Beloved of God to know this and to practice this. This moves us to the last step.
STEP #4: Work together as one team—we are members of God’s family—His Church, the Body of Christ.
“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”
How is our church family to attain the unity that Jesus prays for? It only happens through the vow of stability in our faith community that comes through the promise of security! Just like in marriage, the only way to thrive is to not have to focus on surviving. It is in the promise of security that the abundant life can happen!
What does this practically look like in the private and public arenas of our lives? The praxis of the promise of security is found in 1 Corinthians 12:27, 12:31—13:13. I’m going to end this teaching time by very clearly giving you the details of how to run this play from God’s playbook, by simply reading the Word of God:
Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it. But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I show you a still more excellent way. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love [emphasis added].
Love is only possible with the promise of security. It is the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22)! It is the evidence of God in us because God “sealed [us] in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise” (Ephesians 1:13)!
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Seize the Moment – Day 333
Today’s hymn: ‘How Great Thou Art’
“ But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (NASB95)
A former sailor who became a lay-minister in his native Sweden, Carl Boberg was inspired to write this nine verse poem in 1885 after a fierce thunderstorm came thru the bayside town in which he lived. When the storm passed, he noticed the fresh air and the tranquility that followed. He published his poem in the local newspaper.
In the early part of the 20th century, it was translated into German, then into Russian, then into English, where it was put to music by English Missionary Stuart K Hine. It was not until late in 1954 when the song was given to George Beverly Shea, famed soloist in Billy Graham’s crusades that the song became one of the most popular hymns. Carl Boberg never knew how influential his poem was, as he passed in 1940.
We need to wake up and realize that we may never know which of our words or actions will influence those around us or even those into the next generation, but they will!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee.
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
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Consider all the works thy hands hath made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy pow’r throughout the universe displayed;
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee:
How great thou art, how great thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee:
How great thou art, how great thou art!
I hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze; [Refrain]
Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in,
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin; [Refrain]
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration
And there proclaim, “My God, how great thou art!” [Refrain]
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Seize the Moment – Day 332
Freedom in Faith!
There is an important invitation found in 2 Peter 2:18-19, “For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.”
What is promising you freedom, but is actually seeking to enslave you?
Whose promises are you listening to? The promises of Madison Avenue, of Vanity Fair, of the Stock Market, or Hollywood?
Here is the key phrase to hear as an invitation: “for by what a [person] is overcome, by this he [or she] is enslaved.”
What are you overcome by? The love of the world and all of its empty and short-sighted promises or the Love of God and His great and magnificent promises.
Listen to Peter from 2 Peter 1:4, “For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.”
You are being invited today, once again or for the first time, to escape the corruption that is in the world by lust and rest in your fellowship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.
Seize the moment and pay attention to your appetites and desires. Does anything have a grip on you that is promising you more than it can deliver?
Let’s recite our memory verse for this week together. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
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Seize the Moment – Day 331
Hoist Your Sails!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, February 11.
Have you ever watched a sailboat glide along the water using only the wind to carry it? Have you ever experienced that in your own life?
Listen to Peter speak about God’s Word in 2 Peter 1:20-21, “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God [italics added].”
I am daily studying through a wonderful book called “The Handbook of Bible Promises” and in it the authors say about this passage, “The word used for ‘carried along’ [‘moved by’ in the NAS95 translation that I am using] was used of a ship carried along on the sea by the wind. That is how the Scriptures were written; the writers, as it were, ‘hoisted their sails’ to the Holy Spirit, and were ‘carried along’ by him, so that what they wrote was exactly what he wanted written.”[1]
What a beautiful image. The New Testament authors were fully engaged people in the process, but they were carried along by God’s Spirit. This is how we are supposed to live our lives with the Word of God being the rudder of our ship, setting our direction, and the Holy Spirit filling our sails to carry us along. God is the one at work in us and through us to bring about His glory.
Seize the moment and entrust your direction in life and your pace of life to God. Keeping your hand firmly on the rudder of God’s Word, hoist your sails and allow the Holy Spirit to take you deeper into God’s will.
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[1] Mike Beaumont and Martin Manser, The Handbook of Bible Promises, 2020, 116.
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Seize the Moment – Day 330
Promises Comes with Practices!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, February 10.
Did you know that every promise of God comes with an invitation for you to put it into practice?
Listen to this as Peter closes his first letter in 1 Peter 5:6-11,
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.
What are the promises of God in this passage?
- God has a mighty hand and will exalt you at the proper time.
- God cares about you.
- You are not alone in your suffering.
- God will perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.
- God has dominion forever.
What are the corresponding invitations?
- Humble yourself and don’t focus your efforts on defending or vindicating yourself.
- Cast all of your anxieties on God.
- Resist the temptation to take suffering personally.
- Persevere in God’s grace through the gift of your faith.
Seize the moment and trust God because all things for all time are in His loving hands. His promises are yours and you are invited to walk in them.
Let’s recite our memory verse for this week together. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
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Seize the Moment – Day 329
The Efficacy of Faith is Love!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, February 9.
Right now, a lot of people are talking about the efficacy of vaccines. I actually sat through a zoom meeting last night listening to an international health care expert talk about this. But, what about the efficacy of our faith in Jesus Christ?
The conversation about faith may not feel as urgent as vaccines, but it is definitely more important as the implications are much bigger and longer lasting.
Listen to Peter explain this in 1 Peter 4:7-9, “The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaint.”
Love that is given to another person in the form of forgiveness and sincere fellowship is evidence of your faith in God—that your sins are forgiven! Apart from your love, there is no actual evidence.
Jesus, in all of His authority as the Son of God and Savior of the World, boiled down Christianity to this one commandment, from John 13:34-35: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John later commented on Jesus’ command: “the one who loves God should love his brother also” (1 John 4:21).
Seize the moment and practically love people in your life by forgiving them of their sins and having sincere fellowship with them. This is what Christ first did for you!
How can you say you are a Christian if you hold someone’s sins against them?
Let’s recite our memory verse for this week together. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
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Seize the Moment – Day 328
The Sum of Godly Lifestyles!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, February 8.
You’ve heard it said, “it doesn’t amount to a hill of beans.” That is an old idiom that says something, even when you sum up all the individual parts, is not worth much.
How can we be sure that our local churches, when we bring together all of the individual parts, which are you and me—the people—do amount to something of value?
At the end of the section on godly living, Peter writes in 1 Peter 3:8-9, “To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.”
Our gathering together is valuable! We are invited to follow the example of Jesus Christ in how we treat one another. We are called to be a blessing! In fact, this is the very purpose that you were saved and called into the family of God. Never forget that the church is composed of those people that God has called out of darkness and into His marvelous Light to be the Light of the world.
You know the children’s song: this little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine. This is our inheritance—to Shine the Light of God! And when we all bring our little lights together and shine as one; then, the world would know that we are His disciples by our love for one another (John 13:35). This is one of the reasons we gather—to shine God’s glory through our fellowship!
Seize the moment and remember that you have been blessed to be a blessing! Shine!
Let’s recite our memory verse for this week together. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
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Live Like a Champion – (Week 6)
Series: “Live Like a Champion: Victory Through the Promises of God!”
“The Promise of Forgiveness!”
1 John 1:5-10 (NASB95)
We have finished our study of 2 Peter 1, which is the foundation for this entire series. If you missed those foundational five sermons during the month of January, then please go to our webpage and you can either read the manuscripts on the blog or listen to and/or watch the messages through an audio or video file.
Today, we start looking at the individual promises—the plays in God’s Playbook—and learn how to apply them to our lives so that we can live the victorious life and play like champions!
Never forget the larger vision of why we are learning these lessons: We live like champions so that others will come to know the One who gave us His Victory—Jesus Christ, crucified, risen, and coming again!
We are starting with the promise that, in many ways, is the greatest evidence of our Christianity: nothing demonstrates to us and the world the tangible reality of Jesus Christ crucified, risen and coming again more than our ability to forgive as we have first been forgiven (Colossians 3:13; Ephesians 4:32).
Now, let’s start our study of the plays in God’s Playbook by walking through the 4 steps of how to live like a champion in both the private and public arenas of our lives, starting with the promise of forgiveness:
STEP #1: Know God’s playbook—the Bible—by learning the promises of God.
5This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.
Remember, knowing is more than memorizing; it is a call to internalizing it. That requires us to meditate upon it or hide God’s Word in our hearts (Psalm 119:11) so that the Word is in us and we are in the Word. We master when we memorize; it masters us when we internalize. Joshua was commanded in Joshua 1:7-9,
Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
STEP #2: Train in godliness by learning to live according to the promises of God.
To truly understand the importance of training ourselves in godliness according to this teaching, we need to go back to our theme passage for this sermon series. Peter teaches us the importance of receiving Christ’s forgiveness for ourselves in 2 Peter 1:5-10, with emphasis added to verse 9:
Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;
Our scripture lesson in 1 John 1:5-10 is very clear and I’ll help you apply it with 1-2-3-LIVE IN GRACE!
“Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”
The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
This “1-2-3-Live in Grace! “ application of 1 John 1:5-10 is essential to the promise of forgiveness. Only God’s love is perfect; therefore, we must live in a forgiving love that is anchored on His perfect love!
STEP #3: We are invited to learn how to listen to the Coach’s voice so that we play the right play at the right time.
Jesus is very clear about the urgency of forgiveness. In Matthew 6:12, Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord’s prayer: “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”
“For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. “But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions” (cf. 2 Corinthians 2:10-11).
What a wonderful invitation from our Lord and Savior! But the disciples were confused by this, so listen to this exchange between Peter and Jesus in Matthew 18:21-35, as Jesus makes the application very clear:
Then Peter came and said to Him, “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 seventy times seven. “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. “When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. “But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. “So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ “And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. “But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ “So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ “But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. “So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. “Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. ‘Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ “And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. “My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”
What is the right play to run in both the private and public arenas of our lives: FORGIVE! Every time!! Because this is the sign and wonder of the resurrection in you and through you! This is our mission as the people of God and that leads us to step #4.
STEP #4: Work together as one team—we are members of God’s family—His Church.
I close our time together with Jesus’ words from Matthew 5:22-24, as an invitation to each of us today, because we can’t make visible to the world our Victory if we don’t run the plays together as one team:
But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, “You good-for-nothing,” shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, “You fool,” shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.
We are one team! We each have been chosen by God and called to be on the field together, but how can we play as one team if we aren’t willing to practice together the most fundamental play in the Playbook? What would it look like to the world watching the Superbowl if the players were fighting one another on the sidelines or arguing with the QB and one another in huddle? As Jesus said in John 13:35, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
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