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[ Music ] ♪ Steal away to my Lord ♪ ♪ Steal away to Jesus ♪ ♪ Steal away to my Lord ♪

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♪ Sometimes you need to steal away to Jesus ♪ Sometimes you need to steal away with my Lord. Steal away to Jesus. Steal away to my Lord.

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Oh, what a communion, just me and my Jesus. ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh what a fellowship ♪ ♪ Just me and my Lord ♪

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♪ Sometimes you need to steal away to Jesus ♪ ♪ Sometimes you need to steal away with my Lord ♪ ♪ Steal away to Jesus ♪ ♪ Steal away with my Lord ♪

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♪ Oh what a communion ♪ ♪ Just me and my Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh what a fellowship ♪ ♪ Just me and my Lord ♪

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♪ I'm never alone ♪ ♪ He's always with me ♪ ♪ Walking with me ♪ ♪ Holding my hand ♪

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♪ Being all I need him to be ♪ ♪ And the times I thought he left me ♪ ♪ Those were the times that he carried me ♪ ♪ What a fellowship ♪

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♪ Just me and my Lord ♪ ♪ I'm never alone ♪ ♪ He's always with me ♪ ♪ Walking with me ♪

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♪ Holding my hand ♪ ♪ Being all I need him to be ♪ ♪ And the times I thought he left me ♪ ♪ Those were the times that he carried me ♪

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♪ Lord of fellowship ♪ ♪ Just me and my Lord ♪ ♪ I'm never alone ♪ ♪ I'm never alone ♪

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♪ Never alone, never alone ♪ ♪ He's always with me ♪ ♪ Oh, he never leaves me ♪ ♪ Walking with me, yes he is ♪

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♪ Holding my hand he's been ♪ ♪ All I need him to be ♪ ♪ And the times I thought he left me ♪ ♪ Those were the times that he carried me ♪

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♪ What a fellowship ♪ ♪ What a fellowship ♪ What a fellowship, just me and my Lord. Me and my Jesus.

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Me and my Lord. Me and my Jesus. ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ Me and my Lord ♪

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♪ Oh yes, just me and my Jesus ♪ ♪ Me and my Jesus ♪ ♪ Me and my Lord ♪ [ Music ]

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Lord, we magnify your name, Emmanuel. Lord, we magnify your name, Emmanuel. ♪ Lord we know that you are with us ♪ ♪ Let all the earth proclaim ♪

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♪ Lord we magnify your name ♪ ♪ Emmanuel ♪ ♪ Lord we give you all the praise ♪ ♪ Emmanuel ♪

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♪ Lord, I give you all the praise ♪ ♪ Emmanuel ♪ ♪ Oh, I know that you are with us ♪ ♪ Let all the earth proclaim ♪

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♪ Lord, I give you all praise ♪ - That's all right. ♪ In my ♪ ♪ Lord, you lift up all my faces ♪

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- That's right. ♪ In my ♪ ♪ You lift up all my faces ♪ (music)

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Alright. (music) Oh yes. (music)

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That's alright. [MUSIC] ♪ Emmanuel ♪ ♪ Emmanuel ♪

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♪ Worthy is the Lamb ♪ ♪ Let all the earth proclaim ♪ ♪ Emmanuel ♪ ♪ Emmanuel ♪

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♪ Holy is the Lamb ♪ ♪ Emmanuel ♪ ♪ Emmanuel ♪ ♪ Emmanuel ♪

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♪ Worthy ♪ ♪ Worthy is the Lamb ♪ ♪ Let all the earth proclaim ♪ ♪ Emmanuel ♪

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♪ Emmanuel ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Lord God Almighty ♪ ♪ Lord God Almighty ♪

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♪ Yes ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Lord God Almighty ♪ ♪ Yes ♪

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♪ Holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Lord God Almighty ♪ ♪ Yes ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, holy ♪

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♪ Lord God Almighty ♪ ♪ Yes ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Lord God Almighty ♪

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♪ Yes ♪ Lord God Almighty, we praise your holy name. Emmanuel, Emmanuel, Emmanuel. Worthy, worthy is the Lamb.

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Let all the earth proclaim, Emmanuel, Emmanuel. ♪ Holy is the Lamb ♪ ♪ Emmanuel ♪ - Series entitled, "The Parables of Our Lord."

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We continue today that series as we consider the parable of the two debtors, the parable of the two debtors. A certain creditor had two debtors,

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one owed him 500 denarii and the other 50. And when they could not pay, he canceled the debt for both of them. Now which one will love him more?" Simon answered, "I suppose

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the one for whom he canceled the greater debt." Jesus said to him, "You have judged rightly. Two debtors."

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Jesus grew up poor. He was born into a peasant family and a great deal of his ministry while it was

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addressed to all people, a great deal of it was focused on the poor. Jesus said, "The poor you have with you always. To grow up poor is to know what it is to have to borrow. When I was a boy about five years of age with my grandmother, she'd send me next door to tell Sister Vons to lend

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me a cup of sugar. I'll pay you back. Or a cup of flour. Whatever she needed at that moment that she had failed to provide for, she felt free to borrow. So the society to whom this parable is addressed was a society that knew what it was to be in distress, to be poor. When you are poor, you have to manage in different ways. Some of us here know what it is to pay a dollar down in

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a dollar a week. I grew up with that. So this parable is one that is addressed to those who borrow and who recognize that they have debts to pay. And really, this is essential to life. For the most part, we can't make it without borrowing, whether we are poor or not.

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I came here to Austin to conduct a meeting with the congregation of Greater Mount Zion about 40 years ago. And I was talking to the pastor, Reverend J.H. Washington, who's passed on now.

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And he said, "Marvin, what are you doing? "How are you getting along with your money?" I said, "Oh, I'm doing fine. "I don't owe anything."

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He said, "You don't owe anything?" He said, "Well, you're not doing much of anything. if you don't owe, he said, you're not doing much of anything. He said, what's your situation?

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I said, well, I have my bills paid and I have three or four hundred dollars in the bank. He said, that's nothing. He said, go back to Waco and borrow.

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He said, just start out. He said, the fact that you don't owe the bank and they don't even know you. He said, "You may have an account there."

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He said, "But they don't even know you." He said, "But you're going to borrow." So I borrowed $500. He said, "Borrow something, a small amount,

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"and then pay that back on time." And I did, I borrowed $500 and a thousand, and I went on up and up and up. So for us to make it in this life,

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It is necessary for us to borrow. These two debtors, one borrowed 500 denarii, some called it, in some translations it may be a penny, but a penny in those days, a denarii, it was a day's work.

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So he had borrowed what is equivalent in our society based on that way of reckoning, way of judging. He had at least 500 days work, that's over a year, approaching two years in salary.

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And the other borrowed just 10% of that, he borrowed that amount and they were unable to pay. Unable to pay. It's a critical thing when you have a debt

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that you are unable to pay. I learned that when I was a teenager. I bought a bicycle and I paid down on it, I think two or three dollars,

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and I was to pay a dollar and a half a week till I paid for that bicycle. Times were difficult and so they needed my dollar and a half in the family.

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So I missed some weeks. And being concerned about paying that debt on time, I went to the manager and told him that I know I have missed some weeks.

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And I'm going to pay you. I didn't have any money to pay him then. I told him, but I'm going to pay you. And just be patient with me.

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And I had my books on my little bicycle coming from high school. He said, "What do you mean?" He said, "You were supposed to pay this each week, weren't you?" I said, "Yes."

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And he said, "Don't you know that this bicycle is helping you?" I was a paper boy. "It's helping you make your living. You ought to make these payments on time.

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You don't understand the significance of that, do you?" I said, "Oh, yes." "No, you don't." And he took my books off the bicycle and threw them.

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He said, "Here, take your books. We're going to keep this bicycle. You don't know how to handle your debts." And my heart began pounding, pounding, because I was going

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to have to walk home. And that was -- not only lose the bicycle, he was taking it back with the walk home. And he let me stoop for a while, and then he took --

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He said, "Do you think that if I let you off this time that you can get those payments down here?" "Oh, yes, sir, I can get them down." And so I never forgot that experience.

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Paying your debts on time. They have agencies now to send you an account of your credit rating. And if you pay it every month on time, they've got that there, or every bill you owe, you pay on, it's there.

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And your standing in the financial community is largely based on that kind of record or reputation. Here are two debtors, they borrowed in good faith no doubt, but they were unable to pay, unable. And they went to the creditor and he forgave them both.

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One owed 500 denarii and the other owed just 50 and he forgave them both. He was a gracious creditor. Many of us, when we loan something, we want it back on time with interest.

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I have a friend who wants 150% interest. And he gets it, he says. But here these brethren were unable to pay and the creditor forgives them the debt.

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the debt. You know, it's easy sometimes to get into debt. If you look at your mail, if you have good credit, they want to make it even better by letting you have more. So it's easy to get in to debt. In fact, one of the things you have to watch very closely is the credit card.

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You can get them so easy and find yourself submerged in debt. There are loan sharks who are just waiting and encouraging to get in debt.

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So the rich and the poor have debts to pay. And it is so hard to repay, many times, what has been borrowed. A dollar down, dollar weak, and it adds up. The debt we are unable to pay becomes a huge burden.

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And that's what happened to these men, both of them. And there is, in this situation, a conflict. This parable that Jesus tells is told in the midst of a dinner party.

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this Pharisee whose name is Simon had invited Jesus to dinner, and Jesus accepted the invitation, and he's reclining at the dinner,

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and a woman comes in. She just comes in off the street. She crashes the party. She hadn't been invited, and she comes in.

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This woman is a sinner. She has a reputation around town for being a sinner. She runs with the wrong crowd. She hangs out at the bars.

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She comes into this party. known as a sinner, but she comes in. Now this party is one that is arranged by Simon the Pharisee. And this Pharisee is known as many others were

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for his purity, his righteousness, his being holier than others. He demonstrated this in the clothes that he wore. He wore long flowing robes and he had a prayer shawl

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that he used and he prayed in the streets to attract attention so people could talk about what a pious man he was. And he has invited Jesus to dinner.

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And no doubt, maybe he expects to gain some knowledge, some ways that he may improve his piety by having Jesus for dinner. And this woman comes in off the street.

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She takes an alabaster box of perfume. So she takes, as we would say today, a bottle of perfume, very expensive. and pours it out on Jesus' feet and washes or dries it with her hair.

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And there were those there at this party who shook their heads. And Simon was one who murmured. You know how people can murmur? He says it to himself, if he knew who he was,

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what his name is, he wouldn't be accepting this sort of thing. This is awful. He says it to himself. But Jesus knows, Simon.

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And Jesus does not give him a tongue lashing. He only tells his little story. Simon? Yes, Lord.

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A certain creditor had two debtors and one of them owed him 500 denarii and another owed him 50 and neither could pay and he forgave them both. Which one loved him more? Well the one that he forgave the greatest sum.

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You're right, Simon. And Jesus sort of leaves it there for it to sink in to his mind and in his life. You know forgiveness is so hard for many of us. And I often hear people say, "I will never forgive him or I'll never forgive her.

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I'll never, never do that." So hard. And during this Lenten, or rather in this Advent season, when we are awaiting the coming of our Lord,

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it's good to know how he comes. And many times he comes through forgiveness. And if we are unable to forgive, we fail to recognize his coming.

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Because it may come and knock on the door of our lives, it knocks on the door of our hearts, and if we fail to forgive our brother or our sister, we will miss the joy of his coming.

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Forgiveness, forgiveness. Some people say, oh, forgiveness? I forgive and forget. Those words just roll off.

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No, no, no, no, no. Not forgive and forget. And we often tell people that you really haven't forgiven if you haven't been able to forget.

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Well, that's not true. We ought to be-- we seek forgiveness because we remember. That someone did something that I didn't like,

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that I considered unfair. and I want to go back into the past. I remember it in the present, but I want to go back into the past

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and be able to correct that. Given this. David and I were good friends and we were in school together, elementary school,

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and we had the habit of drawing names for Christmas gifts. And David drew my name. And his family was very poor, there were eight children in the family. And David gave me an old dirty tie.

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And he laughed about it. But the young lady who drew his name came from a better family and she gave him a very nice gift. And David was just laughing because I had this old tie. And I took that tie home and I put it up,

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and I never wore it, and kept it. It just so happened that the next year, I drew David's name. (audience laughing)

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And I gave him that tie. And many a wrestler like that, you know, we hold it, we keep it. And we have it right there,

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we keep it year in and year out. Forgiveness is something that we don't have to forget. Like one brother who loaned me $300 and I told him I'd pay him back in three months.

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And when I came to pay him back in three months, and I gave him the $300, he said, "What's this for, Reverend?" Now, most people are not like that. He didn't seem to remember that he had loaned it.

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But forgiveness involves remembering Because I remember how you treated me, how nasty you were, how mean you were, I remember and I'm willing to forgive you.

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Because of the grace of God that's in my life, I'm willing to forgive you. So it is not forgetting. You get no credit for forgiveness if you can't remember it.

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But it's having this wound that is there. And that wound has been there, and it's been very, very sore, but I still remember it.

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And it's healed up now, and I look on my shoulder and I see that wound, and I remember how I burned it as I was washing the dishes and came by the stove.

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But it's healed now, it doesn't hurt. It's remembering. It's remembering the goodness of God, it's remembering the grace of God,

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and this forgiveness, brothers and sisters, is costly. It's no cheap forgiveness. It costs you something to forgive, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer puts it,

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it's costly grace, not cheap grace. It's costly. It's costly in what we must endure, It's costly in the burden that we carry.

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It's costly. Costly grace. Being able to forgive these two creditors. One has gotten more than the other,

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but both are forgiven. conflict here, conflict between Pharisee and this woman who is a part of the group that we call the publican, conflict. But with God, all of us need forgiveness. All of us need forgiveness. He had disciples who were very close to him,

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and they walked with him all during his earthly ministry. But one of them denied him. Another betrayed him. And the one who betrayed him committed suicide

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because he didn't seek forgiveness. But the one who denied him, Jesus comes back even after the resurrection and says, "Peter, Peter, do you love me?"

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And they say he asked Peter that three times because he wanted to cancel out for the three times that he had denied it. God forgives, and we ought to forgive one another

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as he has forgiven us. I must close. But Christmas 1983 was flashed across the screen. That was a young man who tried to kill the pope.

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He shot him. Imagine this, a man who's revered by millions as the Holy Father, as the vicar of Christ. But this young man tried to kill him.

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But on this Christmas in 1983, the Pope went into this man's cell. He was of the Islamic faith, this young man was, and the Pope went into his cell and sat with him. He had his cassock on, cassock and his skullcap and all of that, and the Pope sat there and talked with him. And some laughing was heard to come from this young man while the Pope talked with him.

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The Pope came as a brother in Christ and to manifest his forgiveness. And they asked the Pope later, "What did you talk about?" And the Pope said, "I'm not to tell you that. It was just between the two of us." but they were reconciled. Imagine that, a man who tried to kill you, and you go into his cell and sit with him.

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Well, that's the way God does us. He comes into our cell right where we are, with all of the things that we have done against him. He comes, that's just where we are, and He forgives us. And He cancels the debt that we owe. Cancels the debt, isn't that wonderful?

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God cancels the debt, and if God cancels the debt, who can put it on you again? He cancels it. You can release this burden of guilt.

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God cancels the debt. I'm glad about that. I'm glad about it. Little boy said to his mother, "Mother, you owe me." And he wrote it on a piece of paper, said, "For being a good boy, 25 cents. For getting our lessons, 25 cents.

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And for washing the dishes, 25 cents. And then he went on down the list and added one other matter and said, the total is one dollar. Johnny is owed by mother one dollar. And so the mother answered it and she put it on his pillow. Johnny, mother kept you all during those

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early years, we brought you into the world, nursed you during all of your sickness, helped you with the lessons, took you to all of these extracurricular activities, and then she added up and said, "No charges." No charges.

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No charges, that's the way God has done us. Brought us into the world, watched over us all during the years. He healed us of our diseases, and made us a better person. No charges, that's the way God has done us.

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Brought us into the world, watched over us all during the years, healed us of our diseases, lifted us up when we had fallen, when we'd gone astray, he's brought us back.

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And then the one who comes to be with us, he said, "No charges." That's what Calvary means, no charges. Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe.

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and left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow. No charges. That's good news. And as we come to extend the invitation of the church,

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we invite you to accept this God who reveals himself through Jesus Christ, who says to each one of us, no matter what may be your condition, Calvary says you're forgiven.

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You're free to live your life, to be what God has designed you to be. No charges. We invite you to come.

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It's an open door he sets before every one of us. An opportunity to walk with God. Come. By letter, by Christian experience,

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or on profession of faith, come. The door of the church is open. (soft piano music) What a friend we have in Jesus

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All our sins and griefs to bear What a privilege to carry ♪ Everything to God in prayer ♪ ♪ Oh, what peace we often forfeit ♪

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♪ Oh, what needless pain we buy ♪ All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer Every trial and temptation

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Is there trouble anywhere? We just know that angels' courage Take it to the Lord in prayer Oh, when we find our friends so faithful,

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Oh, how our sorrows shall Jesus knows our every weakness. Take us to the Lord in prayer, All we make an heavy laden,

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♪ Come but with the Lord of care ♪ ♪ Precious Savior, give our refuge ♪ ♪ Take it to the Lord in prayer ♪ ♪ The Lord in prayer ♪

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[ Silence ] [BLANK_AUDIO] [ Silence ] [BLANK_AUDIO]

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[ Silence ] to be able to forgive ourselves, as well as to be able to forgive others. For you have told us in your word

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that except we forgive, we shall not receive forgiveness. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you.

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The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you peace now and forevermore. Amen. [MUSIC PLAYING]

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Excellent. Very excellent. [BLANK_AUDIO]