Sunday 05/10/26 – Adams Village Baptist Church
Sermon Title: (Mother’s Day) “The Rehabilitation (Extending Grace to Others)” – “The Anatomy of a Second Chance” Sermon Series (Part 4 of 4) – Matthew 18:21-35, Colossians 4:1-6
(Cover
Picture)
Friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, welcome once again
on this Mother’s Day Sunday, this Baptism Sunday, and this Church World Service
Blanket Sunday. Did I miss something else!? Busy Sunday here for sure, but a
blessed Sunday! Amen!
Today we honor Mothers, Grandmothers, Great Grandmothers,
Aunts, etc. Today we honor all women who have and continue to have an influence
in the lives of others. On one of the back tables here in the church sanctuary,
we have books marks for all women that you can put up on your fridge at home,
or whatever you want to use them for! I also have some up on the piano in front
of the sanctuary, by the session/fellowship room door. Feel free to take a
couple of them or give one away. These bookmarks have the first part of the
verse of scripture from the Book of Proverbs 31:28 on them that says this:
“28 Her
children arise and call her blessed;” (Prov. 31:28, NRSV).
In fact, the entire Old Testament or Hebrew Bible Book of
Proverbs is often referred to as the “Book of Wisdom,” as it tells us many wise
things. Further, in the Book of Proverbs, wisdom is always referred to as a
woman. I remembered learning this in seminary, as I did not know this. I got
home and told Melissa, “In the Book of Proverbs wisdom is always a woman, not a
man.” She then smiled and asked me, “and this is a surprise to you?” The last or
thirty-first chapter of the Book of Proverbs discusses a mother, a wife, and
all virtuous women and their strength.
I also understand that some here this morning of watching online
might not have had a good mother, and if this applies to you, think of all
those great women this day that have helped to love and shape you. Further, I
challenge all of us, if we have Facebook to put a picture up of mom, grandma,
or any woman that has grown, loved, and shaped you.
This Sunday is also Baptism Sunday, as Pastor Paul likes to
put ten-pounds of potatoes in five-pound bag! As it is, it just happened to
work out this way, but we get to honor mothers and all women, and then some of
our kids will get baptized right after this message, and two will join our
church.
This morning though, I am completing our four-week sermon
series called “The Anatomy of a Second Chance.” This medical or surgery-oriented
sermon series, is the idea of failing, turning to God for forgiveness, living
in grace, and finally today “The Rehabilitation
(Extending Grace to Others).” We talked about how the Prophet Jonah failed, and
he turned to God. His medical or spiritual diagnosis of failure, then leads us
to our “surgery” or our repentance and turning to God. When the spiritual
surgery is over, we then go into the post-surgery recovery room to live in
God’s grace. Today we go through the Physical Therapy or the “rehabilitation”
of “Extending Grace to Others”
As I said
last Sunday, a good definition of the word “Grace” is this:
“the free, unmerited favor and love
of God, often described as divine assistance, mercy, or pardon” (https://www.google.com/search?q=definition+of+grace).
You see, we all
fail, we all sin, and this diagnosis of failure ends with us turning to Jesus.
We fall short, we go to Him, we are given grace, amazing grace, and then we can
extend that grace to others around us. For if God loves us unconditionally,
which God does, and if Jesus will always forgive us if we turn to Him
sincerely, then how amazing is God’s Grace? In fact, one of the lofty ideas of
the Ordinance of Baptism, is that Baptism was given to us or “Ordained by
Christ.” When we go into the waters of baptism, we symbolically die to
ourselves. We then rise up to new spiritual life. We give Jesus our sin, our
guilt, our shame, and our doubts, and our very lives, and we spiritually die
with him, and rise up a new creation. For those getting baptized this morning,
when you go under the water, give Jesus everything, and come up a new creation.
Rise up in amazing grace!
Even though
baptism is a symbol, an ordinance, it is an opportunity for spiritual
transformation and rebirth. It is an opportunity to declare before this church,
this assembly that you believe in and love Jesus Christ. It is an opportunity
to say that not only do we love Jesus, but we want to live and love like Him.
We do full immersion or “dunking” as many of my new Baptist friends call it,
because that is the way that Jesus was baptized. I even have some water from
the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized, some of the same water source will
be the baptism waters this morning. What an amazing and grace-filled day this
is! Amen!
So once again, today
we honor mothers and women, today we have baptisms, and we are also selling CWS
blankets. As God changes us, and we turn to Jesus, we are offered grace. We get
to live in grace, and we also get to “Extend Grace to Others.” My mother Susan
is a great mother, and is combination of love and grace, and if I slip up fear
and terror. I told her what I was preaching on this morning, and at that she
went on and on, on the phone about some guy and what a foolish thing he had
done that day. After she said all of that, she then asked, “Well how are you
are going to preach this sermon Paul?” I then said, “Well I was going to tell
the church about all the love and grace you given me over the years, but I
think I will leave the story that you just told me out!” My mother Susan, and
many other women in my life, both past and present, among many other things
have taught me the importance and the value of “Extending Grace to Others.”
Some of the women here have already taught me a clinic in “Extending Grace to
Others.” On this Mother’s Day I have to say that I love all of the women of
this church, and like my mother Susan some of you I might also have a little
bit of fear and terror of some of you too.
This morning then, I want to talk
briefly about “Practical Ways to Extend God’s Grace to Others”
(Practical
Ways to Extend God’s Grace to Others - Picture)
Before jumping into this
though, I just want to mention briefly our scriptures for this morning. In our
reading from Matthew 18:21-35 that I read a few minutes ago, we hear first in
Matthew 18:21-22 about forgiveness.
(Seventy
Times Seven Times - Picture)
This is what it says:
Forgiveness
21 Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ 22 Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times (Mt. 18:21-22, NRSV).
If go to Jesus, and if He forgives us over and over, we are
given grace. We are then called to extend that grace to everyone around us.
This means we have to forgive everyone. This is not always easy to do, but if
Jesus offers all of forgiveness, and over and over, and we are challenged to
forgive and extend grace to everyone, with no exceptions. You see candidates
for baptism this morning and soon to be new members, coming to Christ, being
baptized in Christ, is amazing, impressive, but it is the easy part. The
challenge for us for the rest our of our earthly lives to then live and love
like Jesus. Now we have to love our neighbor, but as you have heard me say this,
we do not have to like all of our neighbors, but we have to love everyone. We
are called to not hold grudges, to turn the other cheek, and to forgive. To
live and love like Jesus Christ is often so counter to our culture, but this is
the Christian life. This is how we continue to change and how the world around
us will change too.
(Mercy For
Me, But Not For Thee - Picture)
In Matthews 18:23-35 for this morning, we have the parable
or story of “The Unforgiving Servant”. In this parable or story from Jesus, a
man is forgiven an astronomical debt by his king. The servant owed his king ten
thousand talents, and one single talent would be about 75-100 pounds of gold,
silver, or some sort of other money or something valuable. One talent in the
time of Jesus would be the average pay for 15-20 years of work, and yet this
servant owed ten-thousand talents. This debt was impossible to pay.
The
Parable of the Unforgiving Servant
23 ‘For this reason,
the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts
with his slaves. 24 When he began the reckoning, one who
owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; 25 and,
as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife
and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made (Mt. 18:23-25,
NRSV)
The king initially wanted
to sell this man who owed ten-thousand talents, which was impossible to pay
back. He also wanted to sell this wife and children, and everything they owned.
They would work the rest of their lives and never pay it all back.
Just then though, the king’s servant who
owed so much fell to knees and begged the king to be patient with this. Out of
mercy and compassion the king, just like that the king forgave the man’s whole
debt.
26 So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.” 27 And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt (Mt. 18:26-27, NRSV).
After this though, this forgiven slave then when out and
grabbed another slave that owed him a very small debt. The slave that owed
ten-thousand talents was forgiven, yet he would not forgive the small debt of
another slave. This slave also pleaded with the forgiven servant or slave, as
he had just done before the king. The forgive slave or servant had the slave
that owed him much less to be thrown into prison until the small debt was paid.
Yet other fellow slaves saw this happening and went and told the king that
forgiven the slave ten-thousand talents.
28 But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow-slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, “Pay what you owe.” 29 Then his fellow-slave fell down and pleaded with him, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you.” 30 But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he should pay the debt. 31 When his fellow-slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place (Mt. 18:28-31, NRSV).
The king then summons to man back who he forgave a massive
amount of debt to, and because he did not have mercy and forgiveness over the
other slave who owed much less, the king handed him over to be tortured until
all ten-thousand talents were paid back.
32 Then his lord summoned him and said to him, “You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Should you not have had mercy on your fellow-slave, as I had mercy on you?” 34 And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he should pay his entire debt (Mt. 18:32-34, NRSV).
Jesus then ends this story or parable of
the “Unforgiving Servant” in the Matthew 18:35 saying:
35 So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart’ (Mt. 18:35, NRSV).
Brothers and sisters, candidates for baptism and soon to be
new members of the Adams Village Baptist Church, are we withholding forgiveness
this morning? Do have grudges, anger, or other things that we have not
surrendered to Jesus? Baptism and church membership are amazing and
transformative, but are we committed to becoming more and more like Jesus? This
is the Christian life, it is what we are all striving for, to become fully like
Jesus.
One of my heroes was wrongly imprisoned/held in captivity
for twenty-seven years but then became the first black president of the country
of South Africa. His name, Nelson Mandela.
(Nelson
Mandela - Picture)
Why was Nelson Mandela
held for twenty-seven years? Well because the way the Southern part of the
United States used to have segregation between blacks and whites, South Africa
had apartheid, which was basically the same thing in that country. Nelson
Mandela envisioned a country who no segregation, no apartheid. After being
released from twenty-seven years of imprisonment/captivity, this is what
Mandela said: above picture. As our candidates for baptism and our soon to be
new member experience all of this, may we all come to Christ anew, may we
forgive, and may we continue to strive to be more like Jesus.
(Colossians
4:6 - Picture)
Finally in our Colossian 4:1-6 reading for this morning, we
hear:
4 1 Masters,
treat your slaves justly and fairly, for you know that you also have a Master
in heaven.
Further
Instructions
2 Devote yourselves
to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving. 3 At the
same time pray for us as well that God will open to us a door for the word,
that we may declare the mystery of Christ, for which I am in prison, 4 so
that I may reveal it clearly, as I should. 5 Conduct yourselves
wisely towards outsiders, making the most of the time. 6 Let
your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how
you ought to answer everyone.
The Christian life, the life of following Jesus is not
always easy, but there is nothing more loving, transformative, and grace filled
than knowing Jesus. We all continue to fall, Jesus picks us back up, He
forgives, give us grace, and then we are called to “Extend Grace to Others.”
Brothers and sisters, and to our candidates for baptism and church members, are
you willing to devout your life to being like and living like Jesus, know that
we will still fall, still stumble, and still make mistakes?
(Extend
Grace – Hebrews 12:15- Picture)
So how do we do this?
Here are some application points to help us along the way.
Key
Aspects of Extending Grace
·
Unconditional Forgiveness: Extending grace means
forgiving others without requiring them to "earn" it, similar to how
God forgives.
·
Empathy in Difficult Times: Compassionately
considering the stress or burdens others are carrying, rather than reacting to
their failures.
·
Active Kindness: Responding to rudeness or wrongdoing
with a calm spirit and gentle words.
·
Assuming the Best: Choosing to think the best of
people rather than jumping to conclusions about their motivations.
Practical
Ways to Extend Grace
·
Listen Without Judgment: Allow others to share their
stories without immediately offering advice or criticism.
·
Speak with Gentleness: Use words that build up and
encourage, rather than tearing down.
·
Offer Second Chances: Follow the example of Barnabas,
who gave Mark a second chance, rather than holding on to past failures.
·
Pray for Others: Actively pray for those who have
wronged you or who are in demanding situations.
· Look for Needs: Actively seek opportunities to serve those who are struggling, providing practical help.
Today,
we are thankful for mothers, for all women, for baptisms, church membership,
and the amazing grace of God in Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
(Baptism
Sunday - Picture)
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