Tonight, we turn in the Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew. I invite you to turn to Matthew chapter 18. And we're at sort of a standstill series-wise. I completed the study of the Lord's Prayer in the Heidelberg and also Romans. And we'll be starting a new study here in a few weeks. And so tonight I thought we would do something that Jesus does after the Lord's Prayer. And I think you'll see the connection as we look at this and how important this is and then understand why I chose Matthew chapter 18 tonight. So that is on page 1046 in your pew Bibles if you're still looking for that. Matthew chapter 18, and we will read verses 15 to the end of the chapter. Let's give our attention tonight to the word of the Lord. If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you've gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. Then Peter came up and said to him, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him as many as seven times. Jesus said to him, I do not say to you seven times, but 77 times. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had in payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, have patience with me and I will pay you everything. And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii and seizing him, he began to choke him saying, pay what you owe. So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, have patience with me and I will pay you. He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servant saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, you wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you? And in anger, his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word. I just heard Bibles go back into pews. I don't like that sound. Can you take those back out. I'm going to have you look at a few other things tonight. We just concluded our study of the Lord's Prayer. Jesus said a lot in that prayer, didn't He? Jesus said a lot about how to pray and what to pray for and emphases and things that were really beautiful and really powerful, and I'm so thankful that He taught us to pray a certain way. There was a lot in that prayer. Hallowed be Thy name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Have you ever thought what was most important to him in that prayer? Bad question. It's all important. Let me rephrase that. Did you ever wonder which one he knew we would emphasize the least? Better question. Did you ever think about which particular request and the emphasis in it that he knew that we would put over here? Everyone, if you have your Bibles, turn to Matthew chapter 6. And in Matthew chapter 6, you have his teaching on prayer. When they had asked Jesus to teach them to pray, it was a wonderful request. Teach us to pray. And Jesus gives this elsewhere that had happened. And Jesus here teaches them how to pray. Pray them like this. And you go through this. We went through this. You pick up at verse 11. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Now, after the Lord's prayer, what does he say? Very next thing. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. that's the very thing that he raises right after the teaching on the Lord's Prayer. Number one thing. Why? Why does he do that? I mean, a simple answer is to say, well, this means a lot to him. Yeah, it means a lot to him. But he knows something about us. And I believe Jesus did this on purpose because he knew in the teaching on prayer that when we come to that petition where it says, forgive us our debts, we would just view the next part as kind of an addendum that's not that important. As we also have forgiven our debtors. Well, did you notice how he presented that? Did you notice? Just even a reading of that in English here, you're going to pick up something that's fascinating. Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors, as our translation says, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Notice the construction, forgive us as we forgive. He presented it saying, you can pray in your prayers, you can ask the Lord, you should ask the Lord to forgive your sins. But you're asking Him to do that as you in the course of your life are already demonstrating that. You're demonstrating that presently by forgiving one another. It's a remarkable thing, isn't it? It's powerful. And I say he did that on purpose because it's a little bit confusing to our minds, isn't it? It's a little bit confusing to our minds from the lesser to the greater. This is one of the reasons I preached it like this tonight. We're celebrating the forgiveness of sins this week and the passion. But I wanted to start here this Sunday to demonstrate and go from the lesser to the greater. But I want you to notice, I want you to think about why tonight. Jesus here did this on purpose because, yes, this would be one of the single great marks that identifies a true Christian. This would be one of the single great marks that demonstrates sincerity of Christianity, but also one of the single great marks that would, in turn, also expose the hypocrite. And you think of something like Luke 11, 4, forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. Notice again, the same thought that Jesus uses. Can you see him looking at the Pharisee when he did that? Can you see him looking at massive hypocrisy in Israel? It was a test because anyone who could genuinely pray and ask for forgiveness is somebody with a what? A contrite heart who understands forgiveness, who understands what it is. And you have to understand what you're asking for. He knew they weren't forgiving one another and they themselves had not known the love of Jesus Christ. I'm not talking about his disciples. talking about people, the religious leaders. And the Sermon on the Mount is very specific in addressing certain problems. And in a sense, this was testing the sincerity of prayer because forgiveness of others is an effect and a sign that God has forgiven us. And that's the purpose of tonight's sermon. We enter into a week of considering the passion and the death. And tonight's sermon. Let it be a great kind of test. Let it be a great kind of test of whether or not we're paying lip service to what we're celebrating this coming week. Let it be a kind of test whether we're going to come and sit and think about the passion and the resurrection and ask ourselves, do we really believe it? And how do we know that we believe it? What are the fruits that we believe it? We are proclaiming the Lord's death this week in the supper until He comes. And the question that tonight's text challenges us with is to ask, am I actively, actively forgiving others? Let's answer that by looking at our Lord's teaching on forgiveness and then we'll come back to Matthew 6 and see it again in that light no place better than Matthew chapter 18 to look at the forgiveness the teaching of Jesus on forgiveness and you'll remember in Matthew chapter 18 as we read that passage there was a question that is really the heart that drives this whole section here and it's when Peter came up to Jesus on after his plain teachings on how to deal with somebody who offends you. And Peter comes up to him in verse 21 and Peter asks Jesus a very interesting question to say the least. Because I think you have to get behind it a little bit. Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times? And you pause and you ask, well, what motivated that? What motivated peter to come up and ask that well it was undoubtedly provoked he came to jesus because something was on his mind and what was on his mind was what jesus had just said about how to deal with somebody who sinned against you the sinning brother and you'll notice that there you have to go back and when you look in in chapter 18 and then you pick up again at verse 15 he starts and he says, if your brother sins against you. And he then goes on and he outlines this kind of three-step process in dealing with somebody who sins against you. In verse 15, he says, if your brother sins against you, what do you do? You go and you tell him his fault. Between you and him alone, you never run around and make any kind of public phone call about it. You go to him. And if he listens to you, you've gained him. I love that. You'll notice that if there's a known sin against you, it's really troubled your conscience. Somebody's done something wrong. Jesus says, don't wait for them. No, no, no. No, you don't wait for them to come to you. I don't want that. I want you instead to go to them. You go to them. And you say up front, well, right out of the gates, you understand why there's so much conflict among Christians that gets and remains unresolved. That's the most neglected thing in the life of the church that I have ever witnessed. We don't do this. You've been offended. You go. And you kind of understand that if we really have love and love really cares about somebody, if you believe somebody has sinned, you don't want to let them continue in sin that grace may abound, right? You don't want to let them continue to do something that offends the Lord. Love means it covers a multitude of sins. And part of that covering is to go and to help that brother through what he's done so that he doesn't continue to offend the Lord, which is the greater concern, isn't it? So Jesus raises this serious obligation for us to go to the sinning brother. You go to him. You go. And Jesus says the goal is always that you restore the relationship. If he hears you, you've gained your brother. What a beautiful thing. Don't you love that? Isn't that always the goal that there's peace and joy and reconciliation and love between brothers. Go to them. That's the goal. You don't want the relationship destroyed. And I've always said there is a kind of sick, perverse, twisted thing in us that loves to ruminate on the inside and feed off of anger toward one another. It's of the devil. You got to get it out. The goal is to win him. Well, then Jesus says, if he won't hear you, what do you do? You take somebody else. And finally, he says, if he refuses to hear you, tell it to the church. And by the way, you know, it kind of presupposes some kind of membership, doesn't it? What good would it be for somebody, Johnny, down the road for me to go tell it to the church? It presupposes. Jesus is operating from the assumption that there's some kind of commitment at a local level in the body of Christ. So if the church then, if he won't listen to the church, Jesus says, let him be a heathen and a tax collector, his status changes. He no longer is a brother. He's on the outside. So that's the three-step kind of process. And Jesus says, it's really fascinating in what follows, he says, when a church does this, I validate that. In other words, if somebody's sinning and this is honored and it really gets to the way we try to handle sin in the life of the church, I validate it. And you'll notice there's that verse there that says, where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them. Everyone universally across the board applies that to personal Bible study. That's not really it. He's saying, when the church does its job and disciplines, I'm there with them. I side with them. I don't side with the person who's run amok and done their own thing, even though they always say God's on their side when they're running. I side with the church. So, that's the teaching. Pretty clear? I think it's pretty clear. It's hard to implement. That's a different issue, isn't it? But the teaching is relatively clear. I think it's crystal clear. And you kind of follow up and you say, well, can you imagine if we followed that in love, not in abuse. Here comes Peter. Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? To seven times? Now, notice the issue is not whether he needs to go through the process. He needs, he hurt Jesus. You've got to go to your brother. And if we forget that Jesus said that, you can really miss the context here. Peter's accepted that. Okay, I've got to go to my sinning brother. Jesus just said, I'm obligated to go to him and to love him. Peter's concern really centers on this statement. If your brother sins against you, the verb is future. In other words, you kind of get the sense here, what if he keeps on doing it, right? What if He keeps on sinning? Do you really expect me to keep on doing this? We've all known people in our lives who, you know, it's like a broken record. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And, you know, at some point you start wondering, I don't really know if I believe that. I don't really know if I believe that you're sorry. And they may come to you and they've had a bad past and they're so unstable. Peter says, well, there's got to be a point. There's got to be a point where that's enough. I think it's helpful at this point to remember that the word forgiveness means what? Let it go. Let it go. To let go of the offense so that whatever the offense was, it no longer has any obligation. In other words, the goal of a restored relationship is there so you have released the person of the death that was incurred, the offense that was incurred by the wrongful action against you. You've let it go. It's gone, gone, gone, gone. Does that, Lord, forgiveness have a limit? I agree that sin should be forgiven over and over and over and over. It helps a little bit to know the rabbinical tradition. In the Jewish tradition, the rabbis were teaching, you only needed to forgive somebody three times. As a matter of fact, Amos, there are verses that they would use to justify that. Thus says the Lord, for three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they've threshed Gilead with implements of iron. He goes on, 1.6. For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four I will not turn away its punishment. And Amos 1.9, thus says the Lord, for three transgressions, or for four. Listen to Rabbi Hosea ben Judah in AD 180. If a brother sins against you once, forgive him. A second time, forgive him. A third time, forgive him. But a fourth time, do not forgive him. Standard teaching in Israel. Rabbi Hosea ben Hanina said this, he who begs forgiveness from his neighbor must not do so more than three times. You find this, this teaching in the Jewish writings and it's prevalent throughout the Jewish writings. And Peter knows of it. He's a part, knows the tradition. How often, Lord? I'll tell you what, I'm going to extend this a little bit. Seven times. We know you're generous. We've understood the importance of seven. How many times? Up to seven times. You almost hear, maybe there was some enthusiasm in this. Seven? Surely, we've come to know your mercy. We have experienced it. Surely, you would want us to go beyond the present day thinking of three times. Seven. And then in verse 22, Jesus drops the bomb. Jesus said to him, I do not say to you seven times, but 70 times seven. Have you ever had somebody over and over come to you and say, I can't believe what so-and-so did to me. I can't believe what so-and-so is doing to me. Jesus just turned everything. If you look at conventional wisdom and how we think and how we are to deal with people, everything is turned on its head. Notice how radical the teaching is. He's not saying at some point you can stop. He's saying that forgiveness absolutely is indefinite. There's no limit to that. There's no saying, huh, I don't think so. The very character, the very kind of person that is set apart to Christ and belongs to the kingdom of God is to return good when he's received evil indefinitely, always. Our entire lives are characterized as Christians by constant forgiveness, constant letting go, not holding it against anyone. I mean, can you imagine if, you know, it's like one pastor said, if I, asking how often I should love my wife, she says that you get three wrongs and then you don't have to love or you don't have to forgive. I'm never to stop loving. I'm always to forgive. There's no counting. That's the wrong spirit. When I read that, I'm struck with the fact that Peter is really dealing with something that I do believe is complex for us to understand because Christians have, in a teaching on forgiveness, have struggled with this for a long time. And the issue here is, how then do I go to my brother as forgiving or waiting for him to ask? That's the lingering question that's in our minds. I read an article recently of an author who said we just need to stop after some terrible murder running around in society just announcing forgiveness to everyone when they're not even sorry. And I resonate with that. I get really irritated when people are just running around announcing forgiveness when there's no remorse or no sorrow. But the article, it seemed to me, needed to go further. Jesus says something here. If someone has sinned against you, you have an obligation to go to him. So here's the scenario. Someone's sinned against you. And the asking for forgiveness by the one who has offended you hasn't yet occurred. Peter understood the implications of that. You see what he's struggling with. You know how hard it is to go to somebody who's sinning when they are hardened in the sin. Most, 99% of the times, you and your mind are thinking, they're going to blow up. They're going to hate you. They're going to be angry. Why go and why do I forgive them if that's the attitude that comes out when I go to them? And this is the standard struggle of forgiveness. Do I forgive them? Do I let it go when their attitude is that? Do I let it go when they remain belligerent and angry and hard and they keep reading off lists of my own sin? I'm going to give you an early answer to this. The punch of this whole parable is the last verse. The punch of the parable is the last verse. Look at it. Verse 35. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from the heart. It's powerful. It's well beyond verbal. Verbal's important. Forgiveness is not so much a lip reality as it is a heart reality. It's not just saying, I forgive you. It's truly letting it go from the heart. win. In other words, how could you ever go to your brother with a right mindset to reclaim him if you haven't done that? Impossible. You could never go to your brother and point out his offense if you're angry with him. Want to see a fight? Let that happen. You got to let it go from the heart before you go. Verbal comes. Oh, sure. Verbal comes when they ask, but from the heart. And you see how it requires a born-again heart. This is why the teaching is so complex for the natural man to read this. You can't do this without a born-again heart. It's impossible to do it unless you're born again. The natural man's heart is always doing what? Harboring anger, storing up anger, treasuring up wrath, hating and growing in the hatred. Our natural response is to want satisfaction today. Our natural response is to want vengeance now. That's what makes money in Hollywood. Our standard is to return evil for evil, but it's not the Lord's. You might think of the stoning of Stephen. Nobody asked Stephen as they're hitting him with the stones. Will you forgive me? Lord, from the heart, forgive them. As a stone clunks them in the head. That's the heart. That's the attitude. A lot of people give verbal expression to forgiveness. But on the inside, they've never let it go. I don't know how many times I've heard people say in the course of the ministry, I just can't forgive so-and-so. And I think, have you never listened to our Lord? You don't know what you're saying. You're essentially saying, I'm not born again. And so Jesus then drives home the parable to make the point, to hit it hard, to drive the dagger in. Look at verse 23. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees imploring him, have patience with me and I'll pay you everything. This was a very wealthy and powerful king. And he had all these servants who labored in his kingdom while this one servant, I mean, notice here, there were great officers in the king's government and what happens is the lord here uh presents to us this servant who had an unimaginable debt i mean this is this is off the charts what is the average american debt today credit card debt's 15 000 average american home is like 230 it's the average. If anyone here was a hundred million in debt, you ever think you'd come to the point in life where you're never going to pay it off? You know, it's just not going to happen. That's what Jesus is saying. This man had accumulated so much debt, humanly speaking, absolutely impossible to pay this. There's no way in this life it could get done. A talent in the ancient world was of great value, and the parable Jesus speaks of him as owing 10,000 talents to the king. One pastor translates that as being worth today. I didn't do all the math, but I think it's right. I don't know why I think it's right. I'm not a good mathematician, but I'm assuming it's right. $3 billion. The amount was so great, I couldn't pay it back. Feel the atrocity of this. The king says, sell him. Notice this. Sell him with his wife and his children so that payment to be made. I don't know that there could be any feeling of disgust or what emotion comes out of you when you think about you being put up on the block and your family next to you and you all go in different ways being sold. That is the worst possible emotion that comes to my mind. Terrible. And it's happened. And the proceeds of the sale would go towards paying the debt. That's a horror I can't imagine. Jesus highlights that two extremes occur here. The servant falls before him in verse 26 and he uses a word for worship here. he is prostrate he is worshiping God and he is bowing down in great reverence master have patience with me I'll pay you all what in the world are you saying man you're not paying this back I'll pay you all the guy's arrogant seems rash to me and then comes one of the most beautiful lines in the parable. And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him. Let it all go. Now, the teaching is clear. In the beginning portion of the parable, Jesus is highlighting the mercy of God. And putting this in general terms, which is what the parable calls us to do, everyone by nature owes to God beyond comprehension. You have amassed a debt none of you could ever pay, ever. How many sins do you commit in the course of your life? If I just gave you 50 a day, boys and girls, you have millions. God's justice demands that one renders you guilty for hellfire. God had every right to sell us. God had every right to cast us into hell. God had every right to put an end to us. God had every right to cast us all in so that we eternally in Adam suffer the vengeance of hellfire. And I don't think we talk about that enough. And yet, from Genesis 3.15, God has made a glorious gospel announcement that you're going to celebrate this week. Gospel announcement that He gave His Son to be the propitiation, to satisfy His wrath, so that people can be forgiven. And He sent His Son to die on the cross to pour out upon us forgiveness and release. Why are you here today? Well, you came for a reason. You came to bow down. You came to worship. You came to ask the Lord for patience. You came to worship Him in the beauty of His holiness because you believe He's given you access. Do you ever thought about what that cost? You have a great debt that was paid. Jesus accentuates this fact. What does He do for the Christian? He forgives it. How valuable is a drop of the blood of Christ when you see Him this week going to the cross and being beaten and scourged, open and naked before the judgment throne, bearing and wearing your shame. Well, notice the king didn't... You know, you look at what he says here. He forgives the debt. He wipes it out. And then comes the pain of the parable. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him 100 denarii. And seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, pay what you owe. So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, have patience with me, and I'll pay you. He goes out and he finds someone who owes him how much? A hundred denarii. $4,000. $4,000. That's it. The amount was nothing compared to the talents. Mass hypocrisy. You feel it? He refused to forgive. He grabs him by the neck and he casts him into prison. Pay what you owe. Jesus uses the same word in verse 29 that the man used in speaking to the king and begging him to have patience. His utter disregard for the king's forgiveness is astounding. Servants, did you notice the consequence of this that Jesus threw in there to provoke? The servants are all, what, grieved by this. The lack of forgiveness disrupted the whole community. You wicked, says the king's servant. I forgave you all that debt. You begged me. Would you not have had compassion on your fellow servant as I had pity on you? And his master was angry and delivered him to the tormentors until he should pay to the jailer until he should pay all that back. Never going to happen. What a powerful, powerful parable that ends in verse 35. So my heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother's trespasses. Now, I looked at this tonight and I thought, you guys have probably heard this a hundred times in the course of your lives. It's not unclear. I'm not telling you anything new. It's a giant reminder, isn't it? But the point of it never gets old. How did your week go? Well, if you're honest, you did some bad things and you went to the Lord and you said, forgive me. And you came here and this morning he declared to you forgiveness. And you know what's amazing about it? It amazes me because the reason he's telling us to forgive is because what do we receive in this life? You ever think that I keep doing the same old sin, same old sin, same old sin. It's the experience of all of us. Same old sin. I'm like a broken record. There's got to be a point at which he says, that's enough. Got to be a point. And you struggle with that. You struggle with wondering, is there a point at which God says with me, because I keep doing this stuff, that's enough. But what does he say? Come to me. And 70 times seven, I'll wipe it out. I'll forgive you. And this sermon has a kind of David and Nathan moment when David was furious and that little parable was told to him and Nathan says, you are that man. I've heard people say to me, somebody has done something so wrong they cannot forgive. I was reading William Perkins. I'm going to close here. I was reading William Perkins the other day. He has a directory for examining the conscience. And I was stunned what I read. He goes through things that show the breaking of the commandments. And in the sixth commandment, he said this. The breaking of the sixth commandment, that person who will forgive but not forget. What's the one thing we all run around saying? I may forgive him, but I'm not forgetting. The Lord does not do that with you. That's an awful thing to say because it demonstrates something still wicked in the heart. Lord, how often do I forgive? Up to seven times what Jesus is doing here is teaching that there is an unbreakable connection tonight. between God's forgiveness of our sins and our forgiveness of the sins of others. If you're truly forgiven, you will forgive. And as you are going along and forgiving, God will still continue to forgive yours. It's a circle. When Jesus was teaching that in Matthew 6, he was looking at the whole picture. He's looking at the Christian praying in constant struggle when he looks at his disciples and says, as you've been taught to forgive, as I've demonstrated that, now in your lives, as you're learning that and forgiving, I'm going to continue, as you demonstrate that, to forgive you. That relationship is that tight. And it demonstrates fruit, genuine fruit from the good root of faith from that tree. And let me just say, this is the best remedy for your hearts. Unforgiveness is the way to destroy your life. It's the way to fill your life with a rot of madness. And it grows, trust me. It grows and it grows. And I've seen what madness does to people. I'm not talking, I'm talking about madness in the heart rotting. It'll eat you up. But the best remedy, the best remedy for an angry, troubled heart is coming, receiving from Christ the wonderful news of forgiveness, absolutely. But also the joy, and I emphasize joy, of going out and demonstrating and becoming like your Lord and forgiving one another. It's not an easy thing. Nobody ever said anything easy about the Christian life. It's hard. But Colossians tells us, bear with one another, forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint, Listen to this, against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. One pastor said, you don't need to climb up to heaven to see whether your sins are forgiven. Look into your hearts and see whether you can forgive others. And that's the point. Be encouraged tonight. The fruit of loving and forgiving is an evidence of grace. It's an evidence of his work. It's an abiding testimony that he has been moved with compassion towards you, that he has released you, that he's forgiven the debt, and that he's continued that work in you as it is spilling over in your love for one another. May the weight of Christ's forgiveness weigh upon us today as we go in and celebrate this week the passion and death of our Lord. And as we go along, may we forgive one another since that's what He has announced to us all of our lives. Amen. Heavenly Father, we bow the head in thanksgiving tonight, but also in repentance, confessing a certain sin, a sin that in the course of our lives we have harbored toward our own brethren bitterness and anger. And we have let it store up. And we say that we have sinned greatly against the sixth commandment. And we ask that you would forgive us for that. And that as we go along this week, we would demonstrate forgiving of one another as we anticipate having announced to us on Friday and Saturday the forgiveness of our sins. would it already be so? When we walk in here Friday and Saturday to worship you, that that disposition from the heart has already been demonstrated as we hear over and over and over again of your unwavering, relentless love that cannot be taken from us. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.