Sermon Video: The Faith needed to Forgive - Luke 17:1-6

What does it take to forgive, to truly forgive as we are required to do by God?  In this passage, Jesus speaks of sin, forgiveness, and faith and draws a connection between the three topics.  Sin is important in relation to forgiveness because if we took sin more seriously, and did more to help others when they struggle with it, there would ultimately be less sin that needed to be forgiven.  Jesus' teaching on forgiveness itself is very simple: If a brother or sister in Christ repents of their sin, we must forgive.  No caveats, no exceptions, and no circumstances of the situation are needed to render that verdict.  Because God forgives the repentant sinner, we must as well.  But what of the egregious sins, what of the persistent sins, must we forgive those too?  Jesus anticipates this objection and responds with a hypothetical seven sins, against you, scenario in one day.  In that case, Jesus concludes, if that brother follows up each instance of sin with repentance, we must still forgive after the seventh time.  In other words, God does not allow us to set time, repetition, or severity limits to our willingness to forgive, we must forgive.  How does faith connect to forgiveness?  The disciples responded to Jesus' command to forgive by saying, "Lord increase our faith!"  They thought they needed more faith to do as Jesus asked of them, and we would readily agree.  But to this request Jesus simply responds by illustrating the incredible power of a tine portion of faith in this world.  If mustard seed sized faith can uproot a tree and toss it into the sea, can't the faith that you already have, a normal and regular amount that it is, have the power to forgive?  We need faith to forgive, but not a saintly level of faith, just an ordinary amount, and that is something that every follower of Christ is already in possession of.  In the end, we ought to be confronting and combating sin, we must forgive for we have been commanded to, and we need to obey that command by living by faith.

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