Posts Tagged ‘the Springs’

I have found the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18 to be very instructive about the magnitude of God’s forgiveness and how that should affect my relationships with others.  The first servant owed his master 10,000 talents.  A talent was equivalent to at least 1,000 denarii (some sources estimate the talent may actually be as high as 6,000 denarii).  Based on some of the other parables (e.g. Matt. 20:1-16) we take the denarius as a day’s wages for a laborer.  So, if we work out the math, we find that the first servant owed his master 10,000,000 (ten million) denarii.  So when the servant begs his master to be patient and he will pay off the debt, how long will it take him to make this much money?  Well, if we divide the 10 million denarii by 365 days in the year (we’ll assume the servant never takes a day off because he’s working so hard to pay off his debt), we find that it will take him 27,397 years!  If we assume that he has 80 working years in his life, then it will take him over 342 lifetimes to earn this much money!!  (And this is assuming that he saves everything he makes… no spending on food, clothes, housing, etc).  Clearly there is no way that this servant or his family can ever pay this debt.  To me, this indicates that we are supposed to laugh at this servant when he begs for patience until he can pay his debt.  This is an impossible debt that cannot ever be repayed.  And yet, isn’t this just how we often approach Christ and His offer of forgiveness to us?  How pitiful must it seem to Him when we offer to earn our salvation or in any sense try to repay Him for His sacrifice on the cross?

It is also instructive to look at the amount of money the second servant owed the first servant.  The debt of 100 denarii would be about four months wages (100 denarii divided by a 6-day working week gives 16.67 weeks).  To get a modern equivalent for this number, let’s take a 7.50/hr minimum wage and a 40 hour working week gives the salary of a modern “laborer” at around $300 per week, which means the second servant owed the first servant a sum roughly equivalent to about $5000 in today’s currency!  This is quite a substantial sum of money and not something that can just be brushed under the rug!  To me, I hear Jesus saying in this passage that even when we have serious grievances against others, when they have hurt us terribly, when they owe us a significant debt, we are to remember that we have been forgiven an impossible debt and show the same mercy and kindness to others that Christ has showed to us.  In this regard, Colossians 3:13 speaks volumes to me: “forbearing one another and forgiving one another, if any one has a complaint (or quarrel) against another, as Christ has forgiven you, so you must forgive.”  Too often I find myself needing to forgive others for petty offenses and things that really are not significant complaints, but this verse reminds me that even when I have a serious complaint against someone, I should remember the magnitude of Christ’s forgiveness to me and extend the same to others.

By Daniel Barr

For more information about the Life Pacific College Open House, on Friday, February 26, please follow these links:

Facebook

Life Pacific Website

Hope to see you there!

I would like to encourage all parents who attend first service with their children to stay for the beginning of our children’s Praise and Worship service that starts at 10:45 in the Pipeline room.  Great fellowship, music, prayer time, and a mini sermon by Pastor Angie.  First Sunday of the month come and experience Prasie & Worship by our new team of students led by none other than Vance Collins.  The students have communion and prayer time together.  Come and join us and then you can take your family home after dissmisal.  We will also be learning a new song for Palm Sunday soon!!

Love,  Pastor Angie xo

This Years Foursquare Arizona District Kids Camp is called “The Stand”.  Our kids will learn how to take a stand for their faith in God.  It will be a great camp.The dates of this camp are June 25th-28th and will be held at Tonto Rim Camp in Payson, Arizona.

Kids camp is for kids who are going into 3rd grade – kids who have just completed 6th grade.

Stay tuned into this blog page for more info, price and how to register your kids…

My prayer is that all of the kids of families, that call The Springs their home would be at this camp.  Please pray with me on this.

Pastor Angie

The Springs is starting a new (very low key) ministry for the young adults in our church. We have a college age ministry called Sacred Edge (seniors in high school – 24 yrs.old), but have seen that we need a connecting point for young adults (25-30). For now this group will get together once in a while for activites, a winter camp in California, and some dicussions on what we have been learning from Pastor Marks sermons.

To start out it will be very low key and we will try and do something about once a month. As this age group grows in the future we would love to do more.

If you are in this age group and would like to get update on things coming up or if you have ideas on things we can do or discuss please contact Pastor Justin

Amazing service tonight. We had over 90 people tonight at church as Pastor Mark continued his series “LOOK”

Great people, Great worship and Great teaching.

…and Pastor Mark was grateful- no one told him the Cardinals game score.

Grace Despite Hesitation

S. Scripture-  Genesis 19:15 With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.”

16 When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them.
O. Observation- God, through the angels told Lot that he needed to get his family and himself out of the city they were in because God was going to destroy it. God saw that the whole place was full of people who hated God and were involved in all kinds of sin. Lot and his family were the only people God could find that loved Him. Then it goes on to say that Lot hesitated. He probably hesitated because he probably had friends and extended family there that he did not want to die. But then it says that God had so much love and grace for lot that He had the angels grab him and get him and his family out so they would not die.
A. Application- This shows me a picture of God’s huge love and grace for those of us that have accepted Jesus as our Savior. Obviously, I am suppose to obey God when He first tells me to do something, but sometimes I do not hear Him completely or my human nature does not like what He is saying. I am so glad that even when I hesitate God is still right there to help me through it. There has been plenty of times I have hesitated or just plain did not obey, but God has still either just forgiven me or pushed me harder or kept asking/telling me until I listened. Gods grace,forgiveness and love covers us that follow Him.
K. Konnect (with God and others)- Lord, thank you for this example, plus many others in the bible, that you still provide a way out of things even when we don’t listen. Please forgive me of times of not listening or hesitating. And thank you for pushing me and asking me until I listened. You are amazing and I do not deserve all the grace, forgiveness and love that you literally pour out for me. Amen

Extra thought: This same grace, forgiveness and love that gets us through life is available to everyone. He will save and forgive anyone no matter what you have done. All you have to do is know that Jesus died for all your sins and ask Him to be your Savior.

If you have any question about this post or if you would like prayer for anything or if you want Jesus to forgive your sins and want prayer so you can go to heaven please contact Pastor Justin

If you have a thought on today’s post please join the conversation and leave a comment!

Join us this weekend for a new series!

Pastor Mark will be teaching on focusing our lives to change the worlds around us. You won’t want to miss it!

Weekend Bulletin

My son Tyler & I enjoyed a great afternoon together watching our team win over the Rams.

Kurt Warner is such a great role model as a father, husband and follower of Christ, not a bad QB either!

Merry Christmas to one & all.

Praying for you and your family to know that as we celebrate Immanuel – Christ with us – the Father’s heart was to send His son to redeem man.  So You & I are the reason for the season.

Loving Jesus, loving you,

Pastor Mark