Hillview Family and Friends!

 Ushers and greeters. We can create an alternate schedule. If anyone is interested, please see LaTanya Dunn.

Funds Summary as of September 2025  contribution: $10,679.31.  Monthly Budget that needs to be met: $15,417.00.

Sis. Debbie will be having Children’s ministry 1st through 4th Sundays.  On the 1st Sunday the children will  do special projects. Please text Sis. Debbie if your child will not be in attendance. 5th Sunday no children’s ministry. 

Nov 2nd Daylight Savings Time (Make sure you set your clock back)

Nov 5th Bible Study on Zoom at 6pm. Please let Pastor Dexter know if you will be attending. He will send out the Zoom link via email. 

Nov 16 Management Board Meeting at 9am at Hillview

Nov 23rd– Is our annual Thanksgiving potluck.  Sign up sheet will be available next Sunday Nov 2nd on the Events table.

Nov 27th-Thanksgiving

Nov 29th Women’s Prayer Breakfast

Nov 30th First Sunday of Advent. If you would like to participate in the Advent Readings , please sign up on sign up sheet.  

Hillview will be contributing to The  McKinney Vento efforts to support homeless children  and their families in our area. The goal is to collect personal items for both girls and boys (i.e.: deodorant , shampoo’s, body lotion etc.). There is a box in the foyer for you to drop off your donations. The deadline is Sun  Nov 16th, so we can present  our “gift  of love”  for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Offering Envelopes are located on the wall outside of the sound booth.

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Listen carefully to what I am about to say. These words were spoken to me once, “I can never forgive you for what you did.” It hurt me for that person to say those words because as a Christian, those words should not come out of our mouths.

Things are going to be said, and things are going to be done to us that rock our world, but according to scripture, if we don’t forgive those who sin against us, God won’t forgive us when we sin against Him.

Mt 6:14, 15

14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

“Jesus gives a startling warning about forgiveness: If we refuse to forgive others, God will refuse to forgive us. Why? Because by not forgiving others, we deny our common ground as sinners in need of God’s forgiveness, and we break the family relationship God wants us to have with all people. Whenever we ask God to forgive us for sin, we should ask ourselves if we have forgiven the people who have wronged us.”¹

I’m sure none of us start our day with the intent of offending anyone, but life happens, and the flesh gets the better of us sometimes. When that happens, we must ask God and the person we offended to forgive us.

From our text, Peter asked Jesus a question, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” “The rabbis taught that people should forgive those who offend them but only three times. Peter, trying to be especially generous, asked Jesus if seven (the perfect number) was enough times to forgive someone. But Jesus answered, seventy-seven times, meaning that we shouldn’t keep track of how many times we forgive someone. Always forgive those who are truly repentant, no matter how many times they ask.”²

I have found with a casual friend that you do not see all the time, the chances of having a problem with offenses and forgiveness tend to be limited. But with someone like a spouse, or co-worker, someone you are around daily, the possibility of offending and needing to be forgiven increases exponentially. How we handle these situations impacts our marriage or relationship for the good or the bad.

Jesus taught his disciples the parable of the unforgiving debtor. First, we need to understand the culture’s way of dealing with people that could not pay their debts. There was no such thing as filing for bankruptcy or having an insurance policy for situations like this.

“In biblical times, serious consequences awaited those who could not pay their debts. The person that lent money could seize the borrower who couldn’t pay and force him or his family to work until the debt was paid. The debtor could also be thrown into prison, or his family could be sold into slavery to help pay off the debt. The hope was that the debtor, while in prison, would sell off his landholdings or that relatives would pay the debt. If not, the debtor could remain in prison for life.”³

A parable is defined as a story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels.

So, the parable has a lesson to teach us, but the actual events in the parable probably didn’t happen. Let’s look at a situation that happened.

2 Kings 4:1-7

1 The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the LORD. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”

2 Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?” “Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a little oil.”

3 Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few.

4 Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”

5 She left him and afterward shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring.

6 When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.” But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.

7 She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”

Fortunately, the debt that was owed was reasonable. From the sale of the oil, the widow paid off the debt that was owed and still had some leftover to live off of.

Looking back at today’s text we have Jesus telling a parable about the kingdom of heaven being like a king that wanted to settle accounts with his servants. The first servant, a man that owed ten thousand talents, (ten thousand bags of gold) to the king, was not able to pay his debt. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

“The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

Have you ever daydreamed that one day you would go to your mailbox and inside find a letter from your mortgage company, knowing you still owed for several years, saying your mortgage was paid in full. How would you feel? Evidently this servant had a short memory.

Mt 18:28-30

28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii (a hundred silver coins). He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’

30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.

Can you see that servant, praising the God of heaven for having his debt cancelled, then immediately finding a fellow servant that owed him some money. What he should have done was forgive the servant that owed him some money. That’s not what he did, he had the servant put into prison until the debt was satisfied. That is not the end of the story.

Mt 18:31-34

31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.

32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.

33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’

34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

Jesus concluded this parable by saying, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

Invitation: The morale of this sermon is this:

• You and I have or had a debt we could not pay. That debt was a life of sin which separates us from God.
• Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• Romans 10:9-11 says, “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (forgiven) That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (forgiven) As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”
• When we accept Jesus, the gift of God, as our Lord and Savior, we are forgiven.
• Jesus ended the parable of the unforgiving debtor with these words that still apply to us today.

Mt 18:34, 35

34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

Study Questions

1. Have you ever said as a Christian, “I will never forgive you for what you did?”
2. On a scale of 1 – 10, how easy is it to forgive someone?
3. Jesus was direct when He said, “But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” How does that make you feel?
4. Who is the true beneficiary of forgiveness?
5. What group of people is the hardest to forgive?
6. Do you think our country would be better off if we handled debt the way they did it in biblical days?
7. How would your life change if all your debt was forgiven?
8. Knowing the person that you are, other than for salvation, would God ever cancel all your debt?
9. Which do you see as harder to do, asking for forgiveness or forgiving someone?

Continue to pray for the sick and shut-ins and their caregivers. Prayer is needed for our entire congregation as we are all dealing with spoken and unspoken needs and requests.

Weekly Events

Sunday School: 9:30am  

Worship Service 10:45 am Sermon live stream 11:15 am You tube http://www.youtube.com/@HillviewChurchofGod-u3m

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