Hey, Carpool Crew. I am really glad you are here today. Today we are starting a series based on a story that Jesus told called The Unforgiving Servant. And this is not just one episode. We are going to hear the same story from different points of view. Today, we are starting with the servant who was forgiven. This story comes from Matthew chapter 18. And when Jesus told this story, he was talking to his disciples about forgiveness. Not pretend forgiveness. Real forgiveness that costs something. Here is what happened. I worked for a king. That already tells you something important. Kings in Bible times had total power. They owned the land. They owned the money. They decided who was punished and who was forgiven. If you owed a king money and could not pay it back, this was serious. You could lose your job. You could be thrown in prison. Sometimes, your whole family could be sold into work to pay the debt. This was not a small problem. And I owed the king an enormous amount of money. Jesus said the amount was ten thousand talents. That number probably does not mean much to us, but here is what kids need to know. A talent was worth about twenty years of work. Ten thousand talents was more money than a normal person could earn in many lifetimes. This was not a mistake I could fix. This was not something I could work harder to solve. I was stuck. And then the day came when I was brought before the king. I did not walk in confidently. I did not have a plan. I did not have an excuse. I knew what I deserved. So I fell down on the ground. That mattered too. In that culture, falling down meant you were admitting you had no power. You were saying, 'I have nothing to stand on.' I begged. I promised to pay it back, even though I didn't know how. And then something shocking happened. The king forgave the debt. Not part of it. Not most of it. All of it. Jesus says the king had compassion. That means he felt it inside his chest. He didn't just decide something in his head. He felt mercy. The debt was erased. That means there was no record. No payment plan. No reminders. I was free. Imagine how that would feel. The thing you were most afraid of is gone. The punishment you expected is canceled. The problem you could never fix disappears. I walked away lighter. I could breathe again. I felt safe. Now here is where Jesus slows the story way down. Because what happened next matters. Later that same day, I saw another servant. Someone just like me. And he owed me money. Jesus tells us it was one hundred denarii. Here is what that means. A denarius was about one day's pay. One hundred denarii was real money, but it was something that could be paid back. This was not impossible. This was not overwhelming. This was small compared to what I had just been forgiven. But instead of remembering the king, I grabbed him. That detail matters. Grabbing someone was aggressive. Public. Mean. I didn't ask nicely. I didn't wait. I demanded payment right now. He fell down too. He begged the same way I had begged. Same posture. Same fear. Same request. But I said no. I had him punished. Here is what Jesus wants kids to notice. I knew what forgiveness felt like. I had just felt it in my own body. But I chose not to give it. And kids understand this better than adults sometimes. Imagine this. You spill something and expect to get in trouble, but your parent forgives you. Then later that day, your brother bumps into you by accident, and you explode. Or imagine you forget your homework and your teacher gives you grace. Then someone else forgets something small, and you make fun of them. That is what happened here. Jesus told this story because forgiveness is not just something God gives us. It is something God wants to change us. When we are forgiven, something should happen inside us. Forgiveness should move. Not stop. Here is what this means in your real life. When someone says sorry and means it, we forgive. When someone messes up, we don't keep bringing it up again and again. When someone hurts us, we don't hurt them back. Forgiveness does not mean pretending something didn't happen. It means choosing not to keep punishing someone. Jesus wants us to remember how much we have been forgiven, especially when forgiving feels hard. Before we go, let's pause and remember what we learned today. We heard from the servant who was forgiven a huge debt. More money than he could ever pay back. The king showed him mercy and erased everything he owed. That forgiveness should have changed him. But tomorrow, we are going to see what happened next. Because there was someone else in the story. Someone who owed a much smaller amount. Someone who needed the same mercy. In the next episode, we are going to hear the story from the fellow servant's point of view. The one who asked for forgiveness. And didn't get it. Remember, no matter where you are or how you are listening, God loves you.
