INTRODUCTION
A. Debt can be devastating
1. Average American has over $8,000 on credit cards
2. Thirty year or more mortgages with high payments
3. Got sticker shock when I bought my last car ($19,600 and that was the next to cheapest they had)
4. Mom inherited money, paid off cards and charged again (we have done the same)
5. How many are close to retirement and still have debts
B. What people do to try and eliminate their debts
1. If serious enough they declare bankruptcy
2. Transfer balances to a card with cheaper interest rate
3. Borrow from their retirement
4. Don’t get credit cards (brother, grandfather)
5. Yell to a parent for help
C. Our society encourages debt
1. Sending credit cards to college students who have no job
2. Not encouraging Americans to save (in negative territory now)
3. Should have enough to pay three months bills if income was shut off
4. Cost of big ticket items (house, car, furniture, appliances) for the average person means debt
5. Appeals through advertisement to our greedy spirit
6. Encourages us to spend to help a bad economy
D. Some of you know the free feeling of being out of debt
1. No pressure to pay those bills
2. Freedom and joy of not owing anyone anything
3. Most young adults don’t know that feeling (they want now what it took their parents years to get, thus the debt)
E. Dad’s church just recently (2001) paid off their church debt
1. Had a big ceremony to celebrate
2. Burn the mortgage
F. Worked with a guy after high school who struggled with debt
1. Talked with a mutual friend recently-still the same even in his 50’s
2. Borrow from one bank to pay another (granddaddy did this too)
3. Just couldn’t seem to get ahead and always borrowing money from those he worked with
4. By the time he got a paycheck, he was that much behind again
G. What debt can lead to
1. Depression and short tempers
2. Financial struggles are the main reason for marital breakups
3. Jail time if it is not paid or ruination of credit record
H. Prelude to Jesus’ story
1. Simon the Pharisee asked Jesus to his house to eat
2. Interesting since most of the time Jesus was hounded by the religious leaders (may have been the earlier part of his ministry)
3. Sat down to eat (actually reclined on their elbows with their feet extended behind them)
4. Sinful (immoral) woman comes in with expensive perfume
5. May have followed Jesus in (people in the streets were allowed to enter to look at great celebrations)
6. Put perfume on his feet, wept on them and dried them with her hair
7. Allowing such a woman to do this proved to Simon that Jesus was not a prophet
I. Jesus told a story
1. Man loaned money to two people
2. 500 pieces of silver to one and 50 to the other
3. Neither could pay so he canceled the debt
4. Jesus asked which one would love him more
REALIZE WE ALL ARE IN DEBT TO GOD
A. Symbolism of the story
1. One who owed 500 pieces of silver was the woman (immoral)
2. One who owed 50 was Simon (though not right with God he still served God)
3. God is the man who loaned the money
4. We are the ones who can’t pay the debt
B. What is our debt
1. Sin (we have rebelled against God)
2. I’m a pretty good person (so was Simon the Pharisee, in fact I doubt any of us here are as good as he was)
3. It’s in our nature and is in the nature of every person
4. Since the time of Adam and Eve’s rebellion
5. It’s like a bad habit we just can’t kick (drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, gambling, spending money, immoral sexual activity)
6. “For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard.”
7. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
8. Our debt is equal in God’s eyes (we have different debts in life)
9. From Simon’s point of view the woman owed more to God than he did (she was immoral and he was religious)
10. From God’s point of view, we all owe the same and it is unpayable
C. God offers to deal with our debt
1. Through his Son’s death on the cross
2. “That’s pretty gruesome God, couldn’t you do it some other way?”
3. The Bible says sin has to paid for with blood (sacrifices of the O.T.)
4. Hebrews 10:10, “And what God wants is for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.”
D. Ways we try to deal with our debt
1. Folks know the difference between right and wrong
2. People also try to compensate for the wrong they have done
3. Witness the worship and sacrifices of people throughout history
4. Many turned to false gods but they were turning nevertheless
5. Good deeds hoping that God will weigh us on scales when we appear before him
6. Problem is we are unworthy of his grace, but he extends it anyway
E. Our position after receiving God’s grace
1. All we have to do is accept what Christ has done and surrender our life to him
2. Cleansed of all our sins even the ones we haven’t committed yet
3. Now classified as saints, children of God and friends of God
4. That’s enough to get excited over
SHOW OUR APPRECIATION TO GOD
A. Contrast between Simon and the woman
1. Simon was a Pharisee and religious leader
2. He was looked up to by the people and would have been very careful to obey God’s law
3. If you read the N.T. you will find Jesus issuing some scathing words against the Pharisees
4. The woman was classified a sinner-she was an immoral woman (there’s Jesus attracting the scum of the earth again)
B. Difference in their actions also
1. Simon only asked Jesus to his house for a meal
2. Probably thought that was enough, for Jesus was now in the presence of greatness (Simon was really the one in the presence of greatness)
3. Woman recognized who Jesus was
4. Her every gesture showed her appreciation with humility and unworthiness
5. Put expensive perfume on his feet, wept over her unworthiness and let her tears fall on his feet, wiped them with her hair
C. Woman did not do this to get forgiveness
1. If she followed Jesus into the house, the conversation and story may have preceded her actions
2. Then she would have done those actions because of forgiveness
3. She had a greater love than Simon as Jesus illustrates through the story
4. In society’s eyes she had the larger debt and so loved more
D. We need to follow the woman’s example
1. If we have received God’s forgiveness through a relationship with his Son, we need to show our appreciation
2. Tell him how much we love him and appreciate what he has done for us
3. Spend time with him as the woman did through prayer and Bible study
4. Work for him by doing good for others
INCLUDE OTHERS IN GOD’S LOVE
A. Simon and most religious leaders were exclusive
1. They had not really had their debt with God canceled
2. Couldn’t extend to others what they had not experienced
3. Certain people you just shouldn’t associate with lest you be contaminated
4. This woman was a sinner, an immoral person
B. Simon didn’t really see the woman
1. Jesus had to tell him to look at the woman kneeling there
2. One translation forms it into a question, “Simon, do you see this woman?”
3. He had classified her and dismissed her as beneath his notice ( just common trash)
4. Depersonalized her as being just like others of her ilk
C. Woman was really superior to Simon
1. Could not have convinced him or other religious leaders of that
2. She had greater capacity for love and gratitude
D. Not the first time Jesus’ followers or other religious leaders had failed to include others
1. What about Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well (didn’t see the harvest)
2. What about the woman caught in adultery
E. Are we inclusive at Union
1. What do people have to look like or act like for us to speak to
2. Do they have to dress a certain way or live in a particular type of house
3. Do we have a certain income level in mind
4. Who won’t we let into our Sunday parties (we might let them in but do we really include them)
CONCLUSION
A. Andy Griffith episode where Andy saves Gomer’s life
1. Gomer is sleeping at the station and Wally has thrown a cigar but in a bucket of oily rags
2. Andy comes to show him a letter from Barney and sees the smoke and puts out the fire
3. Gomer calls him life-saver man and worries him to death trying to pay him back for saving his life
4. Andy finally has to stage a fake rescue of Gomer to get him to leave him alone
B. We can’t pay God back no matter what we do, but we can appreciate his grace and include others in it.
