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Good morning again. If I were to ask you what is the most difficult thing for you to say to another person and write that down on a piece of paper, what would your answer be? Think about that for a minute. You don't have to write anything down. Your answers would probably be something like, I'm sorry, please forgive me, or I forgive you.

We all know that forgiveness at times can be hard, but why is this so? Forgiveness is the watchword of the Christian faith. It's so important that the Lord included it in the model prayer that he taught to his disciples. How does it go? Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

It's been said that we're most like beasts when we kill one another, we're most like men when we judge one another, and we're most like God when we forgive one another. As Pastor Tom taught last week, God placed man on the earth to bear his image, to display his glory to his entire creation.

Even though we're in a fallen, sinful state, we still reflect his image to some degree. And forgiveness is Is one of those unique and distinctive ways that man reflects God's mercy as it shines through us. Earlier, we read from Psalm 32, where the burden of sin and the power of forgiveness are beautifully illustrated.

And I just want to review that briefly. In verse 3, it says, When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. Can you see the weight of sin on the psalmist here? All day and night, your hand was heavy on me, and my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.

Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. And you forgave the guilt of my sin. That forgiveness that we receive from God lifts that burden from us and allows us the freedom to enjoy fellowship with Him.

Well, our lesson today is from Matthew chapter 18. So if you haven't turned in your Bibles there, we're in Matthew chapter 18. This chapter is a series of lessons that Jesus delivered to his disciples in response to two questions that they asked. The very beginning of the chapter, they ask, Who is the greatest in the kingdom?

And the Lord replies, Whoever humbles himself like a child is great. In the kingdom of God. And on this thought, humility, he continues his teaching throughout the chapter with a lesson about how to restore a brother who has sinned against you, and ultimately a lesson on forgiveness, which we'll look at today.

But this is the context. Immediately before our passage, the Lord gives instructions about how to restore a brother who sins against you, how to lovingly address his sin, and prompt him to repent so that that broken relationship is restored. And I believe this exchange prompted Peter to ask the second question in this chapter, which the Lord responds, he answers with a parable.

So we'll pick up in Matthew 18, verse 21. Then Peter came up and said to him, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times? Jesus said to him, I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Therefore, I'm sorry, that's not what it says, but seventy times seven. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.

So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, have pity. Patience with me, and I will pay you everything. And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii.

And seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, Pay what you owe. So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, have patience with me, and I will pay you. He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. And his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed.

And they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should you not have mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you?

And in anger, his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. Well, today we know this lesson as the parable of the unforgiving servant, or perhaps the parable of the unmerciful servant.

And in it, we will see just how serious God is about forgiveness. Forgiveness here and elsewhere in Scripture is presented as the natural, expected, and signature virtue. Of a follower of Christ. One who is forgiven yet not forgive others is a living contradiction. The prime lesson today that I want you to see is this: God commands his followers to forgive one another without measure.

God commands his followers to forgive one another without measure. The significance of forgiveness is repeated often throughout the scriptures, and so is the reason. I'll just pick one from Ephesians chapter 4, verse 32. Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving each other. And here's the reason: just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

You see, those who are forgiven much should forgive one another readily when we remember the magnitude of what was forgiven us. Therefore, to be forgiven much and then not forgive others is inconsistent with faith in Christ. We'll see in this lesson that it not only angers God when his followers do not forgive, but it brings his discipline, his chastening.

As we look into this passage of Scripture, let us remember that the Lord tells this story to make one very distinct point, which we'll read in verse 35. We can look at this passage in five sections. The first I call QA with Jesus. And then we move to the image of forgiveness, which is presented as a magnificent king.

Secondly, Jesus presents the image of unforgiveness in the merciless servant. And then we see the consequences of unforgiveness from the outraged master. And then the very final lesson, the last verse, is this enduring lesson, this warning to Christians who refuse to forgive others. Well, as we noted earlier, the Lord has described the process for dealing with a brother who sins against you.

So as we approach this passage and we review the context, the context here is the relationship between believers. This entire chapter is Jesus talking to his disciples and answering their questions. So when one disciple, when one Christian sins against another, what is the proper way to respond? In verses 15 through 17, a sequence of gentle confrontations is outlined.

First, one-on-one. Then, if necessary, you take someone with you. Finally, you bring it before the church, and so on. Well, this discussion must have set Peter's mind in gear as he pondered his own application of this lesson. Perhaps one of his fellow disciples had sinned against him. We can only imagine what may have been going on within the 12 to prompt Peter to ask in verse 21, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him?

As many as seven times. Peter picked the number seven, perhaps to be magnanimous. Rabbinic teaching taught that you only had to forgive someone three times. So, knowing that Jesus had a higher standard than the Pharisees and the rabbis, Peter doubles the number and adds one for good measure.

And in expectation of Jesus' response, he's probably expecting, good job, Peter, I like that. That's a lot. You are very magnanimous. Instead, Peter gets a different answer. Jesus takes the number given by Peter and squares it by an order of magnitude. He makes them all work a math problem.

You're getting out your calculators. I know you're all working this problem in your head. 70 times 7. I don't know if the disciples got it right, but we can be assured that the number finally is 490 times. That's how many times you can forgive your brother, and then after that, it's okay.

But actually, this is not what Jesus was communicating because none of us can keep up with 490 sins. So what is Jesus really trying to say? He's trying to say, look, it's uncountable. Don't even keep count. If you're keeping score when your brother sins against you, you've missed the whole point about forgiveness.

Between fellow believers, because love keeps no account of wrongs. Then, to ensure his disciples understood the importance of this no-keeping score forgiveness, he tells this parable to make the point. Because I think he detects a note of, how many times, isn't there a limit? And so, this parable explains clearly that there's no limit.

Now, a parable is a story or a word picture that Jesus often used to teach spiritual truth. And since he's teaching his disciples here, he would make it clear, and there's nothing hidden. The characters in these parables are not real people, but they do represent different types of people.

And in this parable, the Lord paints a picture of what forgiveness looks like, and then he paints a picture of what unforgiveness looks like. First, we see the image of forgiveness represented by this magnanimous king. In verse 23, Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a king settling accounts with his servants.

Jesus spoke of the kingdom of heaven often, especially in his parables. And the kingdom of heaven is different than the kingdom of this world, right? This world, worldly wisdom, is different than God's wisdom. And he's trying to tell his disciples and us that there is a different way of relating to one another when we live in God's kingdom.

God. Way is different. So, who is this king? This king is obviously a man of enormous wealth and responsibility, so much so that he has his financial affairs managed by many servants. Of course, we see this situation in many of Jesus' parables as well. So, this is not unusual.

As we also see, some of the servants in these parables are good, they're good stewards, and others, well, not so good. And it turns out in this parable, we are dealing with one servant who was brought to him with an extremely large debt. Verse 24 says it's 10,000 talents.

10,000 talents. Well, I had to research this. What is a talent? There's different definitions of talents. There's an Egyptian talent, there's a Syrian talent, there's an Israeli talent. Since this parable was told in Israel, I chose to use the Israeli definition of a talent, which was 200 pounds of gold.

200 pounds of gold. We're also told that Solomon's temple used 8,000 talents. So this debt is more talents than all the gold in Solomon's temple. All right, so let's do some math again. I checked the spot price of an ounce of gold this week: $2,000 an ounce. 16 ounces in a pound.

Are you writing? Are you doing that? The math here? Are you punching this in? 200 pounds of gold in a talent. 10,000 talents in debt. I came up with, you can check my math, I came up with $64 trillion in today's money. Now, only a fool would amass a debt that is measured in the trillions of dollars.

This is incomprehensible. It obviously speaks of gross mismanagement, malfeasance. And perhaps this servant was, I don't know what y'all are laughing about. Perhaps this servant was even guilty of embezzlement for this incomprehensible debt. By the way, 10,000 is the word for this is myrios, where we get the word myriad, and we use the word myriad for an uncountable number.

When we look up at the stars at night, we don't know how many there are. Are there 2,000? Are there 10,000? There's a myriad of them. They are countless. So really, the debt was not $64 trillion. This was an enormous, just insurmountable, incalculable. Let's just use the word infinite debt.

The point is, the servant couldn't pay it back. His debt was so large, nobody could pay this back. So what does the king do? He has him sold for payment. Not only him, but his wife and children and all his goods. Now, that's not going to add up to $64 trillion, but it might pay a fraction of the debt.

Now, in those days, this is a just and legal action. But the point is, the servant is in a state of complete hopelessness. He cannot hope to pay this debt back. He has nothing left to do except to plead for mercy, which we read in verse 26. The servant falls down.

He begs for patience and says, I will pay you all. I'll pay it all back. Yeah, right. But he fell down. The word here, the image is he prostrated himself. He's on his knees, bowing down. It's a position of submission before the king. He admits his guilt. He doesn't argue.

And then he makes an impossible claim because, as we pointed out, there's no way to pay this back. Now, we've read the whole parable, but let's put yourselves in the position of the disciples. And they're hearing Jesus say this for the first time. And here we're presented with this king who's got a servant with this insurmountable debt, and he's going to be sold.

What are they expecting? What are the disciples expecting for the king to do here? What does the servant deserve? He deserves the punishment that the king has exacted on him. Does he deserve mercy? No. But this is a parable. And in the parables, many times the unexpected It happens, and that's what happens here because we read on in verse 27 that the king shows compassion and forgives the servant's debt.

The king had pity on him. I cannot pronounce this Greek word, I'm not even going to try, but it means that the king's heart was moved with compassion. He freed the servant, he let him go, and he forgave the debt. Just forgiven. What we have here is a picture of a king who is extremely magnanimous.

I hope you agree. And the disciples were painted with this contradiction, this contrast. The unexpected mercy granted by the king is lavish. Obviously, it's a picture of God's mercy. And the servant is a picture of a sinner who's so deep in sin as we are and undeserving of mercy.

The king, his master, would have been justified in his punishment. But when the servant cried out for mercy, the king freed him and forgave this debt. The king didn't even come up with a payment plan. You don't have to pay it back. It's just forgiven. The account is cleared.

Now, the story could have ended there. And the disciples and us would be in wonder of this merciful king, God, who so generously forgives guilty people like us who bear the burden of sin. Sin, and we can pause even now and reflect on our magnanimous God who is just in condemning us to death for our sin against His infinite holiness.

Yet when we cry out for mercy, He has compassion for the penitent heart and sets us free from our sin debt and forgives the entire amount. Our account is clean. But Jesus doesn't stop there because He hasn't made His point in the parable. You see, this servant was not only guilty, He was wicked.

Let's read about what He did that was so wicked. We read in verse 28 the image that Jesus presents of unforgiveness. This servant is merciless. We read, But when that same servant went out, He found one of His fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. Now, let's stop right there before we read the rest of this verse.

Again, put yourself in the position of the disciples hearing this story for the first time. You've got a king who's forgiven this servant an incredible debt, and now this servant goes out and finds a buddy who owes him 100 bucks, 100 denarii, whatever that, you know, it's a day's wages, okay?

A hundred days' wages. What would you expect the servant to do in this story? Well, the expectations of the hearers is mercy, of course. A hundred denarii is not insignificant. A denarii was a day's wages. It was a coin that would be paid to day's labor, to day laborers, like the parable of the vineyard workers that Jonathan taught a few weeks ago.

So, in today's terms, it would be about a quarter of your annual earnings. So, I'll let you do the math in your head on what your paycheck is, and it would be about 100 days, three months of wages, okay? Not insignificant, but it is insignificant when compared to the enormous debt of 10,000 talents that this servant was forgiven.

So, the expectation here is that this servant is going to be merciful. But again, this is a parable. And Jesus uses the unimaginable to illustrate a point that he wants them, that he wants us to remember. Well, let's finish verse 28. Seizing him, he began to choke him, demanding payment.

Seizing him, he began to choke him. He laid hands on him, demanding that he pay. So, how do you feel about that? Doesn't seem right, does it? Now, was there a debt between those two servants? Yes. Was the servant justified in requiring payment? Well, legally, yes. But contrasted the king's merciful action, we have this service.

Servant's violent actions. So this can't be right. There's got to be more to the story. Let's keep reading. In verse 29, we read, So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, have patience with me, and I will pay you. Well, this is familiar. He fell down and begged for patience and said, I will pay you.

This is exactly what the first servant had said to the king, which resulted in the king's mercy. So now the expectation of the disciples was, okay, this is going to set it right. This servant, now hearing his own words repeated to him, he's going to show mercy, right?

Let's keep reading. He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. Instead of following the king's example of mercy, this servant shows no compassion. He refused to hear his fellow servants cry for mercy, and he puts him in prison until this debt is paid, which, by the way, would take longer and really wasn't necessary.

It was not an enormous debt. Obviously, something has gone very wrong in this story. This is not the way it should be going. And we know there's a sense in us, and there was a sense in the disciples, that this is not right. But my question to you is: why do we think that?

Doesn't this fellow servant owe him 100 denarii? Yes. And is he justified? In demanding payment, yes. But there's something, while it may be legally justified, it just doesn't seem morally right, does it? Why not? Because of the merciful actions of the king. It should have been easy to forgive such a small debt when this servant had just been forgiven such an impossibly large one.

Instead, his actions are morally reprehensible. The undeserved mercy he had been shown should have produced a grateful and merciful heart. His actions betray a lack of gratitude toward the king, and his behavior is outrageous. It was outrageous to the disciples listening, it's outrageous to us today, and it's outrageous to his fellow servants, as we'll read in a minute.

It's almost impossible to understand or believe that this is going on. How can this be? But that's exactly the point Jesus wanted to make with his disciples and with us. This type of unmerciful spirit, an unforgiving spirit, is exactly what occurs when a Christian is unforgiving to another.

And God's outrage is infinitely more than ours, as we'll see as we keep reading. And we move now into the parable, into the consequences of unforgiveness. What we see now is the reaction of the fellow servants and the reaction of the king. Remember, we don't live in a vacuum.

Our actions, good or bad, affect those around us. Let's read about the reactions of his fellow servants in verse 31. His fellow servants, they saw, and they were grieved, they were distressed, they were sorrowed, so much so that they reported what they had seen to their master. And then in verse 32, we get to read about his wrath.

He says, You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you? He calls him wicked. We'll come back to that term in a minute. But what he did was wicked, wasn't it?

And then he says, I forgave you simply because you asked. Then he gives an admonition in the form of a question. Shouldn't you have had mercy? And the implication is, yes, you should have had mercy. We should forgive as we have been forgiven. And then we see the king's anger in the sentence that he pronounces because it says that he delivered him over to the jailers.

It's a word that means torturers. The word here invokes the image of those who get the truth out of someone by using painful methods, such as stretching them on the rack or putting someone in chains in an uncomfortable position until they confess what they need to confess. What's interesting.

Is this phrase is a bit different than what we read in other parables, right? This is not a life sentence, but it's discipline. It's still harsh incarceration and quite painful. Notice he's going to be delivered to the tortures until he should pay all his debt. Well, the previous debt had already been forgiven, and since we've already established this king is a picture of God, does God rescind his forgiveness once it's given?

We read nothing about that in Scripture, and that would be ridiculous to conclude that here because we've already determined that debt was unpayable, so why go reinstate the debt? No, there's a different debt that needs to be paid here. What's owed to the king now is the servant's debt is to learn to forgive as he'd been forgiven, to show the same kind of mercy to others.

So the only thing the servant had to do to get out of jail was to forgive his fellow servants. Now, this passage raises a question as to whether this unforgiving servant is even a believer. Is he a believer or a non-believer? And I had a whole list of reasons on which one he is.

I'm going to limit it to three, though, okay? First of all, as I mentioned earlier, the context of Matthew 18 is all about relationships between believers, between the disciples. So I'm going to make the case that this unforgiving servant is actually a believer. In our passage, Peter asks the questions about forgiving his brother.

How many times do I forgive my brother when he sins against me? So even the immediate context here is between brothers, between disciples. And then the parable refers to his fellow servants. Now, the king does call this merciless servant. He calls him wicked. And that's a term that is usually used for unbelievers.

But what this servant did was wicked. Would the Lord call one of his own children wicked? Well, let me ask you this. Would the Lord call one of his disciples Satan? Oh, he did, didn't he? In another story, another account. So the word wicked certainly refers to unbelievers, but I believe that's the point that Jesus is trying to make.

A believer who withholds forgiveness after being begiven so much is actually acting like an unbeliever who's not been forgiven. And it's more wicked for a believer than it is for an unbeliever because the believer has been forgiven. Which is why this unmerciful servant is then delivered over to the torturers, the jailers.

Now, in some parables where the servant is wicked and he's an unbeliever, the language is different. What happens to those servants? They are cast out. They are cast into outer darkness where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. And that's the language of eternal condemnation for an unbeliever.

But this is not the language that's used here. He's delivered to the torturers, which is more closely related to a temporal, a limited, short-term discipline until the lesson the Lord wants us to learn has been learned. In this case, the debt owed by the unmerciful servant is to show mercy and forgive his fellow servant as compassionately and as mercifully as he was forgiven.

So I believe for these reasons, the unmerciful servant actually represents a disciple, a follower of Christ, a believer who will not forgive another believer. Does that happen? Yes, it does. So what happens? What does God do about that? Well, this unmerciful servant who will not forgive another can expect, because of this parable, to experience harsh discipline delivered over to the torturers until he truly learns to forgive his brother.

Scripture speaks about this in many places. From the book of James, chapter 2, verse 13, we read that judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. But we don't have to go very far. To find the ultimate lesson, because in the next verse, verse 35, we have this enduring warning, the ultimate lesson that Christ wanted his disciples in that immediate context to learn.

If you're keeping count on how many times you have to forgive your brother, you're missing the point. Because he says, So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. If you're putting limits on it, if you're trying to keep a count of the numbers, you have missed the whole point of the gospel of forgiveness.

Look at this phrase: So also my heavenly Father will do what? What's he going to do? He's going to deliver us to divine chastening. So God, like the master in the story, will be angered and will discipline his own for a lack of forgiveness. What's in view here is the severe discipline from the Lord that we read about in Hebrews chapter 12.

You can turn there if you want to. I'm going to read a few verses. In Hebrews chapter 12, starting in verse 5, we read this about the discipline from the Lord. And have you forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons? My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you're rebuked by him.

For whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.

Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? Now listen to verse 10. For they indeed, for a few days, chastened us, as it seemed best to them, our earthly fathers.

But he, God, for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. What is he trying to produce in us? Verse 11. Now, no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. Nevertheless, afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

So my heavenly Father will do to every one of you. I can almost picture Jesus with his disciples there saying, when he says every one of you, he's pointing to every one of you. And I think he points to us today. Every disciple is subject to what? Similar divine discipline.

Because God wants his children to reflect his image, especially with one another. This parable teaches us that when We keep count when we don't forgive, he is especially angry, and he's not going to let his children get away with that. Talks about who does not forgive your brother.

Again, the context is the brotherly love between fellow believers. So, if you are someone else who has been forgiven by God, if you are withholding your forgiveness for them, you're subject to this divine chastening and God's anger. The word brother is particularly for the sin of unforgiveness toward another believer.

And then he concludes with, from your heart, from your heart, not just a superficial, all right, I forgive you, not grudgingly, but an honest sense of remembering, in light of what we have been forgiven, that forgiveness, that heartfelt compassion that is spoken of in the king in this parable.

And that should enable us to forgive easily and quickly. Psalm 103 says that as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. East, west, infinite line. Hebrews 8:12. Says that when he forgives our iniquities, he remembers our sin no more.

He remembers our sin no more. So when we forgive, as God forgives, we do the same thing. We actually, when we forgive, we make three promises to that person that we forgive. Here they are. The first one is, I promise I will not bring this up to you again.

The second promise is, I promise I will not bring it up to others. And the third promise is, I will not bring it up to myself. I will not keep replaying this over and over in my mind. I will remember that sin no more. At this point, I was going to give an example of one time when I forgave one of my children for something they did, and as a father, I disciplined them and I forgave them.

And I thought about this quite a bit. And what is miraculous? I could not remember one. I'm sure they're there, but I forgave them. I don't remember the specific instances. So I have no example for you. But that's good. So we have this unforgiving servant. He is delivered over to the tortures.

He is in chains. He is in pain until he learns how to forgive his fellow servant. My question to you is: Are you experiencing some circumstances like that? Does it seem like God is dealing with you harshly? Perhaps you might be like the servant in this parable who's not learned to forgive as lavishly as we have been forgiven.

Maybe you've gone through the motions of forgiving someone. Maybe you said it with your words, but in your heart you still carry your grudge. It's been said that withholding forgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. I like that illustration. I've also heard it said that unforgiveness is like being locked in jail while holding the key to the door tightly in your hand.

An unforgiving spirit is the number one killer of your spiritual life. It will rob you of the joy of your faith, and on top of that, it brings God's chastening instead of His mercy. However, and praise the Lord, there's a however here, right? When we practice mercy and forgiveness from the heart, we can expect to experience God's peace and that joy of fellowship with Him.

So we must truly and completely let go of that grudge, that unforgiving spirit from the heart. Well, that's easy to say, but hard to do. So, how do you do this? Well, the answer lies in the parable. The contrast with the unforgiving servant is the magnanimous king. He's our example.

He's the one who forgave us an insurmountable debt. So, we have to remember him. You see, the gospel frees us to forgive others. And here's how: we must continually remember what we've been forgiven. It is an infinite amount. When we sin against a holy God, there is no amount that can be placed on that.

So, we need to remember that Jesus Himself suffered a violent, painful death by scourging and crucifixion, so that God in His justice and mercy might forgive us for our sins against Him when we cry out to Him. We cry out to Him in repentance. Let me ask you this: Do you think that it was not enough to atone, that that death on the cross, Jesus' death on the cross, was that not enough to atone for any sin against you?

Or that the sin against you is greater than that person's sin against God? 10,000 talents, 100 denarii. That's what we're to remember. If God can forgive so great a debt, then who am I to ask for more? If Jesus' death was enough to obtain their forgiveness, why should I exact more punishment from them?

No. God commands his followers to forgive one another without measure, without counting. Don't keep score. We're never so much like God when we forgive others. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we ask that you forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

Put in us a heart of forgiveness so that we may enjoy the fullness of fellowship and joy in you and not experience the chastening that comes when we do not forgive one another. Help us remember when someone sins against us that we have multiplied many times that sin against you.

And you've always forgiven us when we repent and plead for your mercy. As you have not withheld eternal life from those who you have forgiven, let us not withhold our love and forgiveness and mercy toward others. We thank you for your love and your mercy and your forgiveness.

Amen.