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All right, day three in this Christmas edition of the Daily Blade on tips to win this year at Christmas. My tip for day three is this: forgive. How many of you have seen the bumper sticker that says Jesus is the reason for the season? And I know what people mean by that, like Jesus is the point of Christmas. We're going to talk about that on the last day. But if you think about it, the actual reason for the season are the people that you need to forgive. You see, Jesus came on a rescue mission to save sinners. What we celebrate at Christmas is that Jesus made this landed invasion to come and rescue and redeem us. And here's the thing: that because Jesus forgave you and me, even and especially when we didn't deserve it, then we are called to forgive. You are going to be around some family members who have hurt you, who have done you wrong, who have sinned against you. You and I are called to forgive. I'm going to read a lot of Bible here. Matthew chapter 18, verse 15. The Bible says, If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. And again I say to you, if two or three of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. Verse 21. And Peter came up to Jesus and said, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times. And Jesus said to him, I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times. 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 ten thousand talents. That's like trillions of dollars. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and his children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, have patience with me. I will pay you everything. And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him his debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denai. That'd be like a hundred bucks. And seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, Pay what you owe. And so his fellow servants fell down and pleaded with him, Have patience with me, and I will pay you. He refused, and he went and he put in put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and they reported to their master all that had taken place. And when his master summoned him and said to him, You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had the same 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. So how do you win this year at Christmas? Is you forgive. Forgiveness is a unilateral commandment. Now, reconciliation is something different. Reconciliation requires forgiveness and repentance. But regardless of what the person has done for you, because Christ has forgiven us, we must forgive one another. Now, there's a lot of misunderstandings about forgiveness. People think forgiveness is a feeling. That's not what the Bible says. The reason that Jesus gives this story about the master settling accounts is forgiveness is about settling accounts. When somebody has done you wrong and sinned against you, they have created a debt-detta relationship. You've got to identify who sinned against you. That probably shouldn't be that hard. Then you need to identify what they took from you, what they owe you. I would also encourage you to identify the emotions surrounding that sin against you. This is not the kind of thing that happens in a second. But in doing so, you will create a debt ledger. Like if the person that you can't get along with this Christmas is your ex because she cheated on you, then she has created a debt debtor relationship. She owed you fidelity, she lied to you, she broke your heart, and then you write down the emotions that go along with it. That is a debt ledger. And they're in your hand, you hold the debt ledger. Now you get to decide what you want to do with it. And I'm going to warn you, if you decide to withhold forgiveness, then that withholding of forgiveness will begin to ferment. And when things ferment, they stink and you can get drunk on it. And anytime somebody walks around with resentment and bitterness in their heart, it is because often there's been a lack of forgiveness. Now, what Christ has done for us is even though we didn't deserve it, Christ canceled our debt. And in the same way, we are to cancel one another's debt. Because he forgave us of all of our sin, past, present, and future. And yet we are being the people that sin against us, not necessarily be reconciled. That's a different talk, but to cancel that debt. And when we do that, we will be the ones that are actually set free. And sure enough, even if you cancel that debt, at some point in the future, some kind of feelings are going to pop up, and the devil wants you to doubt that forgiveness can work on a horizontal level. And the reason he wants you to desire to doubt forgiveness on the horizontal level is he wants you to doubt that God on a vertical level could forgive you. So to win this year at Christmas, I implore you to forgive because Christ has forgiven us.

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