But if you got your Bibles, you can go with me to Matthew chapter 18. Matthew chapter 18. We're going to start in verse 23, and it's a longer parable we're going to read. Jesus is having a conversation with his disciples about forgiveness and some other conversations of that nature. And we're going to read the parable in its entirety because I really do believe its story is going to communicate something profound to us before we are done today. So Jesus is having this conversation with them starting in verse 23. Jesus tells them, 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 10,000 talents. For context, 10,000 talents in today's currency is two, it was 200,000 years worth of wages. I don't have that kind of money. I'd be in a tough spot. He owed 200,000 years worth of wages. 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 patience with me, and I'll pay you everything. 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 began to choke him, saying, Pay me what you owe. For context, one denarius was one day's worth of wages. So we're talking about a hundred days, two hundred thousand years worth and a hundred days' worth. And he didn't forgive him. So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded, Have patience with me and I'll pay you. He refused and went and 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 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 not you have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you. When we talk about this story, we often call this parable the parable of the unforgiving servant. And it is, it's a story of a man who owed an impossible debt, a servant who could literally never repay what he owes. But he doesn't just owe someone a debt, he owes debt to a king. And we spent significant time as a church this year with really leaning into our theme for the year, which we felt the Lord give us. We've been talking about learning what it means to be a people who give honor and add value. We spent some significant time at the beginning of this year talking about honoring God, honoring others, what it means to live lives of honor. And I really felt God want to bring us back to that conversation today because you can't talk about giving honor to God without recognizing what it means for him to actually be your king. To realize that he is royalty of the highest degree. And so I want to speak to you for the next few moments. I feel God wants to open our hearts to this idea, to learn what it means to live in that way, what it means to live life with an awareness and a perspective that everywhere we go, every room I walk into, every door I open, every place I step foot in, I've got to learn to be aware that royalty is in the room. If you're taking notes, that's what I want to title this morning's message. Royalty is in the room. I don't know about you. I have always, like since I was a little kid, I have always been drawn to stories that begin with once upon a time. Any once upon a time people in, like you're just like, you're hooked. You know what I mean? Like the it doesn't matter what it is, it doesn't matter where we're going. You give me once upon a time, something kind of lights up inside of me. The introduction always works on me. It could be lands far away, heroes and thrones, kings and kingdoms, that idea of the tales of nations lost and desolate, now under siege from a terrible, temporary ruler, and the idea is always the same. If the good king could just return, if the true king could just once again sit on the throne, if the rightful king would rule our lives, all would be well again. And I love those stories. We tell those stories over and over. We there's something inside of us that gets elated when we kind of come face to face with these tales, these grand narratives of kings taking the throne. We keep telling the stories even when the actual record of human kings is a record of tyranny, tragedy, and slavery. We still can't stop telling stories about them. We can't stop being enamored by them, cheery, we're drawn to the world and message and wonder of kings and kingdoms. Late pastor and author Tim Keller says it's because he believes deep in every human heart, it's like there's a longing linked to a memory. Like a memory that's kind of buried in our soul. Like we each hold a memory of a great and ancient king we've never met, who ruled the world with power and wisdom and justice and glory and compassion, and his rule was good and like the sun. And he says there's it's like there's a memory trace deep down within us that tells us, that tells me, I'm created to live for a good king. I want you to the Bible affirms that concept consistently, over and over. We the Bible affirms that concept because there is such a king, such a king exists, and he's just like that. Even if you just looked at the Psalms, Psalm 10, 16 says, the Lord is king forever and ever. Psalm 47, 2, for the Lord the most high is to be feared, a great king over all the earth. Psalm 95, 3, for the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods. Psalm 103 19, the Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all. So the Bible has this understanding, yes, there is a longing and looking in the human heart for another king and another kingdom, and that king is God. And those of us who have who have followed Jesus for any length of time, we would emphatically answer in agreement with that statement that yes, there is a king. And that, yes, we would say, Jesus on the throne of my heart is the solution that my heart has been looking for. We would all affirm that. We sing songs about that, we we we we we shout that, like we love that message, there's just a problem. Of all the aspects of who God is, what I have found, and maybe this is just me, maybe this isn't true for you, but of all the aspects of who God is and who God has revealed Himself to be, Him being king is the one I tend to declare the most and live the least. It's the one that I have no problem saying, I have a lot of a harder time living. I really don't think I'm alone in that because in a nation where 68% of people identify as Christian, there's probably never been a culture in the history of the world more averse to what it actually means to live the Christian life. Because the very essence of the Christian life is that I bow my knee to a king. The very essence of the Christian life is that I surrender it all to God, that I no longer have the right to live life as I choose to live. That now I live my life in light of a new kingdom and in a new way. And that new way is that when I submit to Christ, I'm so there's a perspective that's supposed to drive my decisions. There's a way of living that's supposed to impact my daily life, which is that everywhere I go, every situation I walk to, every place I find myself, royalty is in the room. Royalty is in the room because God is in the room. One of our core values at North Flakes is that we strive to be a people who have a presence priority. When we say presence priority, what we mean is we host the presence of God, making room for him in every moment. That's what it means to host someone. When you host them, you make room for them. You adjust the environment, you prepare, you reorient the space and the agenda around their presence. So hosting a king means everywhere I go, I'm gonna choose to be aware. Okay, royalty, the king is in the room with me. And if the king is in the room with me, then what he says goes. Where he leads, I follow. What matters to him needs to matter to me. Living life this way is when the kingship of Jesus becomes real. It's just also why it's the hardest. Because I I love God as my father. I love that Jesus calls me and the church his bride and that he's coming back for his bride, and that he loves us in the sacrament. I love all of those things. I love that the Bible says he is the friend, he's the friend of all friends. We just so quickly forget that this friend of all friends is also the king of all kings. And that to love this friend well means to acknowledge his place and position and lordship in my life, honor him for who he is. Abraham Kuyper puts it this way: he says, You call him your savior, redeemer, and surety, and you delight in the redemption and salvation he obtained for you. But all of this has to do with how he has benefited you to save you from perition, to save you from sin, to save you from but you say, But Christ is more. He is also your king. And saying so expresses the honor due to him, but also expresses what you must be for Christ. The Bible is clear. Oh my soul, trust in the Lord and forget not his benefits. He has benefited me, he has benefited you, he has poured out so much for us, but he's also my king. That's a tension there. Because we want the Savior who rescues us, we're just slower to surrender to the Lord who leads us and commands us, which puts us at odds with that longing in our heart, because the thing we long for is simultaneously the thing we reject. Which is not just a problem for us because we don't live in a monarchical culture. It's not just because we don't have kings today that we struggle with this. This is a human problem. The Bible has been honest about our resistance to God's kingship for thousands of years, and it goes all the way back to stories in the Old Testament. So I want you to turn with me to 1 Samuel chapter 8. 1 Samuel chapter 8. It's a really famous passage at a critical juncture in Israel's history. And when we arrive in the story, God has led his people for generations, not with kings in the traditional sense, but God has appointed leaders and raised them up when the people needed them. And Samuel is the last of these leaders, and Samuel's getting old. And his sons who are appointed to follow him, they're corrupt. They do all kinds of terrible things, take bribes. They aren't really leaders worth following. And so the people of Israel are concerned, frustrated, and they come to Samuel with a demand. 1 Samuel 8, verse 4 says, Finally, all the elders of Israel met at Ramah to discuss the matter with Samuel. Verse 5, look, they told him, You're now old, and your sons are not like you. Give us a king to judge us like all the other nations have. Samuel was displeased with their request and went to the Lord for guidance. And before we go any further, I want you to notice the irony of their request. The elders are complaining that Samuel's sons are corrupt and unfit to lead. So their proposed solution is not to go to God. Their proposed solution is to install a king, a ruler whose sons will automatically inherit the throne after him. The thing that they say they're worried about is literally hardwired into the system they're demanding for. Which tells me they either don't know what they're asking or they're not being fully honest about why they're asking it. Which is really what we're going to see, that their stated reason isn't their real reason. We'll see it in just a moment. So Samuel takes their request to God. He's been faithful for decades. He is frustrated and they're asking to replace the structure God set up. And I want you to hear God's response to Samuel when he brings this demand to him on behalf of the people. Because as I read it with fresh eyes this week, the heart of God in his response, it just started to break something in me. In 1 Samuel chapter 8, verse 7, God tells him, Do everything they say to you, the Lord replied. For they are rejecting me, not you. They don't want me to be. This isn't a you problem, Samuel. This isn't a they just don't want me to be their king any longer. Ever since I brought them from Egypt, I have k they have continually abandoned me and followed other gods. Do you hear the ache in God's heart? They've rejected me. This isn't a political analysis or a cultural landscape of survey. Like this is God getting to the root of the issue. This is a father whose heart has been hurt by the rejection of his children. Now, they didn't directly say that to him. They didn't come up and tell Samuel, we just don't want God in that role anymore. They probably didn't even think that's what they were doing. But God sees beneath the request to the heart underneath it, they just don't want me to be their king anymore. Even more fascinating to me is that God gives them exactly what they asked for. He tells Samuel, do everything they say. Why would an all-powerful, all-loving, heartbroken God give Israel exactly what they want? And there's so many stories in the Bible, scriptures, and passages that kind of paint this picture of when God does that, when God gives someone what they're wanting, even when it's bad for them. And the narrative that Scripture weaves, the picture scripture paints for us clearly is why does God do that? Because sometimes the worst and most loving thing God can do is let you have exactly what you want. Because he knows that the reality of what you want, you don't even see, you don't even realize what you're asking for yet. But he knows that the reality of getting what you asked for is the only thing that will drive your heart back to him. And we see that in this story because immediately after God tells this to Samuel, he says, I want you to warn them. Look in verse 9. He says, Do as they ask, but solemnly warn them about the way a king will reign over them. So Samuel passed on the Lord's warning to the people who were asking for a king. And the next seven verses are Samuel basically telling them what's going to happen when a king is going to be put into place. And I want to summarize them and show you what he says will happen. Listen to the pattern and to the repeated themes of the scripture. Starting in verse 11, he says, Okay, you want a king. The king will draft your sons, the king will take your daughters, he will take away the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves. He will take a tenth of your grain. He will take your male and female slaves, he will demand a tenth of your flocks, and you will be his slaves. When that day comes, watch this. You will beg for relief from this king you are demanding. But then the Lord will not help you. Six times in eight verses, draft, take, demand. Because that's what every earthly king does. So let me help you understand it in a way that's that maybe is more relevant to us. Anything you put on the throne of your life will eventually take more than you plan to give and leave you with less than what you had. And even what's the final warning? He says, You will beg for relief from the king. The word beg in Hebrew has the same root word used in Exodus when it says, Israel begged or cried out to God to save them from Pharaoh's slavery. So God is essentially saying, the king you're demanding is going to put you right back into the same kind of bondage I just rescued you from. God is pleading with his people, don't do this. But this is where we discover the real reason for their request and their heart's desire. Because if you if you choose to reject the true king, you will find another one to replace him. You have to, because the human heart, the throne of the human heart, never sits empty. And it's not that Israel wants nothing on the throne, they just don't want God on the throne. So he gives them all the warnings in verse 19. Look at what it says. The people refuse to listen to Samuel's warning. And even so, even so, even with all of those reasons you just gave, even so, we still want a king. Why? Here's why. We want to be like the nations around us. Our king will judge us and lead us into battle. What's amazing to me about that is God does those things for them. God judges them. God leads them into battle. They just want those things to happen like it happens for everybody else. What are we getting at? Hidden in verse 20. It's really what they're what they're going for. They say our king's going to judge us and lead us into battle. To judge us is yes, to lead, but it also has the connotation of to govern. It has court case connotation, which is to decide and determine right and wrong for somebody. To lead us into battle is to defend us, to protect us, to let us hide behind you. So you go out in front, you face it first, and we hide behind you. They wanted something that would judge them and fight for them in a way that didn't demand they changed how they lived. I want someone to, Israel's saying, We, God, we know you've done these things for us. We want to do it like the other nations. So we want someone else besides you to determine right and wrong for us. We want someone else besides you to defend and achieve our victory for us. We want someone else to be a king like everyone else. We want to do what we want to do and still be protected at the same time. Now it is easy to look with judgment and accusation on Israel. Like I'm reading this and I'm going, we're not that far off from the like, did y'all forget the Red Sea deal? Like that was amazing. Did you forget when you were hungry and birds were fell out of the sky for you to eat every day? Did you forget at night when you were wandering a pillar of fire that literally fell from the clouds to lead you? Did you forget these things? Did we forget those things? Did we forget the moments where God did exactly what we needed him to do when he asked? We're like, how often do we push against God in the same way and subtly demand our own king? No, we like them, we don't necessarily come up to God and just say, we reject you. We just stage a coup with the idols of our own heart. We quietly usurp God's throne with things we'd prefer to judge us and protect us besides Him. So let me help you understand how this works practically. Anything you let define right and wrong for you, and anything you trust to fight your battles for you is functionally your king. So who tells you what's right and wrong in your life right now? Where do you get that determination? Is it the comment section? The voices in your industry, the news station, the political party? Because whatever you let judge you, and if you did right and wrong, and judge for you on what is right and wrong, that's king for you. Who do you trust to f what do you trust to fight your battles and go in front of you? When the pressure hits, when the bills are due, when rejection comes, what do you hide behind and use as your defense? Maybe it's financial status, performance, and persona, your sexuality, something to just numb the. Pain. But whatever you trust to take care of life's problems for you, that's your king. And God warned us about the kings that we crown for ourselves. Every single one of them does exactly what he said they would do. They take. Not long before his suicide, secular novelist David Foster Wallace, he captured this idea in a really beautiful way in his commencement address to a graduating class. And what's this this is what I'm about to read you is not a pastor. This is not a theologian. This is a secular novelist, a secular author who's wrestling with the journey of his own life and what he's learned. Look at what he says. He says, Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of God or spiritual type thing to worship is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you'll never have enough, never feel you have enough. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure, and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you'll end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. This is a non-Christian looking at his own life and arriving at the same diagnosis that God gave Israel 3,000 years earlier. Every king you crown for yourself will destroy you. Which means God was not trying to keep something good from Israel. He was trying to keep something terrible from happening to Israel. And the only reason Israel kept reaching for another king is they had forgotten what their king was actually like. What he had done for them, how good they had it under his covering. And I just I think we are the same way. Why else would we keep crowning kings that consume us, other than somewhere along the journey we lost sight of the only king who doesn't? But can I tell you today, you do not, if you're looking for a king in your life, someone to defend you, to judge you, to show you the way, you don't need to look elsewhere because royalty is already in the room. Royalty is in the room. You just need a new vision, a different vision of how different this king really is from all the others. Every other king is oppressive and demanding. This is the one king that doesn't make you a slave. It's the one king that gives more than he takes, and he has proven it time and time again. He it's how he revealed his king. Jesus came to show us what the kingdom of heaven was like. And over and over again, Jesus gave us a different vision of what kind of king God is. This king traded a royal seat in heaven for a manger because this king washed his disciples' feet on the night they abandoned him. This king's feet once used the earth as a footstool, but then he came and walked our soil and sod and let those feet be nailed to a tree. This king's head once wore a crown of gold, but then wore a crown of thorns to showcase his love for you. This king's hands molded humanity, held you in his hands before you were even a thought on this life, and he fixed those hands to a cross, and that king of kings would take that tree of shame and transform it into a throne of glory. Why? He's just a different kind of king. He's a different kind of king. That's who we worship, that's who we bow our knee to. Not an oppressive, vindictive, selfish king, but one who reigns with love and with mercy. And that's just where I think we get lost. We get stuck in this kingship idea because we always picture kings at a distance, behind ceremony, behind closed doors, locked up with guards and with protocol. And if we're not careful, we'll start thinking the Christian life is just about being better subjects. That if I can do the right things, the king will I'll get the king's attention. If I follow every law of the land, I'm faithful enough, I can climb into this king's good graces, I can work hard enough to keep a place at his table. That has never been the story. From the very beginning, it has been a story about the king reaching down to you. Think back to our story in Matthew chapter 18. Even the way Jesus tells the story and paints the picture of the kingdom of heaven and of the kingdom of God, even the way he chooses to frame it for us. See, because we we put a header on that scripture, we put the parable of the unforgiving servant. And those headers they can mess us up sometimes. That's not how Jesus sees the story. Jesus doesn't call this the parable of the unforgiving servant, He starts it differently. He tells us in the first line what the story is about. Matthew 18, 23, it says, it doesn't start with, there's a man who owed a great debt. It starts with, therefore, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. It doesn't, it's not there's a the kingdom of heaven is compared with a man who owed a great debt. The kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. I thought it was a story about the servants. Jesus thinks it's a story about a king. A king who what kind of king is he? A kind of king who wants to make things right with the subjects who have no way to make it right with him. Because he's not like other kings. Says he forgave the debt, which means the king absorbs the cost of that debt upon himself so that the man could go free. And that's the that's the kind of king we're talking about. And one day that forgiving, loving, conquering king will come back again and reclaim this earth. One day that king is coming, and when he does, because it's the kind of king he is, he's gonna right every wrong, he's gonna fix every injustice, he will make all things good and perfect. But until that day comes and he puts his throne back on earth, I can commit in my heart to honor him by giving him the throne of my life. That's what I can commit to do. What does that mean? What does it look like? I just I don't I think we overcome it's it's what it's always been. It's just okay, King Jesus. Where are you? What are you doing? Where do you want to go? What are you saying? This is what it means to acknowledge royalties in the room, by the way. Now, you can't go into your business meeting tomorrow and do this. They're gonna look at you weird. But in my heart, I walk through the door and say, Oh God, what are you saying? What are you doing? King Jesus, I'm hosting you. You this is your room, this is your space. When I come home from work after a long day and I see the family, Jesus, what are you saying? What are you doing? What are you wanting to do? Every space, every environment I go to, this is how I can live, this is what it means to host him, to acknowledge his kingship. And this should not be hard when I remember and think about what this king does for me. That's honestly, that's the only explanation I have that I can see in the text of why the unforgiving servant would leave and and not forgive such a great debt. It always puzzled me. How could you how could you be forgiven so much and then leave and not and immediately demand something from someone else? I think I think we're given a hint of it in the story and in the details. I just think he for, I just I don't think he actually believed the king. No, king, why else would I go and demand payment from somebody other than I think I still owe something? I just I just think he didn't believe the king was actually that good. And I think the text actually shows us that because it does say he had that posture right there on his knees, it does say he has that posture. It says that he gets on his knees begging for mercy, but he is not on his knees overwhelmed with gratitude and worship. It says he immediately gets up and he goes and finds the other server. Why? He didn't believe it. He just didn't think it was no king could be that good to me. Somewhere along the way, I just think we've adopted that philosophy. No king could be that good to me. No king could love me that way. But can I tell you today, royalty is in the room, and he's the king from the parable, he's the king who absorbs the debt, who prays the price, and who wishes to settle accounts with his servants. And as long as you think God is a king like the rest, oppressive, angry, manipulative, and forceful, you will never be able to live surrendered to him in love and in trust. But he's not like those kings. He never has been, he is the king who left his throne to come find you. That's the kind of king worth honoring, worth making room for, who's with me in every moment. Royalty is in the room, and he's the kind of king worth everything. Stay with me across this room. Prayer team, I believe Jesus is doing something really sweet in this moment. And so if you could, prayer team, I'm gonna invite you to make your way forward. But as you go in just a moment, I really do believe there's two kinds of people in the room today. There's people here who've never made Jesus the king of their life. If that's you, I want to encourage you, I want to tell you, you are already serving a king. The question is just which one will it be? There is only one good, gracious, loving, forgiving king who's willing to meet you where you are today, and that's our king. That's Jesus. And there would be no greater joy for us than to pray a prayer with you to help you lead you in a moment of surrendering your life to him. But for the rest of us, if he already is your king, don't walk out of these doors the way the servant did, unbelieving, not holding on to the beauty and the reality, trusting in the kindness and love and forgiveness of a good king. Walk out of these doors, commit to host him, commit to honor him, commit to living every day. Jesus, what you did for me. I'm gonna go into this space, I'm gonna go into this environment, inviting you, leaving room for you, the king who settled my account. This life is yours. If there's any other king on the throne of your heart, take it off. Put him back in his rightful place today. So, Jesus, as we go, would you help us? God, we don't want to be like Israel, we don't want to be like the servant. We want to acknowledge you for your kingship, for who you are, for the good, kind, loving, merciful God that you are. So, would you meet us here again? Would you give us fresh revelation of your grace again, Lord, and help us to live our lives hosting you like royalty is in the room. And as we go, Lord, and live this out, I ask that you would bless them and keep them. She would make your face shine down upon them, be gracious to them, turn your countenance their direction, and give them peace. In Jesus' name. Amen.