So Watch Yourselves [2 of 2]

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Service Notes

Grief and Hope Sunday is coming up. On the Sunday night we will start a new series in Lamentations. Tonight we will end Proverbs.

Bible Reading Introduction

It has been 4 weeks since we have been in Luke together.
Thoroughly enjoyed listening to Greg teach about the 10 lepers last Sunday
Title comes from vs 3. Take Heed to Yourselves - alternative title “Check yo’ self before you wreck yo’ self”
Much of the journey narrative (9:51–19:44) consists of teaching given to the disciples.
Jesus is teaching the disciples how to walk in humility.
In Luke 17:11 “11 And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.” Luke reminds us that Jesus and his disciples are still on the journey to Jerusalem.
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Luke 17:1–10 (KJV 1900)
1 Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!
2 It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.
3 Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.
4 And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.
5 And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.
6 And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.
7 But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat?
8 And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?
9 Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not.
10 So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.
​

Review from last time we were in this passage

Do not make the Gospel difficult to understand?

Luke 17:1 “1 Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!”
In their message that Jesus is not the Messiah
In their hypocrisy
In their perversion of Scripture
In their disdain for the people.
They caused people to be offended by the work of Christ.
The Pharisees were just heaping up stumbling blocks in front of everybody they could who was moving in the direction of Christ.

Be willing to lovingly, rebuke and forgive often.

Luke 17:3 “3 Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.”
We don't lead people into sin. We lead them out of it.  And that starts with rebuke.
Luke gives a principle, "If your brother sins, rebuke him."  Matthew gives the process.
This call to forgive is difficult and led the disciples to say Luke 17:5 “5 And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.”

​

Now we see how Jesus helped His disciples increase their faith.

How does Jesus help them?

In two ways, both of which are by telling them truth.
So even in the way he responds he shows us that faith comes by hearing. Knowing certain things should increase our faith. Romans 10:17 “17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Jesus tells them that the crucial issue in doing the impossible is not the quantity of their faith but the power of God.

Luke 17:6 “6 And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.”
We must ask at times what the disciples asked “Why could we not _________?” Fill in the blank. - for them caste out demons for us in this passage; forgive.
Paul is emphasizing faith enabled, faith dependent discipleship and devotion.

Faith is not abstract

Faith isn’t abstract; we put our faith in the promises of God
Faith is not adrenaline. Faith is not warm feelings.
Faith is Hebrews 11:1 “1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Faith is looking to God’s promises and acting upon them.
Friend sent me this from their devotions. It gives a good definition of faith. Acts 27:25 “25 Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.”
Here is a simple definition of faith.  Faith is believing what God said is true, and letting that affect your attitude and actions. Paul has just announced that all of their lives will be spared, but their ship will be lost.

Now we move on to the second lesson Jesus teaches to those who ask for help to increase their faith.

When you have done all that you are commanded to do you are still dependent on God’s grace

Have you ever been told this as a kid to watch your attitude? Adult? That is what is about to happen.

Let me help you understand the context that the original audience would have understood.

We are not looking at a person under bondage or slavery, as we would know it, but a servant who would have received housing and food. These relationships were not typically lifelong.
This is the afternoon meal that happened daily.
These were agreed upon terms.
It was art of the servants job description to take care of this meal before they would sit down and eat.
Jesus is not describing the way it is between God and His children but the way the Pharisees think it is. And He is explaining how it is illogical even with their worldview.
Luke 17:7-10 “7 But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? 8 And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? 9 Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. 10 So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.”
Summary: God is never our debtor.
Remember the Prodigal Story: The older brother is suspicious that somehow his father is not gracious towards him even though he has performed on such a high level.
They viewed obedience as something that gave them leverage over God.
We will never work our way up out of debt to a place where God is in our debt. Romans 11:35 “35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?”

Great encouragement!

Why? Because it means that God is just as free to bless us before we get our act together as he is after.
This story is followed by the story of 10 lepers. None of them had anything to offer Jesus when He came to them and brought healing.
Last week I spent some time on the phone with one of our missionaries to Turkey. Also I spent time with a pastor who thought his church would close. I found myself envying their awareness of their need for God to work. They were desperate. They were committed to living by faith.
We should trust God for great things in our little faith, and not be paralyzed by what is left to be done in our lives and in our church.

Why is this so difficult for us?

The Bible says a lot about the connection between obedience and blessing

One of the great themes of the Old Testament and of the New Testament is that the way of blessing is the way of obedience.
We often confuse cause and effect.

To the Garden

From the very earliest chapters of the Bible, blessing and obedience were tied together.
The blessing was a command and the command was a blessing. Genesis 1:26 “26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
Adam had done nothing to earn or merit God's blessing.
God simply in His kindness and generosity and love gave that blessing.
The blessing was a command and the command was a blessing.
Join us at 9:30 am on Sunday Sunday, September 11th for Donuts & Dedication. We will eat Krispy Kreme Donuts and pray for the Faith Promise Commitments. It is a blessing and a command. / Blessing: donuts. Command: come.

Distorted view seen in Job.

Job's friends saw him not being blessed and they drew the deduction, what? “Job, you must have been sinful. That's why you’re not being blessed. You were disobedient; now God has handed it to you.”
Seen in disciples when asked why a man was born blind.
Seen in the attitude of the older brother.
Seen in our lives when we are angry we are not getting what we think we deserve or being treated unfairly by God.

We are told that we are sons and friends and not servants.

We are no longer slaves but sons. Galatians 4:7 “7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”
We are called friends in John 15:15 “15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.”

Now the disciples are being caused to consider themselves “unworthy servants”

What gives? We must view this in regard to the Pharisees wrong theology.
Jesus is not describing the way it is between God and His children but the way the Pharisees think it is. And He is explaining how it is illogical even with their worldview
Jesus is making a strong point about how much our attitude matters.
This is played out with Cain and Abel.
This is seen in the story of the Pharisees and the tax collectors.

Are we son, servant, or friend? And of course the Biblical answer is, yes!

Jesus has some very important things that He wants us to learn about our attitude to God – what we think about God and what we think about God's blessing.

Obedience is not leverage to demand a certain response from God.

Jesus is saying, “Look Pharisees, your own theology of God and of blessing doesn't work. Take for instance a farmer and his servant. When the servant does what he's supposed to do it doesn't give him leverage over his master. He's just done what he's supposed to do. It doesn't give him merit. It doesn't change his position in relation to him. He's just done his job.
So your own theology of how you relate to God doesn't even work in common life. You think that you do certain things that put God in your debt. You think that God is so stingy that He needs to be put in your debt. You think that you can do stuff that's good enough that puts Him in your debt. Neither of those things is true. He's not stingy; He's generous, and you’re not as obedient as you think you are but your obedience in any case cannot act as leverage against Him.
It's not a means to an end in order to put a stingy God in a corner where He's got to pull His wallet out and give you four dollars. That's not how obedience works. You've completely misunderstood the role of obedience in the life that God calls His children to live.”

We did not merit the grace God has shown to us.

“You scratch my back; I’ll scratch yours. God, I’ll do this if You’ll do that for me. Or, I’ll stop doing this if You’ll stop doing that for me. Or, I’ll do this if You’ll give me this blessing. Or surely if I do this it will earn Your reward.”
God isn't like that small farmer. That's not how God relates to us.
God is gracious. He kills the fatted calf for us prodigals.
Next story will demonstrate this - 10 Lepers
Luke 17:11-19 “11 And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 12 And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: 13 And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. 14 And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. 15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. 17 And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? 18 There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. 19 And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.”
God did not line up the 10 lepers to see who he would be gracious to
Gratitude expressed to a God who did in his life what no man could do.
The Lepers had nothing to offer God.
After Jesus brings healing to his life, the leper gives the only thing that he had of any value. He praised God.
​

We ought to serve God in humility and with gratitude.

Luke 17:10 “10 So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.”
As a prideful teenager,= I read a book called Calvary road by Roy Hessian. he gave 5 marks of a bond servant. The last one really humbled me: Admission that doing and bearing what we have in the way of meekness and humility, we have not done one stitch more than it was our duty to do.
When we've done everything that we could possibly do we've only done what we're supposed to do as creatures. Romans 12:1 “1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”

Conclusion

When we see God calls to us to be people who call each other to holiness and provide forgiveness when others hurt us we ask God to increase our faith.
We call our God to increase our faith
Jesus does so by speaking to us. And this is what he says.
The crucial issue in doing the impossible is not the quantity of their faith but the power of God.
When you have done all that you are commanded to do you are still dependent on God’s grace

What should our lives look like with this understanding? 15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,

We will never be able to pay this debt, nor are we ever meant to. We live our lives and eternity indebted to Him for His grace in our lives.
We bring nothing to the table that obligates Him to work on our behalf.
It is with this understand we worship Him and live a life of faith. Asking Him to do through us what we could never do on our own.
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