Everyday Discipleship

live in light of eternity, and we kind of think, well, how does that look in real life?

And that's what Jesus shows us here really in the first 10 verses of Luke 17.

So you found your place, you can follow along in your copy of God's Word or follow along on the screen.

The Bible says this,

Then said he unto his disciples,

It is impossible, but the defenses will come.

But woe unto him through whom they come.

It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck,

and he was cast into the sea, that he should offend one of these little ones.

Take heed to yourselves.

If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him.

And if he repent, forgive him.

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.

Verse 5,

And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.

And the Lord said,

If ye had the faith as a grain of a mustard seed,

you might say unto the sycamine tree,

Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea, and it should obey you.

But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle,

will say unto him by and by,

when he has come from the field,

Go and sit down to meet?

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?

Doth he think that servant,

because he did the things that were commanded him?

I trow not.

Verse 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.

So what Jesus is going to do here is,

he's going to talk about what everyday discipleship looks like.

I think sometimes we hear that word discipleship,

we may think of Bible studies,

and classes,

and learning doctrine,

and those things are important.

But here in Luke 17,

what Jesus shows us is,

the discipleship is just as much about how we treat people on Monday,

as it is what we believe and sing about on a Sunday.

Because the Christian life is not lived inside these four walls.

The idea is we hear the word of God,

and we take it out,

and we live it in real time.

And real time,

I don't know if you found this out in your life,

it's hard.

Life is hard, isn't it?

And we're going to come into problems,

we're going to face difficulties.

It's impossible that offenses will not come.

So how do we deal with that when they do?

That's what Jesus is going to show us here this morning.

So let's go to the hymn and ask him to help us here today.

Father, thank you for this opportunity to once again open your word.

Lord, help us never to tire of it.

Lord, help us to come to your word with excitement,

not just to hear it, Lord,

but to receive it and apply it to our life, Lord.

I pray that if there is somebody here today

that does not know you as their Savior,

Lord, that you would make that very clear to them.

Lord, you would just convict their heart.

Lord, you would draw them to yourself.

But Lord, for those that do know you here as their Savior,

Lord, I pray that we would take an honest inventory of our life

and to make sure that we're living life

in a way that points and honors you.

Lord, I pray that you would be with me now.

You would empty me of self.

You'd cleanse me of sin.

Fill me with your spirit

that I might be a help to these people here this morning.

And we ask it in Christ's name.

Amen.

Thank you so much for standing.

You may be seated.

You ever started a new job?

Maybe it's your first job.

And you're kind of excited about it

because now you're going to have your own real life money

and you can do some things.

So you're excited and you go,

get that little bit of nerves

and you show up on time.

That's a good thing.

You know, show up on time is a key thing.

Teenagers, if you get a job,

that's going to put you ahead of about 99% of people in the world

just showing up on time.

And you do that and you think,

okay, I'm ready to go.

And then somebody comes and hands you

about a 10-inch employee handbook

and says, here, read this.

Everything you need to know is in there.

And thankfully, at some point,

somebody's going to come alongside and say,

hey, why don't you come here?

I'm going to kind of show you how we do things around here.

I don't know about you,

but I can read about something.

I can hear somebody explain it

and try to pretend like I'm understanding.

Oh, yeah.

But really for me,

what clicks is when I see it play out in real time.

Like, oh, that's how it does

because sometimes it just is not getting in there.

And it's true when learning a new job.

Maybe it's true in learning a skill

or it's true in sports and in parenting.

And it's certainly true in the Christian life.

The Bible tells us in Philippians 3, verse 17,

Philippians 3:17

Paul said, listen, mark them in your life

that you can follow as an example in the Christian life.

And the idea that Paul is saying

is that we should all have somebody that we look up to.

We should all have somebody that's an example.

No matter what stage you are in your life,

what stage you are in your Christian walk,

there should be somebody

that's a little bit further along in the race.

And you say, hey, I want to kind of model my life after them

because they're modeling their life after Christ.

And so we see that and we can see it kind of play out

in real time.

And we need examples.

But not only that, the Bible is going to tell us here

this morning that we, as believers in Christ,

we need to be an example for others to follow.

And so Jesus is kind of digging into that truth.

And we see throughout scriptures that by the grace of God,

through faith in Christ Jesus,

when we call on him for salvation,

we're forgiven of our sins.

The Bible says that old things are passed away

and behold, all things have become new,

that we're brand new creatures.

I mean, when that happens, it's exciting.

And I just want to remind you,

you don't have to get over it, by the way.

You can still be excited, you know,

five, 10, 20, 50 years down the road

because you're alive in Christ now.

But I think the reality is, is sooner or later,

every believer begins to ask the question,

well, now what?

Now what do I do?

What does following Jesus actually look like?

Jesus calls us constantly to follow him,

constantly to be his disciples.

How do I live like that?

How does my life look like that?

How do I make Sunday's sermon real on Monday morning?

Because that's the goal.

That's the aim.

It's not just, the Christian life's not showing up at church,

singing some hymns, opening your Bible,

and going to lunch.

I like all those things.

But that's not what our Christian life should consist of.

But as we've seen throughout the Gospel of Luke,

Jesus never leaves us guessing.

He has a plan.

He has a goal.

He has an aim.

He gives us practical things that we can place into our life.

If you were here last week,

we saw there at the end of Luke chapter number 16,

and really from verses 19 to 31,

we looked at a pretty famous story in the Gospel of Luke of the rich man and Lazarus.

And Jesus showed us the tragedy of a man who lived entirely for himself.

His life, his daily life was all about himself.

He fared sumptuously.

Every day was a feast.

Every day was a holiday.

He dressed in the best clothes.

He had everything the world had to offer.

While ignoring both God and the people right in front of him.

He had an opportunity to be a blessing.

He had an opportunity to help others.

He had an opportunity to point others to God.

But instead of using his resources for others,

he used it for himself.

And the message there was unmistakable,

that eternity should change the way that we live.

Because we saw later in the story that the poor man, Lazarus,

when he died, he went to heaven.

And the rich man was not in hell because he was rich.

And Lazarus wasn't in heaven because he was poor.

No, it's because the rich man trusted in himself,

and Lazarus trusted in God.

And eternity revealed that.

So Jesus was painting this picture that how we live on this side,

and what we live for,

is going to determine where our eternity is spent.

And now he turns to his disciples as we come into our text in Luke 17,

and he answers the question.

If we are living in light of eternity,

what should that actually look like?

Because we know eternity is coming.

He's kind of made that very, very clear

over the last few chapters in Luke's gospel.

And as we came and we read this text this morning,

these first ten verses,

it kind of seems like Jesus is just shotgunning things off.

Like none of these things are really related.

I mean, he's talking about offenses and forgiving,

and then he's talking about mustard seed and trees,

and he's talking about servants.

I mean, it kind of seems like,

Jesus, what is going on?

But I think that we're going to see here this morning

is they really paint a beautiful picture

that shows us what everyday discipleship looks like.

Because here's the big idea of this text,

that following Jesus is revealed not merely in what we believe,

but how we live,

and how we love one another,

and how we forgive one another,

and how we trust God,

and how we serve every single day.

See, these first ten verses,

what Jesus is showing us

is he's going to show us some characteristics

that mark a faithful follower of Jesus.

Because his disciples are there,

and they say,

okay, eternity's coming,

Lord, we want to live for you.

What does it look like?

And so as Jesus answers that question,

he begins to show them.

He says,

listen, you need to have these marks in your life.

And the first characteristic we see

of a faithful follower of Jesus

is this,

is that he guards others from stumbling.

That he guards others from stumbling.

We see that in verse number one.

The Bible says this,

it is impossible that offenses will come.

I mean, Jesus begins right off the bat

with a very sober warning.

Now notice,

the last few chapters,

Jesus has been talking to the Pharisees.

Every time he's speaking,

he's saying,

listen, you need to get this right.

You're way in the wrong.

But that's not who Jesus is talking to here in this text.

That he's talking to his disciples.

This is for people that already belong to him.

That are true followers of Christ.

And here's what he's essentially saying.

If you're going to follow me,

here's something you need to understand.

Here's something you need to make sure

that you are very well aware of

that it's a part of life.

Problems.

Anybody love problems?

Anybody got problems?

We should.

I mean, we do.

The Bible says this,

it's impossible that offenses or problems

or really the idea here is stumbling blocks.

It's impossible.

It's inevitable that they do not come.

And really in the original text,

in the original language,

the picture here is a trigger on a trap

to catch an animal.

The bait, it looked harmless.

It looked like not a big deal.

Oh man, there's a piece of cheese.

I'm going to go after it.

It's very attractive.

It's very appealing.

But the moment an animal reached in that trap,

boom, it shut.

And it stumbled them up.

And Jesus is kind of teaching

that's exactly how temptation works.

That we live in a fallen world

and sin surrounds us

and our flesh is weak.

And here's what Satan does.

He delights in laying traps for God's people.

That's what Jesus is saying.

You can't live this life.

You can't live in a broken, sinful world

and not come into the contact with offenses,

with stumbling blocks.

It's inevitable.

But then Jesus says something at the end of the verse

that really should stop us in our tracks

and hopefully would have stopped the disciples in their tracks.

Because we understand the first part

and we've been on the other end of somebody offending us,

somebody being a stumbling block.

But here's what Jesus says,

but woe unto him through whom they come.

See, the shocking part is not that stumbling blocks exist.

I think the shocking part here is

that one of his followers could become a stumbling block.

That's what he wanted the disciples to understand.

He's saying, listen, you're going to run into this in life,

but let me remind you, don't be a stumbling block.

Don't be that person that's going to cause other people

to stumble.

Jesus gives a very strong warning in verse number two.

He says, if you do that, here's what you need to be.

No, it were better for him that a millstone

were hanged about his neck and cast into the sea

that he should offend one of these little ones.

See, a millstone was not a little pebble

that somebody may have found in their pocket.

You know when your kids go to the playground

when they're little and you come in,

you're about to do the laundry

and you just pull out a bunch of rocks in their pocket?

They're like, what in the world?

They're special rocks to me.

Like, no, they're not.

Leave them in the playground.

We don't want them in our house.

We don't want them in our washer.

You hear all that noise in there.

No, a millstone was an enormous stone

and it was really used for grinding grain.

Many of the millstones in this day

would have been so large,

they would have had to been turned by a donkey.

They would have connected it to it

and the donkey would have ground the grain up there.

And so Jesus paints this very shocking picture.

I mean, I just want to see the disciples' face

when Jesus starts teaching.

Sometimes he says something,

I'm like, you can't say that.

I mean, Jesus, you think you should put a millstone

around our neck and cast us into the sea?

I mean, is Jesus saying that drowning

should be the punishment when we offend somebody?

No, that's not what he's saying.

That's not the idea.

But what he is saying is that such a terrible death

would actually be preferable

as opposed to the judgment coming

for someone that knowingly and willingly

leads one of his followers into temptation,

into sin, into problems.

You say, why is he so serious about that?

Because that's how seriously Jesus takes our influence.

Because I'm sure you've met somebody

and you've invited him to church

and they'll say something like this,

well, I used to go to church,

but so-and-so offended me.

Well, the preacher said this,

and if that's how Christians are gonna be,

I'm never going to church again.

You know why?

Because our influence makes a difference

sometimes in people's eternity.

Then we need to be very, very careful

and we need to make sure our life

is not a stumbling block

because when we hear the word stumbling block,

we think, oh, well,

Jesus must be talking about false teaching.

False teaching is certainly a stumbling block.

I just wanna remind you,

be very careful what you listen to.

Be very careful what you put your faith in.

It should be in this and this alone.

Because there's some people,

they get on TV

and they call themselves preachers.

I don't think I'd call them that.

If it doesn't say in the word of God,

and that's why I always encourage you,

bring your own Bible here.

Don't just take my word for it

because I'm standing up here.

No, we are basing our life

on the word of God.

And yes, a false doctrine

and false teaching,

it is a stumbling block

and it's prevalent in our world today.

But Jesus' warning,

it reaches much further than that.

You know how we can be a stumbling block?

We can do it by hypocrisy.

And I'm sure you heard that too.

Well, I'd go to church,

but it's just full of hypocrites.

Anybody ever heard that?

You know, I tell them,

you're right

because there's people there.

And that's how life is sometimes.

But the idea is

we're not trying to be that.

You know, we can become a stumbling block

through bitterness.

Everybody knows we go to church,

but they're thinking like,

that is the most bitter person

I've ever met.

They're mad about everything.

I mean, something good could happen to them

and they'd be mad about it.

We can become a stumbling block

through compromise

or gossip or pride

or just careless words.

We can become a stumbling block

through an unforgiving spirit.

See, what Jesus is kind of showing us

here in this text

is that anything in our life

that makes it harder

for somebody else to follow Jesus

is a stumbling block.

And that his children,

that his followers,

that his disciples

should not be a stumbling block.

That we have to be aware of that.

That we need to live a life

that is above reproach.

I mean, I think parents

would understand this idea

of being a stumbling block

more than anybody.

You ever been there

and your kids say something?

I mean, it stops you in your tracks.

And you say to this to them,

where did you hear that?

Anybody ever say that to your parents?

And then it just comes to you,

their mother.

That's where it always comes from.

I'm not even going to look over there.

I'm just going to turn my back this way.

But in all seriousness,

children are incredible imitators.

They don't just hear our words.

They watch our actions.

They notice our attitudes.

They observe how we treat other people.

They see how we respond

when things don't go our way.

See, in other words,

we see that they learn

far more from watching us

than they do from listening to us.

And we need to be reminded of that.

And what Jesus is showing us here

in these first couple verses

is that if we're followers for Christ

and we're living in light of eternity,

if we're trying to do

what he's called us to do,

somebody's watching you.

Somebody's taking account.

And it might be your children.

It might be your grandchildren.

It might be a young believer

that has just come to faith

and really trying to figure out

what the Christian life looks like.

Listen, it might be,

if you're an older married couple in here,

it might be a younger married couple.

Listen, that's what God has placed us

in a church family

that they can look around and say,

hey, is that what a marriage

is supposed to look like?

Is that how it happens?

It might be a coworker

that's very curious about Christianity

and they know you are a Christian.

They know you go to church.

It might be that neighbor

that's trying to figure out

why you go to church so much.

You know, because my kids say,

dad, why do we go to church all the time?

And when they were little, especially.

We gotta explain it.

But listen, your neighbors know

you're going to church.

So how do we live outside of that?

See, the thought here is

is we can never forget

that our lives are teaching

something every single day.

We're either teaching

that we really believe Christ,

that we really love him

by how we interact with others

and how we live our lives.

And what Jesus is saying

in these first couple of verses

is be careful that your life

doesn't become a stumbling block

that keeps someone from following me.

He said it would be better

if a millstone was cast around your neck

than you would offend

one of these little ones.

And sometimes we look at that

and we think he's talking about little kids.

And he could be talking about children,

but really the idea is young believers.

Those that are babes in Christ.

Those that are young in the faith

that are just trying to get going.

Because sometimes, you know,

if you can just get past a certain thing,

then you're good to go, so to speak.

So many times people are just getting started

in their Christian life

and suddenly happens and say,

well, if that's what it is,

I don't want anything to do with it.

And they just kind of fall by the wayside.

They become shipwrecked.

Their faith becomes shipwrecked.

See, our lives should remove obstacles to Christ,

not create them.

That's what Jesus is teaching here.

That's what he wants us to understand.

And that's why Paul told the Corinthians there

in 1 Corinthians 11,

be ye followers of me,

even as I am a follower of Christ.

Now that's a pretty bold statement.

I mean, it's kind of pretty audacious

to say something like that.

If I got up this morning and said,

hey, everybody, be like me,

I'd be like, this guy is full of himself.

But Paul, what he is saying there in that verse is,

listen, if you're watching my life,

here's what I want you to see, Jesus.

I don't want you to see anybody else except Christ.

I don't want you to see anybody else

except what he has done.

And really, that should be the goal for every one of us.

Because if we are truly living in light of eternity,

if we know Christ is our Savior,

if we know heaven is our home,

then we should care deeply about bringing others with us.

That's the whole goal of the Christian life,

that we are to go ye therefore into all the world

and preach the gospel.

We're not trying to build our kingdom.

We're not trying to have people look at it and say,

man, look at that Christian.

No, no, we want people to look at it and say,

look at Jesus.

I need that in my life.

I need that in my marriage.

I need that in my parenting.

I need to be that kind of coworker.

I need to be that kind of friend.

But all of us have lived long enough to know that

we're going to disappoint other people.

We're going to be misunderstood

and we're going to misunderstand others.

We're going to hurt people

and we're going to be hurt by them.

So how does a true disciple respond when that happens?

That's what Jesus shows us in verse 3 and 4.

Here's what he tells us.

A faithful follower of Christ

is one that learns to forgive again

and again and again and again.

See, the first couple of verses,

he warns us about becoming the reason

somebody else stumbles.

But now he says when that happens,

if somebody offends you,

you need to forgive them.

Notice he doesn't say in verse number 3,

if your brother is perfect,

if your sister is perfect,

if your wife is perfect,

if your husband is perfect.

He doesn't say if no one ever hurts you.

No, he says this.

Take heed to yourselves

if thy brother trespass against thee.

See, the idea is Jesus assumes

that when we live in this world

and we live in this life,

we live within a family,

we live within a church,

that it's going to include conflict.

Anybody have just a perfect home?

No problems?

You just smile the whole way to church?

I mean, you smile when you get in the door.

We all know how that goes.

He's like, if you do one more thing,

I'm going to just stop this car.

We're not done.

You know.

We say things like that all the time.

Listen, it happens.

Why?

Especially when it comes to the local church.

You know why God reminds us

and Jesus gives us this truth?

Because the church isn't made of perfect people.

Because if it is,

don't join it

because you're going to mess it up.

I mean, I think we have

a pretty awesome church.

I love this church.

But we're not perfect.

Your family's not perfect.

You know,

because we're just sinners saved by grace.

We're growing.

Because a church and a family,

if we know Christ our Savior,

it's just forgiven people

who are still growing in Christ.

That's what Jesus reminds us of.

So if we're still growing,

then we're going to come across problems.

So how do we handle it?

Jesus gives us two commands.

Here's what we say.

Hey,

if your brother trespass against you,

if he offends you,

if he sins against you,

here's what we do.

Number one,

rebuke him.

You're like,

yeah,

that's my spiritual gift.

Like,

I knew it was in there somewhere.

That's not a spiritual gift.

You know,

God did not bless you with that.

Now,

that may be what you think it is,

but it's not helping other people.

I mean,

but in all reality,

this word rebuke,

it kind of makes us

a little bit uncomfortable.

We don't like it.

Maybe you're like me,

you hear the word rebuke,

and maybe you picture,

you're an angry confrontation.

You,

you,

you,

you've been in a situation

where maybe a,

a boss rebuked you

in front of everybody,

and it was kind of,

you were embarrassed,

you were publicly shamed.

That's not what Jesus

is saying here.

That's not the idea

behind rebuke.

No,

here's,

here's what Jesus is,

is showing us,

that biblical rebuke

is a loving confrontation.

The idea is,

it's caring enough

about somebody

to tell them the truth

because you love them too much

just to leave them there.

Just to leave that relationship there.

See,

the goal is never humiliation.

It's always restoration.

It's always moving forward.

It's always about being better together

and moving forward

for the cause of Christ.

I mean,

some people love confrontation.

Some people,

they'll fight at a drop of a hat,

and they bring their own hat.

You work with somebody like that?

I mean,

there's people like that.

I mean,

it's just like,

they're just ready to go

and they drop it,

let's go.

But I would imagine

the majority of this room

probably doesn't like confrontation.

It's not something you wake up like,

man,

I hope I can confront somebody today.

No,

if you know it's coming,

I mean,

you may even call in sick.

You're like,

I don't want to go to work today.

I don't want to go to school today.

I don't want to face the music.

And we avoid confrontation.

And sometimes we convince ourself

that silence is love.

You know,

I know they offended me,

but you know what?

I just don't want to make things awkward.

You ever been there?

But you know what?

It is real awkward

because they know it

and you know it.

You're like,

oh.

It's awkward.

You may think to yourself,

well,

I don't want to hurt their feelings.

I'll just ignore it.

I'm sure you found this out like I have.

But ignoring sin,

ignoring hard times,

ignoring offenses

doesn't generally heal relationships.

It usually causes them

to drift further apart.

It usually causes more difficulty

as you move forward.

And Jesus is teaching us something here.

When a brother offends us

and we rebuke them,

he wants us to see

that truth and grace belong together.

Like peanut butter and jelly.

They just go together.

I love peanut butter and jelly.

Anybody else love it?

I eat an Incrustable

almost every day.

I'm pretty sure

that's what the manna was

when it fell down

in the wilderness.

It was Uncrustables.

Amazing.

Write that down.

But listen,

truth without grace

becomes harsh.

And grace without truth

isn't biblical.

We have to meet there

in the middle.

Remember what John told us

about Jesus

in John 1, verse 14?

John 1:14

That Jesus came

and he was full of grace

and truth.

Jesus didn't show up

on the scene

and say,

everybody's doing a great job.

I love all of you.

Everybody's on their way

to heaven.

No, he loved them,

but he told them the truth,

that they had sinned

and they needed a Savior.

That's what the Bible teaches us

because real biblical love

is willing to speak the truth

and is just as willing

to extend grace.

I think sometimes

we can find ourselves

on one side or the other

depending on our disposition

in our personality

like, man,

I just speak the truth.

You need to season it

with grace.

But on the other side,

we can't just be so loving

that we just ignore the truth

that there's sin

and there's problems.

We have to deal with it.

But before we get excited

about rebuking somebody,

notice what Jesus says

extremely quickly.

And if he repent,

forgive him.

I love how quickly

Jesus moves

from confrontation

to forgiveness.

He doesn't let that linger.

He's telling us,

he's saying,

listen,

the goal is not

winning the argument.

Listen,

if you're trying to win

the argument,

if you're trying to be right,

you've already lost.

You're not helping

the relationship.

And the goal

is always to win a brother

or to win a sister back.

It's to restore fellowship.

That's exactly

what Jesus did for us.

You know what Jesus did

when he came?

He confronted

our greatest problem,

sin.

He confronted it

with the truth

that there's none righteous,

there's no not one.

That we've all sinned

and come short

of the glory of God.

But he didn't come

and condemn us.

No, he came

and he saved us.

He laid down his life.

He showed grace

and mercy to us.

And Jesus is reminding us

here in this text

that forgiven people

should be forgiving people.

That should be a mark.

That should be a characteristic

of somebody

that knows Christ

as their Savior.

Listen to what Paul told

the Ephesians

in Ephesians 4.32

and be ye kind

one to another,

tenderhearted,

forgiving one another.

Say, okay,

you know,

maybe I can do that.

But here's the kicker.

Even as God

for Christ's sake

hath forgiven you.

See,

we see the motivation there.

You say, well,

you know what?

They don't deserve it.

You're right.

They don't deserve it.

None of us deserve it.

We don't forgive people

because they deserve it.

We don't forgive people

because we think

that they should be forgiven.

No,

if that were the standard,

none of us

would ever be forgiven.

Not with God

and not with each other.

Because sometimes

what happens

was wrong.

It was sin.

But here's what

Jesus is teaching

and we see it

throughout the New Testament.

We forgive

because we've already

experienced

the undeserved grace

of God ourselves.

That's how we can forgive

again and again.

Then Jesus really

kind of doubles down

on it in verse number four.

He says,

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.

I'd imagine

maybe the disciples

there in verse number three

they're like,

okay,

I'm going to work on that.

I think I can,

I think,

you know,

by God's grace

I think I can do that.

All right,

let's,

okay,

next thing Jesus,

what else you got for us?

And then he says this.

You think,

excuse me,

Jesus,

did you say

seven times in a day?

So you're telling me

if somebody offends me,

somebody sins against me,

somebody says something

mean to me,

the exact same thing,

seven different times a day

I have to keep forgiving them?

Absolutely not.

I mean,

if you're,

if I'm there,

I'm thinking,

by the third offense,

I'm thinking,

are you kidding me?

You ever,

your kids ever do something

over and over and over again?

Like,

didn't we just talk about this

five minutes ago?

Didn't we,

did you understand

what was coming out of my mouth?

I mean,

surely there's a limit to this.

Maybe Peter said,

hey,

Jesus,

after the fourth time,

can I punch him in the face

and just move on from there?

I mean,

think about that.

If that's where you are,

if somebody just constantly

is just doing the same thing

over and over and over again to you,

and Jesus,

he says,

nope,

seven,

if he does it seven times,

you gotta forgive him seven times.

Listen,

Jesus isn't teaching

a math lesson here.

So,

you know,

some people may take this literal,

well,

I'm gonna keep it in a notebook

and be like,

yep,

that's seven times,

you're cut off.

No,

here's what Jesus is teaching

in this verse.

He's teaching an attitude.

How we should look at it.

See,

his point isn't,

keep forgiving until you reach seven.

No,

his point is this,

don't keep score at all.

That's not your job.

That's not what God's called you to do.

Let me ask you a question.

How many times has the Lord forgiven you

for something?

Can you count it?

I didn't think so.

Neither can I.

But you know what?

He does it over

and over

and over

and over.

See,

his mercy,

the Bible tells us,

it's new every morning.

That's why you're here this morning.

His mercy's new.

Great is thy faithfulness.

His grace is sufficient

every single day.

And what he's reminding us here,

and the thought is this,

is shouldn't those

who have experienced

and received

such mercy

and such grace

be the people

who freely extend it?

No marriage

is going to survive

without forgiveness.

No family

is going to survive

without forgiveness.

No friendship

is going to survive

without forgiveness.

And certainly no church family

is going to survive

without forgiveness.

Every healthy relationship

is built on two people

continually extending grace

one to another.

Because we're all sinners.

We're going to mess up.

We're going to offend.

Because you know what

usually destroys relationships?

It's not one huge explosion.

It's usually a thousand

little offenses

that were never dealt

with biblically.

And when that happens,

bitterness takes root.

Resentment begins to grow.

Distance develops.

And eventually people

that got along

and loved each other,

and no matter what it was,

if it's a marriage

or it's a church

or it's a friendship,

they eventually come to a place

where they're not even

talking to each other anymore.

That's what Jesus

is dealing with.

He's saying,

listen,

that's not how

my disciples live.

Because the world

is watching.

And the world

is seeing how we live.

And he's saying,

here's what you do.

Here's how you get past that.

You lovingly confront it.

You don't put it

under the rug.

And you humbly repent

When it's brought to you.

And when that happens,

you've got to forgive.

See, that's how

the family of God

remains healthy.

And Jesus isn't

pretending

that forgiveness is easy.

I'm not up here saying,

oh, just forgive.

No, it's difficult.

The disciples knew it.

You know it.

So you think to yourself,

preacher,

how can I forgive again?

And again,

I mean,

once is enough.

I mean,

two is kind of pushing it.

But this many times?

Well, he gives us the answer

in verse 5 and 6.

Here's how we do it.

We trust God completely.

We trust God completely.

I mean,

imagine sitting there

as the disciples.

This has to be

one of the most

demanding commands

Jesus gives.

We can do other things.

We're like,

okay, I'm on board with that.

But just continually

forgiving somebody?

You know,

I'm not sure

I can do that, Jesus.

Notice the disciples

didn't say,

hey, okay,

we're going to try harder,

Jesus.

We're going to do our best.

No, here's their response

when Jesus said that,

Lord, help us.

You know what they realized

very quickly?

We can't do this.

They cry out in verse 5,

Lord,

increase our faith

because they're sitting there

and it's hearing,

it's hitting their ears

and they're thinking,

yep, I can't,

there's no way

I can do that.

Really what they're saying,

Lord,

if we're going to live this way,

you're going to have to do it

because that's not in me.

That's not how I'm built.

That's not what I want to do.

And really,

that's a healthy place to be.

Maybe you're here,

sitting here this morning

thinking,

I don't know,

you preacher,

you don't know what they did.

You don't know how it happened.

You don't know what they said.

You don't understand

the pain that it caused.

And I may not

and I probably don't,

but I know this,

that if we're going to be able

to do what Jesus asked us to do,

we have to come to the end of ourself.

We have to realize

that the Christian life

was never designed

to be lived in our own strength.

Because just these first four verses

are impossible for us to do.

See,

everything he's commanded

in this chapter,

guarding others from stumbling,

forgiving those that hurt us,

loving difficult people,

it is impossible

apart from his grace.

We say,

how do we do it?

That's what Jesus tells us

in verse number six.

He gives a illustration.

He says,

if ye had the faith

as a grain of a mustard seed,

you might say unto

the sycamine tree,

be thou plucked up

by the root

and be thou planted

in the sea

and it should obey you.

So they cry out,

Lord,

Lord,

increase our faith.

We need more faith

or we're not going

to be able to do this.

But instead,

Jesus turns around

and he teaches them

about the nature of faith.

See,

the mustard seed

was one of the smallest seeds

that would have been

known to him in this time,

especially there in Israel.

And really what Jesus

is doing in verse number six

is he is not emphasizing

the amount of faith.

See,

they thought,

okay,

the only way is

if we have more faith.

No,

here's what he's emphasizing,

the object of their faith.

That's what he wanted

them to get a hold of

because here's the truth,

even small faith

placed in a great Savior

is powerful.

That's the idea.

I don't know about you,

but that's encouraging to me

because if we're honest,

most of us have experienced

moments where our faith

seems very,

very small.

We've prayed

while we're trembling.

We've obeyed

while we're still

maybe asking questions.

We've trusted

while we battled

through fear

and we're thinking,

Lord,

I just need more faith.

No,

Jesus is saying this,

you need to make sure

your faith is placed

in the right thing.

Sometimes we think

faith is the answer.

No,

Jesus is the answer.

It's the object

of our faith

and that's why

he explains this idea

of this sycamine tree.

He said,

if you have the faith

of a mustard seed,

you can say to the sycamine tree,

sycamine tree,

move.

See,

the sycamine tree

are really a mulberry tree.

They are known

for having

an extensive root system.

Once they are established,

it was incredibly difficult

to remove.

This is a root system

that expanded

far,

far below the surface.

And just as Jesus

wasn't giving us

a math tutorial earlier,

he's not giving us

a landscaping class either.

No,

what he's teaching

and what he's illustrating

to his disciples here

is when something

appears impossible,

God can still do it.

Because remember the context.

He's talking about forgiveness.

And maybe when some

of the disciples heard that,

immediately in their mind,

they had something

they were dealing with

and they said,

I can't do it.

Jesus,

you don't know

how deeply rooted

this hurt is.

That bitterness

may be in our life,

that resentment

is growing

as we talked about

and those old wounds,

here's what happens

many times,

they become firmly

planted in our heart.

And maybe you've said this,

maybe you've thought this,

maybe your life

is there right now,

you're thinking,

I can't get over it.

I'll never,

I just can't forgive them.

It's never gonna change.

I've forgiven them

but it's not changing

at all.

But you know what

Jesus is teaching us here?

That faith in God

can uproot

what seems impossible

to us.

That's how we can

forgive again and again.

Because God can do it,

Jesus can do it.

And let me just ask you

before we move on,

what feels impossible

in your life right now?

Maybe it is

forgiving somebody.

Maybe it is

a sinful habit.

Maybe it's trusting God

with kind of some

uncertainties that you're

facing right now

in your family

and in your job

and in your health

or whatever it may be.

Maybe it's loving somebody

who's difficult to love

and maybe even asking

the question,

do I have enough faith

to even do this?

No, the right question is,

is my faith resting

on the one

who is able to do it?

That's what Jesus

shows us here.

That's a mark

of a true disciple.

It's not about

the amount of faith

we have,

it's where we've

placed our faith.

Because we found this out

in our own lives,

I'm sure,

Jesus has never failed me.

When I trust myself,

when I trust my own faith,

it crumbles.

But Jesus doesn't.

Jesus helps us move forward.

So Jesus shows us

that true disciples,

they guard others

from stumbling,

they forgive again and again,

and they trust God completely.

But if we're not careful,

we can begin to do

these things in our life

and we think,

man, I'm pretty good.

I'm a pretty good Christian.

I mean, I'm nailing

this Christian life thing.

And isn't that

just like our hearts?

The very moment

God begins producing fruit

and God begins working

in our life,

we want to take credit for it.

We're like,

man, anybody like to

pat yourself on the back?

You don't have to

raise your hand.

We do.

I mean, when I do things

around the house

that's been on my list

to do for a long, long time,

I still let my wife know,

hey, I did the dishes.

Just wanted you to know.

And she's like,

yeah, that's what

you're supposed to do.

And that's kind of

what's going on

in this text right here.

That's why Jesus closes

with this final lesson

in verses 7 through 10.

He reminds us

that everything

that we discuss,

if these characteristics

are part of our life,

they shouldn't produce pride.

Here's what they should produce.

Humble servants.

Because faithful followers

of Christ,

they serve with humility.

Jesus pictures

this scene for us.

A servant has spent

all day in the field

working.

He's plowing.

He's feeding the cattle.

He's tired.

He's dirty.

He's hungry.

I mean,

he's waiting for the clock

to reach 5 o'clock

so he can go inside the house

and he can eat some food

and he's got to think,

man, that's what's got

to be coming.

But he gets in the house

there in verse number 8

and the master of the house

says, hey,

what did you get

my dinner ready?

I'm hungry.

And so the servant,

he just does what servants do.

They keep serving.

And Jesus asked this question

in verse 9.

Doth he thank that servant

because he did the things

that were commanded?

I trow not.

He said, no.

The servant did exactly

what he was expected to do.

Now, people read these verses,

they get all weirded out.

Jesus isn't promoting

harsh treatment

of other people.

No, what he's doing

is he's using a picture

that his audience

would have understood

especially that servants

didn't expect applause

simply for fulfilling

their responsibility.

That's what they were hired for.

Many of these would have been

hired help

in different situations

and Jesus is saying,

they're just doing

what they're supposed to.

But then he brings

that same truth

and he applies it

to our life

in verse number 10.

So likewise ye,

when ye have done

all those things,

when you're living this life

the way that it's designed,

which you are commanded,

you say,

we are unprofitable servants

which have done

that which is our duty.

Verse 10 might seem

a little confusing

when we first read it.

Jesus is not saying

that his followers

are worthless.

It's not the idea.

He's not saying

that our service

has no value.

What he's teaching here

is humility.

See, the word unprofitable,

it means that we have

not placed God

under obligation.

He's reminding us

of this truth

that God owes us nothing.

He really doesn't.

Now on the other side

of the coin,

God gives us so many things.

But sometimes we think,

well I'm doing

all these things

so I deserve that.

I deserve that raise.

I deserve these things.

God, you owe me

because I'm doing

all these things.

I'm being kind

and I'm forgiving

and I'm doing

all these things.

I'm trusting in you

so you better give me

what I want.

We can subtly begin

to think in our life

that hey,

I've served faithfully,

I taught a class,

I've given,

I've sacrificed,

I've worked in the nursery.

I mean,

you'll have a crown in heaven,

don't worry about that.

I've done my part.

We say all of these things

as though God owes us

something in return.

But what verse 10

is reminding us

is that everything we have

comes from Him.

Every opportunity

we have to serve,

it comes from Him.

Every gift that you have

in your own life,

it came from Him.

Every ounce of strength

that you have

came from Him.

Every victory

came from Him.

We serve

because He's done

so much for us.

Because He's changed

our life.

So I just,

I want to ask you

that question.

Why do you do

what you do?

Why do you serve the Lord?

Is it because

you genuinely love Christ

or is it because

maybe you hope

somebody notices?

See,

would you still teach

that class?

Would you still visit

those people

that aren't able

maybe to make it

to church?

Would you still clean

and work in the nursery

and help somebody in need

if nobody ever thanked you?

See,

Jesus reminds us

that the audience

that we've always been serving

is not all of us,

it's Him.

That we're not doing

what we do

so everyone's like,

wow,

man,

look at that,

that's a real Christian.

No,

I mean,

I understand

that's difficult for us.

But here's what Jesus is saying,

I never overlook faithfulness.

God knows.

He'll settle the score one day.

I mean,

we think back

over the last few weeks,

we see that Jesus

is teaching us

to live for what lasts.

He reminds us

to live in light of eternity

and here He's showing us

this is what it looks like.

Sometimes we look at that

and we think,

man,

that's super difficult.

That's some serious stuff

right there.

I'm not sure I'm there.

Listen,

Jesus isn't describing

some spectacular Christianity.

You know what He's describing?

Faithful Christianity.

That's what it looks like.

That everyday Christians,

we should do these things.

That everyday we have

the opportunity

to help others

instead of cause them

to stumble.

That everyday we have

the opportunity

to forgive.

Everyday we have

the opportunity

to trust God

and place our faith

in Him.

Everyday we have

the opportunity

to serve.

And every one

of those choices,

here's what it does,

it makes us become

a little more like Christ

every single day.

I'll leave you

with this thought.

That everyday discipleship

isn't about doing

extraordinary things

for Jesus.

No, it's about

faithfully following Him

in just the ordinary

moments of life.

Because all four

of these things,

you know what you're

going to have

the opportunity to do?

Probably do it tomorrow

and the next day

and on Wednesday

and Thursday

and Friday.

That's how Sunday

touches Monday.

This week,

guard somebody

from stumbling.

Instead of just

living your life

with no thought,

think to yourself,

how's that co-worker

that's been asking me

about church

that I've been about,

how would they view this

if I said this

or did that?

How would my kids

respond when they

see me do that?

Maybe there's somebody

you need to forgive

this week.

Call them up

on the phone.

Maybe there's a situation

right now

that you're thinking,

Lord, I need more faith.

No, you just need

to trust God about it.

Keep serving

without looking

for recognition.

That's what everyday

discipleship looks like.

Would you stand

with your heads bowed

and with your eyes closed?

Thank you.