JESUS ON BEING UNWORTHY

Father, every single person here probably needs to say sorry to somebody,

and every single person here needs to forgive somebody.

Father, we confess before you that we flatter ourselves too much

to understand the true state of our soul

and the true state of our mind and our heart and our will.

So, Father, we ask that your word has challenged us around forgiveness

and other matters. We ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit would gently

but deeply fall upon us. Fall upon us, Father.

And as your Holy Spirit falls upon us, help us, Father, to realize

the true state of our souls and our affections, who we need to forgive.

And, Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would help us to forgive.

Father, we thank you that we can come to you in prayer,

that we can call out to you for the freedom of forgiveness.

So, Father, we call out for such freedom that we might forgive.

We call out and ask you to pour out your Holy Spirit upon us as we hear your word.

And all this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Please be seated.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So, if you're a guest here, you might not know this about me,

but Louise and myself, we've been blessed with nine children.

And our kids are all, we only have three left at home.

And so this, what I'm about to tell you, hasn't happened to us in quite a while.

But it used to be the case.

I think it mainly happened when it was just Louise with the kids in a grocery store or someplace,

that some complete and utter stranger would come up to Louise and give her a lecture on birth control.

I'm not making this up.

It was a regular occurrence.

In fact, actually, there was a fellow in the congregation who,

when it was announced that we were expecting our ninth child,

he was a very gruff and outspoken guy.

He's now with the Lord.

And he told me, he said, George, don't you know about birth control?

Like, what are you doing having nine kids on your salary?

And I didn't say anything.

I just turned the other cheek.

Then our child was born, and it was a boy.

And the man who had said this to me, his name was Tom.

And we named our son Tom.

And now we named our son Tom not because it was Tom who'd said this to me,

but, in fact, Tom, or Thomas, had been, like, on the list for every one of our boys.

And it just, we ended up choosing another name.

But we'd always liked the name, and we finally just went with Thomas, Thomas Elijah.

And, but the man who told me off when he heard that we'd named our son Tom,

he thought it was the funniest thing in the world

that I had showed him what I thought of his rebuke by naming my son after him.

And I never told him that it had nothing to do with his name,

that if, you know, he'd been called, you know, Bilbo,

we wouldn't have called our son Bilbo.

Well, Bilbo's sort of a neat name, but we wouldn't have called Tommy Bilbo.

Anyway, so it happens inside the church, but outside of the church especially.

I mean, I think that was the only time anybody in the church ever gave, you know,

was, like, bold enough to come and straight out say,

have you heard about birth control and you should be practicing it,

you're having too many kids.

But it would happen to my wife quite often.

A short lecture from a complete and utter stranger.

Now, one of the things that people complain about religious people

is that religious people, spiritual people, are intrusive, busybodies

who look for opportunities to intrude in your life and tell you off.

In fact, actually, one of the things that for many people that they would make

as a distinction between being religious, like a Christian or a Muslim,

and being spiritual is that they would say to themselves at least,

that religious people are intrusive, busybodies,

intruding in stuff that is not their business, but spiritual people don't.

Although I'm guessing that many of the people who spoke to us about birth control

were probably spiritual, not religious.

As often would happen in the Glebe, not exactly a home of fervent Christianity.

And, sorry, I'm not putting anybody down from the Glebe.

Louise and I have lived in the Glebe at different times over the years.

So is it, in fact, the case that the Bible encourages us to be busybodies?

Some of you who might remember what I just read a few moments ago

when it talks about rebuking might say,

Aha, that is why Christians are such intrusive, busybodies.

Jesus tells them to be intrusive, busybodies.

Well, is that the case?

Well, let's have a look and see what it is that Jesus actually tells us

and what he tells us to do and what he doesn't tell us to do.

So if you have your Bibles, please turn to Luke chapter 17.

Luke 17 · chapter mention

Luke 17.

And we'll begin reading at the first verse.

We're going to look at all 19 verses,

obviously some parts of it a little bit in more depth than others.

And as you're turning to Luke chapter 17,

Luke 17 · chapter mention

what we do at this church is we preach through books of the Bible.

So if you're wondering what we're going to talk about next week,

you can just read verses 20 to the end of the chapter

and we just go through the Bible.

And so the Gospel of Luke was written before the year 70,

probably in the mid-60s.

And it was written by a pagan who had become a follower of Jesus.

And this pagan who had become a follower of Jesus

was a very well-educated man.

And he did piles and piles of research with eyewitnesses.

And he compiled this true history, this true biography of Jesus.

And, you know, it doesn't look like we're reading something

that was written, let's say, in the year 67 or 68,

because it's, you know, in my case it all looks fancy.

But that's actually what we're reading when we're reading this.

And so Luke claims that he has done the research

and this is something that Jesus actually said and actually did.

It's how we know about Jesus.

So what is it that Jesus said about being a busybody?

Was he encouraging us to be busybodies?

Luke 17, verse 1.

Luke 17:1

And he said to his disciples,

so Jesus is speaking to his followers at this particular case,

temptation to sin, temptations to sin are sure to come.

Just sort of pause here for a second.

This should be very, very humbling.

It's very, very definite in the English,

but in the original language it's even more definite.

That if anybody thinks that as a follower of Jesus

a time will come when they neither sin nor are even tempted to sin,

they're not listening to Jesus.

Until we die or until Jesus comes and we see him face to face,

every follower of Jesus, like every other person on the planet,

will regularly have to struggle with temptations.

I tell some guys who are my age, you know,

that there's certain things that they might not be as tempted to

as when they were 22,

and it's not necessarily because of godliness,

it's just because of age.

And that there's other things they're going to be tempted by,

often maybe that they're blind about.

So this is a very, on one level,

it's sort of a sobering passage,

and it's an interesting thing as we're going to start looking

about what Jesus says about being busybodies.

He begins by just telling us,

if you think you will ever have a time in your life

when you aren't tempted and aren't struggling with things,

you don't understand your heart.

You don't understand your heart.

George, he's saying to me,

I don't understand my heart if I ever start to think that.

Let's read verse one again.

And Jesus said to his disciples,

temptations to sin are sure to come,

but woe to the one through whom they come.

It would be better for him or her

if a millstone were hung around their neck

and they were cast into the sea

than that they should cause one of these little ones to sin.

Sort of another sort of a very sobering thing.

It would be better to have a gruesome,

a gruesome, horrific death

than be the one who leads other people into sin.

Now, here comes to the part sort of more

that we're going to spend more time on.

Pay attention, verse three.

Pay attention to yourselves.

If your brother sins, rebuke him.

And if he repents, forgive him.

And if he sins against you seven times in the day,

in other words, if he sins against you time and time and time again

during that same day,

and every time after he's done the same thing

or she's done the same thing,

they turn to you and say,

I repent,

Jesus says,

you must forgive that person.

So,

it's sort of a very, very stark type of text.

And what I'm going to do is,

Andrew, if you could put the first point up

and then we'll sort of look into the text

and see what's going on here.

What I decided to do today

in terms of summaries

is to write four short prayers for you.

I mean, I think,

generally speaking,

one of the things I can help people with most

is just help them to learn how to pray.

And one of the most important things we can do

is to learn from Jesus,

learn from the word,

what it is that we are to pray for.

And so I'm trying to,

each of these parts as we go through Luke 17,

I've written a short prayer

that tries to capture the point

and turns it into something

that we can both understand

and also that we can pray for ourselves.

And so,

here's the first thing,

and I'll unpack it,

why it's a worthwhile thing

for many of us to pray.

Dear God,

please grow in me

a deep and humble trust in you

and free me up

to speak to the wrongdoer

of the wrong they did to me

and to forgive them.

And as you know,

I try as often as possible

to put points

so that it's me praying

so that if you write it down

to meditate upon it

and to maybe try to pray it,

it's,

it's,

you're saying me.

And,

and here's,

this is I think what Jesus

is trying to get at in this text.

He's wanting us to turn to God

and say,

please grow in me

a deep and humble trust in you

and free me up

to speak to the wrongdoer

of the wrong they did to me

and to forgive them.

Now,

you see,

the very first thing

about this text is it's,

if you look at the verses three and four,

it's not talking about us

being busy bodies

and it's not talking about us

being easily offended,

you know,

by,

you know,

if we have nine children,

we're not sinning against

that person in Loblaws

or the natural food store

or something like that.

We're not sinning against them,

right?

And,

and look at it in verse three and four.

Look at them together.

Pay attention to yourselves.

If your brother sins,

rebuke him.

Now,

it sounds as if it can just be anything.

And if he repents,

forgive him.

But just the mere fact

that if he repents,

forgive him,

implies that they've sinned against you.

It's not just sin in general.

It's not that you're to go around

to the grocery stores

and the coffee shops

looking for people doing bad things

and then attacking them

and telling them

they're doing something bad

because you don't,

you don't forgive them

if they've done something bad

against another person.

You forgive them

if they've done something wrong

against you.

And Jesus makes it clear

in verse four.

And if he sins against you

seven times in the day

and turns to you seven times

saying,

I repent,

you must forgive him.

So the first thing is

that this text

is very,

very clearly saying,

George,

don't be a busy body.

Don't be intrusive

in people's lives.

Don't go around

like you're the morality police

and the spirituality police

jumping on people

when they fall short

of your standards.

That's not what Jesus

is telling us,

telling me to do at all.

He's telling me two things

and there is a very,

very wise teaching of Jesus.

And for some of us

here in this room,

especially some of us

who've been really

beaten down in life,

we need to hear

that Jesus is encouraging us

to have the strength

and the freedom

to come to him

to be built up

and have the strength

and the freedom

to rebuke somebody

who's wronged us

because some of us

have a deep trouble,

have a deep problem with that.

And for others of us here,

our deep problem

is that we're far too

quick to attack.

And Jesus is challenging

that as well,

as I'll show you.

He's challenging

that as well.

So the first thing is,

look at it again,

verses three and four.

Pay attention to yourselves.

If your brother sins,

rebuke him.

And if he repents,

forgive him.

And if he sins against you

seven times in the day

and turns to you

seven times saying,

I repent,

you must forgive him.

Here's the big thing

which makes it so different

than attacking a person

is that we rebuke

in the hope

of repentance.

We rebuke

in the hope

of repentance.

In fact,

you can really take it

from the text.

If you don't hope

for repentance,

don't rebuke.

If you don't hope

that the person

will repent,

you might worry

that they won't.

You might be pretty

convinced inside of you

that they're not going to.

That's one thing.

But you need to try

to frame the rebuke

and everything

about the encounter

in the hope

and in the prayer

that after the person

has been rebuked,

they will want to repent.

And if you don't have

that hope,

then all you're doing

is attacking.

And the Bible

is not giving us

any encouragement

for a moral

and spiritual

and theological

attack

against another person.

And the other thing

that we see

in this text

is that the Bible

is unbelievably wise

because not only

is it telling me

that I am to rebuke

in the hope

of repentance,

the text is also

telling me

to be culturally

sensitive

and wise.

You say,

George,

how on earth

is this text

telling me

to be culturally

sensitive and wise?

I've only been

to Israel once,

I was able,

I was blessed,

I was able to go

to Jerusalem in 2008

and on the,

and it was in the airport

which is in Tel Aviv

and I'm going to Jerusalem

which is where my hotel is

and there's a group

of us all together

and we arrange

a bus

that's going to take us

from the airport

in Tel Aviv

into Jerusalem

and on the bus

are two men

and let me tell you,

from my

white,

Anglo-Saxon,

Protestant,

Canadian perspective,

they yelled

and screamed

at each other

for the entire ride.

I mean,

their voices

were raised,

they were doing

this at each other,

they were unbelievably

energetic

and if you came

into my house

and my wife

and myself

were talking

to each other

like that,

you would think

we desperately

needed marriage

counseling.

But Israeli Jews

don't talk

to each other

the way

white,

Anglo-Saxon,

Protestant,

Canadians

talk to each other.

So here's the thing

which is so wise

about the Bible.

The Bible says

I am to rebuke

in the hope

of repentance

and then it's silent

because it creates

space

for cultural,

ethnic,

racial differences

in how you do that.

Isn't the Bible

really wise?

Like Paul could have,

Jesus could have said

more things,

Jesus was in a Jewish

culture,

he could have said

a whole pile

of other things

about how to do this

but he doesn't

and the implication

is that we have

to learn,

this is a radical

thing for a lot

of conservative

Christians,

we have to be

culturally sensitive

and wise.

Jesus is telling

us to do that.

I mean,

in a sense

it would mean

that if I was

to go to Israel

as a missionary,

I would have to

learn how to

rebuke

appropriate

in Israel.

If I was

to go to Kenya,

if I was

to go to China,

I would have

to learn

and in a sense

if a missionary

came from

another place

to here,

they would have

to learn that

and we can't

just baptize

our own culture

in terms of

how to do it

because there's

different ways.

I mean,

I'll just give you

two pieces of advice.

I'm very bad

at rebuking,

by the way,

it's one of my

weaknesses,

but I'll give you

just two little

pieces of advice

that I try to practice

and the two pieces

of advice is

always clarify

before you rebuke

because otherwise

a lot of times

you're rebuking

for something

that didn't happen

that somebody else

did that you

misunderstood

and really

in an embarrassing

way,

you tell a person

off for doing

something and then

they remind you

that you told

them six months

earlier to do

that and then

you got mad

at them,

right?

That's really

embarrassing,

so clarify.

And the second

thing,

just from cultural

perspective of Canada

is always go

after the action

or the behavior,

not the person.

Don't go

after intent.

Intent is hard

to understand.

Don't accuse

of intent

as often as

possible,

but go after

the behavior

and not go

after the intent

or the person.

And from a

Canadian cultural

perspective,

that's how

rebukes are more

likely to be

effective if the

goal is

repentance.

If you don't

care about

repentance,

tell them that

they're a mean,

evil,

stupid,

foolish person

and they only

mean,

stupid,

foolish,

ignorant,

evil things.

And that sure

leads lots of

people to repent,

let me tell you.

It really works

every time.

You know,

it just creates

a fight,

right?

Or flight,

avoidance.

And so that's,

you know,

but you know,

you read some

things from the

Middle Ages

and Calvin

and the Roman

Catholics,

they called

each other

all sorts of

names.

It was a

culturally

different time.

See,

that's why

the Bible

is so wise.

One of the

many reasons

why I believe

the Bible

is the word

of God

is because

of what's

not in it.

And here

the Bible

is very wise.

It gives

very,

very wise

advice,

rebuke

in the hope

of repentance

and that

leaves us

to figure out

culturally

how we do

that for

our culture,

our time,

in our

context.

And see,

that's why

I put the

point this

week is,

dear God,

please grow

in me

a deep

and humble

trust in

you and

free me

up.

That's for

those of us

who have a

hard time

doing it.

Free me up

to speak to

the wrongdoer

of the wrong

they did

to me

and to

forgive them.

I'm not going

to say much

about forgiveness

right now

other than to

tell you,

I'm going to say

two things.

The first thing

is this week

in my blog,

it's in your

bulletins.

I've written,

I think,

14 theses

around forgiveness.

Hopefully that

will help

some of you

to understand

a little bit

what forgiveness

is and what it

isn't.

I also preached

a couple of

sermons on it.

I think last

spring I preached

one on choose

forgiveness or

the spiritual

discipline of

forgiveness.

So I'm going

to say,

I just encourage

you to look

at that.

But here's

the other

thing,

that for a

follower of

Jesus,

this all has

a specific

type of

cast.

Because the

way the

gospel of

Luke is

written is

that in Luke

Luke 9 · chapter mention

chapter 9,

Jesus tells

his disciples,

I'm going to

Jerusalem,

I'm going to

be betrayed,

I'm going to

die,

I'm going to

rise again.

And everything

now from the

book of Luke,

from 9 on to

9,

when he gets

crucified,

it's all about

Jesus going to

Jerusalem to

die.

And you see,

here's the

thing,

I try to

describe that

our mission

is to make

disciples of

Jesus gripped

by the gospel

who live for

his glory.

And what

happens in

the cross?

You see,

for Jesus,

it's not as if

he says this

morality thing

and this

wisdom type of

thing and is

completely and

utterly divorced

from him going

to the cross.

what happens

in the cross?

In the cross,

God reveals

and rebukes

sin.

In fact,

one of the

things that

happens as we

grow in the

Christian life

is that we

don't really

understand the

depth of our

sin until we

follow Jesus

and realize just

how, in a

sense, bad

and deadly

and pervasive

sin is that

Jesus had to

die.

He had to

leave heaven to

die upon the

cross for us.

It's a direct

confrontation,

revealing and

rebuking of

sin and it's

also a profound

act of

forgiveness.

And that's what

happens in the

cross.

Jesus is going

to Jerusalem to

die.

He's going to

Jerusalem to die

not for himself

but for you and

me and for all

the people who

are listening.

And on the

cross, he will

deal with sin.

He reveals that

sin exists.

He deals with

it and it's a

profound act of

forgiveness.

And so it is

that as we're

gripped with what

Jesus did for us

on the cross,

there's the

possibility for us

to start to be

freed up and to

understand that

there is a

time in our

lives where we

have to confront

the wrong that

was done to us.

But mindful of

the cross, we

are to confront

in such a way

that there is a

hope of

forgiveness, that

they will repent

and that we

will forgive

them.

And as I say

in the little

thesis, sometimes

we need to pray

for decades to

forgive a person,

but the journey

and the road to

forgive is always

worth it.

And that's why

the prayer that

Jesus, I think,

is calling us to

pray is, dear

God, please grow

in me a deep and

humble trust in

you and free me

up to speak to

the wrongdoer of

the wrong they did

to me and to

forgive him.

But some of

you might say,

George, well,

that sounds sort

of interesting,

but I think, I

don't know if

you're really quite

understanding the

words of Jesus.

I mean, you know,

one of the things,

George, I think about

religious and

spiritual people is

that it's really

ultimately all about

power.

And, you know,

even if they

forgive a person,

it's really a way

of trying to get

power over them.

Them being busy

bodies is all about

power.

And, George,

wasn't there a thing

that comes immediately

after that that

talks about how

if you have faith,

you can move, you

know, sycamine trees

and mulberry trees.

And isn't that all

about Jesus just

telling us to have

power?

Like, aren't you

sort of misunderstanding

and misreading the

text?

Don't you really think

that Christians are

still just one form of

trying to get a type

of cultural power over

other people and that

Jesus is encouraging

this by talking about

having the faith to

move these objects?

Like, George, don't

you think that's what's

going on?

Well, let's look.

What is it that Jesus

says immediately after

that?

I don't think he

contradicts himself at

all.

In fact, I think what

happens is that the

natural human religion

and natural human

spirituality is about

power.

And because, and even

Christians, affected

just as much as

everybody else by

natural human religion

and natural human

spirituality, that when

we read the text, we

bring the natural, the

fleshly, to interpret

the words of Jesus

rather than letting

the words of Jesus

come to the heart of

who we are.

Look at verses five

and six.

The apostle said to

the Lord, increase our

faith.

Maybe after he told

them they had to

forgive, he said, I'm

going to need a lot

more faith if I can

forgive.

Let me tell you.

Increase our faith.

And the Lord said, if

you had faith like a

grain of mustard seed.

In Jewish times, it

was proverbial for

very, very, very tiny.

If you had faith like a

grain of mustard seed,

you could say to

this mulberry tree, it's

a tree that, in the

original language, it's

a tree that would grow

to about 20 feet and it

was known for having a

very large root system.

So if you had faith like

a grain of mustard seed,

you could say to this

mulberry tree, be uprooted

and planted in the sea and

it would obey you.

So is this text just

talking to us about a

type of spiritual power?

more.

Is this text a rebuke of

our congregation because

we don't have a building

of our own?

And if we had more faith,

we have a building.

Is this text telling us

we're all sinners?

Well, it does tell us we're

sinners, but not in that

particular way.

I'm going to put it up.

If you could put up the

next point here in terms of

how it's going to work as

a prayer.

And by the way, if you're

worrying this is going to be

an 80-minute sermon, the

longest point was the

first one and it'll get

shorter.

But here's, I think, what

Jesus is asking us to do.

Dear God, please grow in

me a humble, trusting

walking.

And I say walking, the

Bible uses the image of

walking as a way to

understand how we live

our 24-7 day.

How do we live our 365 days

a year 24-7?

Well, we walk from spot to

spot to spot to spot.

And I'm trying to capture

that biblical idea in

terms of a prayer, in

terms of just how we live

our lives, how we go to

Starbucks, how we buy our

groceries, how we do at

work, how we are with our

family and our friends, how

we are with our leisure.

It's walking.

We go from one thing to

another.

And I think the text is

encouraging us to pray,

Dear God, please grow in

me a humble, trusting,

walking, knowing of the

greatness and glory and

grace of the person and

work of Jesus Messiah.

I think that's a great

prayer that you could

pray every day.

I could pray every day

for the rest of my life.

Dear God, please grow in

me a humble, trusting,

walking, knowing of the

greatness and glory and

grace of the person and

work of Jesus Messiah.

Some of you might say,

George, how on earth do

you get that from the

text?

Well, the problem is,

remember I said how

natural human religion and

natural human spirituality

does turn it into all being

about power?

Faith always has an object.

Faith isn't an emotion.

Faith isn't a type of

self-talk.

Faith has an object.

We have faith in something

or someone.

So when we turn it into

about power, we turn it

into something that if I

have the right type of

willpower, the right type of

emotion, the right type of

ritual, the right type of

church connection, the right

team of people praying, if I

get these things right, I will

accomplish this.

We rarely are so publicly

bold to say that because we

start to check ourselves and

say, no, no, no, no, no, that's

sin, but in our hearts,

murmuring, the voice murmuring

into our ears is I get my

willpower or my emotion and I

get this and I get my

techniques and I get the right

principles and I get this

straight and I get to do this

powerful thing.

But Jesus, he's standing there.

And it's so cool.

Judas is standing there, the

man who's going to betray

him.

Jesus knows that he's going to

Jerusalem to die, giving you

away the story if you haven't

read the story, but every one of

his disciples is not going to

have faith in him when the time

comes when he's arrested.

They all abandon him and leave

him.

And he knows that Judas is going

to betray him.

And he knows that he's going to

Jerusalem to die on the cross

to reconcile people to God.

And he knows that he's doing

this because God has been

faithful to his word and God

promised a mighty deliverer and

God promised redemption.

And Jesus has done his entire

life on earth as God, the son of

God and also the son of Mary.

And he's done it in obedience to

the father.

And he knows the father is

faithful.

And he's asking the disciples to

have faith in him.

And if we take this prayer and try

to pray about how we can do great

things, very subtly our focus

becomes on willpower or emotion in

ourselves or our techniques or our

membership because evangelicals do

things better or Anglicans do things

better, Roman Catholics do things

better, Pentecostals do things

better or Charismatics do something

better.

And he's asking us to focus on

Jesus.

He's asking them to have faith in

him.

And then if in a sense they have

that faith in him, in the context

of this ever deepening personal

relationship with him, requests

emerge.

And those requests that emerge come

from a very, very tiny little bit of

faith within them.

But Jesus can do, God can do amazing

things.

You know, it's all about Jesus is

calling them to trust in him.

And the increasing of the faith, the

adding to the faith is adding faith to

faith to faith to faith, a deepening in

trust, not adding willpower, emotion,

technique, mind control, church

allegiance, or any other type of thing,

proper ancestors.

Not adding anything like that, but just

a deepening into a walk with him.

And that's why I say that Jesus is

calling us to call out to him and pray,

Dear God, please grow in me a humble,

trusting, walking, knowing of the

greatness and glory and grace of the

person and work of Jesus, Messiah.

But then some of you might say, George,

that's, here's the thing, here's the

problem I have with Jesus is teaching.

Because, you know, I've been looking

around at the Bible while you're talking,

I'm still listening, but I'm also

looking around.

But, George, in a few moments, Jesus is

going to tell us to call my, he's going

to tell me to call myself unworthy.

And, George, let me just tell you, I

have enough people stepping on me and

making me feel unworthy.

You know, I have people who make catty

comments about how I dress or my

weight or, you know, I have, I go on

Facebook and it just seems like everybody

else is way, they have, you know, they

have kids, I'd like to have kids, or I

have kids and my kids are just like so-so.

I mean, I never tell my kids that because

I love them and they're mine.

But everybody else's kids seem to become

rocket scientists, Olympic athletes, you

know, popular, you know, all that type of

stuff.

And I already feel unworthy.

Like, how on earth does Jesus think I'm

going to accomplish anything if I have to

say to him that I'm unworthy?

If I have to try to feel unworthy?

Like, do I just sort of, George, think

that Jesus is greater and greater and

greater and therefore I am, you know,

more worm-like and terrible and bad?

And is that how it works, George?

If that's how it works, like, I don't

want to do that because there's enough

thing.

You know, that's the thing about

religion.

It keeps telling me I have to grovel.

In fact, George, you have a perfect thing

right here.

Religion is all about balancing

groveling and power.

Moving mulberry trees and sane and

unworthy.

Grovel and power.

Grovel and power.

Grovel and power.

I don't like the dance.

I'd rather just have a drink and watch

the football game.

And that's how a lot of people

understand and hear the words.

Well, what does Jesus say?

Let's look.

Verse 7.

So remember, he just said, be uprooted

and planted in the sea that will obey

you.

Verse 7.

Well, any one of you who has a

servant, and I'm just going to pause

here.

And the word servant, some of you have

heard this before, that the word in

Greek, and I don't usually like using

Greek words, but the word in Greek

is doulos.

And the problem is that doulos means

something different.

And some of your English versions say

slave, some say servant.

And the problem is that there's no

English word that captures doulos.

When you use the word slave, you think

of what happened to that.

You know, if you haven't seen the movie,

it's a very powerful movie, 12 years

a slave.

Very powerful movie.

And so you see the word slave, our

minds instantly go to something like

12 years a slave.

But you see the word servant, our

minds, at least if you're of my age, you

instantly think of the Fresh Prince of

Bel-Air, where the only competent,

reasonable person in the entire

household was the servant.

Right?

And the Bible, and so in our culture,

we think of, you know, people with,

you know, who are just servants who are

really the only competent, sane person

in the household, actually does

anything.

So we either think of servant or we

think of slave in it.

Doulos means something very, very

different.

Because in the ancient world, I mean,

a doulos could end up, like if you go

in the book of, if you go in the book

of Acts, you'll see that there's a

meeting of a person who's the treasurer

of an entire country, and he would have

been a doulos.

So it means that you belong to somebody,

and you can't control yourself.

You are, in a sense, are under orders,

and you belong to them.

But it doesn't necessarily, it doesn't

mean the degradation of slavery the way

we think of it, and it doesn't mean

the type of snarkiness that we think

of with servant, but it does convey

the idea of belonging to another and

under their authority and command.

Like maybe a better analogy would be

if they're in the soldier, they're

private.

Don't think general, think private.

Okay?

Maybe corporal or something, but even

then that doesn't get quite right,

because in a sense a colonel is under

a general as well.

So it's just, I'm going to use the word

doulos in the point in a moment.

But let's, sorry, verse 7.

Will any of you, any one of you who has

a doulos, plowing or keeping sheep,

say to him when he has come in from

the field, come at once and recline at

table?

Will he not rather say to him, prepare

supper for me and dress properly, and

serve me while I eat and drink, and

afterward you will eat and drink?

Does he thank the servant because he did

what he was commanded?

See, all of these things, it's

rhetorical.

He's expecting you to agree.

No, you wouldn't come in and serve the

servant.

The servant serves you.

That's how the world works.

You know?

Would the servant ask the word thank

because the servant's done their duty?

No, the servant wouldn't particularly

expect thanks.

It's not encouraging us to be rude to

staff at Starbucks or Target while it

still exists in Canada.

It's just talking, trying to understand

this is the way the world works.

And then in verse 10, so you also, when you

have done all that you were commanded, say, we

are unworthy servants.

We have only done, or we are unworthy

doulos.

We have only done what was our duty.

So here's the prayer, and then I'll just

briefly explain it.

Dear God, by grace, I am your doulos.

Please grow in me a deep, obedient, and

humble trust in you as my master who commands

me.

See, here's what the text is talking about.

We sort of come at it from a wrong type of way.

If I was to tell you that, you know, one of the

single women here, that in 10 years' time, you're

going to be, there's going to be a man who

structures your life that helps to determine when

you come home and how much money you spend on

clothes and all of that type of stuff.

If I just said there'll be a man like that, people

might, women might feel very deeply resented about.

Same thing for if I said to a man about a woman

doing that.

But I can tell you right now that for 33 years, I've

not made my own decisions about a whole pile of

things, and I've had someone tell me what I'm

going to have for supper and contribute to where

we're going for holidays and all sorts of things, and

that's been a real blessing for me to be married to

Louise for 33 years.

You see, the problem is that we often mistake the

problem of authority with the problem of authority is

ultimately a problem of intimacy and of love and of

trust.

And so many of us have been in organizations like

churches or corporations where there is no trust, where

they don't care about, they only care about the bottom

line, they don't care about the employees.

And many of us maybe have been in marriages that have

broken down or have been very abusive and haven't broken

down, and so we tend to interpret the entire world through

the lens of rights and stuff like that.

But Jesus here, even though when he's using the slave, you

see, this is why the slave and servant thing doesn't really

work.

There could be real affection between the doulos and the

master.

And it's not, we have to think in terms of intimacy and trust.

You see, once again, remember, Jesus is telling us about

this.

And who is the man who's telling us?

What is the gospel?

The gospel is that Jesus is the second person of the

Trinity.

And the Father says to the second person of the Trinity that

the only way that human beings can be reconciled to me, they

cannot do it themselves.

They are spiritually dead.

And only I can do something.

Only we can do something because they cannot save themselves.

And the nature of sin and the nature of our rebellion is such

that the Father says to his son, you need to become human.

You need to set aside your glory and divine prerogatives and

your power and set all of that stuff aside.

And all you leave is your very nature and you're going to be

born.

I know you created the planets.

I know you hold all things in existence.

And I know that your hands that have formed the planets and the

stars and the galaxies, that I'm asking you to have a little

tiny baby's hand that can't even reach your mother's nose.

But I'm asking you to set aside all your glory and power and

divine prerogatives, your splendor and remaining God to be born and

take into yourself human nature and to be born, to be in a womb and

to be born and to walk amongst the created order.

And then to continue to humble yourself until death upon the cross.

And as you die upon the cross, you die not for your own sins, but you

will actually bear and taste upon your very person the sin and the

rebellion of these human beings who are crucifying you.

And that is the means by which my power to save will enter into the

created order so that all who put their trust in you can be

reconciled to me.

And that's the person who's telling us this.

That's the one who's telling us this.

See, as the gospel grips us, there is this possibility that we will

have new desires and new ways of understanding these challenges.

And so it's not that Jesus is telling us not to have any type of self-esteem,

but he's telling us in a sense not to keep our eyes on ourselves while we're

trying to navigate these things.

You know, many people of us, I find myself sometimes walking around as if the

weight of this church rests on me or the weight of some other organization

rests on me. And it is such a gracious moment in heaven.

Maybe I'll find out that just as that is seeming to bear me down as I'm walking

along like this, and maybe I will find in heaven that the reason that this

thought comes into my head is because one of you or somebody else has been

praying for me that very, very second.

And it's as if sometimes, and may it come more and more and more, it's as if God

speaks to me and says, George, you do not carry the weight of your family.

You do not carry the weight of your marriage.

You do not carry the weight of the church.

You do not carry the weight of evangelism.

You do not carry that weight.

My son, Jesus, he carries that weight and he carries you.

It's my work, not yours.

And it's my work, and as part of my work, you're my servant.

I carry that weight.

Jesus carried the weight of the sins of the world on his shoulders and his person.

He carries you.

You're his doulos.

You see, this text is inviting us to understand that God is big and I am small,

and that's a really good thing.

And you know how it is, like, if you come to our office and you park in the back

and you want to get out, the walls are very close.

And the way you understand how you get through something which is very close,

if you spend all your time looking at yourself or looking at the walls,

you'll hit the walls.

You look between all those things and away from yourself at the end,

and then you go through it.

And that's what Jesus is telling us about here is we keep our eyes on the master.

We keep our eyes on God.

And we listen to his direction.

Just as if you're trying to navigate a parking spot and the walls are really bad,

and you have a person at the end and they're going like this and they're going like that,

and you keep your eyes on them and you get through it.

That's what Jesus is telling us about.

That's why we are to pray, dear God, by grace, I am your doulos.

By grace, I am your doulos.

You are the master.

It is your work to save.

It is your work to carry the church.

It is your work to carry the churches in the city.

It's your work to carry Anik.

It's your work to carry my children and their spouses and their future spouses

and my grandchildren.

It's your work.

I am your doulos.

By grace, thank you, Jesus.

I do not have to carry that.

I do not have to carry that.

Neither do you.

By grace, I am your doulos.

Please grow in me a deep, obedient, and humble trust in you as my master who commands me.

Just one final thing.

Some of you might say, George, that's all right for you.

You have these religious affections.

You have these religious emotions.

I'm just an ordinary person.

I find this strange.

You know, sometimes when I'm at work and people at work talk about this and that,

and I wish I could have that type of faith.

I wish I could have those types of things.

But I just don't have those emotions.

Can you tell me how to get those emotions?

I can't tell you how to get emotions.

I'm not talking about willpower.

All I can do is time and time and time and time again tell you about Jesus and the cross.

And that says, you hear about Jesus and the cross.

And it grips you.

You hear about what he does for us.

That maybe we have the courage to pray this prayer.

And for some of us, when we pray any one of these three prayers in the next one that I'm going to give you,

for some of us, it's the invitation at the same time for Jesus to plant faith in us and then to grow it.

But for all of us, even for those who have now put our faith and trust in Jesus,

remember Jesus has told us we should ask him to grow our faith.

That's why all of these prayers are in terms of growing.

So just one final text.

We're going to read the final parable.

But before we do, I'm going to give you the point.

I'm going to read verses 11 to 19 in closing.

But Andrew, if you could put up the final prayer to help us understand this final story.

Dear God, please grow in me a deep, humble, thankful trust in Jesus,

who has healed my deepest wound and saved me by his death upon the cross.

Dear God, please grow in me a deep, humble, thankful trust in Jesus,

who has healed my deepest wound and saved me by his death upon the cross.

Every miracle of healing in the gospel points to the fact that on the cross,

Jesus deals with our deepest wound, a wound which is fatal, which has made us dead.

And that God heals the wound, brings life, that we can be his child.

And that's why the healing miracles in the gospel are so important,

because it points to this profound, deep wound, the deepest wound we have,

which is our separation from the living creator of all things,

the true creator and sustainer and end of the whole created order.

And we are alienated from him.

And on the cross, Jesus brings life and heals the wound at the same time.

And that's what salvation is.

And we see it here in this story.

Verse 11, on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.

And some scholars have problems with that because Jesus is not a type A driven individual

who wants to get from where he is to Jerusalem in the shortest possible time.

People be set aside.

I almost said a bad word.

And Jesus doesn't take the direct fast route that ignores people.

He takes the compassionate route, which means he takes all these detours to deal with people.

It's not a problem in the text, just not understanding Jesus.

Verse 11, on the way to Jerusalem, he was passing between Samaria and Galilee.

And as he entered a village, he was met by 10 lepers who stood at a distance.

And in all cultures, I mean, lepers, they would be missing limbs.

They would be quite disfigured.

They would be social outcasts, unclean.

And so they're keeping their distance.

They call out to Jesus.

We have no idea.

They've probably heard he does miracles.

They don't know.

It's not really clear what on earth they think he's going to do.

But what do they do when they see him?

They say, Jesus, master, have mercy on us.

And Jesus, when he sees them, says, go and show yourselves to the priests.

And, you know, the Bible doesn't tell us what goes through their mind.

But maybe they're mindful of the story of Naaman the Syrian, from Syria in the Old Testament,

where part of Naaman's healing was to go to do something.

And so they just say, OK, well, we'll go.

All their faith was was just to go, to follow this word of what Jesus told them to do and to go.

And as they went, they were cleansed.

Now, what this means here is it means they were healed.

And I don't know what that means entirely.

You know, one of the things about it is that health is natural.

And because health is natural, we don't usually feel health.

We feel pain.

And I don't know if it means that as they were walking around along and they're walking there

and they're walking like this and all of a sudden, without them realizing it,

their fingers have grown back out.

But they don't realize it because it's natural to have fingers.

And they're walking along and maybe their toes, which have been missed, all of a sudden are back.

And then maybe as they're walking like this, one of them happens to look and says,

Joseph has toes.

And then they looked and they realized they pointed with a finger.

And they didn't used to have a finger.

And they realized they've been healed in a most dramatic way.

And the text goes on.

And then one of them, verse 15, when he saw that he was healed,

turned back, goes back to Jesus, praising God with a loud voice.

This isn't a time to go to a priest.

It's time to go to God.

Not time to go to church.

Time to go to God.

And he fell on his face at Jesus.

He prostrated at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks.

And he was a Samaritan, which means he didn't believe the right things.

He was all confused about the Bible, all confused about God.

And he wasn't part of the people of promise by the flesh.

Then Jesus said, we're not 10 clans.

We're the nine.

Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?

You know what's so wonderful about that word foreigner?

It says stranger.

I mean, a few folks, some of you are here and you think you're foreign,

and it's foreign and strange to talk about having this faith and trust in Jesus.

All I can do is tell you that when Jesus looks at you, he looks and he speaks to this man with the eyes of love,

and he calls him foreigner.

And it's so neat.

The man's at Jesus' feet.

He's praising God.

Jesus has obviously accepted him.

In a moment, he's going to tell him that not only was he physically healed, but he was spiritually saved.

And the word foreigner is the word that in the temple would be a big word.

If you are a foreigner, you cannot go any closer into the temple.

We are keeping you away from God.

And Jesus used that word to say that the man was saved.

No one is too foreign or too strange or too broken or too absent of religious affections or religious willpowers

that Jesus cannot save you and welcome you as his own.

And he said to him, rise, go your way.

Your faith has saved you.

And so we are invited to pray, dear God, please grow in me a deep, humble, thankful trust in Jesus,

who has healed my deepest wound and saved me by his death upon the cross.

Please stand.

Just bow our heads in prayer.

Father, for some of us, as we pray these prayers, we don't know if we have had faith in you,

but we want you to give us that faith.

We want you to give us that faith and we want you to grow it in us, Father.

Grow it in us.

For all of us here, Father, it's the cry of our heart, even for those of us who have had faith in Jesus for many years,

that you would grow that faith in us, that you might grow a humble, yearning, longing, walking, knowing, trust in us.

Grow a trust in us and a longing and a yearning and a resting and an availability and a thankfulness in you,

for Jesus, the Messiah, for what you've done upon the cross for us and who you are, for your love for us.

Father, grow that within us.

And this we ask, grow that within us.

Make us disciples gripped by the gospel who live for your glory.

And all this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.

Amen.