Luke, The Orderly Account of Truth - We're Not Worthy - Luke 17:7-10

If you would turn with me to the Gospel of

Luke or in the Gospel of Luke. And we've been

in a series titled Luke the Orderly Account of Truth,

where we've been going verse by verse through the carefully

investigated and documented life and ministry of our Lord Jesus.

Our hope in this series is that week after week

we are being confronted with the life and teachings of Jesus,

and so that our faith and our certainty and who

he is, what he taught, what we believe, would be

built up.

So as we go through his word, that is our hope.

And last week, like I said, we looked through.

A particularly challenging section where Jesus warned his disciples to

not be the reason for someone to sin, to not

be the reason that someone else stumbles, but instead there

to be those who rebuke sin and then cover it

with forgiveness and that person repents.

And what was.

Crazy is Jesus said that no matter how many times

they repented, that same day, you were to forgive them.

Challenging which makes sense is why the apostle said, increase

our faith. As soon as they were told that Jesus

encourages them saying that if they have the faith the

size of a sesame seed.

I'm just kidding, it's a faith seed. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

the size.

Of a mustard seed, that they could do the impossible.

Jesus had given them a warning, he had given them

a command and then encouragement so that they could have

believed that what Jesus was calling them to do was

possible if they relied on faith in God. And now

we get through today's text, which is still in the

same context. It's still in this same place where Jesus

is having a conversation with his disciples. And last week

we saw Jesus address what I'm calling the ditch of

doubt with regard to the ability to do what Jesus

had called them to do. And today we're gonna see

him warn about the other side of the ditch. If

the road that Jesus is calling them to walk is

obedience through faith, then the first ditch that he addressed

was their lack of faith and their doubt in being

able to obey.

In the first place.

But now Jesus addresses the other side of the road,

and that is the ditch of pride. When you do

obey the first ditch we looked at last week. It's

the ditch of doubt shows their lack of faith to obey,

and the other ditch of pride shows too much faith

in yourself when you do obey. So our hope today

is to dig out of those ditches together, hopefully fill

them up, and just know it's going to be quiet

again other than the children. The children will probably be

the loudest part of today's service, which is great, it's wonderful,

but it probably will be quiet.

Again, and that's totally okay.

We need to hear this word, We need to meditate

on this word. We need to hear what the Lord

has for us today. So Luke, chapter seventeen, we're looking

at four verses seven through ten.

If you do not have a Bible, we would love

for you to have one, and.

So we have some out at the resource desk out

in the lobby.

Please go grab one so you can follow along with us.

We will have.

Them on the screens, but our preference would be that

you have your very own Bible.

Please take it. It is yours to keep. So hopefully

all of that.

Has been enough time to actually turn to where we're at.

So let's read it together. Luke seventeen seven through ten says,

will any one of you who has a servant 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 think

the servant, because he did what was commanded, So you also,

when you have done all that you were commanded, say

we are unworthy servants. We have only done what was

our duty. This is God's word. Let us pray, Lord Jesus,

We thank you that we are here, save by your grace,

called by your name. And I just asked that as

we dig into your word today, that you would dig

into our hearts, that you would plant a seed, or

you would encourage the growth that is already there. That

you would rebuke us in areas where we need to repent,

that you would grow us in areas where we need

to mature. I asked that you would be here, that

this word would be for every single person in this room,

that you would have your way, that I would get

out of the way that our own thoughts and distractions

would be removed from this room so that we can

hear your voice. So we give you this time and

we lift it up to your glory in Jesus name.

Everyone said, amen. All right.

Who remembers the movie Wayne's World? I am not saying

that you should go watch that. I'm just saying if

you have seen it, maybe you remember a scene where

after Wade and Garth we're gifted or given these VIP

passes to a concert. They went to said concert. After

the show's over, they go backstage and they're very coolly

showing their VIP passes as they walk by everyone down

the hall, so proud that they get to be there.

They have this privilege of being there in the first place.

They knock on the room where the band's at. They

start hanging out with the band. Then they finally embarrass

themselves enough that they excuse themselves.

Like all right, well, I best be going, and Alice Cooper,

who is the person that they're there to.

See, says, no, why do you guys hang out? Why

don't you stick around? And they're stunned. They're shocked. They

don't even have words. The only response that they have

is to drop to their knees and say, we're not worthy,

We're not worthy, which is what I've titled today's message,

We're not worthy.

They had been invited to join.

This person that they had revered and looked up to,

had a sense of awe or greatness for, but even

with their backstage passes that allowed them to be there,

they still recognize their sense of unworthiness to even be

there in the first place. Now that's a silly example,

but I do believe it shares the similar sentiment to

today's text, only it's not Alice Cooper and a couple

of knuckleheads, it's God Almighty in the rest of us knuckleheads.

So again, last week, Jesus helps the disciples come out

of the ditch of doubt by telling them of the

power of faith in God God. And now this week

he wants them to know what's on the other side.

There's the ditch of doubt, but on the other side

is the ditch of pride when you finally do obey.

So he gives them a parable to squash their pride

and keep them humble.

Let's look at the first couple of verses, Verses.

Seven, through nine says, Will any one of you who

has a servant plowing or keeping sheep, say to him,

when he is coming 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 think the servant because he did

what was commanded? So to put it in today's context,

the first question Jesus asks is will the boss tell

him employee to kick up his feet and relax before

the job's ever done, before the work is done, well,

he tell him, hey, come in, stop working. The second

question Jesus asks is does a boss thank an employee

for doing the job that they're hired or supposed to do?

Does a boss thank an employee for doing the exact

thing that they were hired to do? And what we

need to know is that in those days the relationship

with a servant and a master was even more binding

than our jobs today. That being because there's lots of reasons,

but a lot of times those servants were owned by

a master, maybe because those people had been purchased or

the servant may have been bound to another person to

pay off a debt that they owed, or they may

have been a bond servant someone saying, you know what,

I've had a really cushy life serving you, so I

would love to serve you forever in exchange for housing

and wages and food, and I will be your servant forever.

But regardless of the situation, Jesus is using a picture

from their culture to make a point that the duty

of a servant isn't to be served, but to serve.

At the point of a servant isn't to be served,

but to serve. The servant doesn't do what he's told

only to get something out of it. But the servant

does what he's told because that's what a servant does.

Now, do you.

Can maybe immediately see how this is going to be

an attack on our pride. Maybe you're already starting to

form objections. They're starting to spiral or rise up within you.

But please stay with me. Jesus puts the nail in

the coffin of the point that he's making with the

last verse where he tells his disciples how they are

to respond when they finally do obey what he has commanded.

Verse ten says, so you also, when you have done

all that you were commanded, say we are unworthy servants.

We have only done what was our duty. I don't

know about you.

I'm not very comfortable when people say great job, or hey,

that was amazing, or you did really good work on that.

It's not very comfortable. I don't know what to say.

You can say thank you, But.

Here apparently that we have a new response that I'm

going to start trying out and see how it goes.

When someone says that was awesome, I'm just going to

start saying I'm an unworthy servant and I only did

what I was supposed to do. I don't know how

it's going to go over, but it's worth a shot.

I think instead of being comfortable, they might be uncomfortable.

Now we'll try it out.

I'll let you know.

Jesus makes it clear when you finally do obey, don't

get puffed up, but instead stay humble.

But why is that? Why does he tell us that? Well,

it's because in.

Our pride we want praise for doing the things we

should have been doing all along. But the point Jesus

is making here is that obedience is what's expected from

a servant. Or to put it another way, perfect obedience

is the bare minimum.

That is another blow to our pride.

If the bare minimum is perfect obedience.

Oh oh, we want praise when we get it right.

We want honor and glory when we finally do obey.

But Jesus says, your obedience isn't praiseworthy or special in

and of itself, because it's what you should have been

doing all along. Don't think your obedience is glorious, because

it's the baseline. Perfect obedience to God is the baseline.

We as mankind were created for what purpose? To serve God,

or to put it in another way, to glorify God

and enjoy Him forever. As Ecclesiastes puts it, it says,

the end of the matter all has been heard. Fear

God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole

duty of man. We were made to fear God and

keep his commandments. And we see this from the beginning

of the Bible, that in the beginning God created everything space, time,

heavens earth see trees, birds for those trees and animals,

and then God makes mankind in his own image to

glorify him.

And how how were they to glorify him.

Well, they were to do that by working in the garden,

taking dominion over the earth, and having lots of babies

to spread God's image and glory all over the world.

God made man from the dust and put him to

work as a servant on his behalf in the world.

And you have to remember that this was before sin

entered the world.

They were given those commands, they were given that job,

They were given that privilege to do those things before

sin ever made those things hard. When God made the

first man and woman, they had only a couple jobs.

Those couple of jobs were to take care of paradise

and make lots of babies. They had it made in

the shade. They had you know what I mean?

Like that we look at them and go, oh, we

had to be a servant. That's all they had to do.

That's what they were called to do.

So what went wrong, Well, it's the same problem with

every single one of us today. Pride, Adam, and Eve,

after listening to Satan, became unhappy with their station, the

station that God had given them. They believed the lie

of Satan that God was holding out them and that

if they disobeyed God and ate from that tree that

they were told not to.

That they would be like God.

God said, if you eat from that tree, you will die,

and Satan led and said, if you disobey and eat

it from that.

Tree, you'll be like God. That's terrifying, that is scary.

How often do we believe the lie of sin over

God's word. God's word tells us that sin leads to death,

but Satan tries to convince us that sin will make

us like God. He tries to convince us that if

we sin, we take control of our own lives. If

we were to sin and do this thing that I

really want, this thing that looks really pleasing, I can

be the God of my own life. But humility recognizes

that we are not God. That is, we're not God

of our own lives. We're not the God of anyone

else's life. We're not God's at all. But pride is

where we want to be the God of our own lives.

Humility submits to God. Pride wants to be God. And

why this is important is because we may hear Jesus

call us servants and recoil at the news. But I

guarantee you it's not your humility that's recoiling.

It's not your humility that's like, Oh, I don't really

like being called the servant.

Are labeled like that, that's our pride. What about human dignity, Well,

no one said that the servants weren't valued. Scripture tells

us that the only thing, the only thing, the only

thing in all creation that bears God's image and likeness

is mankind. That's the only thing in all of creation

that God put his own fingerprint on after his own likeness,

and God gave us responsibilities to rule the earth and

spread his glory. That is beautiful, it's still true, But the.

Problem lies in our hearts.

We were created as servants, meant for His worship and.

Glory, but we rebelled.

We wanted to be God and we want the glory.

One of my favorite things that I've heard of Pastor

say is he just calls us glory thieves. Is run

around trying to get all the glory we can for ourselves.

But as a result, we were separated from God. We

went from being servants of God to enemies of God.

We served the one True.

God, but then we declared war on him by trying

to prop ourselves up as God, and we still do

that every single day in our pride.

Here's the issue that does not make God stop being God.

God is still God, which means we're in a losing war.

We're in a losing war. We've propped ourselves up by.

The very creator that made us, gives us breath continuously,

even in our rebellion. We can blaspheme, we can curse him,

and he still shows us enough grace to not just

take our breath away.

Not in the sweet meaningful sense.

Our rebellion against God in favor of our own pride

has cost us everything. We're now sin riddled, we're disobedient,

and we're desperately in need of help. If nothing changes

and we die in our rebellion, we will be thrown

in hell forever for crimes against the King. We've sinned

against a holy God, and there is no merit or

good work we can do to save ourselves from the

wrath do our sin.

We're pretty much at an eternal deficit.

We're now dead in our sin and desperately in need

of a savior.

News. But here's the good news. Jesus Christ. Jesus came

down from heaven to serve.

And die in our place, so that He could raise

us up to restore us to God. We read in

Ephesians two one through ten. We see the problem of man,

and we see what God has done on our behalf.

In Christ Jesus. He says, and you were dead in

this the trespasses and sins in which you once walked,

following the course of this world, following the prince of

the power of the air, the spirit that is now

at work in the suns of disobedience, among whom we

all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying

out the desires of the body and the mind, and

were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

But God, being rich in mercy because of the great

love with which He loved us, even when we were

dead in our chest passes, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved and raised us up

with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places.

In Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He

might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness

towards us. In Christ Jesus, for by grace you have

been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing.

It is the gift of God, not a result of works.

Catch this so that no one may boast, for we

are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works

which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Christ came down.

To serve us, and as a result we have been

raised up to serve him. Every believer was once dead

in sin and walked in disobedience to God.

We were children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

But God loved us and saved us and raised us

to life for his glory and for good works. We

have been made children of God. We have been restored

and are now redeemed servants of God. We did nothing

and can do nothing to save ourselves. We are saved

not through our good works, but instead salvation is for

every person who puts their faith in the finished work

of Jesus. Jesus came down as the perfect servant, lived

a perfect life of obedience to God, but died on

our behalf for our sin, and was raised again so

that anyone who would believe in Jesus would have their

punishment taken by Jesus and instead received Jesus's righteousness, his goodness,

his purity, his wholeness. Jesus tells us in our text

today that perfect obedience is the bare minimum. There's only

one person who did that. That is what is offered

in Jesus Christ. He will give us his perfect obedience

and take our punishment. Perfect obedience is the bare minimum.

We fall so short, so short from that. So when

we put our faith in Jesus and receive new life

and reconciliation to God, there's something we need to know.

The standard hasn't changed, but now we have grace and

forgiveness for when we fall short. Before we were crushed

under the weight of our sin with no hope. Now

we have someone who promises to take our sin past, present,

and future because he.

Knows that we're still going to mess it up.

And give us his grace and cover every single sin

which goes back to last week. He every time we

come to repent, there's something there, and there's someone there

who can forgive us because he paid the price that

we owed. Now we are saved and have been set

free from the slavery of sin and have now become

slaves of righteousness, and in case you get frustrated with

either of those terms or that idea. Scripture just makes

it very clear that you are one or the other.

You serve sin or you serve God.

You serve God. That's pretty clear.

Serving sin comes in a million deceitful packages.

Well, I don't serve sin. Concertained myself, Well that's sin.

Now we have the Holy Spirit in dwelling us to

empower us to obey everything God has called us too,

and still the grace from Jesus when we fall short.

So good, Praise God, He's so good.

Why is all of this so important? Why did we

just spend a good chunk on that? Well, it's because

if we forget this, we will end up in the

ditch of doubt or the ditch of pride. Either we

forget the Gospel and not have anything to believe in,

or we forget the Gospel and in our pride believe

in ourselves. If we are to walk the road of

obedience that Jesus calls us to, we must cling to

faith in Him. And remember we can only do so

because of Him. We have nothing to boast in on

our part. It's so famous him.

Nothing in my hands I bring simply to the cross

I cling. He did all the work, and he does.

All the work, which leads me to my main point

for today. Jesus is telling his disciples, and he's telling us,

after you've done all that you were commanded, don't think

more highly of yourself than you ought Verse ten of Luke.

So you also, when you have done all that you

were commanded, say, we are unworthy servants. We have only

done what was our duty. After obedience, stay humble. Jesus

needs to state this because once again the pride in

our hearts can be so ravenous. Jesus shatters our pride

by telling us that when we obey that we need

to still remember who we are unworthy servants. That is unworthy,

because we don't even deserve to be his servants. We

should be in the jail cell, but instead we get

to serve him, be taken care of by him, loved

by him. We are unworthy because we're servants who fall

so short of what we should do. We are unworthy

because of our sin, but yet, because of.

His grace, we are still his servants. Say it over

and over again.

What's amazing is that in other places in scripture we

know that we are so much more than that. We

are also so much more than just servants. But we

today in this word for us right now to our pride,

need to hear what Jesus is saying so that we

can stay humble when we get it right and obey.

Are we looking for praise for honor? A lot of

us in this room would probably say, we want to

do the right thing. What are we looking for in

that praise honor? If you remember, in Jesus's day, there

was a group of people that Jesus really was not

too fond of, and they had a really big problem

of living in this ditch because this group of people

obeyed not out of their love and devotion to God,

but instead because of the praise they got from others

for seeming so holy. They obeyed God not for God,

but for themselves. Isn't that crazy? That's how sneaky pride is.

You're like, I'm doing all the things and everyone thinks

I'm awesome. This must be what God means by being

blessed Jesus. No, Jesus tells his disciples when you ope

a God, don't get puffed up, because honestly, obedience isn't

really the flex that we all think it is. Do

you know why obedience seems like such a big deal

to us. It's because we're so bad at it. That's

why it's so impressive. We're like, look at you go, You're.

Nailing it and I'm not.

The reality is obedience is what we should have been

doing all along.

It's the standard.

It'd be like having a coworker who never does their job,

you know those guys, But when they finally do complete

one task or I think I should get a raise,

why am I not being recognized? It's like, bro, really,

you came in late today, what are you talking about.

That's how we treat obedience.

We get it right one time, and we're like, I'm

telling everyone, I'm telling every single person I know how

I got this right. But Jesus tells us that when

we get it right, to keep ourselves humble and remind

ourselves of who we are that is unworthy servants, that

every time we get it right, that that's just what

we should have been doing all along. And that sounds harsh,

but it's not, because really, what Jess saying is we're

finally being who are so supposed to be in the

first place.

That's who we're supposed to be.

We need to know this because our pride won't only

try and take credit for when we do get it right,

but can distort our motives for doing the right thing

in the first place. How many of us will only

do the right thing because in the end we get

something out of it. God has called us to live

holy lives. Why not in return for salvation. He's already

given us that. It's amazing, that was a free gift.

He calls us to live holy lives because He is holy,

and that's our original design.

We're his people, supposed to bear his image.

But when we sin, when we fall short of the standard,

we don't look like him. But many of us will

only live holy if it benefits us.

What do you expect from your service to God?

I show up on Sundays, serve on a couple teams,

show up to all the events, read my Bible.

So that.

God will give me that thing I'm asking for. God

will answer my prayer. I know he will. If I

do all these things he has to you expect praise, blessings, honor.

And here's the thing. It's not that God doesn't give

those things in response to obedience because he does. But

that's not because our obedience is so good. It's because

he's so good that when.

We finally do get it right, he's like my boy

or girl.

He does do that, but not because of our obedience.

It's not because we're just so good. It's because he's

so good. He blesses us even when we do get

it right. Realistically, we should get nothing for our obedience

because it's what we should have been doing all along.

We're starting to get that. That's I'm just saying the

same thing over and over again.

Guys.

It's four verses, okay, But.

Our pride distorts it.

We turn the free blessings and generosity of God into

something we believe that we're owed.

Pride believes God owes.

Us something anything, but God owes us nothing. God owes

us nothing, and on the contrary, we owe him everything.

Like I said, we start at a deficit, and a

pretty big one.

This is the big difference between pride and humility. This

is how we can recognize it in ourselves. Here's a

couple of things that's gonna help us recognize. Am I

serving from a heart of humility or pride? Am I

functioning on pride or humility. The humble heart expects nothing

because they know they owe everything, But the prideful heart

expects something because they don't know how much they owe.

The humble heart says, I've only done my duty. The

prideful heart wonders when am I gonna get my reward.

Pride thinks about what we're owed. Humility thinks about what

we owe. Philippians two three through eleven.

I need the band to come up, please and thank you.

Philippians two three through eleven. We see an example of humility,

but it starts off by telling us not to be prideful.

It says, do nothing or from selfish ambition or conceit.

But in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look.

Not only to his own interests, but also to the

interests of others, having this mind among yourselves, which is yours.

In Christ, Jesus, who though he was in the form

of God, did not count or did not count equality

with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself

by doing what taking the form of a servant, being

born in the likeness of men and being found in

human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the

point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God

has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name

that is above every name, so that in the name

of Jesus, every niece should bow in heaven and on

earth and under the earth, and every tongue confessed that

Jesus Christ is lord to the.

Glory of God the Father.

When we obey, that should not be the occasion for

us to think that we are awesome, but to remember

that God is awesome. So how do we apply this

text to our lives. It's very introspective. We need to

examine our motives for obedience. Do I serve Jesus because

I was made for it? Or do I serve him

to get something out of him that's not serving him,

that's serving myself Jesus just.

And exit along the way to be able to serve myself?

Is that how we treat Jesus, the one who died

on our behalf.

We were made to serve him and we've been redeemed

to serve him. And what's beautiful about this text is

this is how Jesus tells us to speak to our pride.

When we obey, we are to tell this to our pride.

It's not saying that this is how God looks at

us and he's like're a bunch of delinquents.

We are. But it's not saying that that's how he

looks at us and you unworthy servants. It does not

say that.

It does not say that He says, when you have

done all that you were commanded, this is how you're

to think about yourself. This is what you're to remind yourself.

This is what you're to tell your pride. Because it's there.

It's gonna try and sneak up, so be watching for it.

It's there.

I remember years ago, I memory came to me when

I used to do drum lessons and I would ride

my bike to drum lessons and I would take the

Shali's Trail, and the Shalis's Trail pretty cool. Maybe it's

more sketchy now, but it was pretty cool. Several years ago.

It was awesome. And I'd ride my bike and listen

to my MP three player and so occasionally.

Song would come on.

You don't like the song, so you gotta change it,

you know, and you're like, not that one, not with

that one. And if you have ever been in a

car with me, you know, I'll skip for five minutes

straight until I find something I really really like. But

in different places on the Shali's trail, there's big, big ditches.

You'll just fall right down into a field. There's no

stopping it.

And there's one time I was riding my bike and

I started switching songs because I was like, I gotta

find something that fits the vibe of going to drum lessons.

And I look down trying to keep straight, and I

only started noticing that I was no longer on the

path when I just started going downhill very quickly, and

it was too late, and so I had to basically slam.

I couldn't even stop myself with my brakes.

I just had to lay on my side to stop

myself from going down the rest of the hill.

Slid on the side down into the ditch. Took my eyes.

Off of what I should have been focusing on. Jesus

is saying there is a ditch there. Keep looking up.

Don't get distracted even when you are doing the right thing,

because we can get distracted even when you're doing the

right thing. This text is here to keep our pride

in check. Jesus gives us a remedy to our pride

that wants to swell.

Up when we're obeying him.

Jesus gives us a remedy to our wrong motives for

obedience here, So we needed to take description put in

our pocket. Everything we do for God is what we

should have been doing all along. We shouldn't even be

here serving God in the first place. Great by his

grace here we are. We are not worthy to serve

the king whom we once hated, whom we once rebelled against.

Those reminders will squash your pride. So if you're not

serving God, if you're not serving him through his church,

if you're not serving him through.

Obedience to his word, then you need to repent.

I need to repent and ask him what do you

want me to be doing? And that's just for the

things that he hasn't made clear. And let me tell you,

he's made a lot clear in him word about what

it looks like to serve him. We need to rely

through faith and reliance and clinging to him to obey

to walk out this new life he's given us.

We love because He first loved us.

Last week we saw that we forgive because he first

forgave us, and now our new motivation, we.

Serve because he first served us.

So when you want to pat yourself on the back

for obedience, you need to kill your pride and remember

what Jesus says here. Don't think of yourself more highly

than you ought. The only reason that we're able to

be backstage in the first place is because Jesus has

given us a VIP badge bought by his blood. We

shouldn't be haughty but humble, and when we do come

in the Lord's presence, we should not think of ourselves

worthy of being there, but instead fall on our knees

and a gratefulness, and inhumility cry out we're not worthy.

Would you please stand