Luke, The Orderly Account of Truth - Loving Confrontation - Luke 17:1-6

Welcome to the roots where it's all about Jesus. We

love God, we love people, We reach the loss, and

we make disciples. And one of the ways that we

make disciples is by regularly going through God's words. So

that is what we're going to do. We're going to

be jumping back into a series that we've been going

through titled Luke The Orderly Account of Truth, where we

have been following the carefully investigated account and life of

the ministry life of Jesus. Our hope in the series

is that as we go through God's word we see

the truth is about who Jesus is, what he taught,

what he called us to. That our hope is is

as we look at these different things, that our faith,

our hope would and certainty would be built up in

who God's Word tells us that Jesus is. And so

last week Pastor Greg preached through one of my favorite passages.

If you were here last week, you missed out, so

go check it out online. But it's the parable that

Jesus teaches about the rich man in Lazarus. Now it's

one of my favorite It's not necessarily the most fun passage,

but it is one of my favorite passages in scripture

because Jesus teaches about the certainty and finality of judgment,

but not only that, he teaches about the sufficiency of

God's word to tell us everything we need to know

for salvation. This week, we're going to see Jesus speak

to his disciples about temptations, and not only about just temptations,

about how temptations are sure to come, and Jesus has

a warning for those who would be the reason that

temptations come. Not only that, Jesus is gonna teach us

how we are to treat those who do sin, that is,

by rebuking them and forgiving them. Lastly, not only did

the apostles end up in much need of encouragement after

what Jesus has to say today, but I believe after

today's text, we're going to need a lot of encouragement

to be obedient to the things that He's called us to.

And He's going to do that by speaking to how

a little bit of faith goes a long way when

it comes to obeying everything that the Lord calls us to.

So before we get into today's text, I want to

let you know what we've titled today's message today's message

is titled Loving Confrontation, Loving Confrontation. And so if you

would please turn with me, we're going to be in

the Gospel of Luke, chapter seventeen. We have six verses

to go through, Verses one through six. I'll give you

guys a second of turn there. We also have bibles

for you. If you do not have a bible, please

go grab one so you can join along with us.

It's really important to us that you have God's word

in your lap. That we will have him on the screen,

but I encourage you to also have it open in

your bible. All right, let's reading. And he said to

his disciples, temptations are temptations to sin are sure to come.

But woe to the one through whom they come. It

would be better for him if a millstung or a

millstone were hung around his neck, and he were cast

into the sea, then that he should cause one of

these little ones to sin. 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. The apostles said to the Lord,

increase our faith, And the Lord said, 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. This is God's word. Let

us pray, Heavenly Father. We just asked that in this

moment you would be with us as we go over

your word, that it would implant itself deeply in rich

soil of our hearts. That you'd be softening our hearts

to hear what we need to hear. That you'd be

correcting our knee jerk reactions or God. I just asked

that right now we would draw near to you with

full confidence, knowing that because of what Jesus did on

the cross on our behalf has made it so that

there is nothing between us anymore, but that we can

come to you as a loving father and a gracious,

sufficient savior. So I just asked you would be with

us help us in this time in Jesus name. Everyone

said amen. So once again titled today's message loving confrontation.

So who loves confrontation? Who loves confrontation? Does anyone here

actually love confrontation? There you go. We got one. How

about no, I do have a follow up question. I

do have a follow up question. Who hears good at

doing confrontation in a loving manner? Okay, yeah, same hand

did not go up. If you do notice the same

hand did not go up. I think that's fair. I

think it's honest, and I appreciate the honesty because I

do not like confrontation. Most people don't. I do not

like confrontation, and honestly, over the last couple of years,

I've been just recently realizing the irony that the Lord

called me into ministry, where a lot of my job,

I'd say a pretty good portion of it is confrontation.

I believe it's not only God's way of being funny,

but it's actually something a little bit more than that.

I believe God's calling me to be obedient in an

area of my own weakness, which is a good thing

because I have to do a lot of relying on

the Lord. I have to do a lot of relying

on his strength because He's called me to do something

that is out of my comfort zone. To say the least.

I've been thinking about it a lot lately, and it's

not completely true. It might, and I say that in

the sense of it might sound more pessimistic than I

mean it too. But I've been I've been pondering as

regards like lots of conversations that I have with people

and being in the pastoral role, lots of people who

want to meet up for coffee and have run things

by you pretty pretty frequently, and I found that being

a pastor is usually one of two things. It's either

telling people something that they don't know and they probably

don't want to hear, or something that they already do

know and they definitely don't want to hear. But either way,

it is something that all of us need to hear.

The answer doesn't change because of who the people are,

but the confrontation has to be had, and so God

calls us to be faithful to do those things. And

I think that not only has this been humbling for me,

but I think as we go through today's text, we

will be humbled. As we go through today's text, we

are going to be humbled because this text is meant

to humble us. He's going to give us a warning.

In this text, He's going to give us a command.

And Jesus is also going to give us an encouragement

that we need to heed. So this text is going

to humble us because Jesus calls out a woe to

those who would lead other believers to stumble and sin,

but he also commands us to rebuke those who do

sin and forgive them every time they repent. Now, I

want to say two things. The first thing I want

to say is my mic is being a little weird,

so it's distracting whatever, It's fine. Okay. Here's the other thing.

I anticipated being a little quiet today, so we should

all be okay with that. It's going to be a

little quiet today because Jesus has some pretty hard hitting

things to say. But I do believe that we need

to sit down, dig in, and listen. So I want

to say those things. Then we're just out there. They're done.

No one has to bring those comments to me later.

We already know them confronting. I'm confronting a future confrontation

right now in this moment. All right, Okay, So this

text is going to humble us because it's going to

expose who we put first. Are we more interested in

loving ourselves or loving others? We see this in our

text today. Verses one and two we see Jesus call

out those who would cause others to sin. And in

verse three and four we see Jesus call us to

confront those in sin. So let's look at it starting

in verses one and two, and he 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 if a millstone were hung around his neck

and he were cast into the sea, that he should

cause one of these little ones to sin. So, I

think the thing that's very important for us here is

Jesus says something that we need to hear loud and clear,

and that is that temptations are sure to come. Temptations

are sure to come. No one is exempt from temptation.

Temptation is a sure thing in this earthly life. Someone, something,

even maybe your own flesh, will lead you, tempt you

and cause you to sin. Many of us might even

be wrestling with temptations right now. But the good news

is that we are not hopeless against against temptation, because

we are told this in God's Word. On Corinthians ten

twelve or thirteen, it says, therefore, let anyone who thinks

that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation

has overtaken you. That is not common to man. God

is faithful and he will not let you be tempted

beyond your ability. But with the temptation, he will also

provide the way of escape that you may be able

to endure it. This is a great verse to put

in your back pocket. We were just talking about this

at the Men's breakfast this morning. This is one of

those verses that are super important, one of these promises

to hold on to when times of temptation come. Because

the one thing that Satan wants the Christian to believe

is that you are powerless to the temptations that are

coming your way. That's the one thing that Satan wants

you to know. He wants you to think that you

are powerless to the temptations that are coming your way.

But here God's word refutes that and says God always

provides a way out that's really really useful knowledge that's

really really useful in our fight against temptation. What that

means is that in the midst of your temptation, we

shouldn't be focused on the raging fire in front of us.

Should be looking for the exit sign when we're struggling,

and when we're wrestling, when that temptation comes up, and

I'm like, I don't know if I can take this

one on. You're supposed to look for the exit sign.

Don't dwell on it. It's gonna engulf for you, it's

gonna take you over. But instead be looking. All right,

God said there's a way out here, So I'm not

gonna get caught up in what this is, but I'm

gonna go searching for this way out. And it's good

news to know that there is an exit. He gives

it to us. Jesus says temptations to sin are sure

to come. But then he has something to add, and

this is where things start getting heavier. He says, but woe,

which is a pronouncement of judgment on the one through

whom they come. He says, it would be better for

you to tie a millstone around your neck and be

thrown into the sea, for you to cause or then

for you to cause one of the little ones to stumble.

And that's not just speaking about children, but it's talking

about children of God's family. That's believers, that's Christians. And

I think sometimes we forget how hardcore Jesus is. It's

one of the things that's helpful about us is going

through books of the Bible. We don't see that passage

that Jesus has something hard. We're like, oh, I'm just

gonna we'll save that one for another time. You know,

when no one shows up the church, well that's when

we'll preach that one. But we get to go through

God's which makes us be confronted with what Jesus has

to say to us. I mean, you think about it,

we forget really how hard core Jesus is. Most of

the time. We think about Jesus and we're like sunshine, rainbows,

unicorns and only smiles. That's the Jesus I know. That's

the Jesus I follow. Then you read your Bible and

you find that Jesus is kind and he is loving,

but he also take seriously his mission to not lose

any of those that have been given to him by

the Father. Jesus uses intense language all of the time.

How about the time where he told you to gouge

out your eyes rather than lust after other people, because

it's better to go to hell blind than to enter

fully seeing. Time he told you to cut off your hand.

If it's going to cause you to sin, better to

enter Heaven maimed, then go to hell fully intact. Okay, Jesus.

And it needs to be said here that Jesus is

using hyperbole and what that is is it's just intense

graphic imagery to get the bigger point across. And we

need to note this because he actually uses it in

this text multiple times, especially at the end. Jesus says,

it's better for you to be at the bottom of

the lake than for you to call a child of

God to stumble or sin. Not even a lake, a sea.

It's much deeper than most lakes. So the question would

be is like, do we take that seriously? Do we

take that seriously? When Jesus uses this an intense graphic imagery,

do we take it seriously? Because how often are we

the result of leading others into sin? I have examples

that could be slander and gossip? Do we lead others

into slander and gossip? Maybe our vulgar, crude, filthy, obscene

talking or joking are causing others to stumble and lust

in how we dress, trying to make others envious and

jealous with our life by what we put on social media,

Maybe in what we teach our children to prioritize over Jesus.

Maybe in our self control when it comes to social

gatherings and what we drink, our encouragement to others for

medical substances that we say it is fine to use

as a recreational purpose, maybe committing fornication by sleeping with

someone who isn't your spouse. We could just go on

and on. And this isn't the only thing that I

believe that this text is speaking to. This text isn't

just also saying you causing others to sin. But I

fear today much of our problem as a church, and

this is a society, is that of comforting people in

their sin. It's not as much as causing sin for

other people, but it's comforting other people in their sin.

It's crazy. You can hear get quieter and quieter and quieter.

Not only do we cause people to sin, but we

comfort them in the sin that they're already in. Leading

people astray by telling them it's okay instead of rebuking them. Instead,

we choose to love ourselves instead of them, by avoiding

a tough conversation because we don't want to maybe ruin

that friendship, or worse, what if they call out my

hypocrisy and doing the same exact things. I think many

of us think along the lines of if I expose

it in them, well then I would be exposed also,

so we choose not to all together. It's just much easier.

We comfort people in their sin instead of calling them

to stop sleeping with their boyfriend or girlfriend. We're like, oh,

it's finding guys are basically married anyways, instead of calling

out the destructive beliefs of our world that has not

only adults, but adults encouraging mutilation of children, and we

are like, ah, that seems like a lot for me.

I don't want to put my hand to any of that.

So it's easier for me to say, well, I'm not

really informed on the subject. Well I don't really know.

You do. You follow your heart, but it's a lie.

What they're doing is wrong. So we end up complicit

in their sin, and not only that, but at times

encouraging them in it. A lot of these things are

not just problems that we find in the world, because

we go like, yeah, sure that happens in my workplace.

I just kind of keep my mouth shut, head down.

But it happens on our churches, in our families. We

should never be the cause of someone else's temptation to sin.

Jesus is showing us the severity of that. We should

never comfort someone in their sin. But instead Jesus shows

us what we are to do, which is we're not

to be those who cause or comfort others in their sin,

but those who confront and cover with forgiveness other people's sin.

So we see in verses three and four says, pay

attention to yourselves, Pay attention to yourselves. If your brother sins,

rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. And if

he sins against you, catch this seven times in a

day and turns you seven times saying I repent, you

must forgive him. Jesus, pay attention to yourselves, Pay attention

to yourselves. Don't tune this out. Keep your eyes open

and your hearts ready for this. He says. If you

see a brother in sin, that's not just brothers, also

sisters too. If you see a brother or sister in sin,

what are you to do? Rebuke him? And if he repents,

what are you to do? You are to forgive him?

This is something very important for us to remember, because

all of us are sinners. I don't know if you

know that all of us are sinners. We all wrestle

with many issues, we are all the cause of a

lot of sin. But in God's household, what we have

to remember is that we are redeemed sinners. Those who

can come to God because of what Jesus did on

the cross. Those who can come because what Jesus did

by taking the punishment for our sin. And it's not

just yesterday's sin, but it's our sin from the past,

it's our sin in the future. Jesus took all of it.

He took the wrath and the punishment do our sin

on himself, and instead gave us his righteousness. Instead gives

us grace and mercy. He gives us a righteousness that

is not our own. And this amazing gift is for

anyone who would repent of their sins and put their

trust in Jesus. Those who do will be saved from

the wrath do their sin and instead being made a

son or daughter of God. And what's better is you'll

be given eternal life. So everyone who's put their faith

in God in Jesus Christ is a part of God's Church.

We still struggle and sometimes lose the battle with sin,

but God always forgives us because He won the war

in Christ. This is really important for us to remember.

We have to remember what Christ did on our behalf

the forgiveness that God gives us because of what He

calls us to do. In this text, he says to

rebuke those who are in sin, and when they repent,

you are to forgive them. But he ups the stakes,

which is pretty crazy. Actually, he's not like, hey, if

that one person does the same thing seven times in

the same year, go ahead and think about forgiving them.

He doesn't say that. It's not even seven times in

a month. It's not even seven times in a week

once a day. It's seven times the same day. And

if you're anything like me, it's probably the same sin

seven times. Someone sends against you and then says, I

missed it. I'm sorry, I repent, Please forgive me. You

are to forgive them, now, let's be honest. That kind

of takes guts to do. That takes guts to forgive

someone like that. But we still need to back up

because not only does it take guts to forgive, but

especially in today's society. It takes guts to rebuke someone.

We don't that, we don't do that, we don't really

like to do that. And if we do, the vast

majority of how we confront someone is what I like

to call keyboard confidence. It's I can say whatever I

finally got up the gumption. No you didn't, No, you

didn't say it to their face. Don't text them, don't

text them, say it to their face. Apologize for what

you need to apologize for. Rebuke them for what you

need to rebuke them for a dude in person. It

takes cuts. I think it's important. One of my favorite

verses right now, Like I said, this is something I've

been going through myself, so I've been processing, so I

need lots of verses to cling onto to kind of

help me to remind me of the purpose and the

importance of rebuking. And it's Proverbs twenty seven five through six,

and it says this better is an open rebuke than

hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, profuse

are the kisses of an enemy. Our world is a

complete opposite of this text. We would rather keep our

mouth shut, let people walk off the Cliff, then speak

the truth and love to those we see headed for destruction.

How many times do I know the right things to

say and I just don't say it. How many times

do I not tell my friend the truth because of

my fear of hurting them. Even if you're gonna do

it in love, I still go like, there's no way

they could possibly receive this. Well, and here's the deal.

That's just true. I've said it before. No one likes

to be told they're wrong, And if you do, I

would love to meet you because that sounds cool. I

guess I don't know, like that sounds like a superpower.

I love being told I'm wrong. But when I don't

do that, it makes me someone who doesn't show my

love to them, but someone who actually hides my love.

My real care for that person is hidden. And what's

worse is I'm treating this person I claim to love

like an enemy. I'll flatter them with kisses, Oh you're good, dude,

you're fine, but never warn them about the oncoming train.

How can I call that love? This goes back to

what we were talking about at the beginning. The text

humbles us and should be a challenge and should be

challenging the way we interact with others around us. Do

I do the wrong thing of causing or comforting sin?

Because I love myself more than I love them. I'd

rather save face and just have them not be mad

at me. Most of the time, that's my inclination. I'd

rather just be like, oh sorry, I can't see you,

I can't hang out with you, And we end up

just not only do we avoid the problem, but we

end up avoiding the person. Jesus tells us here that

we need to stop loving ourselves and start loving others.

That's what it's really gonna take, killing our love of self,

casting it into the ocean with a millstone around its neck.

And instead we're called to start sticking our neck out

for other people by loving them, by telling them the

truth once again in love. And we do this all

for one purpose, not to start the salem which one

of you is a sinner trial, but to seek the reconciliation,

to seek the repentance, to seek the restoration for the

one who's going astray. James five, nineteen through twenty. One

of my favorite passages of the scripture says, my brothers,

if any if anyone among you wanders from the truth

and someone brings him back. Let him know that whoever

brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his

from death and will cover a multitude of sins. We

rebuke people in love because we want to see their salvation,

not so that we can stand in pride and tell

everyone I've told you so. I just needed them to

get to admit it so I could see, so they

would know, so everyone like would see how bad they are.

It's not why we rebuke people. It's not why we

call out people's sin. We're to actually love the person,

rebuke them in their sin in hopes that we would

see reconciliation. That is our hope. And what Jesus says

here is not just a one time thing, because that

once again, we sin all the time, and we ourselves

need the grace and forgiveness to cover us all day

every day from God. We need grace from God every

single day because we sin against God every single day,

every single day. And guess what, it's so much more

than seven times. It's so many more times than seven

and He forgives us straight up. So why would we

think we don't have to extend forgiveness to other sinners

who sin against us every single day, multiple times, probably

more than seven. Most of the time, it's because all

of us want grace for ourselves but justice for others.

That's our default mode. Give me grace, but give them justice.

But if we're willing to accept unending grace from God,

then we better be ready to give it to others.

And if you wrestle with gladly taking forgiveness for yourself

but struggling to give it to others, I would point

you to the parable of the unforgiving Servant. It's in

Matthew eighteen. I'm not gonna read it here today, but

you should go read it. It's good. It's really good. Yeah,

it will help my guarantee you. But that parable, actually,

interestingly enough, I didn't know this until I was in

my study today, is off the back end of Jesus's

instruction to his church about church discipline and calling others

to repentance. So I actually think it's really fitting and

that we actually are gonna look at because I think

it's gonna be very helpful for us. We're gonna see

that Matthew eighteen fifteen through seventeen, Jesus teaches us how

we are to rebuke someone in sin. He gives us

the pattern and order for how to rebuke someone in

sin that first were to bring the issue to the

person and they repent. That's it. Awesome, problem solved. Sounds good.

But Jesus gives us this cool case study that if

I were to come to someone and say, bro, you're

missing it, let's get this in line, and they're like, Nope,

not gonna do it. I'm not in the wrong, I'm

perfectly fine. Everything's great. Jesus gives us this cool case

study for the unrepentant person, and what we're to do,

let's read this is if your brother sins against you,

go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.

If he listens to you, you've gained your brother. But

if he does not listen, take one or two others

along with you. That every charge may be a stafublished

by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he

refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.

And if he refuses to listen even to the church,

let him be to you as a gentile and a

tax collector. So Jesus says, he lays out here that

there's a sin issue between you and someone else, you

and another believer, you're you're not to go tell everyone

else about it first. Jesus kind of gives us this

template here for pretty much the exact opposite of what

we do every single time. If I don't run to

go tell everyone else about it first, I run a

church leadership to tell them about it. And good church

leadership will say, oh man, and how did they respond

to you when you brought it up to them? Because

first Jesus says, if you have an issue with someone,

the first bring person you should bring it up to

is that person. First person. Now, if they're unrepentant, still okay,

Now you can start bringing in other people. If they

still don't repent, you go to the church. And most

often that's the thought of as the church leadership. You're

bringing them in. Once again, you're still not like, you're

not like, hey, church, I need to let you all know,

and I need all you know, like you're going to

get the church leadership and you're bringing them right because

we're still the point here is still reconciliation. That's the point,

that's the heart. It's not slander, it's not gossip. Well,

you want to see our brother or sister reconciled. If

they're still if they still won't repent after all of that,

we're to treat them as an unbeliever because they're unrepentant

in their sin. If they are not repentant, they're acting

like an unbeliever. Christians repent all the time. And honestly,

if you want to like a pro tip, not that

I'm a pro, but if you want to pro tip

on how to grow in your Christian walk very fast,

just start confessing everything. Find someone and just be like,

all right, you're the guy, you're the lady, and I

need someone to know all of it other than God,

and I'm just going to I need a person who

knows everything, and confess it and get good at it.

Not get good at sitting, but get good at sitting

and then messing up. That's the second part you need

to do. You need to get good at confessing the sin.

Do it fast. Don't let it sit, don't let it fester,

don't let it rest. Deal with it instantaneously. You will

feel freer. You will feel more hopeful because you were

letting go. You're no longer holding on to that thing.

You're confessing it. All of this to say again, the

point of rebuking someone's sin is not to ruin their

life make them look a fool. Although that would feel

so good, they might feel so good. That's how we feel, right,

that's not the good part of us. That's not the

good part of us that wants them to look like

that and to everyone to know like, you know what

I mean, like I start turning into awakens. That's not

the that's the you know, flesh monster. That's whatever it is.

You know, it's not good. That's not the point. The

point is to call them to repentance and restore your

brother and sister. Honestly, I think if repentance is done right,

your relationship should be better with that person afterwards. It

might not be immediately. You know, wounds are our friend

still kind of a little bit of a wound, but

it was meant out of love. We're trying to take

out that part that was trying to hurt you. We

got to take out that part that was trying to

consume you. When they were repent, we are to forgive

as the Lord forgave us. That's the standard. That's why

we have to remember that as soon as you start

feeling unforgiving, like you don't want to extend that forgiveness,

you have to look at the Gospel. You have to

look to Christ. Clautions three twelve through thirteen says this

put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved,

compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another.

And if one of you has a complaint against another,

forgiving each other. As the Lord has forgiven you, so

you also must forgive. We love because He first loved us.

And here we're also called to forgive because He's also

forgiven us. So to summarize, Jesus warns those who would

be the cause of stumbling or comfort of sin and

other another believer's life. He warns those people don't do that,

and instead he calls us to confront and to cover

the sin of a believer's life. That is our hope,

to confront and to cover it. Now, I know that

that's a lot, and this is heavy, and a lot

of this honestly might feel like it's kind of impossible.

And I don't blame you, because I believe that's exactly

how the apostles felt when Jesus was telling this or

telling them this, because let's look at our last two verses,

and I need the bandy come up please, Verses five

and six, the apostle said to the Lord, increase our faith.

You ever had that moment, You ever had that time

in your life where like maybe you read a Bible

verse or you get confronted with something and you're like,

I'm gonna need more faith for that. The apostle said,

the Lord, increase our faith. And the Lord said, if

you had faith, like a grain of us would seed,

you could say to this mulberry tree be uprooted and

planted in the sea, and it would obey you. That's wild,

that's crazy. The apostles reply with, increase our faith. Now,

how many of us feel that very same cris We've

gone over today's text for forgiveness, the call to rebuke

others and sin, the call to not be the reason

that others sin, to not be a comfort of someone's sin.

I think, indeed we're crying together increase our faith now. First,

this text also sounds like Jesus is calling out their

lack of faith, and I do think that that's part

of it. I do think upfront Jesus is kind of

calling out their lack of faith, but I also believe

that Jesus is answering the request. In this response, he

tells them, if you had faith like a mustard seed,

you could do the impossible of telling a huge tree

with deep roots to uproot itself and go plant itself

in the sea. Uses this graphic imagery. I have a

mustard seed. You guys, ever seen a mustard seed? I

see them mostly on hamburger buns. They're small. They're very,

very very small. Mm no, that sessame, Isn't it all right?

It's fine, it's all right. I don't know. Maybe it's smaller.

It's probably smaller. It's fine. I didn't read that in

a commentary. It's all right. You guys don't have a

mustard seed. Bone we talked about. Guys, you're the weird ones.

Don't worry about it anyways. It's a really small seed.

It's probably small like that. It's small, it's small. It's

a small, small seed. That's what Jesus is trying to say,

if you had faith like any type of really small seed,

Jesus tells his disciples that they could tell a tree

to uproot itself and go plant itself in the sea. Jesus,

you have the faith of that size, you could do

the impossible. In other places, that says you could tell

a mountain to be cast into the sea. Jesus is

here using dramatic language again to paint you a picture

of what you just a little bit of faith could do.

If just a little bit of faith can do the impossible,

then surely the faith you have is sufficient to do

what he has called you to do. Jesus tells them

a little faith can do the impossible. If they were

given a warning and a command to do something that

definitely is more possible than a treat uprooting itself, definitely

more possible than a mountain's being thrown into the sea.

But to them it felt impossible. To us, it might

feel impossible. Forgive them every single time, don't be the

reason or comfort of anyone else's sin, Cover their sin,

rebuke their sin. That could feel impossible. But if just

a little bit of faith can do something that is impossible,

how much more could their faith through the things that

are possible? And Jesus shows us as possible. He did

it to us, He's forgiven us. He does it every

single time become and drawn near to him. To this

should magnify and grow our faith, just in the fact

that a little faith goes a long way. So whatever

faith you have, put it to use to do the

things that God has called you to do. And I

believe that if you do that, you will actually walk,

you'll watch Him work through you in ways that you

thought were impossible at one point. I know that there's

many areas, there's many sins in my own life. I'm like,

I don't know if I'm overcoming this one. I don't

know if I'm ever going to get this thing underneath

my thumb. I don't know if we're ever going to

get this thing dealt with for sure. And it's something

that I don't feel ruled by anymore. That's something I

don't feel controlled by anymore. I got good at looking

for the exit. I got good at trying to trust

him and what he said over what the sin and

temptation is trying to tell me in that moment. A

little faith goes a long way, and that's going to

go for every area of our life, every impossible situation,

trial and temptation, confusion, chaos, all it takes is a

little bit of faith. We see in first John five

to four, we're told, for everyone who has been born

of God overcomes the world. That is really good news.

It's awesome, and this is the victory that has overcome

the world. Our faith and why is that. It's not

because our faith in and of itself is the thing,

but it's because of who our faith is in. That's

the same one who said in John sixteen thirty three,

Jesus says, I've said these things to you that in

me you may have peace. In the world. You will

have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world.

So any sin, any situation that we find ourselves in,

we can put our faith in Jesus, who has overcome

the world, who has overcome every tribulation. So you today,

to every single one of you, I would say, take heart,

put your trust in God to not only be saved

and given a new life, but put your trust in

God to live out this new life He's given. You.

Don't be the reason or cause for others to stumble

and sin. Don't comfort them in their sin, but you

just to remember that sin that they're in only wants

their destruction and death. Just like it only wants your

destruction and death. And the greatest thing that someone could

do is pull you from that fire. The greatest thing

that someone could do is tell you the trains. The

greatest thing you could do is tell them the truth

about their sin, and we also need to receive that

for ourselves. It will also help us be less mad

when someone tells us something that we don't want to hear.

To go okay, you will have my best interest in

mind here. And even if they're not doing it perfectly,

thank god someone's doing it. Called to die to ourself instead,

lay yourself down in love for them, tell them the truth,

rebuke them and their sin, do it in love, seeking

their reconciliation and repentance, and forgive them every time they repent,

just like the Lord does for you. And you've been

failing in these areas, or maybe you've yet to even

come to know Jesus as Lord, I have good news

for you. You can come to Him in repentance and

find forgiveness in Jesus says in First John one nine.

It says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful

and just to forgive us, to forgive us our sins,

and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So my encouragement

to you today, on top of all the other things

that Jesus said to do, is to come to him,

find forgiveness, trust, and cling to him with a little

bit of faith that you do have, because it's more

than enough, because He is more than enough. Would you

guys please stand to your feet.