Forgiveness, Faith, and the Apostles’ Big Ask | Luke 17:1–6

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys.

I'm Kyle and this is Chris Yes.

And today we are your Bible Guys because Jeff is

out of town across the world doing great work with

the Timothy Initiative and which you can google and learn about.

But today we're actually in the third day of the

second week of a series, the brand new series that

we're talking about, Dangerous Prayers, and today is actually the

theme of this week is surrender, Prayers of Surrender, which

is pretty crazy. That's been great, Yeah, it's been great.

And then so today before we get into that, we

have a brand new segment and this is pretty crazy.

I don't think I've ever done this segment like this.

Desire's coming up with new ideas all the time, and

this one's called Advice Booth.

Okay, So yeah, what we're gonna do here is we're

each going to give each other advice on a topic

and then we're gonna let the listeners vote. So I'm

assuming that's gonna be through YouTube. Correct if you're watching

on YouTube or even if you're listening on Spotify.

Or who knows that nobody will do it, Kyle, Oh,

I bet they will, but I but I hope they.

I hope you take just a second and respond to us,

because we love seeing feedback and I read.

I know you do too. I read the comments. I

love seeing this stuff, so this will be a chance

to get people's responses.

You know that I actually don't read the comments.

You don't know, do they always talk about I don't

even I don't even have it on my phone YouTube.

Listen. Since I've done a five this is the episode

seven to seventy three, and then HG Daily we did

one hundred and fifty episodes. So we've done like a

thousand episodes and I don't think I've ever once read

a single comment.

Oh okay, well they're usually pretty favorable. I like you

a lot.

Well that's cool, but but I probably need to. I

probably need to. I probably should. But Jeff reads a lot.

Yeah, and so he tells you almost like me spoilt. Yes,

all right, so now for this, you guys comments, let

us know who you think you gave it better advice? Okay,

so advice booth here's the first one. How do you

stop hitting snooze in the morning? Give people some in bites, Chris, Well,

I don't know.

I don't know how you do it. But if I

if that was my goal, if my goal is to

not hit snooze, then my life hack is I would

take whatever the alarm is and I would put it

far from the bed forced me to get out of

the bed.

Yeah, that was that's what you're gonna say. See, we

didn't talk about this beforehand, and so I was worried

we're going to steal each other's bed.

Hey, but that is that is the I mean, isn't

that the best one?

Yes, which shows yourself to get up, which.

Shows that you and I are both intelligent.

Yes, exactly.

So you put it way across the room, so you

literally have to get up, yes, And so it's like

that that way, you're not going to hit snooze at all. Yes,

And that's only if you have a promised snooze. So

my daughter, God bless her, we love her so much, Tory,

she's so great. But she'll set like six alarms on

the horn. Oh wow, right, my daughters do that too. Yeah,

And so it's like it's like, oh, seven thirty seven

thirty five, seven forty seven forty five, so she knows

that she can hit uh, you know, off or snooze

or whatever, and uh and I'm just thinking, why do

you even want to play that game?

So I had a season of life. I cannot remember

the year, but it was not that one maybe within

the last ten years where I went probably a year

or two where I would snooze for an hour and

ten every morning. I would set my alarm early and

I knew that I had up until this time, so

be an hour. For some reason, it was this weird thing.

I enjoyed doing it. Okay, so since you stole what

I think is great advice, I'm going to give a

second potential option, which is to make your ring tone

so annoying and so loud that you don't want to

hear it again. That could be an I pack.

Give us an example, Kyle. Yeah, like like like like

a song?

Oh, I don't know about a song? Yeah, I pick

a song, okay, okay.

Would be anything girly for you? Shoot?

Yeah, I don't know. I think you'd have to.

Be like Friday Friday? Yeah, what's that? Uh?

Was I persume saying the song, uh, something like something black,

Rebecca Black, Friday, Yeah Friday, be up there. It may

be a show tune.

Yeah, oh, showtunes would do it, That would do it.

No, No, I'd lay there and be like the show too. Yeah,

let's keep this on. But I think that could be

a good hack. Right, is put whatever the ring tone

is or a song that's so annoying that it forces

you to get up because you don't want to hear

that ring tone again?

Okay, all right, good advice yep. And the number two.

Number two?

What is the ultimate life hack for getting free food?

What a question? What is the ultimate life hack for

getting free food? You know what? I thought about this

for two seconds before we started filming, and I thought,

the only ideas that I can come up with are

all bad ideas.

Yeah, good, then share your best bad idea.

Well, for instance, like I would never do any of

these things willingly because they're they're they're wrong, right, because

I can't think of a life hack to get free

food in an honest way, right, Like, like, how could

you honestly get free food in an honest way?

I think an app would be an option. Do you

ever do food apps. No, no, okay. So for example,

I have friends of mine who are big into like

the McDonald's app if they you know, I know that

may not be everyone's Fortepe, but Taco Bell, McDonald's. There's

apps that allows you to get a lot of free food.

Yeah really yeah, okay, all right, that's one honest way

you could do it, all right, But that.

Means you have to spend a bunch of money and

then you.

Get Sometimes sometimes they'll just be going there and it'll

be like with your ordernay, you get free French fries.

So free food, okay, all right, So that that is

sort of a hack, yes, okay, a way that you

would say is a bad advice.

Okay there, Yes, Well, let me tell you. Let me

tell you a story. When I was in the eighties,

it was like it was like mid eighties, and there

was a really fancy restaurant our area called the Brown Derby. Okay,

And and and so we we Jeff and I my buddy,

would go in and we'd sit down and they bring

us fresh bread and uh, and we'd say we just

want waters, okay, and so they give us ice water.

And then we would sit down and we would do

the loaf of bread, eat bread and butter, and it

was so good. It was just this massive piece of bread.

And then they come over and they say, what are

you going to order? They say, oh, we just want

the bread.

There you go, that's a good life hack.

And then and then they go what do you mean.

I'm like, well, we just want the bread. So they

brought us over another loaf of bread. They're like, well,

you have to order something. I'm like, no, we don't.

It's free. It's free bread. So can you please bring

us more free bread? Yeah? And we were sort of like,

you know, sort of like you know, telling the waiter like, uh,

I think you're I think you're obligated to bring us bread.

So the waiter agrees, so he brings us more bread.

So he literally waits on us. We go through like

three whole loaves of bread and butter like like wonderful bread,

drink the water, and then walk out without pan of dime. Wow.

Now we only did that like three times, yeah, before

the management somehow caught on because apparently enough waiters complained.

And then the fourth time we went in there, we

sat down and they recognized us and they said, uh,

there's a charge for bread, okay, And they said it's

like four ninety five or something if you're not getting

anything else. And I was like, oh, they caught on, gotcha, gotcha.

But that was my life hack.

But I got it's not a terrible concept when you

consider the fact there's a lot of restaurants out there

that will almost fill you up before the food comes, right.

I think of like Texas Roadhouse as one Yeah, I'll back,

or what's one place down roadhouse?

Uh don horns.

Yes, long Horns takeout? That is great bread before you

even get the food.

So yeah, a lot of Mexican restaurants do free chips

and saws.

Yes, and there's my meal arrived. I'm like, I'm halfway

full before the food even got here. So all right,

that is a good life hack. I'm gonna go with

I'm gonna go with terrible advice. But I'll just say

because you, well, I guess yours is kind of like.

Oh, mine's terrible. Yea, yeah, I would never do that today.

Yes, it's bad advice.

I would say the way that was before I was

a Christian, Oh that was that was b C.

Yeah, mine, I would say is terrible. Advice, just for anybody,

Christian or non Christian, is just to put it all

on a credit card.

Oh, just put a credit card. Not free. Ultimately that's

more expensive.

You're gonna be paying for it. Yeah yeah, yeah, seven

percent interest on the long run. No, but but for real,

i'd say the app you.

Just say seven percent, isn't that what it is?

No? No, No, they're a twenty five Okay, sorry.

I was gonna say, like seven percent of the sales tax?

Yeah, okay. So I to just one thing about I Actually,

when I use my credit card, I try to pay

it off. And I think popest people should try to write.

Oh you're gonna you're gonna you have to throw that.

In there, yes, because honestly, I didn't even know how much.

How much are they usually? Is it?

Well, it depends, it depends. I was just gonna say,

if you have a seven percent interest on your credit card,

that's a good card.

That's good.

Okay, I'd say, hang on to that. Okay, yeah, good.

Right, that's all right. So yeah, get some apps. Get them. Actually,

do do you ever eat like McDonald's, even for like

breakfast or anything? You don't strike me as a fast

you know, you know.

What's so funny is I will I will do McDonald's

and I'm good for like a year. Yeah, and then

and then it'll be literally a year later before I

go through. And it's almost always breakfast.

Yeah, I'm a little bit I'm in the same boat.

But but I do know that a couple of years

ago because when I'll go with my friends to a

golf outing, there's always McDonald's in town that we stop at.

So I have the app and actually does have a

good deal. So there's my life hack. Get the McDonald's app.

All right, Well there you go. All right, Well, I'll

tell you what that was. That was difficult. It was

difficult to come up with those kinds of answers, right,

and you know what else is difficult.

What's difficult.

The teaching is about forgiveness and faith that we're about

to unpack. And Luke, chapter number seven.

I'll just say, you're doing a great job this week

with the transitions.

Well, you know what, good I've taken all three of

them as we were on the third day. Yeah, So

for the remainder of the week, I'm now announcing to

our listeners you're responsible for the next.

Two okay, sounds good. All right, that's difficult, you know,

it's difficult what we're.

About to No, no, no, no, I've already done that.

All right, Luke seventeen, verses one through six. The section

here says it's Jesus talking about forgiveness and faith, says

in verse one and seventeen, Chapter seventeen. One day, Jesus

said to his disciples, there will always be temptations to sin,

But what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting.

It would be better to be thrown into the sea

with a millstone hung around your neck than to cause

one of these little ones to fall into sin. So

watch yourselves. If another believer sins, rebuke that person. Then

if there is repentance, forgive. Even if that person wrongs

you seven times a day, and each time turns again

and ask forgiveness, you must forgive. The apostles said to

the Lord, show us how to increase our faith. The

Lord answered, if you had faith even as small as

a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree,

may you be uprooted and thrown into the sea, and

it would obey you. Man.

Is that it? Yeah?

There? One through six yep, okay.

So the dangerous prayer then, is just that simple sentence.

Right.

The apostles said, to the Lord, show us how to

increase our faith. And they said that, of course, in

light of the really hard teaching. Yes, now you know

what's so interesting. You and I live post Jesus, right,

I mean you were two thousand years post Jesus. And

so the concept of loving one another and loving your

enemies is something that we've grown up with for generations,

and so it's not unusual. It's not mind blowing to

hear love your enemies. But isn't it odd and strange

and almost mind blowing? You think about when Jesus said

a new commandment, I give to you love one another.

It was a brand new thought, which is why Jesus

often said, you've heard it said an eye for an eye,

a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you

love your enemies, forgive those that persecute you. Right, And

it's it's just like this, this brand new thought. In

the Old Testament, when you grew up, things were like

pretty ruthless, in fact, very ruthless. The world was so

harsh and even even the standard you know, there was

no government a lot of times necessarily, and so there

would be there's there's social law, there's there's there's there's

you know, the ability to take revenge that you were

within your right a lot of times. You know, think

about the wild Wild West, only only worse than that,

right where it's like you were allowed to it was justified. Right.

I remember watching a movie, an old Western, where somebody

shot somebody down and then and then everybody was standing

around watching it, and and and he says, he goes,

you saw it. He provoked it. You saw it, and

that was the all thing he needed, apparently, right, He's

like everybody here witnessed it, he provoked it. And I

was like, oh, apparently that's okay, right. You know, killing

somebody in the streets within the wild bill West is okay.

Because as everybody saw it and can say, yeah.

Everybody can say you were justified what you're saying, right.

So the idea, the idea that Jesus would come along

in Luke chapter seventeen right here and say okay, ready

for this. Somebody is going to offend you seven times.

And you are probably you have probably grown up either

teaching you know that your parents or you're even your priest,

or your your pharisee, your local leader has taught you

to either hate them, or to shun them, or to

excommunicate them, or to even get revenge on them. But

I'm here to tell you you are to forgive them. Yeah,

even if they offend you seven times every single day.

This revolutionary idea. And I think for me, I thn't

the thing that stands out right before that it talks about.

He says, I another believer sins, rebuke that person. I

don't know about you, but when you hear that word rebuke,

it's not It's not like a hot word. You know

a lot of times like rebuke, you're kind of like, oh.

But the the point it makes in the notes here

in this Bible is here. It says Luke about three

through fourth says, to rebuke does not mean to point

out every sin we see. It means to bring sin

to a person's attention with the purpose of restoring that

person's relationship with God and with fellow humans. So that says,

when you feel you must rebuke another Christian for sin,

check your attitudes before you speak. Do you love that person?

Are you willing to forgive unless rebuke is tied to forgiveness,

it will not help the sinning person. I love that.

If it's not tied to forgiveness, it will not help

the sinning person. So I think what he's saying is,

if you're going to go rebuke somebody, it's not a

bad thing. That's a good thing. Even if you're receiving rebuke,

it can be a good thing. But you have to

really check your heart. If your goal is to find

mutual reconciliation to eventually lead to forgiveness. If your goal

is not that, then you're not going to help the

person and your heart's in the wrong place. I think

that's great.

Yeah, and a lot of Christians, a lot of Christians

miss this. Yeah, you know, one of the worst stories

that I've ever heard in my entire life. And I'm

serious when I say that it's one of the worst

stories I've ever heard in my entire life. It was

actually by one of our staff members, and she said

that she grew up in a real conservative church, and

conservative meaning like you know, they're all about rules and

you know, focusing on these sort of legalistic kind of things.

And she said that one time the pastor was standing

by the door. And this was, you know, and probably

in the late seventies or something, right back when hippies

and all those kinds of things. And this kid had

walked into church and he was coming to church, but

he had long hair. And the pastor said, boy, you're

not coming to my church with that long hair. You

turn around and go get a haircut. And when you

get a haircut, then you're welcome to my church. I

promise you when I say, I have a physical, visceral

reaction just telling that story. Right, so you know, that

guy's eternity, you know, could be at stake. He could

have walked away from God and everything else. Right, the

damage that that causes not only to that man's eternity,

but also maybe all of his legacy and his generations.

And I'm not saying God still can't reach that boy,

but I am saying that I personally know the hundreds

of stories that have kept people away from God for

years and sometimes even permanently, right because of things like that, And.

Well, and then that person the pastor might have referenced,

you know, whats the it's it's a proverb about an

open rebuke, yes, like, but people take that out of context.

Right, that's exactly, that's right. That was my point.

Rebuke you I'm gonna, I'm gonna, And it's like no

if your heart is not yeah, so.

Sorry, yeah, no, no, no, go ahead, finish.

I just I was just thinking about that. I think

that oftentimes people see the rebuke thing and it does

have a negative connotation because of the fact that it's

been used as as a justification for unkind or ungodly

or or hurtful words that are said and unproductive.

Yes, exactly. So it's like it's like rebuke. Think about

the purpose of rebuke. So the purpose of rebuke is

directly tied to restoration, repentance, restoration, and everything else. So

the purpose of rebuke is not for the sake of rebuke. Right.

So it's like to all the Christians who type in caps,

it's like, that's not the purpose of you know, your platform.

The purpose of your platform is for the purpose for

somebody else to be, you know, to come to Christ.

So I think of it about as effective as this.

And I actually said this, literally, I just said this.

So last Sunday, I actually had the privilege of going

to the away Lions game. Okay, so we were in

green Bay. The Lions did not do very well. No,

in fact, it was that part of the trip was

pretty darn discouraging. However, the trip itself to Green Bay

was pretty awesome. And as we were walking through Green Bay,

and by the way, what a wonderful place to be,

I just have to publicly say wow to the people

of green Bay. Just best best stadium in the United

States of America. Best people, I'm not kidding, not even

close in my mind. Well, just an unbelievable, over the

top experience. So good job green Bay. But anyway, doesn't

make me like the team anym though, but good job

green Bay. So anyway, and walking through uh, this whole

big strip where all these people are short or shoulder walking,

there's the preacher on the microphone, but he's on a megaphone, right,

and he's shouting things in the megaphone to people walking

by the streets. And the things that he's shouting a

lot of them are true things. They're true, but they're

about as effective as you know. I mean, I'm trying

to think of an illustration of the most ineffective thing

in the world. Let me just say, fighting the tide

with a pitchfork It's about as effective as nailing jello

to a tree, right, I mean that's how that's literally

how effective this guy was. And he's shouting into the microphone,

and and and and the things that he's saying are true, right,

a lot of them. But but but but I walked

by and and and then uh. I had my buddy

Dave Wilson with me, and Dave Wilson goes, Hey, goes,

aren't you don't you want to go back there? And

and and uh and and join him, and I said,

uh no, I want to go back there and say, hey,

thanks guy for making all of us look like idiots. Yeah,

thanks for taking down all preachers are notch and making

religion something to avoid, and thank you for being the

most ineffective person in the world. And repel people. It's

almost as if your goal isn't to have people know

the truth. It's almost as if your goal is to

repel people. Well, guess what ready for this this transition.

That's the same person who types in caps. Yeah, that's it.

I mean, no ifs, no ads, no butts. If you're

a Christian who all you do is just scream truth

on a platform, on a social media platform, I don't

care where your heart is. It's about as effective as

that guy. I'm not kidding. That's true, right, because the

number of people you persuade is let me think, carry

the two zero.

Yeah. Yeah, you think you're making an impact because you're

speaking the truth, But it doesn't matter. It's the way.

It's it's the one Corinthians thirteen where it says, if

I speak in the tongues of men and of angels,

but have not love or don't have love, I'm only

a resounding gong or clinging symbol.

That's right.

That's literally, it's you're like, it's your your approaches. You

can say the right things, the wrong one and the

wrong way at the wrong time to the wrong people

at the wrong place. Okay, so what do you think

about this? So before that, even he gets into this

idea of causing the little ones to stumble, and it's

it's it's sorrow awaits a person who does the tempting.

Be better to be thrown into the sea with a

millstone hung around your neck than to cause one of

these little ones to fall into sin. So watch yourselves.

Yeah, well, I I just I preached on this a

year ago. I should say, we did right across the campuses.

But yeah, we talked about how you know, there's this

there seems to be this righteous indignation that Jesus has

when it when it comes attached to children, especially right,

and so for those who prey on children or or

cause children to sin or stumble or you know, because

after all, think about all the times in the Bible

where God talks about us having the faith of a child. Right,

he says, our goal is to have the faith and

innocence of a child. Even even to get into heaven,

the requirement is childlike faith. Yeah, right, so so so

you know, think about the innocence in the faith of

a child. There seems to be this you know, protection,

protection and in a warning against those who take advantage

of those who you know can't help themselves.

Yeah, I think it's I think it just shows obviously

God's heart for young people for sure that they are

the future, and also just the protection of them, not

just in a physical way, but also in this is

a spiritual that the things that you tempt them to

do or and especially in our culture nowadays, there's so much,

so many temptations out there for young people. But also

I also think there's a possibility to that idea of

Missy here.

By the way, at millstone is you know what that is?

Yeah, it's actually a little Yeah you want to talk

about it? Does it have a little note in there?

Now, go ahead read your note? Yeah, that actually has

the note explained it better than I would.

Yeah, it's great. It says a hand mill is made

of two circular stones used for grain grinding grain the

grinding of grain using concave stones with flat grinding pieces

to depict the ancient art dating back says the stone

commonly uses black and the number of them. See we

get the point here. The handmill was so important in

the life of the people that it was illegal to

take someone's millstone as a pledge against the payment of

a debt, for this would deprive the family of the

means of making flour for bread. These stones were heavy

enough to kill a man when thrown on his head,

as in the case of Bemelecan judges, if tied to

the neck. They were also heavy enough to drown a

person the sea. So yeah, there you go.

Jeez, that's what And so Jesus says, ready for this better,

it would be better for you to put a millstone

on your neck and jump into the sea than to

offend one of these little drowning and cause them to

send So so yeah, a millstone, basically, I was going

to say in a shortened version, it's a really really

heavy stone used to grind grain. A lot of times

it would have a hole in the middle because there'd

be a string. So instead of rolling the stone, they

would pull the string and it would roll back and forth,

and it would separate the wheat from the chaff, and

it would it would do all these different kinds. It

was grind right basically to make flour and things like this.

So so yeah, a millstone was a very useful thing,

but very heavy.

And and you know some of the little ones. What

if it's a little one in your faith. It could

be somebody who's a new believer. You mentioned earlier about

the story about somebody walking into church and their hair

being a long wait. What if that person was open

to the idea of Jesus for the first time, or

maybe even recently accept the Christ in life. Then they

come and they're told. So I think that we have

to be very careful in how we handle per what

Jesus is saying protecting those who are younger in general,

but also younger in faith as well, just protecting them,

you know, keeping an eye out for them, not tempting them,

more helping to show them the truth in love.

So it's no wonder why the disciples said, show us

how to increase our faith, because without the context, that

may seem like a detached and kind of a thought.

But I think, you know, based on what we said

earlier about the mentality of like forgiving somebody was a

brand new thought and right, so Jesus is saying forgive

them every time. I would imagine that disciples would be like,

I don't even know how to do that, Like, how

would a person ever do that? So then, and that's

the dangerous prayer that they prayed. It's a prayer of surrender.

It's like, Okay, God, you're giving us a truth that

we don't want to hear. You're giving us a truth

that is extremely hard for us to even accept or

get around because, after all, those who offend are you know,

if you're going to use the word offend, that seems

like justifiable. And you're telling me to forgive this person.

So in order to do that increase my faith because

I don't know how to do that. And then Jesus

of course responds and says, if you had faith even

as small as a mustard seed, you would say to

this mulberry tree, be uprooted and be thrown in a seed.

It would obey you. And so he says faith as

small as a mustard seed. In other places he talks

about it's the smallest of seeds. Have you ever seen

a mustard seed? No number? So if you take like

a sunflower seed, it's like, it seems like it's three

to four to five times as big as a mustard seed,

I mean, maybe even more. A mustard seed is so

incredibly small. And he says, if you had faith as

small as a mustard seed. It's interesting because it brings

up that whole I've mentioned this so many times before,

but it brings up that whole idea of it's not

quantity of faith that Jesus is referring to, it's quality

of faith, right because he says, you know, right here,

he's not saying you have to have more faith. He's

saying you have to have a very small amount of

true faith. Right. So that's why one of my favorite

sayings is it's not the size of your faith that matters.

It's the size of your God. It's the quality of

your faith that matters, not the quantity. So it's not

the size of your faith that matters. Stop saying I

need more faith, more faith, more faith. No, you just

need some true faith.

Yeah, right, I remember hearing about the mustard seed that

the thing that separates it is that it's alive and

growing even though it which is odd to think that

it's so small, but it's actually alive and growing. I

think that faith as long as your faith is alive

and growing and not dead and decreasing or stagnant, and

that's what what really is hoping hoping for it like

a faith. It could be small, like you're saying, but

at the same time, as long as it's alive and growing.

So yeah, no, that's that's powerful.

Yeah, and just a little bit of faith of saying,

like I believe in who God is. I believe one

hundred percent completely that God can give me the power

to forgive, right, you know, for people who can't even

imagine that. There's probably people listening right now who have

a really hard time forgiving. Maybe even your spouse you

have a hard time forgiving your spouse. Maybe you're just

angry at your spouse for something, and it's and it's

a continual, chronic kind of a thing, you know, And

you'd say, hey, will there ever be a day where

I could live with complete forgiveness and I could move

past this? Well, yeah, it takes a lot of work

to do that, right, because faith is a choice, or

excuse me, forgiveness is a choice. But you know, there's

also a process that we should go through to allow

God to heal our hearts as well. But it is possible,

and God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is

able to give you that power to if there's a

life destined for you that is free of bitterness and hatred.

There really is. It is possible if you have that

kind of faith, that God can do that for you.

And then that's how Jesus is responding. He's saying, just

believe because I can do it.

That's great, so great insight.

Hey, Well, that's our time for today and so hopefully

we will see you tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in on

the Bible, guys,