Setting: Contemporary Worship
Length: 55:21
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Occasion: This is a sermon at a church where I have a consulting relationship.
* The person doing the introduction is Pastor Ray Causly.
Title: Feeling and Obedience
Main Scripture: Luke 17:3-10
Main Topics: feelings, obedience, forgiveness, faith, serving
As you listen, select, copy, and paste the following outline:
Luke 17:1-10
1 Jesus said to his disciples: "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. 2 t would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. 3 So watch yourselves.
"If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. 4If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, 'I repent,' forgive him." 5 The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"
6 He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you. 7 "Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'Come along now and sit down to eat'? 8 Would he not rather say, 'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'? 9 Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.' "
-in Luke 17, Jesus is speaking to his disciples
Well, here in v.1, Jesus warns his disciples about those that lead others to sin
-but this is hard to do
-but to make matters worse, Jesus adds to the difficult teaching with an even MORE difficult one
-in the second half of verse 3, Jesus continues: “….and if he repents, forgive him,
v.4, if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says ‘I repent,’…..forgive him (!)”
“Increase our faith”
Jesus responds by saying in v.6 “if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”
-Jesus is the master teacher
-he not only knows WHAT to say to them
-their request for more faith is really a request for some boost of
inspiration
-and to make this point clear, Jesus uses a parable
-here Jesus switches to parabolic mode as he describes a most familiar scenario
-a farmer…has a servant…working in the fields and looking after sheep
-the servant works all day long in the hot sun
-and this servant does not have it easy
-the disciples are familiar with this scenario because many farmers were poor
and could only afford one servant who had to do everything
-and so, it is easy to picture a servant working hard
-obeying one difficult command after another…to the point of exhaustion
-it’s easy to picture a servant working hard whether he felt like it or not
-it’s easy to picture a servant not wanting to work the field, tend the
sheep or cook the master’s meal or serve the meals or wait on the
master….but he does it anyway simply because it is his DUTY
-the master tells him to do it and he does it
-the disciples are to see this clearly
-and here comes the punch line, v.10: SO YOU ALSO…
-by the way…nothing wrong with emotions
-it’s interesting how we talk of the dangers of hypocrisy if we obey God when the desire is not there
-the example that Jesus left for us
For more insight into the reconciliation process, click the workshops on conflict resolution:
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