Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] We're going to come around Luke 17 this morning. What I've done is for those of you who don't bring your Bibles, I've printed out a copy because sometimes it's good not to look at a screen, right? We need to look at paper.
[00:00:24] We need to.
[00:00:26] I love the word of God like I love my Bible. My. My dog ate my first one and I was so devastated. But this is kind of half falling apart and I've had to glue it together so many times. But you know, I've told my children, should the Lord tarry, I want to be buried with my Bible on top of me. This is going with me, all right, the word of God. And I just encourage you to carry it everywhere with you. Wherever you go. Mark it, you know, God will speak. Speak to you, date it. All right? Let this be women. Let this be like your handbag, but better.
[00:01:02] Seriously, we would not go out the house and grab it. You just never know when you need it. All right? So be so close with the word of God. Let it be just your companion for life.
[00:01:16] I'm amazed. You know, like every time we pick this up, Jesus is talking to us.
[00:01:25] Don't you find that incredible?
[00:01:28] Every time we open this, if we've got ears to hear, Jesus is ready to speak to us. I find it incredible. And this morning, Jesus wants to talk to us through his word. He is the living word. And I believe he's going to talk to us this morning. I'm going to do things a little different, probably work through this passage systematically. I normally don't do this, but are you ready for some wild lessons from Jesus?
[00:01:57] Some wild lessons.
[00:02:00] I almost want to get us to stand up and go. We pledge to obey the truth, all the truth.
[00:02:10] Because there's some hard stuff in this this morning that I find really difficult.
[00:02:15] And how of us knows if you read the word of God, that the scriptures say. This is Sam with a football.
[00:02:21] I thought they were getting the Bible out this morning.
[00:02:24] I don't know. Have to be having a word with these naught to 30s leaders. I'm only joking, Ellie. How did us know that the Bible says that in the last days people will be lovers of themselves.
[00:02:35] Okay. They'll be lovers of themselves.
[00:02:38] That the love of most will grow cold.
[00:02:42] All right. Don't just think that's for the unchurched.
[00:02:49] Ouch.
[00:02:52] I don't know about you, but sometimes I was talking to my mum this week and I rang her and I said, the more I'm in society and the more I'm out with people. It just seems that I'm growing this kind of dislike for people.
[00:03:07] Isn't that awful? And I'm one of the church leaders here.
[00:03:14] But I think you can understand my heart behind it is that it's hard to love like Jesus calls us to love in this world.
[00:03:23] It's getting harder and. Can I just say something? Oh, no. In fact, I'll say it a bit later. I'll bring it up a bit later. So we're gonna work through this systematically. What I would love you to do, you've got the sheet of paper in front of you. If you don't have a Bible, to treat it like your Bible, get a pen out. I want you. Anything that really stands out to you this morning, I want you to circle because I want you to engage this morning. Right. If we did not have the words in front of us, we would not engage as much with the word of God this morning. I am a believer that you need to hear the word of God. You need to see the word of God. We need to engage with. With the word of God. It's how we grow. All right, so bear with me this morning. What time are we on? Okay, so Wild Lessons From Jesus is probably what I'm gonna call it this morning. I just wanna say that we are near the end of Luke's Gospel. We spent a whole year in the book of Luke and we're not gonna finish it this year. I'll be really honest with you. We're aiming to finish it kind of end of January. So we are gonna go into the new year, we with the book of Luke, and we're going to be focusing on the last kind of death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. That's going to come in January. And then we'll move on to some other teaching topics for next year, for 2026.
[00:04:41] But we are near the end of Jesus's life. And the disciples have spent about three years with Jesus and they have been in the best training school going.
[00:04:52] They did not go to Bible college.
[00:04:57] And I'm not saying Bible college is bad, but they didn't go to Bible college. They simply spent time with Jesus walking and talking with him. They learned the lessons on the go.
[00:05:10] So whenever somebody came, Jesus would, you know, heal or minister to that person. The disciples were watching, the disciples were taking note. And then Jesus would often turn around to his disciples and they would ask and have these conversations with him going, jesus, will you explain that to us? We didn't quite get it.
[00:05:30] And I love that kind of conversation in church, you know, amongst our team, we say, do not assume that you know it all. It's okay. If you've been a Christian for 30, 40 years and you go, I still can't get my head around that, that's okay. It doesn't make you any less spiritual for asking those kind of questions. We need to ask those kind of question.
[00:05:52] And so the disciples were walking and talking. They were around meals.
[00:05:56] They had fireside chats. It's quite trendy now, isn't it, to have fireside chats with the men, okay? And so I imagine they had so many fireside chats. And they were ordinary men who were trained to follow Jesus.
[00:06:14] We are ordinary people.
[00:06:17] And every single day, if we will allow ourselves to follow Christ, we're in his school to follow him and obey him for the rest of our lives. So five lessons of Jesus.
[00:06:29] I want to say we need Jesus to teach us more and more in these days because we need to stay focused on what he is doing, on what he's about, because the world is getting a crazy place.
[00:06:43] I am absolutely devastated by what has happened just outside of Peterborough late last night. I don't know if you've heard the news yet, all right, but it's devastating. There is an increasing amount of lawlessness coming in this nation, all right? And if the church is asleep, if we will not gather to pray for our nation, let me tell you, the church is in trouble. We are in trouble.
[00:07:15] We should run because of these things happening all over our nation. We should run together to pray together on our knees to intercede for our nation.
[00:07:24] Okay? Please do not stay asleep.
[00:07:28] Please do not think. Well, that was one isolated incident.
[00:07:33] And this is not a doom and gloom prophetic message this morning. But there will be cases and cases and cases of lawlessness happening because the Bible tells us so.
[00:07:46] This is not here to scare you, but this is to tell the church to wake up, to keep your eyes on Jesus, to follow him, to put first things first in our life. Let's not get sidetracked now. We're building an extension, but I don't give diddly squats about our extension, okay?
[00:08:04] Because that will go anyway at some point. What I care about is the church passionately on her knees, calling out to God because only God can save our nation.
[00:08:14] We need to come back and say, God, we need you to intervene in our nation. People need to be. I'll tell you what, people are running to the church. Thank God for that. There are. There are people all over this nation. Running to the church for answers, and it is found in Jesus. And Jesus gives this message, and I am going to come onto it. Jesus gives this message, and I'm thinking, lord, why are you talking like this when you are literally weeks away from the cross?
[00:08:41] Isn't there anything better to talk about other than the way we are with each other?
[00:08:47] Because that's what we're coming onto in a minute. I'm like, you're going to the cross. Like, talk about the end times, talk about how we just need to pray more.
[00:08:56] But he talks about offense.
[00:09:01] Offense.
[00:09:03] So let's go through it this morning. I'm going to do it systematically. Here's lesson one. Are you ready?
[00:09:08] Lesson one. Chapter 17 of Luke. Jesus said to his disciples, things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come.
[00:09:25] It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.
[00:09:35] So watch yourselves.
[00:09:39] So Jesus says, if you cause people to sin, it's going to be really, really bad for you.
[00:09:51] And he's talking to the disciples here.
[00:09:55] He said, if we cause somebody to stumble in their lifestyle and lead people away from the truth, we're in trouble.
[00:10:06] Hang on a minute. Jesus is going to the cross, and before he goes, he's saying, you need to bear this in mind.
[00:10:16] And he says, things cause people to stumble. Can for a moment think, what causes people to stumble, Stumble away from the faith? I've come up with a few Lifestyle.
[00:10:37] Lifestyle causes people to stumble.
[00:10:40] You see, we can be here on a Sunday or wherever we are, telling our workmates that we're Christians, and yet we're at parties swearing, and we're at parties doing all sorts of things.
[00:10:53] Can you see how it discredits the kingdom of God?
[00:10:57] Can you see how it. It doesn't put Christianity in a good light? How many of us have heard many people say, oh, those Christians are hypocrites.
[00:11:05] They say one thing, they do another.
[00:11:08] And Jesus says, you've got to stay on track. You've got to stay on course.
[00:11:14] Don't cause anyone to stumble. I can think of other things, how we influence people.
[00:11:23] Parents, can I tell you, your children will copy you.
[00:11:28] What a responsibility we have as parents.
[00:11:31] I just want to say, in this church, if my kids ever do anything wrong, they take after their father.
[00:11:38] So kids will copy parents.
[00:11:42] They will.
[00:11:48] And Jesus says, sin is a serious thing. Let's go on to the next one, because I'm going to Tie all this.
[00:11:57] So stumble. Jesus said, do not cause people to stumble. Watch your life carefully. When was the last time we prayed out to the Lord? Search me, oh God.
[00:12:07] See if there is any wicked way in me.
[00:12:11] Search me, O God.
[00:12:13] The second lesson, and then I'll tie it all in.
[00:12:16] If.
[00:12:17] If your brother or sister. He's talking about people in the church now.
[00:12:23] Sins against you. Oh, this is horrible.
[00:12:30] What's it say next?
[00:12:32] No, a bit louder.
[00:12:35] Sorry, I didn't get that.
[00:12:37] Oh.
[00:12:39] If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them. And if they repent, forgive them. Now I'm going to explain why this is dead serious in the church today.
[00:12:50] All right? In a moment. If they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you and say, I repent.
[00:13:05] You must forgive them.
[00:13:11] Whoa.
[00:13:17] Kind of need a minute just to get over that one, don't we?
[00:13:23] So someone has upset me in this room.
[00:13:29] Someone has upset me. If they had. I'm using this as an example. Someone's upset me in this room.
[00:13:35] I can do one of two things.
[00:13:39] I can go to my lovely friend Jill, and I can go, jill, you'll never guess what.
[00:13:47] You know, such and such. They've really upset me. Like, I'm really angry with them. I'm really. I can go to my friend and tell them what this person has done, all right?
[00:13:58] Or I can go to that person that has upset me and I can pull them aside and say lovingly, because we're supposed to walk in love, right?
[00:14:12] And I can say, I feel really upset.
[00:14:15] This really wounded me. This.
[00:14:18] This what you said about me, or this is what you did. It's really wounded me.
[00:14:24] And Jesus says, when somebody comes to you, go to them directly. Don't gossip about them to anybody else. Don't criticize them to anybody else. Don't pull them down behind their back. Go straight directly to that person.
[00:14:44] Do you know if the church lived like that? Let me tell you why I think Jesus says that. And I'll say, I think.
[00:14:51] You see, I think it's really easy to rebuke the devil. Oh, I go around every week rebuking the devil.
[00:14:57] I. Do anybody rebuke the devil? I rebuke you, Satan. I'm rebuking you.
[00:15:01] All right? But Jesus says, I want you to rebuke, as in, pull aside in love those who have wronged you.
[00:15:09] Let me tell you what the alternative is, and I've explained a little bit. The alternative is that we gather some People around us to talk about that person, when we gather people around us to talk about that person, even though we feel like the victim. Can I tell you what happens?
[00:15:26] Sin multiplies when you've been in church leadership for so long. You can tell when people don't eyeball you that they're either talking about you or I've offended them. And I don't know that I have if I'm really honest.
[00:15:48] And Jesus said, and also as well, going to somebody is so important because that person may not even know they've offended you.
[00:15:56] They may not have known that they've upset you in life. And that's. Honestly, that is sometimes, I think, 80, 90% the case. People don't know.
[00:16:06] But you see what happens. We can either do one or two things and Jesus says to disciples, you are going to need to go to people directly to sort it out. Why? To stop the enemy breeding disunity, cutting the church in half, wrecking the church.
[00:16:25] Because we're not meant to be cliques in here.
[00:16:28] We're not meant. We are a family. And the enemy hates the fact that we are a family walking in unity. He hates it now. I find it really difficult to go to somebody. I'll be really honest. I don't like the difficult conversations. I don't like the hard conversations. Anybody?
[00:16:50] How many of us have got a few scars along the way from people that have wounded us? Yeah. But let me tell you, we're not to carry wounds in the church.
[00:17:00] Honestly, if I listed all the things. I've been in church a long time, if I listed all the things that people did to me, right? And I looked at it and I carried them every single day, I would not step foot back in the church again.
[00:17:12] My dad was a preacher, and I watched somebody come right to the front and punch him in the face in a meeting, in a public meeting with hundreds of people. And I was just a little girl, okay? And he was preaching about sex outside of marriage. And this guy didn't agree with him and punches him, just goes for it. And I was a little girl seeing that. And that's one amongst many things, okay? One amongst many things. And the enemy wants to knock us down to get the church to. To be in disunity. He does more and more in these days.
[00:17:48] And I'm thinking, as I've been pondering on this this week, I'm like, jesus, you're so good.
[00:17:54] Because this message that he gave over 2000 years ago is so relevant to us today. Incredibly relevant.
[00:18:03] But you see if we do not go directly to the person involved, sin multiplies.
[00:18:10] It does.
[00:18:14] Instead of dealing with it, we will grow resentment. We will grow with unforgiveness in our hearts. We will carry things on and never get over over what God wants us to get over.
[00:18:29] Jill, you brought something, I think quite prophetic in one of our prayer meetings a couple of weeks ago about people being chained and it's time the chains came off. I think this is one of the chains that chains people.
[00:18:41] Do we know what it is to walk wound free?
[00:18:48] God is speaking over our house, and it's come through over the last couple of months. We're listening to what the Spirit is saying. He's saying this is going to be an authentic church.
[00:18:58] There might be people breaking bread and they're in tears because somebody's apologizing for the way they've spoke to them. Let me tell you, that is normal human life.
[00:19:09] Just because we're Christians, just because we're filled with the Holy Spirit as well, we're gonna mess up sometimes. I'm gonna mess up. Sometimes I'm gonna have to humbly come to people and say, I am sorry I wounded you. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. And, you know, when that happens, let me tell you, the wound goes.
[00:19:29] Jesus takes the wound, and we are released from wounds. And I believe this morning, as I'm talking, many of you in this room have probably been wounded, and you're carrying wounds. And the Lord says, I want you to biblically deal with that wound.
[00:19:45] Go to the person.
[00:19:48] You know, if somebody can humbly go to that person, right?
[00:19:55] Or the person comes and rebukes you.
[00:19:58] Let me tell you, if you rebuke somebody, and that's okay. Scripture tells us to one, it needs to be in love.
[00:20:04] It needs to almost be with tears in our eyes with one another.
[00:20:08] All right? And I believe if you do it that way, you're capable of forgiving as well. The rebuker can be the forgiver.
[00:20:17] The wounded can receive healing.
[00:20:20] Is everybody still with me?
[00:20:22] And Jesus Christ gives the glory, gets the glory. You know, if we hold anything against one another as well. Can I encourage you before we break bread? Scripture tells us that we are to put that thing right with a fellow brother or sister before we break bread, because that is a serious thing to celebrate and. And remember the death and resurrection of Jesus, the body. Because remember, we are called the body of Christ.
[00:20:49] I haven't got time now, but there's a whole sermon. And in the early church, many people were sick because they were not breaking bread in the biblical way of putting things right between brothers and sisters in Christ.
[00:21:02] You know, if this nation goes really bad, I'm believing God's going to save our nation. But if, like, things start to happen, I want to be stood side by side with my brothers and sisters.
[00:21:14] You know, Matt, the military, loyal, faithful, right. The church need to be more. More than the military.
[00:21:21] We're a military army for Christ, and we need to be on each other's side. And we're saying, Lord, we're going to faithfully. We're the troops for the kingdom of God, and we're going to stand side by side and we're going to. Anything that we need to put right, we're going to put right because we're going to walk in unity to see Jesus glorified, keep relationships right with one another.
[00:21:42] That's what it was boiling down to keep relationships right with one another. And I know it's not hard. You can all go rebuking each other now, aren't you?
[00:21:51] You're going to go after the meeting going, can I just rebuke you?
[00:21:57] I'm going to get a text from Shaz tomorrow going, I just want to rebuke you.
[00:22:01] Yeah, that email you sent me.
[00:22:04] Oh, dear. As long as you're doing it in tears, Shaz, unity. That's good. That's good. You're with me. Yeah. Okay, lesson three. Here we go.
[00:22:17] The apostles said to the Lord, increase our faith.
[00:22:20] I bet they did.
[00:22:23] So they're hearing Jesus going, right, you've got to, you know, go and rebuke each other and.
[00:22:29] Yeah, you've got to. You've got to forgive people seven times over every day. Could you. Could you do that?
[00:22:36] I mean, maybe that's a rhetorical question, but if your neighbour upset you. Okay, do it. Phil and I, if we upset you and then we upset you again, and we upset you again, but every time we came back to say, please forgive us.
[00:22:51] Like, how many of you would be back here on Sunday?
[00:22:58] But so often we get upset. And you know what? The easiest thing to do is? Go.
[00:23:03] The easiest thing to do is leave a church.
[00:23:06] Not for us leaders. We have to stay.
[00:23:09] Please pray for us.
[00:23:11] We can't go anywhere because we've got to do what the Lord says.
[00:23:19] And so the disciples were saying, increase our faith. Like, Lord, I'm not sure we've got it in our tank to do this. I don't know whether I can keep forgiving somebody who keeps sinning against me in a faith and then they come back in sincerity and say, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm like, no.
[00:23:39] And they're going, lord, you've got to increase our faith. And you know what Jesus says? Look what Jesus says right after he says, I think he's saying, it's not that your faith needs increasing.
[00:23:50] He's saying, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, right? They were putting the onus back on God.
[00:24:01] They were saying, oh, God, you need to continue to do the work in us. And Jesus is like, no, no, no, no, no.
[00:24:09] You, you need to start exercising your faith.
[00:24:13] If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can move mountains. You can accomplish things. If you have faith in me, even as small as it may be, you do it. You exercise your faith. And you see, that's how we're going to grow in our Christian life. Remember, this Fullness of Christ discipleship series is not only us finding more about Jesus and who he is, but discovering who we need to be in him and through him in our daily lives.
[00:24:45] This discipleship journey isn't a joke.
[00:24:48] It's not a joke.
[00:24:54] And Jesus says, actually, you're going to get stuck in your discipleship journey if we keep praying prayers for God to do things when he's already equipped us to do those very things.
[00:25:06] They're praying, oh, I need more faith. I need more faith. And Jesus is like, no, no, no, no, no. With the faith that you've been given, go and exercise it. Go and lay hands on the sick. Go and go and do things. Don't just sit there in prayer meetings praying for something that I have already asked you to do. I've already given you.
[00:25:25] And that's what he was telling them.
[00:25:27] You see, God has already empowered us through His Holy Spirit. He has given us everything we need in life to win.
[00:25:36] He's given us everything.
[00:25:38] He has given us His Son, his one and only Son. In him is life and life to the full.
[00:25:49] Exercise our faith.
[00:25:52] Forsaking all.
[00:25:54] I trust Him. I love that acronym, Forsaken all I trust Him. Use what you have and trust him as you speak to situations.
[00:26:08] Exercise your faith.
[00:26:12] It's true. Some of us have got to change our prayer to get an authority that God's given us in Christ as we speak to sickness.
[00:26:26] Trust him as we speak to whatever. You finish that off.
[00:26:32] Trust him. Put your faith in him that he will come through for you. Let me tell you, he will come through for you every single time when you put your trust in. In Him. You don't need to pray. Oh, Lord, I'm not gonna be able to do this. I need more faith.
[00:26:47] Use what you've got, and God will multiply and he will grow the little that you give him. Amen.
[00:26:54] Amen. Okay, lesson four. We've only got lesson five, so we're wrapping. We're getting there.
[00:26:59] Lesson five.
[00:27:02] Suppose one of you has a servant plowing on or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, come along now and sit down to eat? Won't he rather say, prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink? After that, you may eat and drink. Will he thank the servant because he did not. Sorry. He did what he was told to do. 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.
[00:27:41] Oh, this is. This is a good one.
[00:27:44] This is a wild lesson. Are you ready?
[00:27:49] How naughty can I be?
[00:27:56] Okay. When we serve the Lord, can I just remind us, as the church, we're not doing him a favor.
[00:28:09] When we serve the Lord, we're not doing him a favor.
[00:28:13] When we serve the church, we are not doing the church a favor.
[00:28:21] Oh, it's gone quiet.
[00:28:28] When we serve our brothers and sisters, we're not doing them a favor.
[00:28:41] When we recognize the grace or the gift that is upon our lives, we are not doing the church a favour. When we use it, we are not doing a favor.
[00:28:57] We are simply carrying out our duty as disciples.
[00:29:03] I'm going to explain that in a minute.
[00:29:05] All right, Let me just repeat that again. When we serve the Lord, when we serve this church, many of us belong here in this church, or we use our gift in whatever capacity, we are not doing the church or God a favor. We are simply carrying out our duty as disciples of Christ. And it's really important that we shift our perspective on this. You know, it's great that people serve.
[00:29:38] Yeah. Let me just go back to that. Okay. We're not doing a favor. We're doing our duty.
[00:29:43] Okay? Favor and duty are two different things.
[00:29:49] A favor is, yeah, sure, I can do that for you, and it will benefit you.
[00:29:57] A duty is. I am. And Matt would know a lot about duty or anybody that's been in the military. It is a command.
[00:30:04] I don't get thanked for it. Can you imagine you, your officer Matt, or whoever, you know, every time going, oh, thank you so much. Thank you so much for going out on the boat.
[00:30:16] I know you've Left or whoever. Yeah, but. Yeah, but you're in it for years. Okay. Like, thank you. Oh, thank you. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Just. Thank you so much, you know. Thank you. No, they are expected to perform their duty because of who they are. Okay.
[00:30:35] And I want us to. Let's just remind ourselves of some scriptures. I've put some scriptures down here. Okay. When we give our life to Christ. Here we go. I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
[00:30:48] Take up your cross and follow me.
[00:30:52] Not my will, but yours be done.
[00:30:56] Present your bodies as living sacrifices.
[00:31:01] Do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. Give yourselves completely to God.
[00:31:10] Follow me.
[00:31:14] It is a commitment to faithfully obey and follow Christ.
[00:31:21] So I think sometimes we get scripture a little bit mixed up. You see, we are commanded to love one another.
[00:31:29] It's not, when you feel like it, go and love one another. We're commanded to do that. It is our duty to love one another.
[00:31:39] We are commanded to serve one another.
[00:31:42] We're commanded to bear with one another.
[00:31:47] Bear with one another.
[00:31:50] Let's say that again.
[00:31:52] Put up with one another and keep the peace.
[00:31:59] I know, I agree.
[00:32:02] Pray for one another.
[00:32:05] How many of us are good at that? One?
[00:32:09] Pray for one another.
[00:32:12] As followers of Christ. It is our duty. It is not a favor that we do, you know, And I think what Jesus is saying is that when we do our duty, when we recognize it's a duty as a disciple before the King of Kings, don't expect to be thanked for what you're doing on the earth.
[00:32:33] How many of us, when we volunteer or do anything, and maybe we haven't had that little text message that goes, thank you so much for all you've done today.
[00:32:42] We may get a little upset.
[00:32:48] Oh, just thank you now. It was great. We honoured. It's good to honor, it's good to encourage, it's good to build up. I'm not saying any of these things. It's good to say, you know, I appreciate your gift this morning. All right. But should I thank Lawson on the base of what Jesus is saying, for him doing his duty and using his gifts to glorify God?
[00:33:07] Do you get what I'm saying?
[00:33:16] And I think there is such a danger in the church today that when we over thank people for doing things, we can very quickly think that actually we've gone from being a disciple to, well, I'm doing them a favor.
[00:33:42] Our volunteer teams, why were they created?
[00:33:48] They were created to give this church incredible opportunities to follow out our duty as disciples of Christ.
[00:34:02] For people to Love each other.
[00:34:07] When you're pouring coffee, you are saying, I am loving. This is my duty to love you.
[00:34:13] This is my duty as the family of God to turn up, be present and serve one another.
[00:34:20] If you serve in any way, please do not turn up and think you're doing this church a favor. Can we shift that mindset?
[00:34:29] We're not.
[00:34:30] Everything we do, we come, we bring because of Him. It is our duty. And you know, I've preached for so many decades and I can't even remember the last time I was thanked for doing it. And this really spoke to me because naturally I can go into self pity mode and think, well, you know, no one's noticed me, no one said thank you to me. And this has so spoke to me. It's changed a lot of perspective in me that says this is our duty.
[00:35:02] You know, at the end of the ages, when we go to see Jesus, should he tarry? When we go to see him, there will be a lavish banqueted table. There will be such a reception and a welcome that says if we follow Christ with all our heart, biblically, well done, good and faithful servant.
[00:35:22] But we may not get it this side of eternity.
[00:35:27] Is that helping some people today, how we look at service and how we look at the church, it's dangerous. Because when we go down the line of I'm doing you a favor turning up here, we suddenly start thinking, actually the church then owe me something because of all I've done for them.
[00:35:46] And that is dangerous.
[00:35:48] It is so dangerous.
[00:35:51] And I believe the reason Jesus was teaching this before he went to the cross, he was saying, you need to be so authentic, you need to realize in your service when you go out and about and some of you, by the way, disciples are going to get martyred, he said, but let me tell you, you won't get a thanks and you'll be martyred and nobody will be watching you. You'll be stoned to death, you'll be crucified upside down, you'll be beheaded and no one will be watching you, no one will even remember you.
[00:36:17] Maybe the odd one or two.
[00:36:19] But as you are being martyred, as you are being persecuted, it is your duty as a disciple to glorify the Lord in how we live out our lives before Him.
[00:36:35] Serious, isn't?
[00:36:43] Finally this morning, I'm going to really rush this. Sorry, really quick.
[00:36:50] It all comes down to this gratitude. I love that song this morning, Lawson. I'd love to sing it at the end, maybe, if you feel. But it all comes down to Being so thankful, whether we feel like it or not, we're to be a thankful people now. On his way verse 11. On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.
[00:37:25] And he was going into a village. Ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, jesus, master, have pity on us.
[00:37:34] When he saw them, he said, go show yourself to the priest. As they went, they were cleansed. Beautiful. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back praising God with a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, were not all 10 cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner or this Samaritan that he said to him, rise and go. Your faith has made you well.
[00:38:08] Isn't that stunning?
[00:38:10] It's stunning because what this all comes down to in our service, in our relationships, when we want to put things right with one another, is actually so that we praise and glorify God with our lives every single day, whether we feel like it or not.
[00:38:28] You know, we're in. I heard somebody say this. We're in gratitude season.
[00:38:31] We've had the harvest festival.
[00:38:33] What was that song they used to sing in kids? It's another honey festival, the parsnips and whatever. But it's.
[00:38:45] Yeah, don't start me off, Leslie, you're naughty.
[00:38:49] But it's harvest time.
[00:38:52] The farmers are reaping the harvest. We've got Thanksgiving. I don't know if you do it, but there's Thanksgiving in America where they stop for a day and thank God for all that he has blessed them with.
[00:39:06] Verse 15. Just look back on verse 15 as we wrap up. Lawson, do you want to come up and tinkle?
[00:39:15] Verse 15. Don't you think it's a bit dramatic?
[00:39:18] I don't know why I thought of you, Caleb, when I read this, I had visions of, like, you acting this out.
[00:39:29] This whole thing of he says in a loud voice, so he's healed. He goes back to Jesus and he says in a loud voice, basically says, thank you.
[00:39:45] Thank you, Jesus.
[00:39:49] Nine didn't. What does that tell us about human nature?
[00:39:56] He comes back and he goes, thank you. I'm going to praise you.
[00:40:01] I'm going to praise you. And he did it in a loud voice and he threw himself at Jesus feet.
[00:40:09] A loud voice, and he threw himself.
[00:40:12] Lawson, I love it when you get us to raise our hands, to change our posture, to throw our hands up to Jesus.
[00:40:20] You know, when we have received or we have a revelation of the touch of Jesus in our own lives, I think we want to throw our hands up.
[00:40:34] You see, I can't sing about the resurrection and be quiet because 30 years ago Jesus set me free.
[00:40:47] And I don't want to keep my joy then 30 years ago, because Jesus today is still worthy of praise every single day. He's worthy. He's worthy. Church, this man was so touched by Jesus he had to go back to praise him.
[00:41:08] God wants us to be a people who will praise him every single day, who will come and say, lord, I'm not even looking at my situation this morning, but I'm coming with gratitude.
[00:41:23] I'm coming with praise because you deserve the praise when we serve, when we volunteer, let's not say, well, I'm doing the church a favor here and they need me to do this.
[00:41:38] Maybe some of us, including myself, need to repent a little bit and say, lord, I'm sorry that I class this as something that it wasn't.
[00:41:50] That actually, as a disciple, this is my duty.
[00:41:53] This is my duty to give.
[00:41:56] You've commanded me to do these things.
[00:41:59] So wrapping up this morning.
[00:42:03] Let's not cause people to stumble.
[00:42:05] The church.
[00:42:07] Let's love one another deeply. Let's set an example in speech.
[00:42:13] Oh, I know how tempting it is to talk about people behind their back.
[00:42:17] It is.
[00:42:19] We're human.
[00:42:20] Oh, it's tempting to rubbish people and pull them down, but let's not cause anyone to stumble. Let's watch our lives carefully when somebody offends us.
[00:42:37] Let's be so authentic, let's be so in love with Jesus that we say, jesus, you've not caused. You don't want me to carry. It's not your will that I carry this wound.
[00:42:48] One way to get rid of your wound is to deal with it the right way. And it's to go directly to the person that has wounded you.
[00:42:56] Maybe take the bread and wine and break bread together. Stunning.
[00:43:00] Be careful that we don't pray prayers asking God to do what he's already done for us.
[00:43:08] Don't say, lord, help me to forgive that person. No, no, no. You're commanded to forgive. Go and do it.
[00:43:20] We're not doing the church any favors.
[00:43:24] We're not doing God any favors.
[00:43:27] We are the church of the living God, his glorious church. We just stand church this morning.
[00:43:37] I love that this whole section finished on praise and praise should be our reaction to everything.
[00:43:49] I'm going to praise you in the storm, Lord, because You've saved my life and I know I'm safe in your hands, Lord, I'm going to praise you when my kids are so far away from you, Lord, because I know I've committed them to you and you are faithful, Lord, I'm going to praise you. When there's no money this week, Lord, and I don't know where it's coming from, but I'm going to trust you, Lord, I'm going to trust you. Lord, I'm going to praise you. And my relationship is on the brink, and I don't know how it's going to go, but I'm going to praise you and trust you. I'm going to praise you and trust you in every season, in every circumstance, I'm going to praise you. Come on, let's just start praising the Lord. Let's bring our praise because he saved us. He set us free.
[00:44:38] We know where we're going, Church.
[00:44:40] We're going to the King of Kings and we're walking with the Lord of Lords, and he's with us, and he will never fail us.
[00:44:49] Yes, we can be in the depths of despair, you know, and that's okay. It's not that we don't acknowledge our problems. Our soul can be so down.
[00:44:57] But this is where we talk to our soul.
[00:45:01] We talk to our soul and we say, I'm still gonna praise you. My soul will trust in the Lord.
[00:45:07] My soul will trust him. And I will praise him.
[00:45:12] Yes. So, Lord, just as before Lawson goes in. Lord, I pray that we would be an authentic church. An absolute, authentic church, Lord, that we would live as you desire us to live, Lord, that our love would grow so strong. Lord, in this body of Christ, Lord, I pray as brothers and sisters, we would honor you with our words, with our actions, Lord, with our service, Lord, for Jesus name's sake.
[00:45:40] Amen. Thanks, Lawson.
