The Unworthy Servant

And so that's what this week is all about. If you would turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 17. Luke chapter 17. We're going to be in verses 1 through 10 this morning, and let me give you a little background as you're turning there to what we're going to be talking about this morning. This passage is Jesus teaching his disciples, and he tells them a story in this passage that gives an incredible illustration of what it looks like to be a true servant.

And before we can get to that part on service and what it looks like to be a true servant, he instructs them, and he makes it very clear that our relationship to God and our relationship to others is critical for effective service. It is critical for effective service. And so really, before we can get to the place where we're ready to start, we have to look at these two things first: loving God, loving others, serving God, serving others, in our relationship to other people.

So let's pick up in Luke chapter 17, and we're going to read the first six verses to get started this morning. It says, "He said to his disciples, 'It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to him to whom they come. It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble. Be on your guard.

If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times a day and returns to you seven times saying, I repent, forgive him.' Then, the apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith,' and the Lord said, 'If you had faith like that of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, "be uprooted and be planted in the sea," and it would obey you.'" Let's pray together this morning. Dear God, we thank you for today.

We thank you for the opportunity to have the freedom to serve God in our country, to serve you. Lord, I thank you for each and every life that's here today, each and every individual. Lord, I pray that you would open their hearts to hear your word, God, that your spirit would come and fall in a mighty way, Lord, and that we would just remember the word "obedience" this morning, God, that you would call us to obedience and humble service, God.

Lord, forgive me of my sin, for I am a sinner, Lord, saved only by your grace. Lord, that you would make me a clean vessel, Lord. Hide me behind the cross to allow me to deliver your word to your people this morning, God. And we just ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. So this morning, as we look at these first six verses and this idea of focusing on our relationship to others first, in verses 1 through 4, is really where we're at with that.

And so, the first verse makes it clear that others will cause us to stumble, that there will be stumbling blocks in our path, and it's inevitable. It's unavoidable. There will be stumbling blocks in life, and most of the time, the stumbling blocks often come in the form of other people, that other people will cause us to stumble. And so it's something in life that we have to be aware of and that we have to know is part of the enemy's attack and to see coming.

But in the end of verse 1 and into verse 2, we get a very strict warning from Jesus. And the warning is this: "Although sometimes, people are stumbling blocks, although you're going to have stumbling blocks in life, don't be one of those people. Don't be one of those stumbling blocks. Don't be one of those people that cause others to stumble." And it's a very dangerous place, as you see. What would be better for someone like that?

It's a very dangerous place to be someone who is a stumbling block. What do I mean by stumbling blocks? Well, I think it would be anything that would hinder others from entering the Kingdom of God. And the truth is that all of us, no matter who we are, how old or young, or how influential we think that we may or may not be, there is always somebody watching us. There is always somebody who's seeing how we're going to respond. It's watching our character.

It's watching our Christian witness, and that we can be a stumbling block to if we're not careful. You know, it might be in the form of gossip, or pride, or selfishness, or laziness, or deception, or anger, or bitterness. Whatever it may be. All of those things can be stumbling blocks. And that's not the full list. Those are just some ideas of what it could be.

But we must be careful not to be a part of that group of people that make others stumble that he talks about and gives a warning to in this passage. Verse 3 goes on and talks about correcting your brother when he sins, that if we really love each other, if we really love one another, we have to hold each other accountable, and when we see our brother fall and we see our brother stumble into sin, it is up to us as fellow believers to pick him back up and to bring him back out of that sin.

It may come across as a corrective measure, and maybe it is a rebuking, so to speak, but if we truly love those people that we see fall, they're our brothers or sisters in Christ, then we will help correct them and bring them back up and hold them accountable. Then, in verse 4, it talks about forgiveness and how we must forgive those who repent, and not only do we forgive him, but we forgive him as many times as necessary. That number seven in the Bible, we know it's a number of completion.

We know that a lot of times when seven is mentioned in the Bible, it's symbolic for "as many times as it takes" or "an infinity amount of times". You know, and so many times in life, we have such a hard time forgiving other people.

We have such a hard time, because after all, this person hurt us in this way or that way, but one of the things that we should really think about, that will really help us forgive any offense from anybody, no matter how many times they offend us, is when we look at how Jesus has forgiven us.

Every time I'm tempted to not forgive somebody for something, I'm reminded that someday I will stand before God, and Jesus has forgiven me as many times as it takes because of his love for me, and who am I to not forgive others even if it's more times than I can count? And so, Jesus starts with our relationship to others. That has to be right for us to be ready to serve effectively. Then he goes on in verses 5 and 6, and he talks about our relationship to God.

Can you imagine the disciples after hearing these hard truths and these hard things that's required of every disciple? What do they do? They're kind of like, "Man, like, this is going to be tough, Jesus. We need more faith. Give us more faith if you want us to do these things," which is probably a pretty normal human response, right? A lot of us would probably, initially, think the same thing. But as we see in verse 6, Jesus has a very interesting response. What does he say?

Instead of granting their request, Jesus points out that it's not about how much faith they can offer, right? But it's about putting their faith into action. Even a small amount of faith, the faith the size of a mustard seed, when put into action, can accomplish incredible things. Right? And so we see that. We see him say that to his disciples. And out of these verses 5 and 6, we see a few things. First one is that we must be obedient to God, that obedience is putting our faith into action.

We must trust him enough to do what he says. It's that simple. Sometimes, we try to complicate things about the Christian life, but it's that simple. He tells us to do something. We trust him enough to believe his plan is better than ours, and we do what he says. That's what faith is.

But we also see that whenever we step out in obedience, whenever we are willing to step out and to do what God has called us to do, amazing things begin to happen, and God will multiply our faith in so many ways, and that's truly when our faith begins to grow. We see the third point there: that through obedience, our relationship with God grows.

And so, as we begin to step out in faith and do what God calls us to do, and we begin to see him do incredible things for the kingdom with that faith, with that little bit of faith, we begin to realize it's not about us at all. It's not about what we can do at all. It's all about what Jesus can do through us when we trust him and when we obey him.

And then, as we begin to see him do all of these great and mighty things for the kingdom through us, that's when it increases our faith in him, because we realize it's all him and not us, and even though we're are not able to do on her own anything that God wants us to do, through his power, God can use us to do amazing things. And so, our relationship to others and our relationship to God requires humble obedience. That humble obedience is required to serve God and others.

The humility part comes in in how we relate to other people: that if we're not humble, then we can't have a right relationship with other people. But if we're not obedient, we can't have a right relationship with God, and so humble obedience is really what he's trying to get to in these first 6 verses to his disciples. That you have to be right in these places, in these areas with other people and with God.

You have to have a humble obedience to really be ready to do anything as far as service goes. And so, as our relationship with God and others comes into focus, that's when we will be truly unleashed for effective service. The chains will come off, and we will have an opportunity to freely run with all that we have by serving Christ and following him and to do what he has called us to do. When those chains come off, we are unleashed for service. When our relationship with God and others is right.

We can't have a desire to serve someone that we don't love. If we don't love others, and we don't love God, why would we want to go serve them? Service is the ultimate action of what love looks like, and so, that has to be right with other people and with God first. And so, in the next few verses, Jesus gives us an incredible picture of what a true servant really looks like.

Now that he's prepared them and has them ready and helps them understand what they must first kind of take care before they're unleashed to serve. Then, he gives us an incredible picture of service. Look at what he says in verse 17:7. He starts with a series of questions to his disciples as he tells them this story of a servant. Verse 17 is where we'll pick up, or 7 is where we'll pick up.

It says this, it says, "Which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come immediately and sit down to eat,' but will you not say to him, 'Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you may eat and drink.' He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he?"And look at what Jesus says to his disciples.

Here's the teaching moment right here that really throws them for a loop, verse 10: "So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded, you say, 'We are unworthy slaves. We have done only that which we ought to have done.'" We see this story, this teaching moment that Jesus is teaching his disciples, and he begins to paint this picture of what it would be like to be a master. And He begins to talk.

He begins to ask them questions, and you can kind of just imagine they're hanging on the edge of their seat, right? Because you've got to remember, these guys came from humble beginnings. A lot them were fishermen, tax collectors, those kinds of jobs, right? They weren't these wealthy, rich guys that were used to being in charge or in control or masters or whatever you want to call it.

And so, these guys are thinking about what it would be like to be a master, and I can just imagine them hanging on every word that Jesus is saying as he kind of paints this picture after each question, the thing more and more, what it would be like to be a master. And you can imagine them nodding their head in agreement with Jesus. Well, of course a master, that's how he would respond to a servant.

And then, the teaching moment happens in verse 10, and Jesus immediately flips it back on them, right? And he says, "Actually, guys, you're actually not the master at all. You're the servants." What an incredible moment. Could you imagine how that must have hit them? I mean, everybody likes to be served, right?

I mean, I don't get to be served very often, but have you ever been on, like, one of those cruises or, like, all-inclusive resorts, where you get there and you pay for everything ahead of time? And you get there, and for, like, however long you're there, you can eat as much as you want. You can, you know-- you get unlimited service. I mean, it's just incredible if you've ever done that. Everybody likes to be served, right? And Jesus is painting this picture of his disciples in the same way.

They're thinking about what it would be like to be served. And so, let's look back at this passage, starting with verse 7, and see what kind of principles we can glean from this passage this morning and what it looks like to be a true servant. Back in verse 7, we see that the first question that Jesus asked his disciples is implying a negative answer. Now, we do this all the time in the English language, right? It happens a lot between children and parents.

And the parents, you know, maybe it's a question like, "What did you do wrong?" Right? Or, "Did you do something you shouldn't have done?" And maybe that would be a better way to say it. "Son or daughter, did you do something you shouldn't have done? What's the answer?" If you ask it like that, then it's an implied, "Yes, right, well, yes, I did this, and I shouldn't have done this, and this is what I did wrong." Right?

Then maybe the next question would be, "Well, are you-- you're not going to do that again, are you?" And what's the answer? There's only one good answer. There's only one good answer. "Of course, Mom and Dad, I'm not going to do that again, because I know what the consequences are going to be." Well, that's the same kind of question that Jesus is asking his disciples. It has an implied answer that he's leading them on how they should answer the question.

And the first question has an implied negative answer, that no, of course the master will not ask the servant to eat first. That would be crazy. That's not how it works with a master and a servant. The word "slave" in this passage literally means "bondservant". A bondservant is someone who is tied to his master, and we, too, as Christians, as followers of Jesus Christ, are tied to our master. We are tied to Jesus Christ through his death and resurrection, through the Gospel.

We are forever tied to Jesus Christ. We are his servants. We're his bondservant. But we also see that there's only one servant in this passage, and I think that what we can get out of that is that we are to serve our master as if we are the only one. So many times, when God calls us to do something, we are tempted or fail in that we don't do it, and we expect somebody else to do it, when God has called us to do it.

And so many times, we think there's so many other people out there that God is calling to do this, and they can do it. I'm not going to do it. And we miss out on a blessing. We miss out on obedience, because we start thinking about how somebody else should do it instead of us. But the Lord wants us to focus on him and serve him as if we are the only one. That if he has called us to do it, we must do it. He's also working to please his master. We see that.

There are so many times that people serve for the wrong reasons. They serv to get some kind of public recognition or to get a pat on the back or to be somebody that everyone looks up to or respects or so that they can be seen as a good person or so that they can feel good about themselves. And all of those reasons or for the wrong reasons. All those reasons are to please man instead of God. But we are to serve to please only one person.

We're to serve only to please our master, Jesus Christ, and not to please men. We also see that he's moving from one act of service to another. In this life, our service never ends. In this life, the end of one service is the beginning of another. So many times, we think, "Man, if I could just-- I've done so many great things over the last few months.

I'm really feeling good about myself, and man, I've just really been doing a great job serving, and so I deserve a couple months' break," or, "I deserve a few years' break because man, I've been really doing well." And that's not what God calls us to. God calls us to always be serving him. Different seasons of life may bring different types of service, different ages. As we grow older, maybe we're not able to do everything that we used to be able to do, but God is calling us all to do something.

There is something for all of us to do. The work is never over in this life. God may call us to something different in a season, but he doesn't call us to take breaks in the Christian life. So we see the end of one service is the beginning of another. But then in verse 8, look at that. He asks them another question. Look what he says.

It says, "But will he not say to him, 'Prepare something for me to eat and properly clothe yourself and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you may eat and drink.'" The second question is an implied positive answer. Certainly the servant will wait on the master. Yes, the servant will wait on the master. We see that he is focused on finishing his work. It kind of goes back to continually serve in this life, that we're never done as long as we're living and breathing.

But serving his master is his top priority. We must make sure that as we, as Christians, grow in our faith, and we remember our priorities, that serving God should always be primary. That is our purpose in this life. That is why we were created. That is why we live and breathe is to glorify God with our life, to serve him because of what he's done for us and because of who he is. We must make sure that our priorities are straight and that we focus on finishing our work.

And then, someday, the reward will come. But the reward will not come in our timing. The reward does not come in the timing of the servant, but it comes in the timing of the master. And we see this: the example in this passage is eating and drinking, that eventually, the servant will then get sit down and eat and drink. But not in his timing; in the masters timing. So many times, we want to get an immediate result, right? We want to get immediate rewards for what we do.

But we must be patient and trust that it will come in time, that someday, we will be able to eat and drink at the marriage supper of the Lamb with the Lord. And someday, our reward will come in eternity. But not only do we have a reward in eternity for our service, but we must remember that the joy of the Christian life truly comes in serving, that we have an opportunity in this life to have-- be blessed and to have the joy of serving, but knowing that when we serve, it also increases our faith.

Just like the disciples wanted an immediate faith increase, so many times, we want immediate rewards for what we do. But we see that God caused them to step out in obedience first, and then, as they see God work with their obedience, that is when their faith grows. Are we willing to labor for the Lord and grow in our faith? Look at verse 9. The final question implies a negative answer once again. And this one is even more clear in the English language.

"He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he?" Well, no, of course not. Of course the master didn't thank the servant, because he was just doing his duty, right? You know, God doesn't have to thank us. We don't need a thank-you note from God or other men to be able to serve, because he is not indebted to us, but we are indebted to him because of the cross. He has already done everything that we could ever ask for.

I mean, more than we could ever ask for, in eternity, to save us from our sin, to give us hope, to give us an eternity with him someday in heaven, to have the joy of serving him in this life. We simply serve because we love him so much that we want to give back for what he's already done for us. He is not in debt to us, but we're in debt to him because of the cross. And then, the teaching moment comes in verse 10. Look at it again with me.

Jesus is such an example, the greatest example of the greatest teacher the world has ever seen. And he flips it back on the disciples, and what he really tells them is, as we talked about earlier, Jesus reveals that the disciples are actually the servants and not the master. Could you imagine the objections that are going off in their mind?

Could you imagine what they were thinking after thinking about what it would be like to be the master and then, all of a sudden, they realize they're the servants. They're thinking, "Objection! This is not easy!" "Objection! This is not normal! Objection! The world says that it's all about me! The world says," you've heard the phrase, "You do you." Right?

The world says, "It's all about my pleasure and my joy and my happiness!" Everything that we're taught is contrary from the world, is contrary to what God says is the true key to joy in life. It's all about him. It's all about service. And this is the the very job description of a disciple. This is what we agree to as a believer. And so, Missions Week is designed to talk about what it means to serve and then to actually go and do it, to actually go and act in obedience to serve others.

There are so many opportunities. I want to point out first that we have an opportunity every single day, as a missionary ourselves, to go out and to do what God has called us to do. Wherever it is, whatever he's called us to do, we can do it for him every single day and be on mission for him. We can do it for him every single day, and we are all missionaries for the Lord.

We're all called to serve in everything that we do, but this week, we're giving you some special opportunities, inside the church and outside of the church, to serve the Lord. And one of those is to learn about our local ministries. There's a list up here that you're going to see: all these local ministries that you see on this screen right here.

We have so many different ministries that our church has partnered with financially, that our church has partnered with to come alongside and encourage and agree to be a part of serving and helping. And you have an opportunity to learn about those ministries today. Going out into the mall area and learn all about each of these ministries, to learn how you can serve. We have incredible mission trip opportunities.

And I can say this because this was way before I ever came along, but we have so many different mission trips that you can go on. You know, some churches don't even have one mission trip that they have an opportunity to go on a year. And our church has opportunities for at least six or seven mission trips a year that you can go, and you can fulfill the Great Commission all over the world. Don't take that opportunity for granted. Take advantage of those opportunities. Learn about the trips.

Learn about an opportunity. Some of you have been on mission trips before; some of you have not. But I can tell you: my heart, as your missions pastor, is to cast a wider net, to get more and more people from our church going on short-term mission trips, because when we get people to go and to serve in those ways, it lights a fire in the church back home. It begins to get people excited back home, when they come back, about serving Jesus Christ.

Don't let it scare you, but take that step of faith to go on a short-term mission trip. Maybe you're not able because of your health to go, but you can give. I encourage you to do that as well. So we have so many different opportunities. One of the opportunities that was mentioned this morning is our fall festival next Sunday from 4:00 to 7:00 PM. You have an opportunity to come and serve and to love on people from our community that come and show them the love of Christ.

What an incredible opportunity, just next Sunday, to serve inside the church as well. You know, Jesus doesn't need us, but it is a privilege for us to serve God. The fact that he has given us the opportunity to serve him is a privilege, because if we're not willing to do it, he will find somebody else to accomplish his mission. He doesn't need us. We need to see that we have the opportunity to serve him. We have been given a blessing. It's not a chore. It's a blessing to serve the Lord.

You know, there's a difference between choosing serve and being a servant. Let me explain that. When you choose to serve, you are in control. When you are a servant, God is in control. So how do we know if we're a true servant this morning? I think there's a great measuring stick for this, and this is the statement: if there's anything that we will not do or anyone that we will not serve, then we are not true servants. Let me say that one more time.

If there is anything that we will not do or anyone that we will not serve, we are not true servants, because we're choosing when and how we serve. Then, we are in control in that point. We can only arrive at this place when we see Jesus and others as the most important and we see ourselves as least important. That's the only way we can get to that point in the Christian life, to see things the way that God wants us to see them. You know, one of the things that helps us: this is a hard message.

This is a hard message to hear, because service is not always easy, but aren't you glad that Jesus never asks us to do anything that he hasn't already done? Let me say that again. Jesus never asked us to do anything that he hasn't already done. Luke chapter 22, verse 27, if you want to flip over a couple of pages. This is a verse that shows that. Verse 27 of chapter 22, it says, "'For who is greater, the one who reclines at the table or the one who serves?

Is it not the one who reclines at the table?' Jesus speaking to his disciples says, 'But I am among you as the one who serves.'" Jesus Christ is the greatest example the world has ever known of what it looks like to be a true servant, someone who was such a servant that he laid down his life for every single one of us, somebody that was such a servant that he stepped out of heaven, the most incredible place we could ever even fathom, and spent 33 years on this earth because of his love for us.

Can you imagine what this earth would have been like after being in heaven? And what he went through? But we also see another passage of scripture, Luke chapter 12, verse 37. Look what that says. Luke chapter 12, verse 37. It says, "Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on alert when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will gird himself to serve and have them recline at the table and will come up and wait on them." We see, back in Luke chapter 17, verse 9.

It talks about the master won't thank his slave, obviously, because he's the slave, right? That word "thank" literally means to grace someone. It's saying that that master wouldn't grace his slave, but we know that Jesus Christ, from the verse I just read, is the only master that graces his servants.

He's the only master that graces his servants, that someday instead of just being his slaves, he has given us the right to be his heirs, to be his children, to be with him in eternity someday and to be able to celebrate with him. And he's going to include us in-- bring us into his family in eternity, that we have an opportunity to be his heirs and his children, the children of God. What an incredible master we have! We have the perfect master.

So because our master is perfect, there is no reason why we wouldn't want to serve our master because of who he is and what he's done. So as you think about the video we saw earlier, kind of just reiterate that the joy of the Christian life comes not in just doing church.

Obviously we come to church to be full of the Lord and for him to fill us with his spirit and to fellowship with other believers and to be able to serve him in that way and to grow in him in that way, but he does all of that-- all the purpose of church is for us to be filled up so that we can then go out and share the gospel, to share the hope, the joy that we have, to a lost and dying world. You know, someday at the end of our lifetime, every single one of us will stand before God.

And the greatest thing that we could ever hope to hear from our Lord and Savior, on that day, is, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." That is the prayer of my heart. If we are blessed enough, someday, to be able to be obedient enough in our life, to be able to hear those words, and someday, you imagine yourself standing in all of the power and the glory and the majesty and the joy and the love that surrounds us.

When we stand in the presence of God someday, and we we think about, visualize what it would be like to stand in his presence and to feel all of his holiness. There's only one response that will ever be appropriate in that moment. We will be so overwhelmed at that moment that there will only be one appropriate thing to say, and that thing that will be appropriate to say in that moment is, "We are unworthy slaves. We have done only that which we ought to have done."

Is that the attitude of your heart this morning? Are you willing to be a true servant? Are you willing to serve anyone and do anything because of what Jesus has first done for you? Let's pray together this morning. Dear God, we thank you so much for today. Lord, we thank you for your word and what a great teacher you are to us, God.

Lord, and there are people here this morning that are already serving you, God, and Lord, I pray that you would not allow them to get weary, that they not get tired, Lord, but to remember the joy of the Christian life comes in serving. Lord, that you would direct them as they move forward in their life and how they should serve and what you called them to do, Lord, that you would help them to use their gifts for you, inside and outside of the church, in their families, in their workplaces.

That they would serve you, God, through our local ministries and our opportunities here, that they would serve you. Lord, those that are here this morning, that if they were honest, Lord, as all of us at times fail, Lord. If they were honest to say, "I'm not really serving. I'm just coming and sitting on a pew. I'm not really doing anything to advance the kingdom."

Then Lord, I pray there would be conviction, Lord, but even more so than the conviction, I pray for obedience this morning, God, that every person in this room would not leave this place this morning until they are truly obedient to what you have called them to do. That you have made each of us uniquely with different gifts and abilities for the purpose of not keeping it for ourself, but to give it back to you because of what you've done for us.

God, that we will be faithful servants and that we would just do our duty, God, what you have called us to do. So this morning, whatever it is, I pray for obedience all across this room, in this place, and we just ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.