I'm glad. Are you glad to be in church today?
Amen. Doesn't it feel like summer already?
How many of you love the fact that summer is coming?
No more school. How many of you are thrilled about no more school?
All the parents are like, when does school start exactly?
Like, what's the day? How many days left?
We're excited about the summertime here at Southern Hills
because we're beginning a brand new sermon series.
As you can tell and titled Jesus People,
it's a three-week sermon series through Luke chapter number 17
where Jesus himself describes what his followers are to be like.
And we're going to turn there in the Bible right now, if you will.
Luke chapter number 17.
Go ahead and turn there and it'll be a help to you and to all of us.
One more time. Are you glad to be in church today?
If you are, let's praise Jesus together.
Man, I am glad you are here as well.
So much going on here at the church today,
but I do want to make sure that you know this three-week sermon series
is absolutely essential for your spiritual growth and health
over the next three months of this summer.
I don't know what you have planned.
I don't know where God is leading you.
I don't know all the things good and bad
that may be coming into your life over the next three weeks
or the next three months, but I am absolutely convinced
that these three sermons are here specifically to prep you,
to prepare you, to help you move forward and think forward
as it relates to your life and your family
and your relationship specifically this summer.
Today's sermon is entitled, So Happy Together.
Luke chapter number 17, verses one through three.
Let's pray.
Father, my prayer this morning is that you would help me
do what you just did at the 830 service,
that you would speak through your word to the hearts of men.
I pray that you'd help me do what I cannot do,
help my friends.
I know my desire is to help my friends understand the Bible
better so that they can more properly follow you
as followers of Jesus.
And so I pray that you would give me clarity in my words.
I pray that you would give specificity in my heart.
I pray as I speak your word, they would come from you.
I pray, Lord, that you would fill this place
with your Holy Spirit's presence and power
just as you have filled it with your holy people
and now fill my mouth with your holy scripture
so that we can hear from you and learn.
God, you know our hearts.
You know that we are not perfect people.
You know the vast majority of us have messed up,
not just in the last few days, in the last few weeks,
but maybe even in the last few hours.
We come to church today not because we're perfect people,
but we're in need of a perfect God.
We're in need of a perfect Bible
that's going to teach us what we must be
in order to follow you.
So God, I pray that you would comfort the hearts
that are hurting today.
I pray that you would instruct the minds
that need instruction.
I pray, Father, that you would bring encouragement
into our hearts so that we can see what your word says
and then live by it.
I pray that we would be the people
that you describe in Luke chapter 17.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Jesus' people.
Jesus' people are supposed to be happy people.
And they are happy people because of how they interact
with their relationships, as described in Luke chapter 17.
In Luke chapter 17, you hear the description
from Jesus of what he wants his followers to be, to live like,
to love, and to relate with one another.
And in Luke chapter 17 verses one through 10,
we see that he wants his people to be happy together.
And that's the key.
Happiness is found with one another.
Jesus' people are happy people because they have each other.
I know you've had friends, you've been friends
for a very long time.
How many of you have a friend that you've been friends
for many, many years?
I mean, all the way back to your childhood.
How many of you have somebody in your life
that you've been friends for a very long time,
maybe even back to your childhood?
How many of you like that?
Raise your hand.
How many of you like that?
All right, very good.
Very good.
You have a friend since childhood?
What's the person's name?
Paul.
And how old were you when you got to know Paul?
Three years old.
How did you become friends at three?
He stole your toy.
And this sparked a beautiful relationship.
Counselors, we need help in the front row today.
No, but that happens, right?
How many of you also have a very long relationship
many years?
Julie, yeah, how many years?
Since high school.
Which was how many years?
I'm just kidding.
I won't say that.
All right, Julie.
Quite a few years.
Wow, incredible.
And what brought you together, this friendship?
Did she steal something from you?
Oh, you're like-minded on things.
I have so many great friendships.
One of the great gifts of being a pastor of this church
is you've become my friend and I've become yours.
But not just in this group,
but also within the staff itself,
the pastors of the church, Pastor Caleb and Ruthie,
very good friends with Heather and I.
We're excited about going to Israel together next year.
Pastor Jason and Kimberly have been friends of ours
for many years, Andrew and Kerry.
And then Fred, for those of you who don't know,
Fred and Kelly have been friends of ours
since we were teenagers,
but Fred and I have been friends since we were children.
In fact, here's a photograph of myself with Pastor Fred
many, many years ago.
I know it's hard to see.
It's a little fuzzy because back then,
cameras were basically people jotting things down on a-
it's a painting is what it is.
There were no real cameras back then.
But here I am, and you're gonna-
I'm gonna tell you what I'm holding here in a moment.
And here Fred is, right here sitting in the back of a jeep.
Those are two cool guys.
Can I get an amen right there?
He said, wow, it's just shocking how amazing you've turned out.
I mean, look at this guy.
And we're at a wedding.
Actually, this is the wedding of Fred's parents.
Fred's parents are getting married on this day.
And we are tying cans to the back of the jeep.
So when they drive off, you know, they'll have the cans bouncing
and we'll litter.
It's a fun thing.
And so this is us.
Now, we grew up spending so much time.
During this age, we were best pals.
And we would do all sorts-
spend the night together.
We would do all these sleepovers.
We would play the original Nintendo, the original NES.
How many of you remember the original Nintendo?
Man, such a great-
How many of you remember the-
That's right.
Oh, there's the old people.
Yeah.
What games did you use to play on the original Nintendo?
Do you remember any of them?
Final Fantasy, the original one, right?
Yeah.
These were fun.
I used to play Double Dribble.
Tecmo Super Bowl.
How many of you remember Tecmo Super Bowl?
Yeah, that was a great game, right?
We'd play all games all night long.
We'd watch Aladdin on VHS.
Do you remember VHS?
Do you remember the giant, you know,
and you'd have to be kind and rewind?
And we would put that in and watch it over and over and over together.
I'm going to tell you a story about one time
when I spent the night at his house and-
But that friendship has been tested over the years.
Now, if you're here today and you've had a friend
and that friend has betrayed you in some way,
if you're here and you've had a friendship
and it's been tested in some way,
understand you're not alone.
All of us have strong friendships
that go back many years,
and there are elements to that friendship
that can be tested.
Jesus is talking to his people.
And he's saying, as disciples of mine,
I want my friends, my family,
I want my community, I want Jesus' people
to view their relationships differently.
And I want every single one of you to hear
what Jesus taught his disciples during this time
about what true relationships and friendships are all about.
It's not that they won't be tested,
but they are happy together.
Now, what makes them happy together?
What makes a Jesus people relationship truly happy?
Three elements that we find in Luke chapter 17.
First and foremost, we're going to see
that Jesus' people are happy people
because they are responsible for each other.
Number one, Jesus' people are happy people
because they are responsible for each other.
I'm going to say number one, you say responsible.
Number one, all right, I can tell this Memorial Day,
you're a little tired, you bought your mattress yesterday,
and you're not ready for this.
So I'm going to say number one, you say responsible.
Number one, responsible.
Jesus' people are happy people
because they're responsible for one another.
Look at verses one through three, Jesus speaking.
One day, Jesus said to his disciples,
who was Jesus speaking to?
His disciples.
Jesus said to his disciples,
there will always be temptations to sin.
How many of you can say amen to that?
There will always be temptation to sin.
Some of you are new Christians.
You just were born again.
You just prayed and asked Jesus to save you last week,
last month, a few months ago,
and you've got this false idea
that now that you're a follower of Jesus,
you'll never be tempted to sin again.
I must have disabused you of this idea.
The fact is, you will be tempted.
There will always be temptations.
That's what Jesus says.
There will always be temptations to sin.
But what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting?
You say, who is the person who does the tempting?
You say, I know this one.
I'm a new Christian, but I know it is the devil.
That's true. The devil does tempting.
But did you know that other Christians
contempt other Christians?
That's what Jesus is talking about here.
He's talking about tripping somebody else up in their faith.
He's talking about you becoming a stumbling block
to a weaker Christian.
He's talking about you being so reckless
in the way you live, in what you say,
in what you do, that you accidentally
or intentionally lead somebody else to fall into sin.
It's terrible when you make a mistake and sin.
According to Jesus, it's even more terrible
when you accidentally push somebody else into sin.
And his Jesus people, he doesn't want that for you.
That'd be like, that'd be like you're at a party
and you have a beer and you don't realize
that your friend is an alcoholic and you give them a beer.
You are pushing them into messing up, you see?
That'd be like watching a movie with nudity in it
with somebody who struggles with pornography.
You're pushing them down a road.
Do you understand?
That'd be like you have a friend that is an angry person
and this angry person is sitting there
watching a Golden Knights game with you.
It's not nice.
It's gonna frustrate them, they're gonna go crazy.
Understand?
You don't push your friend into sin.
You watch out for your friend.
Now you might be saying, well, wait a second, wait a second.
Who am I to watch out for somebody else?
I can barely take care of myself.
How many of you feel that way sometimes?
As a Christian, I can barely take care of myself.
Yet as you take care of you, the best way for you
to take care of you is for you to help take care
of the other Christians.
And as you take care of the other Christians,
they watch your back and help take care of you.
We are to be there for one another.
This concept goes all the way back to the Old Testament
when there were two brothers, Cain and Abel.
And God comes to Abel one day and says,
where's your brother Cain?
Or excuse me, God comes to Cain one day
and says, where's your brother Abel?
And Cain says to God, am I my brother's keeper?
And the answer to that question is not answered
until the New Testament.
The answer is yes, yours are responsible for your brother.
You're responsible for your friend.
You're responsible to keep them from falling into the trap
that keeps taking them.
And so according to the scripture,
Jesus people are happy people because they're responsible
for one another.
Verse two, 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.
Now this is a big statement from Jesus.
Jesus says, let me give you a choice.
Let's play a would you rather.
Would you rather have a giant stone chained around your neck
and be cast into the ocean,
or would you rather make one of your friends fall into sin?
Make one of your friends fall into sin.
And Jesus said, let me give you the answer.
You would rather get your neck wrapped up with a stone
and thrown into the ocean.
One is preferable to the other.
He said, man, Jesus is using this hyperbolic language
to make a strong point.
Don't cause your friends to sin.
Now the parallel passage to this is in the book of Matthew.
And in Matthew, Jesus is talking about specifically children.
If you hurt a child, it's better for you after hurting the child.
It's better for you than hurting the child
than to have a, it's better for you to have a stone
wrapped around your neck and be cast.
By the way, how many of you agree with that?
We should not allow people to hurt children, amen?
That's what Jesus's point is.
Jesus's point in Matthew.
But in Luke, he's talking about little ones
as in little Christians, new Christians, new believers.
You have a responsibility to protect children,
but you also have a responsibility to protect little Christians,
new Christians, believers in Jesus Christ.
Verse three, so Jesus says, so watch yourself.
That's a great statement.
Watch yourself.
How many of you had parents who would say things like that to you?
Watch yourself.
I remember any time my mother and I or the family,
we would go into one of those stores where there might be like decorations
or glass objects or crystals or something like that.
My mother would look at me and say, put your hands in your pockets.
Your hands break things, Joshua.
Put your hands in your pockets and be walking around.
And it's so hard to keep your hands in your pockets
when you want to touch something and break it.
You know what I mean?
What was she saying?
She's saying, watch yourself because I'm responsible for you breaking something.
Jesus is saying, look, watch yourself because your words, your actions,
your lifestyle, your choices, they are affecting the people around you.
Why are we happy as Christians?
Why?
Because we have each other's back.
You're supposed to look out for your brother.
You're supposed to look out for me.
I'm supposed to look out for you.
We're supposed to look out for one another.
For example, I got to tell you, what is your kryptonite?
What is your kryptonite?
Mine is donuts.
You say, Pastor Josh, there's no way as I look at you
that you've ever had a donut in your life.
I'm speaking, relax.
No, I love them.
Donuts are the best.
I mean, they've always, I've always loved, grew up on Winshills donuts,
and then Krispy Kreme came to town.
Oh my word.
I remember when Krispy Kreme showed up in Vegas.
Have you ever gone by Krispy Kreme and got it when it's hot
and the glaze just poured over, and you pick it up and you put it in your mouth,
and you don't chew, it just melts like cotton candy into your,
it is both a physical, metaphysical, and spiritual experience all at once.
They're so good.
Now I've moved on, I'm a pink box donut guy.
I love pink box donuts.
I could eat a whole box.
I'm not even kidding.
I could, and now what, now that's fine.
Is it a sin to eat pink box donuts?
I thought I heard somebody in the back say, yes.
You're a legalist.
Get out of the church.
You're not allowed in here.
No, you can have a pink box donut.
It's fine.
Relax.
But what if, what if, what if my doctor told me I need to cut out the sugar,
and that I had to have six months, a year, a year and a half,
no more donuts, Josh, and I said, okay, that's my commitment.
And I let everybody know no more donuts.
I'm not allowed to have donuts for a while.
And then we set up a coffee appointment.
We go to Starbucks, you show up, I buy you a coffee, I buy myself a coffee,
and you pull out of your bag a box of Krispy Kreme donuts.
And I say, oh no, I can't have you.
And you look at me and say, oh, these aren't for you.
I know you struggle, pastor, with these things, and you're not supposed to.
But these are for me.
And you one by one just begin to eat the donuts in front of me.
I hate you.
I hate you in this fake story.
It's not even, why?
Why?
Because what you're doing, according to the script, we call it,
you're tempting your brother to stumble.
And we as Christians should not be doing this with each other.
The passage that's spoken of in 1 Corinthians 8,
in the book of 1 Corinthians, Paul uses the illustration of meat offered to idols.
Don't eat it.
Or he said, you can eat it, but it's dangerous too.
Here's why.
In 1 Corinthians 8, we don't do this now, but back then they would take meat
and they would offer it to an idol.
And after they would, and do you know what happened after you would offer meat to idol?
Do you know what would happen to the meat?
Nothing.
Do you know why?
Because an idol is a piece of stone.
They can't eat.
So what they would do is they would take that meat off of the altar.
They would sell it in the marketplace or they would bring it home and they would eat it.
And there was nothing sinful about eating meat offered to an idol,
essentially sinful.
Nothing wrong with it.
But there were some Christians in the church at Corinth
who their history was all involved in idol worship.
And when they knew they were eating meat that was once offered to an idol,
it actually pulled them back into idol worship.
You say, well, wait a second, what does that mean?
So Paul told the Corinthians, stop eating meat offered to idols
because it's going to make your brother fall back into idolatry.
You say, well, that's their fault.
That's not the Christian mindset.
The Christian mindset is circumspect, careful, not only about what I do for my own soul,
but about what my choices might lead others to make.
In fact, Paul goes so far in 1 Corinthians 8.
He says, if you choose to do that, it's not only a sin,
but when you cause your brother to stumble, you have sinned against your brother.
And look it up.
You've sinned against Christ.
So what Jesus is saying here is very clear.
Watch what you do.
Watch what you say.
Watch how you live.
Jesus is saying that it is a sin to be a stumbling block,
to be so reckless in your actions, in your words.
I, how many of you understand pastors can make mistakes too?
Can I get a name, man?
I mean, pastors say some dumb stuff and you've heard me say dumb stuff,
but I knew a pastor once who said one of the dumbest things I've ever, dumbest, dumb, dumb.
A man came up to him for a cup of coffee.
He said, was this man you?
I'd tell you if it was me.
You know I'd tell you everything.
It wasn't me.
Set down for a cup of coffee and ask the pastor this question.
Pastor, is it a sin to smoke crystal meth?
Now some of you are like, I'm no theologian, but I think I can answer this one.
The pastor looked at him and said, well, technically, I've read the Scripture from
Big Genesis to Revelation.
I've studied it my whole life.
Technically, it's not a sin.
He said, the pastor was speaking to a crystal meth addict,
telling them, no big deal.
Friend, this pastor in his reckless words sinned against his brother as he went out and binged
and sinned against Christ.
Why? Because he was a stumbling block out of a lack of being circumspect.
It means being careful.
So here the principle that Jesus is teaching is that you and I, all of us, we have a responsibility
to keep ourselves from sin, yes, but to walk in such a way that is making sure our children
are safe, our friends are safe, our family is safe, that we're careful.
These are reasons why for me, I'm not preaching about this to you.
But for me, Josh, the Christian, for me, I don't personally drink or gamble.
You say, why?
Why don't you drink or gamble?
Bible doesn't technically say you can't drink or gamble.
It doesn't.
It doesn't say that.
But I choose not to.
Why?
Because I have people that look up to me spiritually.
Here's the question.
Do you have people that look up to you spiritually?
Anybody?
Children, teenagers, other Christians?
The reason I don't is because I would never be able to say,
I would never want to accidentally put a stumbling block where something may not be a big deal for me,
but might lead them down a rabbit hole of destruction.
Why?
Because Christians look out for each other.
Does this make sense?
We're careful not only to make sure we're okay, but we are okay.
See, that's why this is so hard for Americans to get in their minds,
because Americans are individualistic minded.
We think, if I'm okay with Jesus, that's all that matters.
No, if you're okay with Jesus, that's the first step.
But then we collectively need to be walking with Jesus.
And you are responsible for your brother.
Amen?
Number one, the reason why we are happy together,
number one, is because we are responsible for each other.
I feel God as, I feel like I'm supposed to say this.
Some of you think to yourselves, well, you know,
I'm not really connected to the church like that.
Friend, hear me.
That's on you.
If all you view church as is a place to come for one hour a week
of spiritual entertainment, your Christianity is going to remain
at a very shallow level.
Christianity is meant to be lived in community,
which means you have to start investing time with each other.
You have to start getting to know the people around you.
You have to start living in such a way that if you screw up,
they might screw up too.
That's the way the church was originally intended to be.
But because we're so distant from one another,
we put on masks instead of showing our authentic self,
we have an anemic Christianity to this day.
For Jesus people, nothing is sadder than to know that you were the cause
of somebody else's downfall.
We are happy together because we are responsible for one another.
But number two, Jesus says, not only are we happy together,
we're happy together because we're responsible for each other.
We're happy together.
Number two, because we are forgiving of one another.
I'm going to say number two.
You say forgiving.
Number two, forgiving versus three and four.
If another believer sins, rebuke that person.
Now that word rebuke, say it, rebuke.
There are two kinds of people I find.
Some people who get really excited about the word rebuke,
that's their favorite thing.
Have you ever met a Christian?
They're like, my gift is rebuking everybody.
This is their favorite thing.
You need to settle down, Joe.
You're like, that's not the point.
And there's some people that are a little bit intimidated by rebuke.
Like they're like, I don't want to confront anybody
because if I confront them, they might confront me.
You know what I mean?
And so there's this dynamic.
But on this spectrum, there needs to be some middle ground
where you're not thrilled about helping somebody not make a mistake,
but you're also not intimidated by confronting a brother saying,
hey man, you're hurting yourself.
To your teenagers, hey, this is not the right decision for you.
See, some of us are so concerned that people like us
that we are unwilling to confront them
in an error that is hurting them.
And some of us are so excited about confronting everybody,
it's no wonder that nobody likes us.
And so what Jesus is saying here is yes, look what it says,
if another believer sins, rebuke them, that is humbly go,
according to the book of Galatians, when you rebuke somebody,
you humbly consider your own temptations.
You humbly approach them.
You humbly speak with them.
The whole idea here is that you don't go tell two other people.
You go to them.
You don't go to other people and talk about them.
Can I get an amen?
Then if there's a problem,
can I get an amen? Then if there's repentance, forgive them.
Then if there is repentance, forgive them.
Now, I know that some of you love that loophole.
You're like, hey pastor, look what it says here.
It says, if they repent, then I can forgive them.
Does that mean, does that mean if they don't,
I can grow into a bitter old person
and think about them every day of my life?
And hate them and my hatred will keep me warm at night.
It says, if.
The emphasis here is not on the if they repent.
The emphasis is on forgive them.
Yeah? Forgive them.
Even if that person wrongs you seven times a day.
How many of you are married?
Yeah? Seven times a day?
Which of you?
Yeah.
Uh-huh. Which of you are the, there's two of you.
Which of you are the like always apologize
for the same thing a thousand times?
How many of you, that's me in our relationship.
I'm just like, I'm sorry again, I'm sorry again.
You know you're that person if they say,
would you stop saying I'm sorry?
You say it too much.
So look what it says, Jesus says,
if that person wrongs you seven times a day
and each time turns again and asks forgiveness,
you must forgive.
Jesus is saying that his people should develop a habit of forgiving.
Somebody does you wrong?
No worries. Somebody does you wrong?
It's forgiven. Somebody does you wrong?
It's fine.
You forgive and you forgive and you forgive and you forgive.
One time Peter comes to Jesus and says,
okay, I got it.
Forgive seven times, right?
And Jesus says for you seven times 70.
That's what friendship is.
So a Christian friendship is.
Fred and I have been friends for many, many years
and you might be asking yourself,
well, how did you become so close and like,
why have you been friends for like,
like almost four decades now?
And the answer to that question is because we have never done
anything wrong to each other not once.
We've never had a disagreement.
We've never spoke harshly to each other.
How many of you would believe that that's actually true?
Of course not.
The new Christians are like, but you're the pastor.
And the answer is you're going to get to know I'm a real human
who makes a lot of mistakes.
In fact, I can remember one of the very first times
I really wronged my friend Fred.
We called him Freddy back then.
He's going to love that you now know his name is really Freddy.
And it started, we were about, I don't know,
probably about eight years old at the time.
And we went to a midweek Christian program called
Awana for children.
Anybody ever heard of Awana before?
And every single week we would go and they had a very special
event where they brought out a giant jar of M&Ms.
How many of you know Pastor Fred?
How many of you know him?
Would you raise your hand?
Pastor Fred is the administrative pastor of the church,
meaning he's in charge of all the business side
and he's a godly man.
He knows how finances work.
He knows how the deacons ministry is to run.
He's the one getting the building built, all of these things.
He's brilliant.
He's everything that I'm not.
We're great partners.
He, Fred, you've known him forever, right, Jeffrey?
Fred has always been Fred.
There's never been a time in Fred's life
that he's not been Freddy.
Like the Fred you see at home is the Fred you see on the court,
which is the Fred you'll see at church,
the Fred you see everywhere.
Fred is Fred is Fred.
And Fred at 41 years old is also Fred at eight years old.
And I can remember they put this big jar of M&Ms
at the Awana program and we were supposed to guess
how many M&Ms are in the jar.
We all lined up and you only got one guest.
John, were you there for this?
You remember this?
All lined up and we're ready to count how many M&Ms
or guess.
And I remember I got up there and he's like,
what do you think?
I'm like, I don't know.
And Fred's mind is already calculating.
He's like, what do you think?
I'm like, I don't know, like 50?
He's like 50.
I'm like, I don't know.
55, you know.
And they're like, he's stupid.
55.
I walk away.
And then Fred comes up.
And Fred, you could just see this mind
working, all these thought bubbles with calculations
coming up and he's just going like this.
And he looks up and he says, I believe there's 1742 M&Ms
inside of the jar.
And the lady's like, all right, she put it down,
wrote it down.
By the way, after the first service, he didn't know I was
going to tell the story.
He was sitting in the back.
He came up to me afterward.
He said, I think it was 1742.
He said that to me.
I'm like, you're kidding me.
You remember?
He's like, he's with their 1742 or his 1472.
How did you remember?
I said, I made that number up.
He said, I think you remembered.
I think it was in your mind.
He walked away, you know?
I'm like, it's true.
He won the contest and won that jar of M&Ms.
I know.
He took it home and I was a little upset,
but I also knew that next Friday night I was going to spend
the night at Fred's house.
So I was going to get my 50 M&Ms, you know what I mean?
So I did.
We spent the night all playing Joe Montana's football
on NES.
And then after Ruby came in and told us to go to sleep,
I crawled up in the second bunk and he was in the bottom bunk.
And as I crawled up in the second bunk,
I looked over and on the shelf right beside my head
was this jar of M&Ms.
And I said, the Lord hath provided for it.
I don't forget.
I wanted to wait until Fred was asleep so that he didn't know.
And so I started out.
I'm like, Freddie.
Freddie.
What?
Never mind.
I did.
I sat there awake.
It is not cool.
This is not great.
He finally fell asleep.
I'm like, Freddie.
Freddie.
Nothing.
This is my moment.
I reached up and I took the top of the jar.
You hear the little clink.
Put it off to the side.
I reached up and I grabbed a whole handful of M&Ms,
the red and the orange and the yellow.
There was no blue and purple back then.
You remember?
It's the light brown.
That was dumb.
I pulled them all out.
I held them in my belly on my belly like this,
laid there and just eaten all the M&Ms.
After I was done, I still wanted more.
You know?
So I reached up and grabbed more.
And I grabbed more.
That next morning, you tell me, do you think Fred noticed
his M&Ms going down?
Yes or no?
Sorry.
Do you think Fred confronted me on this?
Yes or no?
Do you think he was kind in his rebuke?
Yes or no?
You say, how could you still be friends?
Here's why.
Because that was the last time I ever did anything wrong to Fred.
Do you believe it?
No.
It's because Fred has developed a habit of forgiveness.
It doesn't mean he doesn't hold me accountable.
And I hold him accountable when I need to forgive him.
But it's that we have a dialogue and a communication that says,
When you make a mistake, I forgive you.
When I make a mistake, I forgive you.
We love one another.
We work through this.
That's the way that Jesus people are supposed to work.
We are happy together.
Why are we so happy together?
Because we are responsible for each other.
We are responsible for each other.
Because we are responsible for each other.
We are forgiving of one another.
And number three, number three, and we'll be done,
number three, we are faithful to our duties.
I'm going to say, number three, you say duties.
Three.
Doodies.
Doodies is not a word that we use as much.
In America, we don't use it because we don't feel it.
We don't feel the idea of duty.
But that's exactly what Jesus talks about here.
Look what he says.
He goes on and says in verse number five through 10,
the apostles said to the Lord,
show us how to increase our faith.
Why did the apostles all of a sudden ask about faith
after Jesus is telling them to be responsible for each other
and forgiving of one another?
Here's why.
Because it takes faith to be responsible for your brother.
It takes faith to be forgiving of your brother.
It takes a great deal of faith.
And so they said to Jesus, can you increase our faith?
And so Jesus says, if you have even a small amount
of mustard seed size faith, you could say to this mulberry tree,
may you be uprooted and planted in the sea,
and it would obey you.
Jesus said, all you need is a little bit of faith.
And if you had a little bit of faith, you could take a tree
and throw it into the ocean with your very mind.
Question, honest question.
How many believers in Jesus here say amen?
Like, I want to hear how many of you say, I'm a follower
of Jesus, amen?
Okay, how many of you have ever done the Jedi mind trick
of uprooting a tree and throwing it into the water?
How many of you have ever done this before
and you have video proof because I don't believe you?
How many of you have ever done this?
Nobody?
Okay, Jesus says in another passage,
if you have a little bit of faith, you can cap a mountain,
you could take the top of the mountain and throw it
into the ocean.
How many of you have ever capped a mountain and throw it
into the ocean with your mind power?
A faith.
So, what was Jesus' point?
If you've never done it, is it not possible?
Here's Jesus' point.
He's saying, if you are a person of faith,
you can do the most miraculous things.
But it really takes faith to not do the marvelous.
It takes faith to do the mundane.
You have to be full of faith to be able to do the mundane things
of being responsible for your brothers and forgiving their mistakes.
It takes way more faith to do the mundane than the marvelous.
That's what he's saying.
See, faith is most often used to be faithful.
If you are full of faith, you will be faithful.
And faith is most often used to remain faithful.
It takes more than faith to do the mundane things
than it does to do the magnificent things.
And Jesus makes this point.
By the way, all of this is rooted.
I want to show you a picture of the Scripture itself.
Let me show you because this helps visualize.
This whole part of the passage, verses 5, all the way to verse 10,
it's rooted in the verses that came before it.
This is not a separate thought from Jesus.
What he's saying is, increase our faith.
And that faith is about being dutiful to each other.
What is the duty and faithfulness to our duties have to do?
You have to be faithful to the duty of forgiving your brothers
and standing with your brothers and taking care of your brothers.
It's all rooted in the same text.
Now this part I did not share with the first service
and Fred came and asked me afterward.
He said, do you know where you got that Bible?
And I said, no, I forgot.
This middle of the week, I was looking for a specific style of Bible
so I could circle it so I could take this photo.
I went upstairs to his office.
I pulled a Bible off of his shelf.
I circled his Bible and I took a photo of that.
He walked up, he's like, what are you doing?
And I said, I'm taking a picture for the sermon.
You don't care about the sermon in Jesus and God?
And he's like, it's fine, it's fine.
Like that's literally his Bible that I did that with.
Constant forgiveness, amen.
How many of you are going to pray for Pastor Fred more often now?
Now, what is he saying in verses 7 through 10?
This all wraps up the entire thought and we'll be done.
What is he saying in verses 7 through 10?
When a servant comes in from plowing and taking care of sheep,
does his master say, come in and eat with me?
Jesus gives a little parable to lock home his point.
Imagine there's a master and the servant's been out taking care of the sheep
and planting food and all that.
And the servant comes in.
Does the master say, hey, how was work?
Oh, it was a lot.
Oh, come in, sit down, I'll make you dinner.
No, that's not what happens at all.
Verse 9, no, Jesus says.
Instead, he says, okay, now that you're done working outside,
prepare me a meal and put on your apron and serve me while I eat,
then you can eat later.
Now, American mindset is so far from this,
we do not like what's about to be stated.
Jesus is talking about a master-servant relationship.
And he's saying the servant's done working outside.
And Jesus' terminology, the wording in the original languages
is the concept of, to his audience, Jesus was like, could you imagine?
Could you imagine a master saying, hey, come on in, now let me serve you.
Hey, come on in, let's have some dinner together.
Thank you for serving me, now let's have some dinner together.
Can you imagine that happening?
And all of them are like, no.
And Jesus says, you're right, no, he doesn't do that.
He says, prepare my meal and then put your apron on
and serve me while I eat, then you can eat later.
And then Jesus says in verse 19.
And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was asked to do?
Of course not, that's Jesus' words.
Does the master say, great job today?
Really, fantastic.
High marks all the way around.
No, the master does not thank the servant.
Verse 10.
In the same way, when you obey me, you should say,
we are simply unworthy, servants who have simply done our duty.
Jesus said, you want to know how you're supposed to view me?
Jesus says, here's how you're supposed to view me.
I tell you what to do and then you do it.
And then you say, we're just doing our duty.
Wow.
What duty is he talking about?
Taking care of the brothers and forgiving the friends.
Jesus saying, just do it.
Then you say, man, getting this idea of duty,
I don't like the idea of a master, just,
but we do understand as Americans the idea of duty, don't we?
We do when we talk to men like this.
See, when you speak to a man like this, as I often have,
though I never served,
I've spoken with many men and women who have served.
And when you speak to them about their time,
especially if they saw active duty,
or if they saw actual battle,
I've often found myself accidentally saying something like,
man, that's incredible.
You're like a hero.
That's amazing.
You're like a hero to us.
If you've ever said that, they'll all say the same thing.
They'll say, no, no, no, I'm not the hero.
Those guys who didn't come home, those are the heroes.
And then they'll say, I was just doing my duty.
What was their duty?
Taking care of the brothers,
getting their back,
forgiving them when they screw up.
You see?
So don't let your mind think, I don't understand.
How would I have an attitude of just doing my duty?
We have to start thinking like these men, these people, amen?
So our duty is to serve Christ.
Now what I find fascinating is Luke chapter 17
gives you the image of how you are to view the master
just doing your duty.
But in Matthew chapter 25,
it shows us the way the master views you.
And the way the master views you is that one day
you're going to stand before God at the end of your life
and Jesus is going to get up off of his throne.
He's going to walk down before you.
He's going to place a crown on your head
and he's going to say, well done,
thou good and faithful servant.
Come into a dinner.
We're going to eat together at this point.
You see, the master that we serve
is not like the master of the rest of this world.
He loves you as a friend and a brother
and invites you to sit with him and dine.
He wants you to serve him
and then he wants you to be part of his family.
Nonetheless, our duty that brings us happiness
is being responsible for the brothers.
It's being forgiving of the brothers.
If we do that, we will be so happy together.