Plan to attend our Good Friday Service at 7:00 PM on March 29.

Sermon Follow Up Weeks

 Sermon Summary
Jesus utilizes a very understandable story with his listeners to ask three questions and make one massive point that serves to answer a very foundational question…

What do you believe God owes you, and what do you believe you owe to God?

The importance of this question cannot be understated. It is the very root of the tree of our relationship with God. Each of us answer the question regularly in the way we respond to things, the way we think, and the way we live. In this text, Jesus informs us that his disciples are among those who will in humility grasp the truth that all they have, all they are, and all they accomplish is on account of the mercy of God alone.

The Sermon Text
““Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”” (Luke 17:7–10 ESV)

 The Main Point of the Sermon
A disciple’s grasp of the mercy they’ve received informs their humble obedience.

SERMON QUOTES

Some people go through life thinking that God owes them something, and then spend a lot of time grumbling about it when he fails to deliver. Even when they get what they wanted, they always find something to complain about…. Other people have an attitude of gratitude. They understand that God does not owe them anything, that even the smallest blessings are a gift of his grace, and that everything he does for them deserves the most thankful praise (Philip G. Ryken)

If a mere man is entitled to make such far reaching demands on the services of his servant, and that merely for his own profit and comfort, how much more is God entitled to require the utmost from his servants in the manifestation and extension of his Kingdom among humans (T.W. Manson, The Sayings of Jesus). 

 SERMON APPLICATION
Take time to write out some answers in your journal/notebook

What do you believe God owes you?
Take time to truly answer this. Have you ever said anything remotely like this?

  • I try to do what God wants me to do, I go to church, I read the Bible, I pray, I care for people…I don’t understand why He isn’t answering my prayers.
  • I work hard, take care of my family, am generous to those around me, why does God allow these bad things to keep happening to me.

Consider various areas of your life and how your attitudes and actions reflect what the answer to that question is.

What do you believe you owe God?
Take time to consider not simply what you know the Bible to say, but what your attitudes and actions reflect what you practically believe?

Are you among those who profess to be followers of Christ who grasp the truth that they are “unworthy servants?”
How so? Or how not? And take a moment to think about it and write out your thoughts in your journal.

What is it that informs your life of obedience?
Is it your grasp of the mercy you’re in desperate need of? Is it your grasp of the mercy you’ve received that results in a posture, an attitude of humble and grateful servitude to God? How can you grow in this way?

Additional Scriptures to Consider

Regarding Mercy
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:1–9 ESV)

Regarding God Becoming Our Servant
“Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:1–12 ESV)

RESOURCES FOR THIS WEEK

TAKE TIME TO CONTINUE LISTENING AND READING
THE "ATTEND" LENTEN DEVOTIONAL
 

Website Resource

Visit the Sovereign Grace Churches
Statement of Faith Website 

Consider Reading the
Belgic Confession this week - especially articles 14-20 

SONGS TO CONSIDER

Song - "Debtor to Mercy Alone"

Song - "His Mercy is More"